Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Marguerite Yourcenar
Carceri: Die imaginären Gefängnisse -- Achtzehn Radierungen von Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Mit einem Essay von Marguerite Yourcenar.
Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1965. Number 736 of a limited edition of 900 copies. Translation by Lily Sauter of Marguerite Yourcenar's essay "Le cerveau noir de Piranèse" in "Sous bénéfice d'inventaire". 67 pages.
Large-format volume, measuring approximately 9.5" x 13.25", is bound in red paper-covered boards, with stamped white lettering to spine. Book displays very light shelfwear, with sunning to spine. Binding is firm. Interior is clean and bright. Intact cardboard slipcase, with pastedown offering reproduction of Piranesi etching on one side panel, shows scuffing to opposite panel and at edges.
This German-language work contains a reproduction of a series of 16 etchings by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, known as the "Carceri d'invenzione" (Second State, 1761; p. [7]-[37] (plate I-XVI)). All depict enormous subterranean vaults with stairs and mighty machines, in rather extreme versions of the "capriccio", a favorite Italian genre of architectural fantasies; the first title page uses the term.