Perrier - Nobilium Signorum et Statuarum - 1638

A CHURCH BAROCK OF ROMAN SCULPTURE: THE HEROISM OF THE CLASSICAL FRAGMENT
Grande In Folio (42,5 X 31,7 cm)
Figurative sixteenth-century collection dedicated to ancient Roman sculpture, conceived as a visual monument against the destruction of time. The engravings by François Perrier, inspired by the statues then visible in Roman collections and public places, translate classical archaeology into a baroque, learned and theatrical language, suspended between antiquarian study, academic exercise and moral meditation on caducity. The allegorical title page, among the most powerful of the century, explicates the meaning of the work: to withdraw from ruin what time and neglect threaten to erase.
MARKET VALUE
Complete copies in good bindings of this collection are nowadays rare on the market and generally command high prices, with valuations rising significantly when the series of plates is complete and in fresh condition, placing them between 2,000 and 5,000 euros. Incomplete copies or bindings in poor condition remain highly sought after for the quality of the engraving and the historical importance of the work, maintaining solid value on the international market for old graphics and figurative antiquarian.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Binding in green editorial cardboard, solid block of plates. Plates 51–52 and 63–64 are missing, not rebound originally. Plates signed “FP.B.”. Presence of handwritten pencil inscriptions under each engraving, consistent with the etched index. Marginal tears, stains and browning. As with all old books, with a multisentury history, imperfections not always detected in the description may be present. Pp. (2); 102 nn; (2).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Segmenta nobilium signorum et statuarum, quæ temporis dentem invidium evasere, urbis æternæ ruinis erepta, typis æneis ab se commissa perpetuæ venerationis monumentum.
Paris, chez la veuve du défunt Perrier, 1638.
François Perrier.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Segmenta nobilium signorum represents one of the most important engraving projects dedicated to classical sculpture in the XVII century. Perrier, trained in Rome and deeply influenced by the antique, selects famous statues and fragments then accessible, fixing them in an ideal form that often surpasses their actual state of conservation. The work sits in the tradition of the great Roman antiquarian collections, but is distinguished by the plastic intensity of the figures and by the almost “heroic” approach to the ancient nude. The allegorical title page, with the personification of Time devouring the statues, clarifies the moral program of the work: the engraving as a tool for saving memory. The volume enjoyed wide popularity and profoundly influenced artists, academies and collectors between the XVII and XVIII centuries.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
François Perrier, called Le Bourguignon (1594–1649), was a French painter and engraver active in Rome and Paris. A pupil of the Roman classicist milieu, he deeply assimilated the lesson of the antique, which became the cornerstone of his graphic production. Returning to France, he contributed decisively to the diffusion of the classicist taste, positioning himself as a link between Roman archaeology and French artistic culture of the Seventeenth Century.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The first issue is dated Rome 1638, with subsequent issues and Parisian reissues, some in different formats (also quarto). Brunet notes that the collection should comprise one hundred engravings, a number that varies according to issues and bindings. Complete copies are now rare; more common are incomplete or rebound copies, evidence of intensive use and long circulation of the work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Brunet, Manuel du libraire, III, coll. 434–435.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, IT\ICCU\CFIE\006123.
BnF, Catalogue général, notice FRBNF 30555861.
Cicognara, Catalogo ragionato dei libri d’arte, n. 3754.
Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, s.v. Perrier.