(ARCHITECTURE.) Fontana, Carlo. Templum Vaticanum et Ipsius Origo. Parallel title and text in Latin and Italian. 1 engraved map, 78 engraved plates and plans (10 folding, 1double-page), by Alessandro Specchi after Fontana, lacks portrait as often encountered. Large, thick folio, contemporary vellum, backstrip restored, retaining original vellum; pages untrimmed and speckled red, endpapers renewed, several margins and clean tears archivally repaired, scattered foxing; custom cloth and marbled-paper slipcase. Rome: Giovanni Francesco Buagni, 1694
first edition of the lavish, graphic documentation of the vatican buildings divided into seven books devoted to specific topics such as St. Peter's, Bernini's oval colonnade, and Emperor Constantine's basilica. Of note, Part Three is devoted to the Vatican obelisk, with plates copied from Domenico Fontana's Della trasportatione dell'obelisco vaticano (1590). "The Templum Vaticanum caused a sensation in the contemporary art world; it was ardently discussed, for instance, in the correspondence of the director of the French Academy in Rome for the next two years. The publication was an ambitious visual, intellectual, and typographic enterprise"--Millard IV, page 144; Berlin 2678; Fowler 122.
