A PANORAMA OF LORETO. Oblong etching, 31 x 13.8 cm, on large folio sheet [44 x 30.5 cm]. An excellent, broad-margined impression. Striking, large-format etched view of Loreto by the French engraver Israel Silvestre (1621-1691), dedicated to Marie Madeleine de Vignerot, Duchesse d’Aiguillon and a wealthy benefactor of many religious projects. Her coat-of-arms is found beneath the image, flanked by two verses celebrating the site. Two onlookers with pilgrim’s staffs are seen in the foreground, observing a sweeping view of the city. The banderole in the upper portion of the image gives a legend specifying four distinct features: 1) the gate of the city; 2) the lodgings of the resident monks “of all tongues”; 3) the cathedral at the heart of which is found the Holy House of the Virgin Mary; and 4) the Adriatic Sea. We have traced examples of the engraving in US institutions at Princeton and the Morgan, but it is poorly recorded as such in OCLC. Such separately-issued views were generally bound up into raccolte based on the purchaser’s taste. * Faucheux, Catalogue de l'oeuvre d'Israel Silvestre, 40.1