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, splendid illustrated book on the first German kings from 800 to 1100 who unified the kingdoms of Germany and Italy under the Holy Roman Empire.
82 COPPER ENGRAVINGS and numerous full-page plates, height 380 x width 260.
A visual masterpiece that celebrates the rise and consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire under the Saxon rulers. A splendid example of Baroque illustrated historiography, the work blends historical rigor, symbolic imagination, and figurative magnificence, in a prestigious edition aimed at an educated audience devoted to imperial authority.
MARKET VALUE
The work is rare and highly valued among collectors of 17th-century illustrated books: complete and good-condition copies typically range from €3,000 to €6,000, with higher prices for copies in contemporary bindings or richly decorated. Value rises markedly if the plates are well preserved, with crisp impressions and wide margins. Copies with original binding, a frontispiece in excellent condition, and absence of invasive restorations are increasingly sought after at international auctions dedicated to Baroque visual culture and politics.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION - COLLECTOR’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 blank sheet bound to the frontispiece. With 1 full-page copper frontispiece, red-and-black frontispiece with a large copper 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 copy in contemporary calf, firm binding with restored joints. Some signs of wear, slight stains and some flaking on the plates, but solid. Spine with 6 ribbands with gold titles on a red label and gold decorations on the compartments, marbled endpapers, red edges. A good specimen of this history of the German emperors, splendidly illustrated with numerous finely engraved portraits, dedicated to the Sun King or 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 account 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 short chronicle is a micro-narrative of power. The allegory culminates in the triumphant figure of Louis XIV who tames the seven-headed dragon, a symbol of evil and political disintegration: a powerful image of the imperial role as orderer 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 (c. 1625–1701), historian, jurist and engraver, was a professor of canon law at the University of Padua and counselor to Emperor Leopold I. A cultured and versatile figure, he united source analysis with a taste for visual staging, in an approach that fused law, symbolism and art. He was also the author of legal treatises and canonical commentaries, but Aquila Saxonica represents his most ambitious editorial undertaking, in which the figure of the emperor is portrayed as guarantor of universal harmony and historical continuity.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed in Venice at Jacobus Herz, Aquila Saxonica was conceived as a celebratory high-profile work, intended for court libraries, scholarly circles and European chancelleries. The distribution was limited but selective: copies circulated in imperial centers, among ambassadors and prebends linked to the imperial Curia. The author’s direct involvement in designing the engravings ensured a very high degree of coherence between text and image. The volume sits within the tradition of emblem books of the Empire, 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’Europe baroque, 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, Turin, 2000
C. D. Eberhart, Heraldry and Imperial Identity in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 2011
OPAC ICCU – Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana; WorldCat OCLC 954326253