Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

Circignani, Niccoló and Giovanni Battista Cavalieri. Ecclesiae militantis triumphi sive Deo amabilium martyrum gloriosa pro Christi fide certamina: prout opera RR Patrum Societatis Iesu Collegij Germanici et Hungarici moderator impensa S. D. N. Gregorii PP. XIII. in Ecclesia S. Stephani Rotundi. – (And:) Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophaea sive Sanctorum Martyrum qui pro Christo Catholicaeque fidei Veritate asserenda antiquo recentiorique persecutionum tempore mortem in Anglia subierunt, Passiones. 2 parts in 1 vol.

Suites of 31 and 35 engr. plates, each with an engr. title page by Giovanni Battista de Cavallieri. 68 leaves in all. Small folio. Half calf of the 19th century. Gilt spine title. – Rom, Bartolomeo Grassi, 1585 (part I) resp. 1584 (part II).

Complete run of the two-part martyrology by the Italian Mannerist Niccolò Circignani (c. 1530–1595, known as il Pomarancio), with the first part appearing in the second edition (initially published in 1583). In 1582/83, Circignani executed a cycle of martyrs in the Church of Santo Stefano Rotondo on commission from Pope Gregory XIII, followed by a second cycle in the Anglican collegiate church of San Tommaso di Canterbury. Immediately after the completion of the two fresco cycles, the engraver Giovanni Battista Cavalieri (1525–1601) captured them in the present copperplate engravings and provided them with brief, explanatory captions. Cavalieri’s rendering of Circignani’s martyr cycles contributed significantly to the iconographic support for the Counter-Reformation. – Cicognara 2008; Brunet I, 1697. – The edges of the pages slightly stained throughout. The odd-numbered pages (3, 5, 7, etc.) in Part II were professionally repaired most likely during the 19th-century rebinding. – Best.-Nr. 24136