print
- Museum number
- 1904,0822.1.1
- Description
-
A section of an entablature, with no measurements or marks
Engraving
- Production date
- 1535-1537
- Dimensions
-
Height: 145 millimetres
-
Width: 164 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This is the first plate in a bound volume with 18 pages, on 17 of which the plates are printed two a sheet to make 35 engravings in total. The pages are in a modern red leather binding, and are numbered in pen at the top in a XVIc hand from 75 to 92. This shows that they originally formed part of a much larger album; the sheets have been washed and pressed before being rebound.
The 35 engravings are almost all signed by the monogrammists GA with Caltrop or by PS (and are listed by Nagler and Robert-Dumesnil), and the unsigned plates are here arbitrarily given to the first of these two obscure engravers. Some of the plates carry the dates 1535 or 1537, which give the range of its composition. The BM also has some loose impressions of others of these plates, which have been mounted. Another group of 30 plates is in the V&A (see Miller), but these do not overlap completely with the BM group or with those listed by Nagler. The entire extent of the series therefore remains unclear.
None of the plates carries the name of a publisher. But the evidence in Elizabeth Miller's V&A catalogue (cat.55) proves that this series corresponds to the 'Libro di cornici, capitelli e basi cavato delle vestigie de gli antichi' which is listed in Lafreri's catalogue of 1572. This must be a later reprint of a set first published in 1537.
Lit.: E. Miller, '16th c. Italian Ornament Prints in the V&A', 1999, cat.55
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1904
- Acquisition notes
- Although presented anonymously, it is clear that the donor of the album was Max Rosenheim
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1904,0822.1.1
