NAPLES -- Descrizione e disegni della mascherata che intervenne al real teatro di S. Carlo il carnevale dell' anno 1827. Naples: Stamperia Reale, 1827. 2° (333 x 222mm). 39 hand-coloured lithographic plates showing carnival costumes by Cuciniello and Bianchi, including a very large folding plate extending to 2280mm by Antonio Nicolini depicting 84 figures in a procession with music printed below. (Variable light spotting, the whole loose.) Contemporary red roan-backed cloth, gilt spine (extremities rubbed, the whole loose, stitching broken, dampstain to lower cover).

NAPLES -- Descrizione e disegni della mascherata che intervenne al real teatro di S. Carlo il carnevale dell' anno 1827. Naples: Stamperia Reale, 1827. 2° (333 x 222mm). 39 hand-coloured lithographic plates showing carnival costumes by Cuciniello and Bianchi, including a very large folding plate extending to 2280mm by Antonio Nicolini depicting 84 figures in a procession with music printed below. (Variable light spotting, the whole loose.) Contemporary red roan-backed cloth, gilt spine (extremities rubbed, the whole loose, stitching broken, dampstain to lower cover).

EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED COPY OF A RARE NEAPOLITAN COSTUME BOOK. The plates depict Carnival at Naples in 1827, when the king of Naples, Francesco I, together with the royal family, attended the San Carlo theatre dressed in the Persian fashion. The folding plate shows the highlight of the great ball, as members of the nobility dressed as Scots, Tartars and in French fashions, dance quadrilles for the Shah, while others, masquerading as the Parnaso of the Italian Poetry, Dante, Petrarca, Aristo and Tasso, offer poetical tributes to the Court. Lipperheide Si 57 (calling for 13 plates only).