Liber veritatis.

A "landmark in the history of reproduction of Master drawings" (Abbey) - a fine example of the first complete edition, in a magnificent binding.

"This capital work... contains 300 reproductions of works by Claude Lorrain, pastoral, mythological, and biblical subjects, and was called Liber Veritatis for the purpose of identifying Claude's genuine work from forgeries, or from drawings wrongly attributed to the master. They are all printed in a warm bistre colour to aid the resemblance. They were first produced in outline only, but owing to the enormous demand Boydell caused Earlom to retouch and refresh the plates five or six times.

This is the best and final state, embodying the important drawings from the great English collections of the period." (Abbey).

Claude's Liber veritatis was a bound volume in which he drew copies of his own paintings and recorded details of commissions from about 1635. Although there are omissions -- particularly in the early years -- the liber veritatis is a record of a major artist's oeuvre without parallel until the 20th century, and one which served in Claude's own lifetime both as a safeguard against forgeries and as a visual resource. The volume of drawings was eventually acquired by the Dukes of Devonshire, and Boydell's Liber veritatis reproduces both these drawings and examples of Claude's works from the great English collections of the period, including those of Richard Payne Knight, Alderman Hibbert, the Earl Spencer, Charles Lambert, Joseph Farrington, George Gosling, and Edmund Turnor. The accompanying text not only translates and transcribes Claude's annotations on the versos of the drawings, but also gives the names of the contemporary owners of the pictures, and details of engravings of the pictures. The purpose of the work was to establish a corpus of works known to be by the artist, in order to facilitate the detection of forgeries and the correct identification of genuine drawings, and, as Abbey states, the result was 'a real catalogue raisonne'.

With aristocratic provenance: Cyril Flower, first Baron Battersea (1843-1907), was a Liberal politician and property developer. He was also a great collector and patron of the arts, including James McNeill Whistler, and was involved with the Pre-Raphaelite set. Lord Battersea married Constance, daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothschild, 1st Baronet, in 1877.

First complete edition. Three volumes, folio (44 x 30 cm), mezzotint frontispiece portraits of Claude Lorrain and Richard Earlom (volume I), without the portrait of Boydell (called for in Abbey but not always present), 300 etched mezzotint and aquatint plates by Earlom after Claude printed in bistre and black; plate 6 vol iii with small piece of blank corner defective, light scattered foxing to plates (mainly marginal), fine nineteenth century brown morocco gilt extra by Birdsall & Son, gilt panelled covers with wide gilt borders, gilt panelled spine in six compartments, gilt lettered direct in second and fourth, others richly gilt, broad gilt inner dentelles, top edges gilt, a fine set.

Brunet III, 1169; Cohen-De Ricci col.242; Lewine p.325; Lowndes p.1398; Abbey Life 200.