Poesie per le Nozze Solenni della Nobil Donna Andriana Barbaro col Nobil Uomo Nicolò Foscarini. Dedicate a sue Eccellenze Giovanni Barbaro, Fratello e Chiara Barbarigo Barbaro Cognata della Sposa. Venice, 1766. Bound with: Poesie per le Fauste Nozze della Nobil Donna Andriana Barbaro col Nobil Uomo Nicolò Foscarini. Dedicate a S. E. Procuratessa Cecilia Emo Barbaro, Madre della Sposa. Venice: Zatta, 1766

Folio.  80 pp.  Title-page printed in read and black ink, illustrated with a full-page engraved frontispiece, engraved title-page vignette, 7 engraved head-pieces, 7 engraved tail-pieces. and decorative printer's ornaments separating verses throughout.   Folio.  72 pp. plus 1 blank.  Title-page printed in red and black ink, engraved title-page vignette printed in blue ink, 7 engraved head-pieces, 5 engraved tail-pieces, 26 engraved initial letters, and decorative printer's ornaments separating verses throughout. 

Together two volumes bound in one.  Folio.  360 x 255 mm., [14 x 9 ¾ inches].  Printed on thick paper stock. Bound in contemporary Venetian morocco, marbled paper paste downs and fly leaves, gilt decorated boards and spine; some minor abrasions to the boards and spine, a very neat spine repair, otherwise a fine copy in period binding with wide margins.  This copy with the bookplates of W.R.H. Jeudwine, John Saks and "PAW".

Excellent examples of Italian festival books printed in celebration of the marriage of two noble families.  Called "Nozze", these festival books are part of a larger genre of Italian books that commemorate important events in Italian life.  In addition to weddings, this genre of books includes  "Ingresso" or the arrival of important travels to a ducal or important household, "Montacazione" or the taking of monastic orders by the daughters of noble families, "Gratulatoria", "Esaltazione" and "Festeggiamenti" to name the most prominent examples.

Although these festival books are common throughout Italy, it was in Venice during the 18th century where the most beautiful examples were printed.  Printer/publishers like Antonio Zatta used the folio format in his finest examples, illustrating the text with engravings by the most prominent Venetian artists and engravers of the period.  According to Anne Palms Chalmers, the Venetian government encouraged printers to produce these elaborate festival books and to trade them on the international market for the purpose of advancing Venice's prestige throughout Europe.

In the two examples offered for sale here we have competing publisher's, patronized by family members of the bride and groom, printing poetry by friends and family of the couple and illustrating the poems with beautifully render rococo style engravings.  In this case two of the separately published 'Nozze" are bound together in a well preserved Venetian binding of the period, and in this case with excellent provenance. 

A. P. Chalmers, "Venetian Book Design in the 18th Century", Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 29, No. 5, January, 1971.  Morazzoni, Il Libro Illustrato Veneziano del Settecento, 298.  Leonardo Lapiccirella, Libri Illustrati Veneziani del XVIII Secolo, Catalogue 3, no. 87.  See also Martineau & Robison, The Glory of Venice.  Art in the Eighteenth Century, London, 1994 pp. 350-51.