2.06 Sadeler 1660

Aegidius Sadeler, Vestigi delle antichità di Roma, Tivoli, Pozzuoli et altri luoghi, Roma 1660

Dg 532-2061 raro VII

In 1606, Gilles Sadeler, a Dutch engraver and publisher, published Vestigi delle antichità di Roma, Tivoli, Pozzuoli et altri luoghi in Prague, which added further views of ancient monuments to Étienne Du Pérac’s Vestigi dell’antichità di Roma (1575). He used drawings by Paul Brill, Jan Brueghel and Peter Stevens as the basis for his work. The work was so successful that Marco Sadeler, presumably his grandson, published another edition around 1629. In 1660, however, the version of which the Hertziana has a copy appeared on the Roman book market. The publisher Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi tried to reproduce the plates as closely as possible to Gilles Sadler’s edition, but the differences are nevertheless visible and the plates bear the signature of Marco Sadeler. The seven plates devoted to the Pozzuoli area focus on ancient monuments. The only exception is the view of the Solfatara, which chooses the perspective of visitors arriving at the edge of the volcanic crater. This view is first found in the Civitates Orbis Terrarum published by Braun & Hogenberg (vol. III, 58) under the title ‘Mirabilium Sulphureorum Motium Apud Puteolos campos’. The iconography of his frame referred to the interpretation as being the forge of the volcano, while Sadeler limits himself in the image and text to describing the characteristics of the site. [PH]

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