[FISCHER VON ERLACH, Joseph Emanuel.]

Anfang einiger Vorstellungen der vornehmsten Gebäude so wohl innerhalb der Stadt als in denen Vorstädten von Wien, wovon mit der Zeit das abgehende Nachfolgen soll.

Vienna, [January 1719]. Oblong folio, engraved title leaf (numbered 1), printed privilege leaf (numbered 2; and often missing), engraved pictorial tile incorporating a fine view of Vienna along the Danube (numbered 3), and 27 engraved plates (numbered 4-10, 10a, 11-30, with numbers 29 and 30 relating to single final leaf), the plates are engraved by J.A. Delsenbach, C. Engelbrecht and J.A. Pfeffel after designs by Fischer von Erlach; an excellent, clean and crisp copy with the prints in fine dark impressions, bound in contemporary vellum, spine with gilt lettered brown label. A fine set of the earliest series of engraved views of the palaces, the town squares and the main thoroughfares of imperial Vienna, together with views of the large palaces of the nobility outside Vienna and their gardens. The younger Fischer von Erlach (1693-1742) gives an excellent visual record of the bustling Viennese city life, his plates are teeming with carriages, strolling people, sedan chairs, market holders, servants, running children, horses, dogs, etc. Many of the buildings recorded were designed by Joseph Emanuel's father the elder Fischer von Erlach (1656-1732), Austria's greatest baroque architect.The plate showing the Neue-Markt shows a winter's day with the roofs of the surrounding buildings groaning under the snow while on the square an imperial sledging festival is held, with sledges drawn by unusually decorated horses performing a concourse, spectators milling around, others lining the windows of the adjoining houses. The Schotten-Platz shows a travelling theatre and several animals being spit roasted with tables and benches set up nearby. The Hohen-Markt, the main fish market of Vienna, is shown at market day with the square taken over by large wooden vats filled with water and teeming with live fish while several men in the foreground stagger under the weight of freshly caught Wels (the largest edible fish inhabiting the Danube).Not in RIBA, Early Printed Books; not in Fowler.

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• ordernr.: A1177

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