[HANCARVILLE, Pierre François Hugues d'.] - Lot 58

[HANCARVILLE, Pierre François Hugues d'.] Monuments to the Private Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Based on a Series of Engraved Stones from Their Reigns. Rome: Vatican Press, 1786 (1785 on the frontispiece). In-12 in format-4, XII-236 pp., frontispiece, and 50 plates. 19th-century red morocco, ribbed spine, gilt title, compartments adorned with small gilded iron motifs, gilded fillets bordering the compartments and covers, gilded roulettes and fillets framing the inside covers, gilded edges (corners, edges, and spines very slightly rubbed, very slight foxing and marginal soiling). A fine copy with very wide margins. A rare erotic work illustrated with “very free” engravings inspired by Roman antiquity. A black-engraved title-frontispiece and 50 drypoint etchings printed in black on azure laid paper. The figures are set against a black background, enclosed in medallions bordered by garlands, foliage, and Roman-inspired motifs. No copy is listed in the CCFr (which mentions only one title at a different, incomplete address in Douai). A brilliant figure in the tradition of Fregoli, Pierre-François Hugues (1719–1805), allegedly Baron d’Hancarville, was by turns a spy, archaeologist, diplomat, historian, archivist, and essayist—all driven by a taste for adventure. In Italy, he worked on cataloging the collection of antiquities belonging to Sir Hamilton, the British ambassador to Naples from 1764 to 1776, from which he drew considerable inspiration for his publications. CURIOSA. EROTICA. Pia, *L’Enfer*, 954–959. These works reveal d’Hancarville’s great erudition (Cohen, 475).