London's Burning
By GUALDO PRIORATO, [Galeazzo] , 1675
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Londra Incendio della Gran Città di Londra Metropoli del Regno d'Inghilterra Succæsso adi 21 di Settembre 1666. Dal Quale in 4 Giorni Fu Abbrucciata la Piu Gran Pares con Danno Inèstimabile.

British Isles London
  • Author: GUALDO PRIORATO, [Galeazzo]
  • Publication place: [Italy,
  • Publication date: c1675].
  • Physical description: Copper engraving, printed on two sheets, joined.
  • Dimensions: Image: 310 by 905mm (12.25 by 35.75 inches). Sheet: 315 by 915mm (12.5 by 36 inches).
  • Inventory reference: 12487

Notes

An unusual prospect of London during the fire, showing the Norman St Paul's Cathedral in flames, and viewed from Southwark with the Globe and Swan theatres in the foreground, and severed heads raised on poles over the gate to London Bridge.

Scouloudi records this as a variant of Visscher's view, and dates it around 1666, citing the Fire. However, Hyde notes that the print appears in Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato's 'Historia Leopoldo Cesare', published in three volumes in 1674. The work is a detailed history of the military campaigns conducted by Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia. The engraving is unsigned, but the numerous plans in the work were engraved by F. van den Steen, C. Meijssens, G. Bouttats and others after J. Toorenvliet, A. Bloem and others.

Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato (1606-1678), Count of Gomazzo, was one of the last Renaissance men: a condettiere who fought in battles from the siege of La Rochelle to expeditions in Brazil; an historian in the service of Leopold I, Cardinal Mazarin and Christina of Sweden; and a military theorist whose drills were used by commanders across Europe.

Bibliography

  1. BM 1872,0113.591
  2. BM 1880,1113.1171
  3. Ralph Hyde, private notes
  4. Scouloudi, p.35.

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