Declaustre - Dizionario Mitologico ovvero della Favola - 1776

6 ILLUSTRATED VOLUMES – MYTHS, HEROES, MONSTERS, SYMBOLS AND ALLEGORIES OF ANTIQUITY
Fascinating Venetian six-volume edition of the famous Mythological Dictionary, or the tale of Abbot Declaustre, published in 1786. A true eighteenth-century encyclopedia of the classical imagination: gods, demigods, heroes, myths, cults, sacrifices, festivals, symbols and allegories are arranged and explained systematically. Of particular charm is the iconographic apparatus, conceived to identify deities and personifications through their traditional attributes. A striking set preserved in the characteristics of contemporaneous bindings in decorated paper.

WHY TO BUY
COMPLETE SIX-VOLUME SET – Complete six-volume set, particularly interesting and with strong collecting appeal.
RICHLY ILLUSTRATED MYTHOLOGY – Important figurative apparatus dedicated to deities, heroes and allegories, with watercolor plates by ancient hands.
MYTHOLOGY, ART AND ICONOGRAPHY – An authentic eighteenth-century repertoire of the classical imagination, interesting for collectors of mythology, art history, iconography and neoclassical culture.

MARKET VALUE
Interesting work for the international market of mythology, classical iconography and eighteenth-century antiquarianism. Collecting value is mainly supported by the complete six-volume set, the illustrated apparatus, the preservation of contemporaneous bindings and the striking decorative appeal of the work. 800-1,200 euros

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
6 volumes in 6 volumes. Pages VIII, 240; 239, [1]; 272; 247, [1]; 224; 271, [1]. A total of 120 wood-engraved plates out of text, numerous hand-watercolors.
Two different Venetian printers/publishers: Agostino Savioli and Giammaria Bassaglia, licensed by the Superiors. Uniform contemporaneous bindings in paper, with characteristic geometric decoration on the spines, titles and pagination handwritten and plates in plain paper. Fine example with margins, with hairlines. Illustrative apparatus dedicated to deities, characters and mythological allegories; numerous plates in period color. Normal signs of time and use. Bindings with abrasions, scuffing, small losses and irregularities. Pages with natural yellowing, foxing, stains and occasional marginal defects. Overall interesting copy preserved in its seventeenth-century material characteristics.
This listing contains AI Views. Please refer to the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the item.
Images are an integral part of the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Declaustre, Dizionario mitologico, ovvero della favola, storico, poetico, simbolico, ecc. In cui esattamente si spiega l’origine degli Dei, de’ Semidei, e degli Eroi dell’antico Gentilesimo, i Misterj, gl’Idoli, il Culto, i Sacrifizj, i Giuochi, le Feste, e tutto ciò che appartiene alla Religione de’ Gentili. Opera dell’abate Declaustre, tradotta dal francese.
Venezia: per Agostino Savioli | Per Giammaria Bassaglia 1786

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The work is not merely a collection of mythological fables, but an authentic encyclopedia of the Antiquity’s imagination. Declaustre collects and arranges alphabetically deities, demigods, heroes, personifications, myths, cults, ceremonies and symbols, explaining origins, attributes and meanings. The result is a vast vocabulary of classical culture in which myth, the history of religions, literature, antiquarianism and iconography meet.
Particularly significant is the pictorial component. For the eighteenth-century reader, recognizing a deity meant identifying its attributes: objects, animals, garments, weapons, plants and postures formed a true symbolic language. The illustrations thus transform the dictionary into an iconographic repertoire, useful not only to the educated reader but also to artists, antiquarians and scholars.
In the photographs of the exemplar, several mythological and allegorical figures are visible, including the personification of Abundance. Some plates retain color, adding further charm to the pictorial apparatus.
The work perfectly represents European culture of the late eighteenth century, when classical Antiquity became simultaneously an object of antiquarian study, an aesthetic model and an inexhaustible repertoire of images.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Declaustre was a French ecclesiastical scholar of the eighteenth century, best known for his vast repertoire dedicated to mythology and the religious culture of Antiquity. The Mythological Dictionary arose from the typically Enlightenment desire to collect, order and make easily consultable a vast field that until then was dispersed among literary, antiquarian and historical-religious sources. The work’s fortunes beyond French borders, evidenced by translations and subsequent Italian editions, reflect the growing eighteenth-century interest in mythology, antiquarianism and classical iconography.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Mythological Dictionary enjoyed significant European circulation thanks to the popularity of eighteenth-century French mythological repertoires. The Italian translation testifies to the educated public of the peninsula’s interest in tools capable of rendering accessible and systematic the complex universe of classical mythology.
This Venetian edition of 1786, structured in six volumes, fits into the great Venetian publishing tradition and the cultural season accompanying the rise of Neoclassical taste. The presence on the title pages of different names of Venetian publishers, including Agostino Savioli and Giammaria Bassaglia, documents the productive and distributive methods of late eighteenth-century Venetian publishing.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / SBN – Catalog of the National Library Service.
WorldCat – World Bibliographic Catalog.
Historical catalogs and bibliographic repertoires related to the eighteenth-century Italian editions of Declaustre’s Mythological Dictionary.