19 rare antique books of famous Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi
on 1 DVD

This data DVD contains an Unique Collection of 19 rare antique books of famous Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi in facsimiles as HIGH RESOLUTION images, meaning that in most cases every page of the real book corresponds to an image. The books have an image resolution of approx. 2000x3000px, some books higher than that. These books are written in Italian and all of the books have a total of over 2700 pages mostly with wonderful etchings .

Giovanni Battista (also Giambattista) Piranesi (4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" (Le Carceri d'Invenzione).

It is important to look his contribution as an archaeologist, which was acknowledged at the time as he was elected to the Society of Antiquaries of London. His influence of technical drawings in antiquarian publications is often overshadowed. He left explanatory notes in the lower margin about the structure and ornament. Most ancient monuments in Rome were abandon in field and garden, Piranesi tried to preserve them with his engravings. To do this, Piranesi pushed himself to achieve realism in his work. A third of the monuments in Piranesi's engravings had been disappeared, and the stucco and surfacings have been often stolen, restored and modified clumsily. Piranesi's work allows people to experience the atmosphere in Rome in the eighteenth century through his precise observation. Piranesi may have recognized his role in the sites of excavation of ruins to disseminate the remarkable information through meaningful images. He became the Director of the Portici Museum in 1751.

Below you will see some sample pages (sizes reduced) from some of these books and also the list with all the books which you will find on this data DVD.