KILIAN, Lukas & KILIAN, Wolfgang [with] VON LIPOWSKY, Felix Joseph.

£5,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

Unique and exceptional collection of exquisite engravings of the famed Fugger family originally by Dominicus Custos, expanded and updated posthumously by his sons-in-law Lukas and Wolfgang Kilian, bound with extensive and meticulous handwritten biographies of the family by the Bavarian lawyer, historian and archivist Felix Joseph von Lipowsky (1764-1842). The German edition is rare. Celebrated portrait engraver Dominicus Custos (1560-1612) was first commissioned to produce an ambitious collection of likenesses of the enormously wealthy Fugger family in 1593. Following his death, his sons-in-law expanded and updated the first edition, adding new family members and redoing the original Fugger portraits in older age. This was published in Latin in 1618, expanded to include two more members in this 1620 vernacular edition. The Kilian additions are signed. Along with the wonderfully executed images are brief corresponding biographies in Gothic letter, giving their birth and death dates, offspring and spouse, and sometimes a longer account of their life. The engravings are exquisitely detailed and in excellent impression. The sheer wealth of the family is evoked through the stunning costume, meticulously wrought fur and silk, and carefully depicted beadwork and jewellery. It commences with Jacobus Fugger Senex and follows with male and female family members from the late fifteenth century up to the early seventeenth century, concluding with Juliana Fugger, daughter of Trajan Fugger

• Binding: Hardcover

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