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Provenance: Sir Henry Goodricke, Bart. (1765-1802), armorial bookplate in each volume (recovered from original bindings). He was born in Groningen in Holland, was M.P. for Lymington (Dec. 1778 to 1780) and became the sixth Baronet on 3rd August 1789.

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Literature: Hind, A.M., Giovannia Battista Piranesi: a critical study (London, 1922); cf. Focillon 719-853

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Notes: a near complete set of these much-admired prints of rome and its vicinity, which contributed considerably both to contemporary interest in classical archaeology and to the growth of the neoclassical movement in art and architecture.

Born in Venice in 1720, G.B. Piranesi went to Rome in 1740 as a draftsman for the Venetian ambassador. He studied with leading printmakers of the day and settled permanently in Rome in 1745. It was during this period that he developed his highly original etching technique, producing rich textures and bold contrasts of light and shadow by means of intricate, repeated bitings of the copperplate. His unparalled accuracy of depiction, his personal expression of the dramatic and romantic grandeur of ancient Rome, and his technical mastery make his works some of the most original and impressive representations of architecture to be found in Western art. After Giovanni Battista's death in 1778, his son Francesco, who had trained and worked with his father, took the plates to Paris, where he republished them.

The plates in this copy, with a few exceptions, are bound in the chronological order of Piranesi's engraved catalogue.