PROCESSIONS AND FIREWORKS FOR THE NEW POPE: A TINY FESTIVAL BOOK. 12mo. [13 x 7 cm]. (24) pp including added engr. title-page and full-page portrait of Innocent X, 480 pp, (84) pp, plus 14 further engraved plates (2 large folding, 8 small folding, and 4 single-page). Bound in contemporary gilt-ruled calf (extremely rubbed and chipped, with title-label on spine entirely effaced); all edges speckled in green and red. Folding plates mainly very well preserved save for slight loss to margin of plate facing p. 261; otherwise a good copy, with very scattered spotting to text. Early manuscript biographical notice of the author on flyleaf; old shelfmark on pastedown but no further ownership markings. Rare second edition, greatly revised and ‘thrice enlarged’, of this genre-defying festival book celebrating the accession in Rome of Pope Innocent X in 1644. Like other similar works, Banck’s contains minute descriptions of the festivities and is richly-illustrated, including two large [34 x 22.5 cm] folding plates of the investiture and procession of Innocent X. On the other hand, Banck’s work must be among the smallest examples of an Early Modern, thoroughly Baroque festival book – which generally seem to follow the model of ‘the bigger the better’. Following the first edition of 1645, much new material was added to the present one, “triplo auctior” according to the title-page. "Laurent Banck himself edited this second edition… les curieux always prefer the second edition, which the author considerably enlarged, and which completely replaces the earlier one” (trans. David Clément, Bibliothèque curieuse, historique et critique, Vol II, p. 394). The program of illustration seems to have been repeated between the 1645 and 1656 editions, and depicts the processions, facades of triumphal arches, investiture ceremony, medallions commemorating the occasion, and a very notable fireworks display involving a recreation of Noah’s ark on Mount Ararat. “Traditionally, the possesso [papal procession] started at San Pietro and ended at the bishop’s throne in San Giovanni in Laterano, its route taking in many of the principal streets and piazzas of the city lined for the occasion with triumphal arches and other temporary decorations…However, the possesso of Innocent X… is noteworthy for its manipulation by the new pope to his own, familial ends. Rather than the climax to the event occurring at the moment of arrival at San Giovanni Laterano, as was tradition, in this case it took place in Piazza Navona, where evening celebrations were staged including a spectacular fireworks machine in the form of Noah's ark. In front of the Pamphilj palace an artificial mountain was constructed to represent Mount Ararat, with the ark on top, while a dove with an olive branch descended from a window of the palace to light the fireworks in the ark…” (Gadeyne, Perspectives on Public Space in Rome, from Antiquity to the Present Day, pp. 224-225). The plates of the triumphal arches and medallions seem to be found either bound folding or singly, leading to some confusion about the collation; copies are commonly encountered incomplete. OCLC shows just one US copy of the 1645 edition, at Georgia State; we have located copies of the present 1656 edition at Harvard, the Newberry, St. Thomas University (MN), and the Getty. A defective copy (lacking two plates and two leaves) is found at the Folger. * Rossetti "Rome" 735; Cicognara 3591; Watanabe 863; cf also M. Fagiolo dell'Arco and S. Carandini, L'Effimero Barocco: Strutture della Festa nella Roma del '600 Vol I, pp. 131-6. On Banck, cf Larousse, 32831?.