Paris, Firmin Didot, 1823.
Folio [409 x 275 mm] of (2) ll., 44 pp. of text, 72 numbered plates in color protected by silky papers. Small paper repair on 1 pl., plate 51 not numbered. Scattered foxing heavier on 1 plate. Russian red leather, blind-stamped border between two gilt fillets around the covers, large shell like spandrels and plate à la cathédrale in the center, everything blind-stamped, spine ribbed, edges gilt, stain in the corner of the upper cover, rubbed corners. Contemporary binding.
A scarce and important coloured plate book on the daily life of Rome together with its architectural and grandeur in the beginning of the 19th century.
Brunet, V, 833; Colas 2872; Lipperheide 1309.
The drawings were made for the book Un An à Rome et dans ses Environs (A year in Rome and its surroundings) describing and depicting the daily life in Rome as seen by Thomas during his stay between 1817 and 1818, and the reign of Pius VII.
In 1816 Thomas won the great prize of Rome for painting and was therefore welcomed at the French Academy in Rome from November 1816 to December 1818. He died in Paris in 1833 or in 1834.
One of the most beautiful lithographed albums on Rome.
During his stay at the Villa Medici Thomas captured scenes from Roman life: Processions of St Anne, Holy Week, Corpus Domini, various brotherhoods, street musicians, illuminations, the Diostra, Befana, Canofiena…
The illustration is composed of 72 original hand coloured lithographed plates drawn by Villain and lithographed by Thomas: “costumes, customs, civilian and religious ceremonies of the Roman states and generally all that one sees there in the course of a year”.
“Curious work. The drawings are lively, they have movement and spirit” (Beraldi).
A second edition will be printed in Paris in 1830.
Precious copy with particularly wide margins (height: 409 mm) preserved in its contemporary binding in Russian red leather.
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