4to., contemporary full vellum binding with gilt ornamentation and red leather gilt-lettered label to spine, top edge gilt, with hand-colored title page vignette and 61 hand-colored plates. First edition. Very scarce. Some rubbing and very mild bumping to binding, sporadic marking to pages, the final plate slightly browned and stained; otherwise very bright and very good. It is difficult to be sure of whether or not this copy is complete, and the book being so scarce makes it difficult to find examples with which to compare it. The copy in the New York Public Library has the same number of plates as this one, and they are the same plates (notwithstanding variation in the hand-coloring). The Lipperheide Costume Library in Berlin has listed its copy as containing 61 plates; whereas Rene Colas, in his Bibliographie Generale Du Costume Et de la Mode, states that the book should contain 68 plates. Probably there were two or more versions issued, or the number of plates could be customized according to the buyer’s preference and budget. The plates in this volume date from 1821 to 1825, as is the case with the copy in the New York Public Library, suggesting that – rather than being a pastiche of earlier and later editions – some of the plates were completed after the intended date of the book’s publication, and that the title page was designed with the publication date of 1823 in mind. The plates in this volume include: ‘Il Sommo Pontefice Pio VII’; ‘Sommo Pontefice in Pontificale Leone XII’; ‘Cardinale in Mantelletta’; ‘Vescovo in Pontificale’; ‘Vescovo Greco’; ‘Vescovo Greco Latino’; ‘Prelato di Mantelletta’; ‘Canonico Ordinario e Prelato’; ‘Canonico Regolare di S. Salvatore’; ‘Agostiniani’; ‘Relig.so dell’Ord.e de’ Predicat.ri’; ‘Conventuale’; ‘Camaldolese’; ‘Monaco Cisterciense’; ‘Trinitari del Riscatto Spagnuoli’; ‘Riformati del Riscatto’; ‘Minori Osservanti di S. Francesco’; ‘Laico Cappuccino’; ‘Teresiano Secerdote, e Laico’; ‘Gesuita’; ‘Sacerdote dell’ Ord.e de’ Minimi’; ‘Monaco Certosino Secerdote, e Laico’; ‘Ministro degl’ Infermi’; ‘Marronita’; ‘Monaco Silvestrino’; ‘Chierico Regolare Minore’; ‘Scolopio’; ‘Scalzetto’; ‘Palsionista’; ‘Bernabita’; ‘Fratello della Compagnia dei Sacconi’; ‘Pellegrino’; ‘Canonichelsa Lateranense’; ‘Apostoline’; ‘Teresiana’; ‘Agostiniana’; ‘Benedettina’; ‘Cappuccina’; ‘Religiosa del Riscatto’; ‘Orsolina’; ‘Domenicana’; ‘Adoratrici perpetue del SS.mo Sagramento’; ‘Zoccoletta’; ‘Senatore, e Paggi’; ‘Caudatario’; ‘Mazziere’; ‘Sediaro’; ‘Fedeli del Campidoglio’; ‘Decano di Cardinale’; ‘Cameriere segreto, Cavaliere di Spada e Cappa’; ‘Guardia Nobile’; ‘Cavalleria Civica’; ‘Ufficiale Civico della Scelta’; ‘Ufficiale della Truppa di Linea’; ‘Carabiniere’; ‘Pompiere’; ‘Guardia del Senato’; ‘Caporale di Finanza’; ‘Sargente della Guardia Svizzera’; ‘Guardia Svizzera’. Text in Italian.
