Palladio for Grand Tourists
BERTOTTI SCAMOZZI, Ottavio. Il forestiere istruito delle cose più rare di architettura, e di alcune pitture della città di Vicenza dialogo … dedicato al nob. Sig. marchese Mario Capra. Vicenza: Giovambattista Vendramini Mosca. 1761.
4to. Contemporary mottled calf, boards with gilt-tooled border, spine richly gilt in compartments and with red morocco lettering piece, edges marbled red, blue coated endpapers, blue silk placemarker; pp. 119, [1], with engraved portrait frontispiece of dedicatee Mario Capra, and 36 plates (of which 29 folding) engraved by Cristoforo Dall’Acqua, engraved vignette to title, woodcut initials, head-, and tailpieces; binding a little rubbed at edges, hinges cracked but holding; short closed tear to outer margin of f. G3, else a very good and crisp copy.
First edition of this Grand-Tour guidebook of the architectural sights of Vicenza, especially Palladio’s work, written in the form of a dialogue between a local guide and an English tourist, and lavishly illustrated with elevations, plans and sections.
Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi (1719-1790) was an architect and Palladian scholar from Vicenza. His buildings in and around Vicenza reflect a strong Palladian influence, such as Casa Muzzi in Riello (1770) which draws on Palladio’s Villa Forni Cerato in Montecchio Precalcino (1540s). Some of his works, however, reveal early hints of Neo-Classicism. In his later years, Scamozzi’s style became more austere, as seen in the Palazzo Braghetta sul Corso (1780) and Teatro Eretenio (1781-84).
Bertotti Scamozzi’s publications have often overshadowed his own architectural achievements. A leading figure in the eighteenth-century ‘Palladian revival’ in Italy, he edited and published significant works on Andrea Palladio, including Le fabbriche e i disegni di Andrea Palladio raccolti e illustrate (1776-83). Well-connected with figures like polymath Francesco Algarotti and architect Giacomo Quarenghi, Scamozzi was ‘sought-after as a cicerone by those cognoscenti on the Grand Tour’ and even published his own guidebook, Il forestiere istruito – The learned foreigner (see Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture).
The guidebook was written in a dialogical form, with Leandro, a local guide representing Bertotti Scamozzi himself, leading a two-day tour of Vicenza. In the narrative, Leandro claims to have shown the city’s sights to prominent British architects like Matthew Brettingham, William Chambers, and Robert Adam. He accompanies Guglielmo, an erudite English Grand Tourist, through Vicenza to admire its architectural treasures.
Il forestiere istruito features 36 large illustrations by Vicenza engraver Cristoforo Dall’Acqua (1734-1787), each accompanied by detailed measurements in both local and English units. Dall’Acqua, a long-time collaborator of Bertotti Scamozzi, is perhaps best known for his renditions of William Blake’s illustrations for John Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1792-94). The guidebook is dedicated to marchese Mario Capra, an amateur poet and architect, as well as a key patron of Bertotti Scamozzi. It was later revised and reissued in 1780, and again posthumously in 1804.
Fowler 43; Millard, Italian 19.
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