[DA VINCI, LEONARDO (1452-1519)]. Trattato della pittura di Lionardo da Vinci ridotto alla sua vera lezione sopra una copia a penna di mano di Stefano Della Bella. Firenze [Florence]: Gioacchino Pagani and Jacopo Grazioli, MDCCXCII [1792].
Hardcover. Leather-bound. 4° (280 x 200mm), pp. [xii], lxxii, 99. Signatures: A4 B2 a-i4 A-M4 N2 (M2 misassigned N2). Italian text. Contemporary full vellum, smooth spine, gilt, with morocco lettering-piece. Portrait frontispiece of the dedicatee; etched title-vignette; head-pieces with portraits of Leonardo da Vinci and of Stefano della Bella; numerous etched diagrams and figures throughout the text; footnotes; rear index. Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Binding secure with slightly bowed boards. Moderate marking to covers. Some light browning. A couple of leaves with marking mostly in the margins. Without inking.
Note: A rare edition, with utterly charming engravings after della Bella's famous illustrations in his manuscript copy of the Trattato. Edited by Francesco Fontani, whose name appears in the pref. See Catalog raisonné of art and antiquity books owned by Count Cicognara, n. 234. "The quality of these etchings make this edition...a jewel among the exiting Trattato publications"--Steinitz, Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della pittura...a Bibliography of the Printed Editions, pp. 174-75. Contains the Dissertation of dr. Giovanni Lami relating to Italian painters and sculptors who flourished from 1000 to 1300.
