ST CECILIA, THE PATRON OF MUSIC; WITH A FRONTISPIECE AFTER A LOST CONCA PORTRAIT? 4to. [20 x 13.7 cm]. (16), 100 [i.e. 104] pp, plus engr. frontispiece of Cecilia as a violinist, after an untraced painting perhaps by Conca. Pages 63/4 and 93/4 repeated in pagination, as issued. Printed on thick paper and bound in contemporary stiff vellum, all edges speckled in red. Unidentified early 20th-century bookplate on flyleaf with a motto in Sicilian dialect; otherwise an excellent, crisp copy. With a loose engraving of the tomb of St. Cecilia, ca. 1600, enclosed. 18th century re-edition, with a charming frontispiece and added notes, of this versified life of St. Cecilia the Virgin Martyr, also recognized as the patron saint of music. The work’s republication more than a century after the first edition (1594) was associated with the giant fresco of the Coronation of Saint Cecilia (1721-24) painted by Sebastiano Conca in her titular church in Trastevere, a key work of the Roman Rococo which is effusively praised in the preface here. Intriguingly, the frontispiece bears some relation to a much later (ca. 1733-1745) Conca portrait, although it is unsigned. The preface, written by the Vatican printer Giovanni Maria Salvioni, praises the dedicate Francesco d’Aquaviva’s efforts to renovate the Chiesa di S. Cecilia, including the ‘ancient Portico’ and the mosaics, as well as adding marble to strengthen the fragile floors and creating an airier space with more light. Salvioni offers his book as a comparable tribute, alongside Conca’s newly-completed fresco: “se l'illustre Pittore Sebastian Conca, scelto dal perfettissimo intendimento di V. E. a tanta impresa, dovesse altrove immitar se stesso nella grandezza, e proprieta dell'invenzione; nella disposizione, e nell' ordine maraviglioso di tutta l'opera; nell bonta, e perfezione del disegno; nell vivacita de' colori; nella chiarezza de' lumi; nella flessibilita de' panneggiamenti; e finalmente nella robustezza, e leggiadria, e nell' attitudine, e quasi moto delle figure; io ardisco dire, ch'egli per non esporsi a cimento si grande, quantunque pieno di virtuosa modestia, seconderebbe gli applausi, che universalmente si danno all' ammirabile valore del suo industre Pennello; essendo da tutti gli uomini di raro intendimento, esaltato questo gran Quadro piu per portento di Natura, che per opera, a cui possa giunger giammai l'ultimo sforzo dell'Arte.” OCLC shows US copies at Berkeley, the Dominican House of Studies (DC), and the Newberry. Both the digitized BSB and the Complutense copies are lacking the frontispiece, as is a copy currently offered online by an Italian seller. * ICCU\PARE\019309