The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Based on Studies in the Archives of the Buonarroti Family at Florence.
London: John C. Nimmo, 1893. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author, John Addington Symonds, to John Henry Middleton, noted archaeologist, art historian, and Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge: “J. Hen. Middleton / with the author’s kind regards / Oct. 1892.”. Two small quartos, xxxii, 467; viii, 444, [2] pages, bound in the publisher's original blue cloth over blue cloth covered boards. With gilt decoration to top boards. Illustrated throughout. John Addington Symonds’s The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti is a substantial two-volume biography of the great Renaissance artist, based in part on studies in the archives of the Buonarroti family at Florence. Published in London by John C. Nimmo in 1893, the work reflects Symonds’s deep engagement with Italian Renaissance art, literature, and culture, presenting Michelangelo not only as a sculptor and painter, but also as an architect, poet, and towering intellectual figure of his age. This first edition is especially notable as a presentation copy, inscribed by Symonds to John Henry Middleton, the archaeologist, art historian, and Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, with the author’s kind regards in October 1892. The association is particularly appropriate, linking one of the leading Victorian interpreters of the Italian Renaissance with an important contemporary scholar of art and archaeology. Some rubbing and wear, hinges cracked, damage to spines, the front free endpaper of volume two loose, some slight discoloration, previous owner's inscription, else in good + condition. Item #398
Price: $500.00