Vasari, Giorgio. Vite de più eccellenti pittori scultori e architetti...

Three volumes, in quarto (260 x 180mm.) with 3 engraved frontispieces, 2 folding plates and 157 portraits. Title pages printed in red and black with vignettes. A very fine copy on larege paper bound in contemporary vellum with gilt titles on spine. The frontispiece of Volume I is signed as designed by Gioachino Martorani and engraved by Ant. Capellan; the other two frontispieces are unsigned.. None of the other plates is signed, apart from plate [11] of Volume III, which is signed as engraved by Ant. Capellan. The three title-page vignettes are signed as engraved by A[nt]. C[apellan]. The headpiece of the life of Michelangelo in Volume III is signed as engraved by 'VF'. The woodcut head- and tail-pieces are unsigned. First edition by Bottari highly estimated. "The portraits, proof copies without letterpress on the back, are engraved copies by Bartolozzi and Antonio Capellani of the woodcuts of the 1568 edition" (Fowler). This edition is highly esteemed for the valuable notes by Giovanni Gaetano Bottari (who curated it) and Mariette, and many of the portraits are masterfully executed by Bartolozzi" (Ebert).

Gamba 1726 ("Edizione bella e magnifica"). Fowler 349; Eber 23407.