VIGNOLA, Giacomo Barozzi da. Alesandro BOSSI, copyist, editor and artist. ~ Trattato di Prospettiva Pratica di M. Giacomo Barozzi da Vgnola Con aggiunta di alcuni aut[ores] Disegnato et acqu[afort]o da Alesandro Bossi. Novara. 1824.
Illustrated manuscript, oblong 4to (195 × 275 mm), pp. [2] (decorative title), [6], 60 (text); plus 60 full page diagrams or drawings in ink and wash, most monochrome, but including 4 (furniture designs) in colour. Some foxing, heaviest on several of the earlier illustrations, some damp-staining to gutters of last 20 or so illustrations, only minimally affecting the images, title laid down, the date on the title to illustrations (also 1824) obliterated. Contemporary half calf, sides recovered to style with marbled paper.
A handsome Romantic reinterpretation of Vignola’s classic Renaissance manual of perspective, Due regole della prospettiva pratica (1582, with many later editions). Elements of Vignola’s diagrams are adapted for the oblong format of the book and often updated with figures and buildings in contemporary style. Bossi, about who we have been able to discover almost nothing beyond this manuscript, also adds a fine sequence of 4 coloured illustrations depicting furniture designs in the French Empire style by Percier and 17 superb monochrome views and interiors, 13 of which are in a sequence with their own decorative title-page ‘Aggiunta di alcune prospettive ricavae da classici autori.’