Raphael Invenit. Stampe di Raffaello nelle collezioni dell’Istituto nazionale per la grafica [Raphael Invented: Raphael Prints in the Collections of the National Institute for Graphics]

Text in Italian. 880pp, profusely and finely illustrated.  Black cloth-covered boards with white titles front and spine.  Cloth very slightly rubbed on corners and spine tips else volume is neat, clean, bright and tight throughout.  In its original glossy dust jacket, shelf worn, bumped at edges  – markedly on the lower edge – and bruised at the base of the spine.

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483-1520) known in English simply as Raphael,  was a prolific Italian renaissance  painter and architect. Acclaimed in his life time, his work has endured and is known for clarity, its compositional flow and its visual realisation of the Neoplatonic ideal of the human form. He produced  many of the most important prints of his era: this volume highlights those in the most substantial collection.