PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista ( 1720--1778)
[Carceri. 2nd ed.]
Carceri d'invenzione di G. Battista Piranesi archit. Vene
[Roma]:, presso l'autore a Strada Felice vicino alla Trinità de' Monti,, [c. 1770-75].
XVI double-page etch. pl. ; 52.0 cm. (1°)

For this second edition of the Carceri, which first appeared in 1761 (see Robison, op. cit. infra, p. 45) Piranesi added two new plates ('The Man on the Rack' and 'The Lion Bas-Reliefs') and, with the exception of 'The Giant Wheel', more or less extensively re-worked all fourteen of the original coppers in the first edition (q.v.). In the second issue of the second edition (dating from the early-to-mid 1760s), the plates are for the first time numbered II-XVI (pl. [I] being the title-plate and pl. II and V the additional plates). This copy matches Robison's description of the third issue of the second edition (title-plate state vii/ix, pl. XVI state iii/vi).

Copy Notes Bound as the fourth component in a copy of Piranesi's Opere varie probably issued in the early 1770s (q.v.) - see Andrew Robison, Piranesi Early architectural fantasies: a catalogue raisonné of the etchings, Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1986, pp. 140, 213 (citing this copy).

Binding C18th half sheep, marbled paper boards, red morocco spine-label gilt-lettered 'Piranesi / Opera / Varie'.

Reference Number 6464