Castelli, E Ponti Di Maestro Niccola Zabaglia Con Alcune ingegnose Pratiche, e Con La Descrizione Del Trasporto Dell'Obelisco Vaticano, e Di Altri Del Cavaliere Domenico Fontana
RA Collection: Book
Record number
03/2819
Variant Title
Contignationes, Ac Pontes Nicolai Zabaglia
Imprint
In Roma,: MDCCXLIII, Nella Stamperia Di Niccolò, e Marco Pagliarini Mercanti Librari, E Stampatori A Pasquino. Con Licenza De' Superiori.
Physical Description
[iv], 21 f. (fold.), frontis. (port.), 54 pl. (4 dble. or fold.); 467 mm. (Folio.)
General Note
Plates XXXIV-XXXVI and L are double or folded. In some copies the Latin title-page is bound in before the Italian one.
Contents
[Frontis. (port.)] - [T.p. in Italian] - Praefatio - Imprimatur - [T.p. in Latin, 'Contignationes ...'] - Prefazione - [Plates] - [Text, 'Tabularum Explanatio' / 'Spegazione Delle Tavole' - in Latin and Italian in parallel, the Latin left and the Italian right]. - In some copies the Latin t.p. is bound in before the Italian one, and the text and plates are interspersed.
Responsibility Note
According to Comolli, this book was sponsored by Pope Benedict XIV, and its text was written by Lelio Cosatti, with the help of G. G. Bottari and Zabaglia himself (who may have been illiterate). The Latin text is ascribed by Comolli to Cosatti but by Halwas to N. Salulini.
Fourteen plates are unsigned (they have been attributed to B. Gambucciari as draughtsman); 27 are signed as drawn by Francesco Rostagni and engraved by him or others (M. Schedel, N. Guttierez, G. Vasi, F. Duflos, F. Mazzoni, A. Guiducci, M. Sorello, P. Pilaja); thirteen are signed by C. Fontana as draughtsman and A. Specchi as engraver (these are reprinted from C. Fontana's Templum Vaticanum, 1694, where they are copied from D. Fontana's Della trasportatione dell'obelisco, 1590). The frontispiece portrait of Zabaglia is signed as drawn by Pier Leone Ghezzi and engraved by Girolamo Rossi.
The Latin title page has the imprint, 'Romæ Ex Typographia Palladis ... Excudebant Nicolaus, Et Marcus Palearini ...'.
References
Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Library ... Early printed, 4 (2001), no.3733; National Gallery (Washington), Mark J. Millard Architectural, IV (2000), no. 166, p.509-11; P. Riccardi, Biblioteca matematica (1952), 2:642; Monaco, V. R. R. ed., L'Immagine del antico (1983), cat. 26; Guide di Roma, ed. Schudt (1930/R 1971), 1126.
On Zabaglia see U.M. Milizia, Notizia sulla vita e sulle opere di Nicola Zabaglia (1999) and A.M. Corbo, Nicola Zabaglia un geniale analfabeta (1999); and on the wider context of his work, J. Fitchen, Building construction before mechanization (1986).
Summary Note
The whole text is in Latin and Italian. The Latin title-page reads: 'Contignationes, Ac Pontes Nicolai Zabaglia Una Cum Quibusdam Ingeniosis Praxibus, Ac Descriptione Translationis Obelisci Vaticani, Aliorumque Per Equitem Dominicum Fontana Susceptae. Romæ Ex Typographia Palladis MDCCXLIII. Excudebant Nicolaus, Et Marcus Palearini ...'.
Nicola Zabaglia, curator of the Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro, was celebrated for his resourceful scaffoldings - including those used for inspecting the cupola of St Peter's in 1743-1744, and those used for re-erecting the obelisk of Augustus. The importance of scaffolding in Renaissance and Baroque building, especially for vaulted and domed spans, had produced a considerable literature, of which P. de l'Orme's Nouvelles inventions (1561) and M. Joussée's Theatre de l'art de charpentier (1627) were noteworthy examples. In the English-speaking world Francis Price's British carpenter or a treatise on carpentry addressed the subject, and was often reprinted.
Provenance
Acquired by 1802. Recorded in Catalogue Of The Library In The Royal Academy, London (1802).
Binding Note
Contemporary vellum; red morocco spine-label, lettered, 'Zabaglia Castelli E Ponti'.
Engineering - Scaffolding - Techniques - Scaffolds - Temporary structures (Building) - Italy - Rome - Vatican City - Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano - History - 17th century - 18th century
Manuals - Italy - 18th century
Pictorial works - Italy - 18th century