Trattato della pittura di Lionardo da Vinci: Nuovamente dato in luce, colla vita dell' istesso autore, scritta da Rafaelle du Fresne. Si sono giunti tre libri della Pittura, ed il trattato della Statua di Leon Battista Alberti, colla Vita del medesimo. E di nuovo ristampato, corretto ed a maggior perfezione condotto.

[Naples]: In Parigi, appresso Giacomo Langlois, stmpatore irdinario del Re cristianissimo, al Monte S. Genovesa MDCLI [1651]. Ed in Napoli, nella stamperia di Francesco Ricciardo a spese di Niccola, e Vincenzo Rispoli, MDCCXXXIII [1733].
41cm x 27cm. [16], 115, [8], 55 pages, 2 plates, 82 copperplate engravings in the text (many half page), on large paper with wide margins. Full contemporary vellum, gilt letterings, edges speckled red.

A superb and rare example of the large paper issue of Ricciardo's 1733 edition of Leonardo's treatise on painting, the third and most complete edition in Italian. Leonardo's intention was to describe painting as a science, and he conceived his treatise in two sections: the first is theoretical, outlining the philosophical principles and ideals of painting with particular reference to perspective (linear, aerial and chromatic) and chiaroscuro; the second is practical, and serves as a guide to the young painter.

Leonardo da Vinci's notebook writings on the science of painting were gathered together by Francesco Melzi some time before 1542. The first printed editions, edited by Raphael du Fresne under the title Trattato della pittura di Leonardo da Vinci, were printed in Italian and French by Jacques Langlois in Paris in 1651. Subsequent editions were published in French, in 1716 (Paris: Pierre-Francois Giffart); in English, in 1721 (London: Senex and Taylor); in Italian, in 1723 (Naples: Francesco Ricciardo); in German, in 1724 (Nuremberg: Christoph Weigel); and again in Italian, in 1733 (Naples: Francesco Ricciardo).

Ricciardo's 1733 edition contains 20 more engravings than the 1651 edition, while his 1723 edition was unillustrated and did not include Alberti's treatise. Referring in 1821 to the example in his own collection, the art historian and bibliophile Count Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1834) noted that his was "uno de'pochissimi esemplari in carta grande" ("one of very few examples on large paper"). (Cicognara, Catalogo ragionato dei libri da'rte e d’antichita posseduti da lui, v. 1, 1821, no. 233). The large paper issue also differs from the ordinary paper issue in having a variant title page with an engraving by Franceso Sesoni of the coat of arms of the dedicatee, Ercole d' Ayerbe d' Aragona (1682-1735), bishop of Perga, Vescovo and Mileto; the title page engraving in the ordinary paper issue is the publisher's device of Niccolò Rispolo - a coat of arms with lion rampant, three stars and the motto Sub se omnia. In other respects, the title pages of the large and ordinary paper issues are identical. Examples of the large paper issue are held in the Newberry Library and Getty Research Institute; an accurate census of holdings worldwide would be difficult to obtain, but, based on Cicognara's estimation, the number would be very low.

Leonardo's philosophy of painting is that it is reliant on the artist's penetrating observation of nature and of the understanding of physical phenomena through mathematics, geometry, anatomy and optics. The engravings illustrating the 1733 edition are by the Neapolitan Francesco Sesoni (or Sesone, 1705-1770), and display an exceptional level of craftsmanship.

The first part of the work also includes a short biography of Leonardo by du Fresne, while the second part contains the treatise of Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), the earliest Renaissance commentary on the aesthetic and scientific principles of architecture, painting and sculpture, and a work to which Leonardo's own philosopy and writings were indebted. The final two pages comprise Osservazione di Niccolo Pussino, sopra la pittura, remarks on painting by the Baroque artist Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665).

Cicognara, 233; PMM, 28; Guerrini, Bibliotheca Leonardiana 1493-1989, v. I, 1990, p. 124-125.

For a comprehensive comparative overview, see University of Virginia, Leonardo da Vinci and his treatise on painting.

Minor soiling. Occasional browning. Very Good Condition.