Jérôme - Description ... de l'Italie - 1766-1770

ITALY OF THE GRAND TOUR – SIX VOLUMES OF TRAVEL, ART, AND HISTORY WITH GEOGRAPHIC MAPS, 1766–1770
A monumental description of seventeenth-century Italy through its cities, monuments, arts and antiquities of the peninsula. Abbot Jérôme Richard narrates the Bel Paese in the golden age of the European Grand Tour.
Six volumes published between 1766 and 1770, enriched by two large copper-engraved folded maps.
An fascinating itinerary through Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples and the other great centers of Italian civilization.
Elegant set in contemporary brown half-leather bindings, with gilded decorations and titles on the spines and red edges.

ABSTRACT
Important French work of travel, history, art and geography dedicated to 18th-century Italy, compiled by Abbot Jérôme Richard and published between 1766 and 1770. Description historique et critique de l’Italie represents a significant testimony to Grand Tour culture, the grand educational journey that guided aristocrats, intellectuals, artists and scholars of Europe in discovering Italian cities and antiquities. The work offers a detailed description of the peninsula, combining geographical observations, historical reconstructions, artistic considerations, monumental descriptions and critical judgments on Italian society of the era. Richard is drawn to evidence of classical antiquity, Renaissance and Baroque architectures, artistic collections, religious and civil institutions, and the customs of the different regions. Italy emerges as an extraordinarily rich territory in historical and artistic testimony, but also as a political and social reality complex, viewed through the lens of a French Enlightenment traveler. The set comprises six volumes, published with dates 1766 and 1770, and two copper-engraved folded maps. The bindings in contemporary brown leather, with gilded ornaments and titles on the spines, and red edges, are particularly attractive.

WHY TO BUY
A work of notable interest for Grand Tour collectors, travelers in Italy, art history, historical topography and eighteenth-century geographical literature. Description historique et critique de l’Italie belongs to the great era of peninsula descriptions published for a cultivated European audience eager to learn about monuments, artistic collections and Italian traditions. The work’s appeal lies in the richness of its observations and in the possibility of reconstructing Italy’s image before the political and cultural transformations of the Napoleonic era. The city and monument descriptions also provide a valuable source for studying how Italian heritage was perceived in the eighteenth century. The two copper-engraved folded maps add an important cartographic and decorative element. The presence of six volumes in uniform contemporary bindings, with gilded spines and red edges, gives the set a particularly elegant character. A work suited to libraries dedicated to ancient Italy, travel history, European Enlightenment and the formation of modern artistic taste.

