Palazzi - Aquila Saxonica - 1673

SYMBOLS AND BLOOD: DRAGON, EAGLE AND CROWN, THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF IMPERIAL POWER
FIRST EDITION 1673 by Giovanni Palazzi or Joannes Palatius (1643-1712).
Two parts in one volume, a splendid illustrated book on the early German kings from the 9th to the 11th centuries who unified the kingdom of Germany and Italy under the Holy Roman Empire.
82 ENGRAVINGS ON COPPER and numerous full-page plates, height 380 x width 260.
A masterpiece of iconography that celebrates the rise and consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire under the Saxon sovereigns. A splendid example of baroque illustrated historiography, the work fuses historical rigor, symbolic imagination and figurative magnificence, in a high-quality edition dedicated to a cultured audience devoted to imperial authority.
MARKET VALUE
The work is rare and highly valued among 17th-century illustrated book collectors: complete copies in good condition range from €3,000 to €6,000, with higher prices for copies in contemporary bindings or richly decorated. Value increases significantly if the plates are well preserved, with sharp impressions and wide margins. Copies with original binding, a frontispiece in excellent condition and no invasive restorations are increasingly sought after at international auctions dedicated to baroque visual culture and politics.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION - COLLECTRO'S COPY
In Folio: height 380 mm x width 260 mm or 14.9 x 10.3 inches. Two parts in one volume, complete edition. Pages [6], 254; 65, [1], followed by [6] for the index, followed by 1 white sheet attached to the frontispiece. With 1 copper frontispiece on full page, red and black title with large copper engraving vignette, 1 full-page portrait of Louis XIV and 7 beautiful full-page engravings of allegories, portraits and 1 genealogical tree, plus 72 copper portraits of kings, emperors and European rulers in the text. An excellent contemporary calf copy, solid binding with restored joints. Some wear marks, light stains and some flaking on the plates, but solid. Spine with 6 compartments, with gilt titles on a red label and gilt decorations on the compartments, marbled endpapers, red edges. A good example of this history of the German emperors, beautifully illustrated with numerous finely engraved portraits, and dedicated to the Sun King Louis XIV. Pages and plates are clean, occasional light stains and rare defects. Text in Latin.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Aquila Saxonica, sub qua imperatores Saxones ab Henrico Aucupe usque ad Henricum Sanctum Occidentis imperatorem XV, elogiis, hierogliphycis, numismatibus, insignibus, simbolis, imaginibus antiquis ad vivum exhibentur exculpti & longa historiarum serie exarati.
Venetiis, apud Jacobum Herz, 1673.
Giovanni Palazzi.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The work celebrates the five Saxon emperors – from Henry the Fowler to Henry II the Saint – who unified Germany and Italy under the aegis of the Holy Roman Empire. Palazzi narrates with erudition the wars, dynastic alliances, legal reforms and relations with the Church, enriching the tale with a sumptuous gallery of portraits, crests, coins, historical and mythological scenes. The symbolic apparatus is conceived as a true initiatory imperial journey, in which every image has allegorical value and every long caption is a micro-narration of power. The allegory culminates in the triumphant figure of Louis XIV taming the seven-headed dragon, a symbol of evil and political disintegration: a powerful image of the imperial role as arranger of chaos and guarantor of Christian Europe’s balance. The text, of great legal and historiographical rigor, intertwines with a visual program that reflects Baroque culture of power, iconographic control and the sacralization of the monarchy.

AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Giovanni Palazzi (1625–1701 approx.), historian, jurist and engraver, was professor of canon law at the University of Padua and adviser to Emperor Leopold I. A cultured and multifaceted personality, he united source analysis with a taste for visual staging, in an approach that fused law, symbolism and art. He was also author of juridical treatises and canonical commentaries, but Aquila Saxonica represents his most ambitious editorial undertaking, in which the figure of the emperor is framed as guarantor of universal harmony and historical continuity.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed in Venice at Jacobum Herz, Aquila Saxonica was designed as a high-profile celebratory work, intended for court libraries, academic circles and European chancelleries. The distribution was limited but selective: copies circulated in imperial centers, with ambassadors and prelates linked to the Imperial Court. The author’s direct involvement in the design of the engravings ensured a very high level of coherence between text and image. The volume belongs to the tradition of Empire emblem books, alongside the works of Valvasor, Picinelli and Menestrier.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
F. W. Sanders, Symbolic Images in Baroque Historiography, Leiden, 1999
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, s.v. “Palazzi, Giovanni”
R. Mandrella, L’iconografia del potere: Luigi XIV e l’Europa barocca, Paris, 2008
I. Rowland, The Culture of the Book in Baroque Venice, Rome, 2012
M. Fagiolo, Barocco e Neobarocco, Rome-Bari, 2004
C. Ginzburg, Simboli, riti e storia, Torino, 2000
C. D. Eberhart, Heraldry and Imperial Identity in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 2011
OPAC ICCU – Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana; WorldCat OCLC 954326253