Palazzi - Aquila Saxonica - 1673

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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 800s to 1100 and who unified the kingdom of Germany and Italy under the Holy Roman Empire.
82 COPPER ENGRAVINGS and numerous full-page plates, height 380 x width 260.
A literary iconographic masterpiece that celebrates the rise and consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire under the Saxon sovereigns. A splendid example of baroque illustrated historiography, the work blends historical rigor, symbolic imagination, and pictorial magnificence, in a prestigious edition dedicated to a cultured audience devoted to imperial authority.
MARKET VALUE
The work is rare and highly prized among collectors of 17th-century illustrated books: complete copies in good condition range from €3,000 to €6,000, with higher prices for volumes in contemporary bindings or richly decorated bindings. Value increases significantly if the plates are well preserved, with sharp impressions and wide margins. Copies with original binding, frontispiece in excellent condition, and absence of invasive restorations are increasingly sought after at international auctions dedicated to Baroque visual and political culture.

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 attached to the title. With 1 full-page copper engraved title, red and black title with large copper vignette, 1 full-page portrait of Louis XIV and 7 beautiful full-page engravings of allegories, portraits and 1 genealogical tree, besides 72 copper portraits of kings, emperors and European rulers in the text. An excellent copy in contemporary vellum, solid binding with restored joints. Some signs of wear, light stains and some flaking on the plates, but solid. Back with 6 gold-tooled compartments and gold titles on red leather label and gold decorations on the compartments, marbled endpapers, red edges. A good example of this history of the German emperors, magnificently 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. Latin text.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Aquila Saxonica, under which the Saxon emperors from Henry the Archer up to Henry the Holy Emperor of the West are depicted with praise, hieroglyphs, coins, insignia, symbols, and ancient images etched to life and a long series of histories written.
Venice, at Jacobus 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, coats of arms, coins, historic and mythological scenes. The symbolic apparatus is conceived as a true imperial initiatory journey, where every image has allegorical value and every quarto page is a micro-narration of power. The allegory culminates in the triumphant figure of Louis XIV subduing 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, with great juridical and historiographical rigor, intertwines with a visual program that reflects the Baroque culture of power, iconographic control, and the sacralization of 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 multifaceted figure, he combined source analysis with a taste for visual staging, in a synthesis of law, symbolism, and art. He was also the author of juridical treatises and canon commentaries, but Aquila Saxonica represents his most ambitious editorial enterprise, in which the figure of the emperor is configured as guarantor of universal harmony and historical continuity.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed in Venice at Jacobum Herz, Aquila Saxonica was conceived as a high-profile celebratory work, intended for court libraries, scholarly circles, and European chancelleries. Distribution was limited but selective: copies circulated among imperial centers, with ambassadors and prelates tied to the Imperial Court. The author’s direct involvement in the engraving design ensured a very high level of coherence between text and image. The volume belongs to 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’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, Turin, 2000
C. D. Eberhart, Heraldry and Imperial Identity in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 2011
OPAC ICCU – Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana; WorldCat OCLC 954326253