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Dedication Letter
12020-04-10T20:59:53-07:00Avery Freemanb9edcb567e2471c9ec37caa50383522b90999cba228491from Volume 01 of Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Opereplain2020-04-10T20:59:53-07:00Internet Archivepiranesi-ia-vol1-002.jpgimageAvery Freemanb9edcb567e2471c9ec37caa50383522b90999cba
12021-03-30T11:16:07-07:00Dedicatory Frontispiece8plain2023-05-02T07:37:49-07:00VRBIS.AETERNAE.VESTIGIA/ AB.EQ.I.B.PIRANESIO.IAM.AENEIS.TABVLIS.INCISA/ NVNC.DENVO/ IIS.QVAE.SVPERERANT.EDENDA.QVAEQVE.NOVITER.DETECTA.SVNT/ DECORATA.ADAVCTA.AMPLIFICATA/ EQVES.FRANCISCVS.FILIVS/ GVSTAVO.III/ GOTH.SVEC.VAND.REGI &&&/ SAPIENTI.FORTI.ATQVE.OPTIMO/ ANTIQVITATVM/ ET.BONARUM.ARTIVM.PATRONO.MVNIFICENTISSIMO/ IN.OBSEQVII.GRATIQVE.ANIMI.SPECIMEN/ D.D.D. Medal: FADERNESLANDET. Signature: Piranesi Archit[etto] inv[entò] e sculp[ì].THE RUINS OF THE ETERNAL CITY/ ENGRAVED ON COPPER PLATES BY THE CAVALIER GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIRANESI/ AND NOW ONCE MORE/ WITH RUINS THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN PUBLISHED AND THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN NEWLY DISCOVERED/ EMBELLISHED, AUGMENTED, AND AMPLIFIED/ BY HIS SON CAVALIER FRANCESCO PIRANESI/ TO GUSTAV III/ KING OF THE GOTHS, SWEDES, AND VENDS/ WISE, POWERFUL AND GOOD/ MOST MUNFICENT PATRON OF ANTIQUITIES AND THE ARTS/ AS A DEMONSTRATION OF REVERENCE AND GRATEFUL SPIRIT/ GAVE, GIFTED, AND DEDICATED [THIS WORK] . Medal: THE FATHERLAND. Signature: Invented and engraved by the Architect Piranesi.
N.B. The original version of this frontispiece includes a dedication to Lord Charlemont. However, Charlemont’s promise to fund the publication of the Antichità Romane was unfufilled. In response, Piranesi produced four smaller frontispieces which publicly denounced his former patron through the ancient practice of the damnatio memoriae, removing Charlemont’s name from the subsequent prints. Francesco Piranesi later dedicated this and other works to Gustav III, the King of Sweden, as the reworked version above shows.
To see this image in the first volume of Le Antichità Romane, volume 1 of Piranesi’s Opere, click here.
