Bernardo de Dominici

Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Napoletani.  Non mai date alla luce de Autore alcano.

3 volumes in 2. Naples: Stamperia del Ricciardi, 1742; 1743; 1745 (the date 1743 has a printed paste over dated 1745). Quarto.  Early 19th-century quarter calf, spines gilt in compartments, red morocco labels, marbled boards.  Portrait frontispiece of the author to volume I, tailpieces.  Bindings rubbed with a little wear at the extremities, front hinge of volume 3 cracked, significant browning and foxing to contents, lower corner of the title to volume II torn and repaired with loss of text.

First edition of this important collection of Neapolitan art biographies compiled in response to Vasari's 'cursory reference' to the region's artistic traditions (Astarita, A Companion to Early Modern Naples, p. 318). Author Bernardo de Dominici (1683-1759) was the son of the painter Raimondo de Dominici and became an artist himself, living and working for many years in the household of the Duke and Duchess di Laurenzano, though no examples of his work have been identified.

£2,400