Liber veritatis.

£7,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

A "landmark in the history of reproduction of Master drawings" (Abbey) - a fine example of the first complete edition, in a magnificent binding. "This capital work... contains 300 reproductions of works by Claude Lorrain, pastoral, mythological, and biblical subjects, and was called Liber Veritatis for the purpose of identifying Claude's genuine work from forgeries, or from drawings wrongly attributed to the master. They are all printed in a warm bistre colour to aid the resemblance. They were first produced in outline only, but owing to the enormous demand Boydell caused Earlom to retouch and refresh the plates five or six times. This is the best and final state, embodying the important drawings from the great English collections of the period." (Abbey). Claude's Liber veritatis was a bound volume in which he drew copies of his own paintings and recorded details of commissions from about 1635. Although there are omissions -- particularly in the early years -- the liber veritatis is a record of a major artist's oeuvre without parallel until the 20th century, and one which served in Claude's own lifetime both as a safeguard against forgeries and as a visual resource. The volume of drawings was eventually acquired by the Dukes of Devonshire, and Boydell's Liber veritatis reproduces both these drawings and examples of Claude's works from the great English collections of the period, including those of Richard Payne Knight, Alderman Hibbert, the Earl Spencer, Charles Lambert, Jose

• Binding: Hardcover

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