A STROLL THROUGH THE MUSEO GRIMANI. 12mo. 12 pp, plus initial and terminal blanks, and with a folding engr. plate of the Palazzo’s façade. Bound in modern card covers. Single pinhole-sized wormtrack affecting edge of engraving; otherwise a very clean and fresh copy. Very rare sole edition of this pocket-sized pamphlet guiding the French tourist through the Palazzo Grimani and its formidable collection of statuary and paintings. The Palazzo remained in Grimani hands until 1865, but the collection began to be dispersed starting already in the late 16th century. Murray (Museums, Their History and Their Use, p. 14) notes that “An account of the collection was published at Venice in 1497; and again [as] Courte description des choses plus remarquables du Palais Grimani a Sainte Marie Formosa” but does not suggest that any intervening catalogues were ever published. “The museum collected by [Cardinal Domenico Grimani] and added to by his nephew Giovanni was so extensive that when Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, and Henry III of France visited Venice in 1574, it took them a whole day to look over it.” (Murray, p. 14). The present account begins by describing the marble portico which leads into the main courtyard, adorned by statues, bas-reliefs, and even a ‘head of Anubis’. Among the modern artworks we find two busts of Christ and the Virgin by the Florentine Francesco Salviati; paintings by Parmigiano, Camillo Mantovano, Giorgione, Fazioli, Giovanni d’Udine, and Bombelli; and even a representation of St Dominic receiving the Rosary which is boldly attributed to Albrecht Dürer because of a supposed self-portrait inserted by the artist into the onlookers. The guidebook occasionally passes judgement on the artwork itself: for example, referring to a statue of two slaves attending the Emperor Augustus, “c’est l’ouvrage d’un artiste mediocre”. It is more complimentary about the skills of the sculptor responsible for the large statue of Marcus Agrippa, which it is claimed was transported directly from the Pantheon. On p. 11 there is a reference to Aubin-Louis Millin’s 1817 L’Oresteide, noting that the author has recently passed away (1818), which helps to date the present work to ca. 1820. Evidently an ephemeral publication probably intended for sale to Grand Tourists, OCLC shows just one copy in US libraries, at Illinois. * Murray, Museums, Their History and Their Use Vol II, p. 268; and cf Lotto, “Il Collezionismo artistico dei Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa nel Cinquecento” Venezia Arti Vol 17 (2003), pp. 22–31.