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On the Fiftieth anniversary of the Dutch Institute for Art History in Florence,
Centro Di publishes a critical edition of XVII century Venetian historian Marco Boschini's I gioieli pittoreschi virtouso ornamento della città di Vicenza, which can be called the first art historical guide to a city, written by Boschni and printed in Venice in 1676 .
The city in question is Vicenza and the guide, a concise “handy” publication of small format, comprised an inventory of all the works of art present in Churches, Oratories and Public Offices in the city.
As of today, it's the most accurate and most important source of information on paintings present in Vicenza at that time. With a detective's temperament and a certain amount of courage, the author of this critical edition, young Dutch Art Historian Waldemar De Boer, has retraced the lost works of art mentioned by Boschini and relocated most of them, producing illustrations where possible. A thorough, critical text by De Boer introduces to the original Boschini text which is interposed by accurate annotations and commentaries on each work of art. The small Boschini guide, has thus become a 500 page 500 illustration book, and a “must have” for all art historical libraries and scholars. A bibliographical section and indexes complete this ponderous and important editorial feat.
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