Lot 1
THE CODEX STOSCH
GIOVANNI BATTISTA DA SANGALLO (1496-1548)
Books, Maps, Photographs & Manuscripts
Auction: 12 July 2005 at 13:00 BST
Description
twenty-three folios of early 16th century drawings of ancient Roman arches and temples from Rome and Cori, bound together in the mid eighteenth century; together with an 18th century copy of a section of the Calcagnini letter of 1519/20
Footnote
Summary
The Codex Stosch was probably bound together shortly after the death of their first known owner, Philipp von Stosch, in 1757. Winckelmann referred to these drawings in print in 1762, believing them to be Raphael's lost reconstruction of ancient Rome, proposed in his famous letter to Pope Leo X. This letter dates from between 1515 to 1519, and the project was underway before his death in 1520. In fact all are by Giovanni Battista da Sangallo (1496-1548), strongly resembling the drawings he made to illustrate a first edition of Vitruvius, now in the Biblioteca Corsiniana, in Rome. These are usually dated to the 1520s and later, but the present drawings may be a few years earlier. Nearly all the drawings find parallels among those of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1484-1546), Giovanni's brother, who was appointed Raphael's chief assistant for the building of St Peter's in 1516. Even if the drawings in the Codex Stosch cannot directly be connected with Raphael's reconstruction, they give us a very strong impression of what it would have looked like.
Binding
Vellum folded over boards, 283 x 213 mm. No papers covering boards inside. The spine linings include fragments of a book title page including enough words to identify it as Inclytae nationii Florentinae familiae Suprema Romani Pontificatus: ac Sacra Cardinalatus Dignitatae illustratae… by Luigi Ignazio Orsolini, published in Florence in 1706.
The endpapers, about 278 x 205 mm, (two at the beginning and two at the end) carry a watermark with a six-pointed star in a circle with central circle containing letter L, surmounted by cross, and pendant F. It is very similar to Heawood 3874, which has a central letter C, found on cover sheet of documents on sale of mill in Subiaco dated 1761-3.
Provenance
Philipp von Stosch ; Wilhelm Muzell von Stosch; presumably acquired by Dr Anthony Askew; his daughter Anne and son-in-law George Askew of Pallinsburn, Northumberland; thence by descent until acquired with the library at Pallinsburn by Charles Mitchell in 1910; thence by descent.