“ONE OF THE MOST PICTURESQUE FIGURES OF THE RENAISSANCE”: CELLINI’S LIFE, ILLUSTRATED AND BEAUTIFULLY BOUND

(CELLINI, Benvenuto) SYMONDS, John Addington, translator. The Life of Benvenuto Cellini. New York: Brentano's, 1906. Two volumes. Octavo, contemporary full brown crushed morocco, gilt-decorated spines and covers, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $1250.

Later illustrated edition of John Addington Symonds’ translation of Cellini’s celebrated autobiography, illustrated with 40 portraits and views, very handsomely bound in full morocco-gilt by Stewart Kidd.

A Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and writer, Cellini was "one of the most important Mannerist artists and, because of the lively account of himself and his period in his autobiography, one of the most picturesque figures of the Renaissance" (Britannica). "Cellini personifies the spirit of the Italian Renaissance with his idealistic tendencies, his violence, his poetry and his foibles, and also his crimes" (Benezit II:618). First published in 1888.

Fine condition.