Illustrazione del Prato della Valle ossia della piazza delle Statue di Padova. Parte prima [-seconda]

THE PRATO DELLA VALLE EXPLAINED

Large 8vo (242x165 mm). XVI, 1-29, [3], 31-208, [4], 211-427, [3]-431-441, [3 blank] pp. Nicely bound in contemporary richly gilt calf, spine with five raised bands and morocco lettering piece, gilt edges, marbled endleaves (minor restorations to spine and joints). A very good copy printed on large paper.

First edition of one of the earliest monographs entirely devoted to a single city square, the famous Padua Prato della Valle, one of the largest and most peculiar squares in Italy. The square originally belonged to the abbey of Santa Giustina until 1767, when it became the property of the city of Padua. The architect Andrea Memmo (depicted in the final statue of the exterior ring) was responsible for the renovation of the square started at the end of 18^th century and still ongoing when Neumayr wrote his book.

By describing the square and recounting its history, Neumayr's work also represents a major source, still cited today, of bio-bibliographical information on the most famous citizens of Padua. The two parts in which the book is divided, deal respectively with the exterior ring (containing 44 statues of illustrious figures somehow related to the city of Padua) and the interior ring (containing a further 44 statues and obelisks) that encircles the Prato. At the end is a section devoted to the inscriptions found on the Etruscan vases and on the bridges of the Prato.

Among the notable figures represented with a statue and described in Neumayr's extensive biographical notes, are, only to mention a few: pope Alexander VIII (p. 319), Ludovico Ariosto (p. 121), Antonio Canova (p. 327), pope Eugene IV (p. 104), Galileo Galilei (p. 173), Fortunio Liceti (p. 241), Andrea Mantegna (p. 94), Giovanni Battista Morgagni (p. 389), Giovan Francesco Mussato (p. 58), Petrarch (p. 153), Giovanni Poleni (p. 250), Sperone Speroni (p. 213), Gaspara Stampa (p. 419), Giuseppe Tartini (p. 135), Torquato Tasso (p. 40), etc.

Antonio Neumayr was born in Vienna in 1772. He graduated in philosophy and medicine at the University of Padua. He was a member of the Accademia dei Filareti of Venice, the Academy of Sciences of Turin, and the Accademia Olimpica of Vicenza. He died in Venice in 1859 (cf. A. Maggiolo, I soci dell'Accademia patavina dalla sua fondazione (1599), Padua, 1983, ad indicem).

Lauro, 2003; Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\RMLE\008693.

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