L'antique Rome ou description historique et pittoresque de tout ce qui concerne le peuple Romain, dans ses costumes civiles, militaires et religieux, dans ses moeurs publiques et privées, depuis Romulus jusqu'à Augustule.

Beschreibung:

First edition of a beautiful work on ancient Roman costume, with 50 hand-coloured plates, covering the period from the founding of the city by Romulus until the reign of the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in the 5th century CE. The vivid illustrations, designed by L. F. Labrousse (active 1796), depict figures from all ranks of Roman society in the costume of their function, accompanied by descriptions in French, encompassing: emperors, senators, orators, aediles, tribunes, priests and priestesses, Vestal Virgins, members of the Roman elite of both sexes, and military figures and athletes, including legionaries, gladiators, charioteers, and boxers. Rather than static representations, the figures are dynamic, portrayed in scenes that evoke key aspects of Roman social and civic life, such as religious ceremonies, public festivals, games in the circus, military encampments, battles, and triumphal processions.Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (1757-1810) was a French writer, diplomat, and draftsman. After studying with the Jesuits of Sainte-Barbe from 1764, he became vice-consul in Hungary and Egypt. Between 1784 and 1812, he published various works on costume and ethnography, many of them illustrated, including Encyclopédie des voyages (1795-96), Costumes des représentants du peuple, membres des deux conseils, du directoire exécutif (1796), Les Fastes du peuple Français (1796), and Acteurs et actrices célèbres (1808). The publication of the present work during the years of the First French Republic (1792-1804) is of particular significance. It reflects the broader intellectual and political climate of the period, in which revolutionary France consciously drew upon the imagery, ideals, and moral exempla of ancient Roman republicanism. An Italian edition (L'antica Roma) was published in 1825.With the bookseller's label of Berthot in Brussels mounted on the front pastedown. The boards and spine are somewhat rubbed. A water stain in the lower margin of pp. 23-47, not affecting the plates bound in between, occasional foxing and staining of the text leaves, a small repair at the lower margin of p. 169. Otherwise in good condition.l Colas 1298; Hiler & Hiler, p. 389; cf. Lipperheide 234 (Italian ed.). Contemporary gold-tooled mottled calf, sewn on 5 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, a black morocco title label on the spine lettered in gold, gold-tooled board edges, red sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. With 50 hand-coloured full-page engraved plates. Pages: [4], 221, [3] pp. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABC_50535

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