Le Chateau St. Ange à Rome

Reference: S46393
Author Pieter VANDER AA
Year: 1713
Zone: Castel S. Angelo
Printed: Leyden
Measures: 400 x 240 mm
€300.00

Reference: S46393
Author Pieter VANDER AA
Year: 1713
Zone: Castel S. Angelo
Printed: Leyden
Measures: 400 x 240 mm
€300.00

Description

18th Century Dutch etching by Pierre Vander Aa, which depicts Castel S. Angelo and the Tiber; printed "'A Leide, Chez Pierre vander Aa, Avec Privilege".

From “La galerie agreable du monde”.

Pieter van der Aa, a Dutch publisher and printer was best known for his cartographic work. He opened a bookshop and publishing house in Leiden in 1677, and started his first business there in 1683. By 1694 he was made printer to Leiden University, and by 1715, he was appointed the official printer to the town of Leiden. He gradually broadened his publishing scope and by the turn of the eighteenth century had moved into the publication of works on travel and topography. He produced a series of atlases and collections of voyages composed of plates acquired from other cartographers. His career culminated with the publishing of his illustrated atlas of the world, the “Galerie Agreable du Monde” made up of 66 volumes, the largest book of prints ever published. Only 100 copies are said to have been printed. The great work covers Europe, Asia, Africa and America, and although it professed to cover the entire world, due to the quantity of European material in Van der Aa's stock, 47 of the 66 parts cover Europe. The “Galerie” did not just cover geography, but also carried over 3,000 plates. Most of the plates were by other contemporary publishers, to which van der Aa added his signature broad decorative borders.

Copperplate, very good condition. Rare.

Pieter VANDER AA (1659 - 1733)

Records show that van der Aa, born in Leyden in 1659, made an early start in life by being apprenticed to a bookseller at the age of nine and starting on his own in business as a book publisher by the time he was twenty-three. During the following fifty years he published an enormous amount of material, including atlases and illustrated works in every shape and size, two of them consisting of no less than 27 and 28 volumes containing over 3,000 maps and plates. Most of his maps were not of the first quality and were certainly not original, but they are often very decorative and are collected on that account.

Pieter VANDER AA (1659 - 1733)

Records show that van der Aa, born in Leyden in 1659, made an early start in life by being apprenticed to a bookseller at the age of nine and starting on his own in business as a book publisher by the time he was twenty-three. During the following fifty years he published an enormous amount of material, including atlases and illustrated works in every shape and size, two of them consisting of no less than 27 and 28 volumes containing over 3,000 maps and plates. Most of his maps were not of the first quality and were certainly not original, but they are often very decorative and are collected on that account.