LIBER VERITATIS; OR A COLLECTION OF PRINTS AFTER THE ORIGINAL DESIGNS OF CLAUDE LE LORRAIN;

3 volumes folio 17x12 inches, leather bound in period half red morocco over marbled boards, with the spines neatly relaid. Period marbled endpapers. Illustrated with 2 mezzotint portraits of Claude Lorrain and Earlom, 1 stipple-engraved portrait of John Boydell, and 300 ETCHINGS WITH MEZZOTINT, all printed in bistre by Earlom after Claude Lorrain. Text and plates complete. UNUSUALLY FINE CLEAN PLATES without any of the usual spotting. Peabody Trust bookplates and some stamps removed from versos. The 300 etchings of drawings by Claude Lorrain are pastoral, mythological, and biblical subjects, and the work was called Liber Veritatis - Book of Truth- for the purpose of identifying Lorrain's genuine works from forgeries, or from drawings wrongly attributed to the master- (Abbey). First published between 1777 and 1819, the present set is a 19th century edition, with the text and plates printed on unwatermarked wove paper. Lovely clean DECORATIVE bucolic plates. Bibliography- Abbey Life 200, Brunet III:1169, Cohen-De Ricci 242. …