Chromolithographic Plates Featuring Sicilian Romanesque Art

MOREY, Matthieu Prosper.  CHARPENTE DE LA CATHEDRALE DE MESSINE.

Paris: Firmin Didot, 1841. Large folio. Publisher's red half-morocco. (iv), 7, (3) pages, (8) plates, 6 of which are chromolithographs. First edition.

The polychrome painted ceiling of the cathedral at Messina, Sicily was the finest survivor of this art form.  Hittorff, Labrouste, and Viollet-le-Duc had written about it by the time Morey (1805-1878) prepared his drawings for this volume.  Firmin Didot printed them in this large and elegant book, with finely printed chromolithographic plates, showing the Sicilian Romanesque art in dazzling colors.  Morey, an architect from Nantes, won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1831.  A very good to fine copy.

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