Piranesi: Early Architectural Fantasies : A Catalogue Raisonne of the Etchings

This is the first modern scholarly catalogue raisonne of the early etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an important 18th-century architectural illustrator whose publications continue to haunt the minds of architects. It is a scholarly achievement of major import by the world's acknowledged authority on the subject, the curator of prints at the National Gallery in Washington. In addition to the catalogue itself, there is a chapter on watermarks which should help to date specific impressions and a 60-page scholarly account of Piranesi's life and publications. This book provides scholarly background to Rosalind Bacou's short monograph on the artist, Piranesi: etchings and drawings (1975) and Robison's catalog, Giovanni Battista Piranesi: the early architectural fantasies (1978). Peter Kaufman, Suffolk Community Coll. Lib., Selden, N.Y.