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Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) CARCERI D'INVENZIONE (H. 1, 3-4, 6-16; R. 29-42) Etchings with engraving and sulfur tint, the set of fourteen plates in the First Edition, Second Issue, 1750-c. 1758, R. 29, 35, 38 in the second state, remainder in the first state, very fine, early impressions, on paper with instinct fleur de lys in single circle watermarks, with wide margins, all with center creases with traces of glue on the verso from previous binding, some minor tears and stains in the margin edges, R. 29 with a small uninked spot in window embrasure at lower left, R. 32 with horizontal printer's crease at left edge, otherwise in good condition (14) sheet size c. 740 by 520mm. 29 1/8 by 20 1/2 in. The Carceri have long been considered Piranesi's most fascinating series of prints. These imaginary prisons, created on a scale that completely dwarfs the inmates and jailers alike have captured the imagination, inspiring artists and writers as widely different as Dore, Meryon, Balzac, Hugo, Proust, Huxley, Fritz Lang and even a production of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Vienna Opera (see John Wilon-Ely, "Giovanni Battisa Piranesi," in The Dictionary of Art, vol. 24, London 1996, pp. 846-47). The perception most people have of the Carceri is of the second edition, of 1761, with the heavy, dark plates so loved by the Romantics. But connoisseurs have tended to prefer the first edition, with its lighter touch and more complex spaces. Andrew Robison, in his Piranesi: Early Architectural Fantasies, Washington, Chicago and London, 1986, has clearly shown how the Carceri in fact grew out of Venetian printmaking and Piranesi's early works, such as the Prima Parte and the Grotteschi. He has also catalogued the various changes Piranesi made in the plates, so we can see precisely where this set falls in the development of the series. The present set is in fact one of the earliest to have come on the market. The plates are printed so as to reveal all the nuances of Piranesi'