Alphabeta, or characters of various nations
Calligraphy and watercolors from the 18th century.
The extraordinary delicacy of an Italian artist in the interpretation of 34 alphabets.
Exceptional and precious manuscript of calligraphic alphabets on vellum, of great artistic quality, on a very attractive theme, in superb colors.
Manuscript on vellum, in-4 format, 41 ff. Ivory vellum, black title on spine, bound over 4 fascicles. 19th-century binding.
255 x 180 mm.
Morandi, Giambattista. Alphabeta, seu characteres variarum nationum.
Rome, 1737.
Exceptional and highly precious 18th-century manuscript of calligraphic alphabets on vellum.
Title page calligraphed in red and black, and 40 leaves presenting calligraphic alphabets, some inscribed “Ex. Jo. Baptista Palatin” and openly inspired by the famous calligraphy treatise of Palatino (1578).
The Italian artist Giambattista Morandi here interprets, with great calligraphic finesse and a certain decorative sense in the watercolored themes, the various subtleties of 34 real or imaginary alphabets.
Displayed in a beautiful layout with the dexterity and precision of line of a master calligrapher are: cursive, Roman, Gothic, Greek, Hebrew, Illyrian, Arabic, Syrian, Chaldean, Egyptian, Indian, and Saracen alphabets, some with variants, very lovely decorated capitals or delicate watercolored motifs.
In some highly decorative alphabets, the artist gives free rein to his creative sense to imagine finely watercolored characters, such as this alphabet of intertwined branches in soft bluish tones.
Evoking one of the alphabets imagined by Geoffroy Tory in his Champfleury, a superb watercolored alphabet uses carpentry and masonry tools, bladed weapons, andirons, scissors, crozier and tiara, with a very pleasing effect.
A very pretty alphabet with interlaced numbers deftly unites, in sophisticated blue curves, the letters of an arabesque alphabet, some even joined three by three.
A botanical calligraphy.
The most charming alphabet is the one dedicated to nature, in which each letter is an excuse for the artist to ornament it with a motif derived from a flower or fruit, in watercolors of remarkable freshness.
An artist affiliated with the botanical garden of Castello Valentino in Turin under Vittorio Emanuele II di Savoia, Knight Giambattista Morandi notably published a Historia botanico-practica (Milan, 1744) with numerous engraved plates.
Precious and highly endearing manuscript on vellum, of great artistic quality, on a very appealing theme, in superb colors.
Among the preserved manuscripts of Morandi, the Natural History Museum in London holds the original drawings he made for his Historia; the Houghton Library (Harvard University) holds another calligraphic manuscript by Morandi.