MARKET VALUE
The great descriptions of Italy published in the eighteenth century constitute a well-established sector of the international antiquarian market, especially when they belong to the Grand Tour tradition and preserve original cartographic apparatus. The value of this work depends on the completeness of the six volumes, the actual compliance of the publication dates, the presence and condition of the two folded maps, and the condition of the contemporary bindings. The author’s historical interest and the set’s overall solidity are favorable factors, while the availability of other editions and any bibliographic differences may affect rarity in the market. For a complete copy in generally good condition, a rough auction market range could be between 500 and 900 euros.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Six volumes in uniform contemporary full brown leather (bazzana), calfskin with its characteristic soft texture and natural appearance, widely used in eighteenth-century French bookbinding. Spines with gilded titles and ornaments. Red edges. The work includes two copper-engraved folded maps, elements of particular historical and cartographic interest. Maps with some browning and physiological foxing. In ancient books, with centuries of history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. This listing includes AI Visuals. Please refer to the original photographs to verify the item's actual condition. Images are an integral part of the description. Pp.:
Vol. I: (2); 8nn; 180; 6; (2); 338; 4nn; (2).
Vol. II: (2); 2nn; 586; 4nn; (4).
Vol. III: (2); 4nn; 72; 344; (2).
Vol. IV: (2); 2nn; 6; 544; (2).
Vol. V: (2); 4nn; 36; 502; 2nn; (2).
Vol. VI: (2); 2nn; 6; 412; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Richard, Jérôme.
Description historique et critique de l'Italie.
Paris, Chez Antoine Boudet, 1766-1770.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
In the eighteenth century Italy was the preferred destination of the Grand Tour, the cultural voyage that completed the education of Europe’s elites. Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and many other cities drew travelers eager to see first-hand ancient monuments, the works of the great Renaissance masters and the testimonies of European civilization. The Italian journey was an intellectual and social experience, where the study of the arts accompanied the observation of political institutions, the economy, traditions and daily life. The great descriptions of the peninsula answered the need to organize and transmit this wealth of knowledge to an ever-wider audience. Jérôme Richard’s Description historique et critique de l’Italie sits in this context, standing out for its ambition to offer not only a monumental itinerary but also a historical and critical overview of Italian reality. The author surveys a politically fragmented peninsula, made up of states with different traditions, arrangements and economic conditions, yet united by an extraordinary cultural heritage. His perspective belongs to French Enlightenment culture, interested in comparing peoples, in the history of institutions and in the critical appraisal of contemporary societies. The artistic descriptions fit into a climate of growing interest in archaeology and the rediscovery of classical antiquity, also fueled by the discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii. The maps contribute to understanding the peninsula’s territorial and political structure before Italian unification. The work thus constitutes a significant source for studying how Italy was perceived in the eighteenth century and for the formation of a European imagination linked to the Grand Tour.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Jérôme Richard was a French cleric and author of the eighteenth century, best known for Description historique et critique de l’Italie, a work belonging to the tradition of Enlightenment travel literature. His activity fits within a cultural context in which travel was seen as a fundamental instrument of knowledge, comparison and intellectual formation. Through observations of Italian cities, institutions, works of art and social conditions, Richard developed a representation of the peninsula intended for a French-speaking audience. His method combines historical description, geographical curiosity and critical judgment, reflecting eighteenth-century interest in the comparative knowledge of European societies. His work contributed to the circulation of information about Italy and to the construction of an image of the peninsula as a privileged place of classical memory, artistic production and political complexity. Biographical information available about the author is relatively limited and does not allow precise dating of his birth and death without further documentary verification.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Description historique et critique de l’Italie belongs to the French publishing output dedicated to travel and the description of European countries in the second half of the eighteenth century. The publication of the work responded to growing demand for historical, artistic and geographical information about Italy, fueled by the success of the Grand Tour and the diffusion of Enlightenment culture. The dates 1766 and 1770 given for this set suggest volumes belonging to different issues or editions, a circumstance that should be clarified by examining the title pages. Travel works of this breadth were frequently published and reissued in multiple volumes, sometimes with changes in titles, content distribution, or cartographic apparatus. The presence of the two copper-engraved maps confirms the importance of cartographic representation in eighteenth-century geographical literature. The maps, printed separately from the text and later folded to be inserted into the volumes, required specialized production and added a marketable editorial feature. The preservation of the contemporary bindings across the six volumes adds interest to the manuscript history of the item. There are no documented details, based on available information, about the original print run, the number of surviving copies, or the precise bibliographic relation between the 1766 and 1770 dates.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Richard, Jérôme, Description historique et critique de l'Italie, ou Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état actuel de son gouvernement, des sciences, des arts, du commerce, de la population et de l'histoire naturelle, XVIII siècle, editions with dates 1766 and 1770. Cicognara, Leopoldo, Catalogo ragionato dei libri d'arte e d'antichità posseduti dal conte Cicognara, general reference for artistic and antiquarian literature. Fossati Bellani, Giuseppe, Il viaggio in Italia, repertori e studi dedicati alla tradizione della letteratura di viaggio. Pine-Coffin, R. S., Bibliography of British and American Travel in Italy to 1860, comparative reference for odeporic production related to the peninsula. Schudt, Ludwig, Italienreisen im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Vienna-Munich, 1959, foundational study on travel literature in Italy in the modern era. The cited references provide historical and bibliographic context for the work; the possible presence of the specific edition in catalogs requires precise verification. The definitive description of the six volumes should be completed with exact transcription of the title pages and collations of the maps.