An elegant way to begin legal documents.

[Graphic Arts] / [Engraving]. In Dei aeterni nomine Amen. Anno [ab Incarnatione Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, Millesimo Septingentesimo Septugesimo quinto …]. S.l. [Veneto]: s.n., signed 1775. Folio [29.8 x 22.2 cm], [13] ff. manuscript in various hands, headed by a large engraving. Bound in contemporary cartone, annotations on front cover. A few stains to covers, minor edge wear. Internally very clean, neatly written and perfectly legible throughout.
 
 
This item—a 1775 legal document concerning a land transaction in the Veneto—is of note for its large, finely executed opening engraving: Here the first words of a legal formula (“Hinc Publica Fides; In Dei aeterni nomine Amen. Anno…”) are embellished with fine calligraphy and elegant inhabited initials. The engraving at once acts a practical ‘blank form,’ a stately heading appropriate for a legal instrument, and beautiful design typical of the graphic arts in 18th-century Venice.