PETITOT Ennemond Alexandre Raisonnement sur la perspective, pour en faciliter l’usage aux artistes. Dédié aux mêmes.

First edition of the rarest of all suites of engravings of Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801).

The series presents practical solutions to various problems of figure drawing and bas-relief perspective. The Frenchman Paul Petitot had been appointed architect to the Duke of Parma in 1760.

According to the preface the treatise had been written and designed by Petitot for a painter friend, and is here edited by the engraver Jacques Gaultier, who got hold of the manuscript. “Je vous présent un ouvrage que monsieur Petitot architecte, de S.A.R. l’infant D. Philippe écrivit pour un peintre de ses amis, & dont le manuscrit m’est tombé entre les mains”.

The book is richly produced, with the text in French and Italian printed in two facing columns and withing double printed borders.

A very fine copy, printed on strong paper.