Opere di Pietro Metastasio (27 volumes)

Venezia: Tipografia Pepoliana, 1794-1795. Quarter Calf. Marbled boards. . Very Good. The collected full-length operas of the foremost librettist of opere serie during the eighteenth century. 16mo. 11.5 by 7.5 cm. While these operas were set to music originally by composers mostly forgotten, a few of them were re-used as libretti by others, and most notably, by Mozart, who set music to "La Clemenza di Tito", which has in more recent years become a staple of the major opera houses. All of Metastasio's full length operas are here except for "Siface Re di Numidia" and "L'Impresario delle Isole Canarie". We strongly believe that the set is complete, as the operas are arranged generally in chronological order, and they are in strict chronological order in the latter half; in other words, the two omitted works, if they were part of the set, would have been in the earlier numbers. There is one opera per volume. Each volume has a copper engraved illustration on its title page. All the volumes contain the decorative bookplate of Alexander Speirs, who was a prominent Scottish politician in the early 19th century. Spine labels with number of volume only, missing all or part of the labels for volumes 5, 11 and 14. Spine leather heavily worn on Vol. 11 (by joint, where chewed), and 12 (the latter has a slight remnant of the label. Boards with speckled marbled paper pastedowns. These have some darkening. The bindings otherwise with minor bumping here and there, and scattered scuffs. Nonetheless, the near-miniature set remains very attractive, and also very uncommon.