Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Eighteen - International League ...

Lottery dream books were immensely popular and published in large
numbers, but only a few copies have survived. Earlier dreambooks by
Fortunato Indovino appeared from the middle of the eighteenth century.
See Pitré, Bibliografia delle tradizioni popolari d’Italia, 2950 for later edition; OCLC
lists four copies of earlier editions in European libraries only.
Satire on the French Revolution
51. GILLRAY, James. La Rigenerazione dell’ Olanda Specchio a
Tutti i Popoli Rignerati. Venice, Giovanni Zatta, 1799. £7,200
Folio, engraved title, and ll. 20 of text facing 20 full-page satirical
engravings printed in red; faint dampstain to upper margin, not
touching text or images; contemporary pattern paper boards, with
discrete paper repairs to spine; a fine, wide-margined and very crisp set.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue eighteen
Rare anthology of political caricatures satirising the revolutionary French
government’s attempt to run The Netherlands as a puppet state, exemplified
especially in one plate featuring a peepshow, showing the ‘Committee of
Foreign Affairs’ observing the situation at a distance. The vivid etchings by
Gillray depict parliament as a many-headed monster, the government as a
bunch of idiots or troublemakers, and in general offer a bitter satire of the
excesses of the French Revolution.
The caricatures provide a detailed political, economical, and historical
commentary, illustrating amongst others the ‘Finance Committee’ (faced
with empty coffers and nearly flattened by huge amounts of assignats
and promissory notes), or the ‘Military Committee’ with the Dutch army
represented by a skeleton.
The text in French is followed by the Italian translation and a brief
commentary. The plates are after drawings by David Hess (1770–1843),
a Swiss painter and print-maker, who sent them to London to have them
etched by James Gillray (1757–1815), the leading political caricaturist of the
time. Hess was so impressed by Gillray’s skill and international reputation
as a caricaturist and draftsman, that he occasionally called himself Gilray
junior.
The collection was first published as Hollandia regenerata in 1796,
and there also appears to be a Dutch edition. The prints were also issued
individually.
BMSat. 8846–65; M. Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in
the British Museum, VII, 1942; Morazzoni, 136 ‘vivacissimo album antigiacobino’;
Cohen-Ricci, 895; Lapiccirella, cat. 3, 117; see Wolfgang Cillessen in Alberto
Milano (ed.), Commercio delle stampe e diffusione delle immagini nei secoli XVIII e
XIX, 2008, pp.333–49.
52. [GOUDAR, Ange.] Le Brigandage de la Musique Italienne.
[n.p.], Paris, 1777. £1,150
8vo, pp. iv, viii, 156; uncut in contemporary carta rustica wrappers;
some light browning, small circular private ownership stamp to title;
spine a little rubbed; else a good copy.
First edition of Goudar’s violent attack of Italian music in general, with
particular comments on Italian countertenors on the French stage. Goudar
was a staunch supporter of French music
For future quality control in musical performance, Goudar draws up
satirical statutes for a singing parliament ‘Statuts du Parlement chantant’,
citing genius, talent, taste, good sense, and national spirit as the main
components.
Mars 132; Cortot, p. 90; Eitner IV, p. 317; RISM BVI, p. 372; OCLC: Yale,
NYPL.