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Epithalamia exoticis linguis reddita
Author: Giambattista Bodoni (Italian, 1740–1813)
Author: Carlo Castone della Torre di Rezzonico (Italian, 1742–1796)
Etched by: Benigno Bossi (Italian, 1727–1792)
Etched by: Domenico Cagnoni (Italian, 18th century)
Etched by: Giovanni Volpato (Italian, 1740–1803)
Etched by: Giuseppe Patrini (Italian, 1711–1786)
Etched by: Ludwig Sommerau (German, 1756–1786)
Etched by: Simon François Ravenet, the Younger (French, 1748–after 1814)
After: Benigno Bossi (Italian, 1727–1792)
After: Evangelista Ferrari (Italian, died in 1779)
After: Domenico Muzzi (Italian, 1742–1812)
Printer: Giambattista Bodoni (Italian, 1740–1813)
Author: Carlo Castone della Torre di Rezzonico (Italian, 1742–1796)
Etched by: Benigno Bossi (Italian, 1727–1792)
Etched by: Domenico Cagnoni (Italian, 18th century)
Etched by: Giovanni Volpato (Italian, 1740–1803)
Etched by: Giuseppe Patrini (Italian, 1711–1786)
Etched by: Ludwig Sommerau (German, 1756–1786)
Etched by: Simon François Ravenet, the Younger (French, 1748–after 1814)
After: Benigno Bossi (Italian, 1727–1792)
After: Evangelista Ferrari (Italian, died in 1779)
After: Domenico Muzzi (Italian, 1742–1812)
Printer: Giambattista Bodoni (Italian, 1740–1813)
1775
Place of Publication: Parma, Italy
Medium/Technique
Illustrated book with numerous etchings
Dimensions
Overall: 48 x 34.2 x 4.2 cm (18 7/8 x 13 7/16 x 1 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
William A. Sargent Fund
Accession Number41.48
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsIllustrated books
This book was a wedding present. It contains poems celebrating the wedding of Marie, sister of France’s King Louis XVI, to Charles, Prince of Piedmont, in all manner of “exotic” languages. There are poems in Arabic and Hebrew and Chinese; and the book even includes languages that neither the authors nor we can read. For example, one page is in Etruscan, a pre-Roman language that even today has yet to yield all its mysteries. But to Bodoni, dedicated above all to the beauty of printed letters, the fact that no one could read Etruscan was no reason to deny the language an elegant font!
Catalogue Raisonné
Brooks, Compendiosa bibliografia di edizioni Bodoniane, 70
Description(Parma: Ex Regio Typographeo, 1775) Folio; 125 leaves; contemporary gilt-stamped red calf.
Numerous decorative vignettes; examples of exotic types.
Elaborately printed and illustrated volume issued in honor of the marriage of Marie Adelaide Clotilde (1759-1802, sister of Louis XVI) and Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia, (1751-1819), printed and designed by Giambattista Bodoni. This copy does contain the 35-page "poemetto" by Torre di Rezzonico at the end, which is not present in all copies, according to Brooks. He also identifies a second printing from the addition of the sentence "Via, qua per arduos montes...occupat" at the end of fol. 66verso; that is present in this copy.
Numerous decorative vignettes; examples of exotic types.
Elaborately printed and illustrated volume issued in honor of the marriage of Marie Adelaide Clotilde (1759-1802, sister of Louis XVI) and Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia, (1751-1819), printed and designed by Giambattista Bodoni. This copy does contain the 35-page "poemetto" by Torre di Rezzonico at the end, which is not present in all copies, according to Brooks. He also identifies a second printing from the addition of the sentence "Via, qua per arduos montes...occupat" at the end of fol. 66verso; that is present in this copy.
ProvenancePrince Galitzin; unidentified armorial bookplate with motto "Terram opes patriae sibi nomen"; Russian library stamp; Philip Hofer, Cambridge (1898-1984); Harvard College Library, from whom purchased by MFA, February 13, 1941.