Serie di Mascheroni cavati dall'antico che per la prima volta escono in luce intagliati in rame. [Engraved title page].

Rome, Venanzio Monaldini, 1781. Folio leaf (35.5 x 22.7 cm). = Title page from an extremely rare collection of four etchings of grotesque masks, after original designs by the Italian artist and engraver Aloisio Giovannoli (1550-1618). This is from the only dated edition, which is also the only one recorded in bibliographies. The lower margin has the inscription C.P. - for cum privilegio - and a plate number. Giovannoli is also known from a series of engravings depicting important buildings in Rome. This series is at least partly based upon the work of the French Renaissance artist René Boyvin (ca. 1525-1598), and inspired by leaves, fruit and shells, therefore reminiscent of the works by his contemporary, Giuseppe Arcimboldo. René Boyvin, in turn, must have been inspired by the coeval Flemish artists Frans Huys (ca. 1522-1562), who published his Pourtraicture ingénieuse de plusieurs façons de masques in 1555, who in turn might have been indebted to the Flemish architect and sculptor Cornelis Floris De Vriendt (1514-1575) - or, perhaps, directly by the latter. A complete suite would comprise of this title leaf and 38 plates. We know of only one auction record in this century, from the collection of Prince and Princess Henry De La Tour d'Auvergne Lauraguais, sold at Sotheby's in 2012 for 7500 British Pounds (ca. € 9250). Edges uncut, thus slightly irregular, but with widest possible margins. Some, mostly marginal soiling and spotting, a few small tears (one at the lower margin with an old repair). otherwise in very good condition. Bénézit 4, 277; Thieme-Becker XIV, 150.