CAVALIERI, Giovanni Battista de’.
SECOND RECORDED COPY
[Miraculous Translation of the House of the Virgin Mary to Loreto.]
[Loreto], Perinus de Guarlotis, 1570£2,750.00
Folio, 370 x 460mm. Double-page engraved plate depicting the miraculous translation of the House of the Virgin Mary from Nazareth to Loreto, and the origin of the Marian shrine. Main scene within architectural frame with putti, showing (lower right) a previous location of the House in Recanati and (lower centre) the current location in Loreto; two small cartouches on upper right and left illustrate previous locations in Illyria and Nazareth; Latin caption at foot and arms of Cardinal della Rovere, Protector of Loreto. Very light water stain along margins, gutter and one outer margin strengthened to blank verso, handful of tiny scattered marginal worm holes, some repaired with Japanese paper to verso, touching one letter, handful of later tiny painted dots identifying the individual places, lightly browned, added engraved title c1700 within ornate architectural border, with Portuguese ms note describing engraving, lightly waterstained, strengthened on blank verso, creased, traces of folds. In c1900 vellum over boards, title and author gilt to upper cover, C20 bookplate ‘Ex Libris Onomatograma’, Paulo Colher, Lisbon, to fly.
A most interesting, early ephemeral survival of the cult of the Virgin Mary of Loreto, with only one other copy traced. This popular devotional engraving portrays the famous miraculous translation of the Virgin’s house from Nazareth, where only the perimeter of the foundations remains, to Illyria and later Italy, first at Recanati, in the Marche, and then nearby, at Loreto. A church was built in Loreto in the C16, to protect the shrine. Pilgrims flocked from Italy and abroad, to request miracles or protection, through the intercession of the Virgin, by reciting dedicated Lauretan litanies at the shrine. A market developed for cheap, ephemeral broadsides and popular devotional prints, also purchased as ‘memento’ of the pilgrimage. The printer Perino Zecchini de Guarlottis (fl. 1560s-70s) had a press in Loreto, and ‘in 1567, he formed a company with G.B. de’ Cavalieri to engrave, print and sell engravings of the Basilica of Loreto and the Holy House of the Virgin. On 19 July 1570 he was granted a papal privilege for these’ (BM), the present having been produced ‘cum privilegio’. Giovanni Battista de’ Cavalieri (or Cavalleriis, 1526-97) was a prolific Roman engraver, with a style reminiscent of Aeneas Vico’s; most of his work focuses on religious subjects. The present is one of several depictions of the Holy House of Loreto which he produced with Guarlottis between 1567 and 1570, all very scarce. The miraculous translation was a favourite subject, blending architecture, bird’s-eye views and religious imagery. While the translated house was always depicted as a plain building, this print also shows a section of the church in Loreto within the handsome C16 ‘rivestimento’ around the original relic, also renowned. A caption recounts the story of the translation and testifies to the accuracy of the depiction, a very important aspect of the cult of the Holy House of Loreto, as faithful ‘replicas’ were produced not only for processional or devotional purposes, but also as shrines-away-from-the-shrine. A very rare and interesting survival.
With an unusual C20 Portuguese bookplate with ‘onomatograma’, i.e., a design produced out of typographical characters.
Only one other copy traced at Paris Lodron University, Salzburg. Unrecorded in WorldCat, BM, OPAC Sbn or USTC. A. Hamilton, ‘Translating the Sacred’ (unpublished MA thesis, U of Oregon, 2008)In stock
