Bodoni Press.- [De Rossi (Giovanni Gherardo)]

Scherzi poetici e pittorici, FIRST EDITION, half title, engraved frontispiece and 40 black and white other plates by Rosaspina Francesco, after José Teixeira Barreto, within black frame, contemporary yellow paper boards, ink title to spine, spine end rubbed, [ IT\ICCU\TO0E\038521; Graesse VI 169; Brooks, n. 600-601; De Lama, v. 2, p. 107-108; ‘Manuale tipografico del cavaliere Giambattista Bodoni’, 1818, p. 259], 4to, Giambattista Bodoni, Parma, 1795.

*** One of Bodoni's most attractive works, produced in several versions and formats, combining a collection of love poetry illustrated with scenes of Venus and Cupid with humans and allegorical figures. The last panel entitled “Eurfrosine ferita da Amore" depicts the painter Angelika Kaufmann. The name of the author appears in the scholarly work ‘Parnaso degl'italiani viventi’, 5 and in the address to Alessandro de Sousa-Holstein. Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754-1827), best known for his comedies, was a banker, poet, classical scholar, and critic.