BUSUTTIL, Salvatore. Raccolta di Costumi dello Stato Pontificio.
Roma, presso Deodato Minelli, 1833
8vo. 233x165 mm. Contemporary khaki green shagreen percaline binding, gilt title and ornaments on spine, sprayed edges. Illustrated titlepage and 110 plates, printed on thick paper, with numeration on top right and with title on bottom. Platemark of 140x90 mm. In total 111 engraved plates on copper with contemporary coloring. Plates in very nice conditions, specimen with wide margins.
Rare collection of plates drawn and engraved by Salvatore Busuttil, depicting civil, military and ecclesiastical costumes of the Court of Rome. They are all delicately watercolored with very vivid and fresh colors. Almost all plates bear, below the image, the author's name or initials and the date 1833; two plates, 'Patriarch Siro,' number 31, and Dean of the Palarnieri, number 42, bear the dates 1838 and 1837, respectively. The title-page, with a triumph of Papal symbols, bears the title 'Raccolta di Costumi Religiosi, e Civili della Corte Pontificia'; below the image 'Sal. Busuttil Invented and Engraved 1833.”
Salvatore Busuttil, born in Malta in 1798 and died in Rome in 1854, was one of Malta's most important artists. He arrived in Rome in 1818 to enter the prestigious Accademia di San Luca where he came into contact with the already established Bartolomeo Pinelli, and specialized in depicting the costumes and characters of the Court of Rome. The plates collected in this specimen come from different series and have been bound in no apparent order. Rather suggestive, with the number '41', the “Maresciallo del Conclave”.
Cfr. Angela Vicini Mastrangeli, La solenne processione vaticana del Corpus Domini al tempo di Gregorio XVI.