À Paris,: Chez Les Auteurs, Au Louvre, Et P. Didot L'Ainé, Imprimeur-Libraire, Rue Du Pont De Lodi, Près Celle De Thionville, No. 6., [1798? or ca. 1810?].
Physical Description
8, 3, [1], 40 p., 100 [i.e. 99] pl. (pl. 12 and 13 are printed on one leaf): [3] illus. ; 435 mm. (Folio.)
Contents
[T.p.] - Discours Préliminaire - [Plates] - Avis Des Éditeurs - Explication Des Planches ... - Noms Des Principaux Auteurs Qui Ont Été Consultés ... - Table Chronologique Des Architectes Mentionnés ... - Liste Des Souscripteurs; [colophon].
Responsibility Note
No plate is signed.
The engraved title-page vignette and head-piece and tail-piece in the text are also unsigned.
The printer is named in the colophon as Baudouin.
References
Royal Institute of British Architects, Early printed books, 3 (1999), no. 2489 [on reprint ca.1815-20], p.1423-4; National Gallery (Washington), Mark J. Millard Architectural, I (1993), no. 133, p.388-9.
Summary Note
This work was originally published with a title-page dated 'L'An 6 De La Republique Français' (i.e. 1797 September to 1798 September) that lacked the names of Percier and Fontaine and named 'Baudouin' and 'Ducamp' as its printer and publisher respectively. This later issue omits the reference in the 'Discours Préliminaire' to a forthcoming 'plus grand ouvrage auquel nous avons déjà consacré plusieurs années d'étude et de travail', which suggests that it postdates the authors' Choix des plus célèbre maisons de plaisance de Rome (Paris, 1809), q.v.
The work provides an instructive anthology of Renaissance houses, many of the features of which Percier and Fontaine considered 'more applicable to our needs than those of the Greeks and Romans' and which they blended into the repertoire of their own Empire style.
The hundred plates are arranged as sixteen 'cahiers', the first plate in each group serving as a title-plate for that group. Each cahier consists of six plates - apart from Cahier II, which has seven plates (7-13) printed on six leaves (plates 12 and 13 being printed on one leaf), and Cahier XVI, which has nine (nos. 92-100). Most title-plates of the cahiers give the title as 'Palais Et Maisons De Rome'.
The plates are all captioned. They include plans and elevations as well as perspective views of the Roman palaces, churches and other buildings, constructed between the 15th and 18th centuries. Drawings for the plates were made by Percier and Fontaine in collaboration with Charles Louis Bernier, during their time as pensionnaires of the Académie française in Rome from 1786 to 1792. The 'Explication' of the plates was contributed anonymously by the architect Léon Dufourny.
Two further editions were published in about 1815 and 1830.
Provenance
29 December 1820: 'Resolved that the following works be purchased for the Library, viz. - ... Villas of Rome by Percier & his other works ...' (RA Council Minutes VI, 184-5).
16 February 1821: Richard Baynes' bill of £52 18s. 'for Architectural Books' passed for payment (RA Council Minutes VI, 193).
This title is listed in A Catalogue of the Library in the Royal Academy, London, 1821, p. 16.
Subject
Architecture, Domestic - Palaces - Houses - Decoration and ornament, architectural - Italy - Rome - History - Renaissance - Baroque
Designs and plans - Plans - Elevations - Views - France - 18th century
Pictorial works - France - 18th century