Folio. (425mm x 295mm) 2 volumes bound together in sumptuous contemporary tooled and gilt red morocco, with elaborate gilt decorations to covers and spine. Volume 1: 1842- 26 full page plates: Vol.II, 1 2 p. of text and 17 full page engravings. Some light spotting here and there, generally in the printed text. Excellent.

Very rare. No US copy. De luxe publication of two illustrated works, published privately by the author, 10 years apart. The 43 full page plates are engraved in different techniques; mezzotint, copper engraving, lithography and line designs all by different artists active in Lombardy at the time. The engravers who were involved in the illustration of this work, Franco( Francesco) Citterio. G. Casiraghi. Domenico and Angelo Brusa, L. Castellini, Luigi Bramanti, Ferdinandio Cassina and Friedrich Lose, were local artists, most of them with a small mention in Benezit.

The more elaborate illustrations are in Volume 2 and illustrate Moglia’s intricate designs for the decorative elements executed for the Arco della Pace, a neoclassical monumental triumphal arch located in Parco Sempione in Milan and inspired by the arch of Settimio Severio in the Roman Forum. Started in 1807, under Napoleon, to echo the Arc du Triomphe in Paris, it was only finished in 1838. Moglia collaborated with the chief architect of the project, Luigi Cagnola, and at his death, was in charge, together with Carlo Londonio and Francesco Peverelli, of the completion of the triumphal arch, in time for the coronation of the Austrian emperor Ferdinand I, as king of Lombardy-Venetia.

Domenico Moglia (1782-1867) was one of the most prolific Milanese interior designers of the first half of the XIXth century. From 1812 to 1852, he taught architectural and decorative design at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. Works executed after his designs survive in the Palazzo Reale in Milan and the Palazzo Borromeo in Stresa, on the Lago Maggiore, and in private collections. Two of his micromosaic pieces are in the collection of the V &A. In 1837, he published the Collezione di Soggetti ornamentali ed architettonici inventati e disegnati da D.M, showcasing some of his furniture and decorative objects, strongly influenced by the antique but with a North Italian flavor, which is also rare. (see: Berlin Katalog, 608).

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