(Design from Domus Aurea). This item is unavailable.(Design from Domus Aurea)

20 x 21.5 inches, modern gouache coloured copperplate engraving. Plate 40. The 'Vestigia della terme di Tito e loro interni pitture' by Marco Carloni (1742-96) contains stunning plates illustrating the architectural features of Emperor Nero's famous Domus Aurea. The emperor Titus had later built some baths on the site, hence the work's title. The site had been known since the fifteenth century, but around 1774 the publisher Lodovico Mirri started re-excavating in the area with the express intention of selling engravings taken from the features of the Domus Aurea that he uncovered. The resulting album was published in plain and coloured issues. The latter is exceptionally rare. As Ricci explains, the engravings after Franciszek Smugliewicz and Vincenzo Brenna are in three groups. First, there is the frontispiece, title and two ground plans. The second group comprises twenty-five illustrations of ceiling decorations. Third, there are thirty-two plates showing the most important scenes painted on the ceilings, with elaborate grotesque borders. Berlin Katalog (1939) 3950; Cicognara (1931) 3796; Cohen de Ricci (1912) 814.…