PACIAUDI, Paolo Maria. Memorie de' gran Maestri del Sacro Militar Ordine Gerosolimitano. Tomo primo (-terzo).
Parma, Stamperia Reale, 1780
Three volumes in 4to; 277x203 mm. Contemporary full stiff vellum binding, red edges, titles on labels on spines. Pp. (12), XL, (4), 215, (1); (10), 225; (8), 249, (1). 3 plates o.t., 21 engraved headpieces and 6 engraved tailpieces in the text. Vignettes on the three titlepages. Nice specimen within a modern box.
Unique, uncommon edition. An important text on the history of the Knights of Malta. It is the most extensive work in the author's long career, gathering all of his twenty-year research on the Order of Jerusalem in the Holy Land.
A typographical masterpiece, with crisp type, and accompanied by 18 vignettes and three maps masterfully engraved by Domenico Cagnoni.
Bodoni dedicated this work to Fra Emanuello De Rohan, Grand Master of the Order, whose family coat of arms appears on the title pages.
Paciaudi trained in Turin, Venice, and Bologna. He joined the Theatine Order, where he rose to the position of Procurator General in Rome in 1753, as well as the Order of Malta (1757). Having settled in Parma under the protection of Philip of Bourbon, he became a librarian and antiquarian, eventually becoming director of the Palatina Library. During this period, he was credited with instigating Bodoni's transfer to the Parma court to found the "Reale Stamperia". A corresponding member of the Accademia della Crusca, he was a theologian, archaeologist, and numismatist, also dabbling in poetry and literature.
De Lama, pp. 16-17; Melzi I p. 181; Brooks 155, does not cite the plan of Jerusalem in the first volume.