1585 G. B. Cavalieri (d.1597), Martyrdom, Counter Reformation, Iconography

This extremely rare engraving was produced by Cavalieri in the second edition of Cirgignani’s Ecclesiae militantis triumphi; sive, Deo amabilium martyrum gloriosa pro Christi fide certamina.

Title within the plate below the image. Printed on fine laid paper.

Sheet: 23 x 16 cm

From the second edition of the seriesof 1583. First State 0f this engraving.

Harvard/Mortimer-Italian 126.

Giovanni Battista de' Cavalieri was an engraver, printer and print publisher, from Villa Lagarina near Trento. Active in Venice and from 1559 in Rome. 1577 he had a bottega in Parione which he let out to a cartolaio, Girolamo Agnelli. His own house was in the vicolo di Palazzo Savelli, with a workshop next to it. He was the brother-in-law of Lorenzo Vaccari.

After producing plates for Antonio Salamanca, Lafreri and Faleti by 1560 he seems to have been publishing his own plates. He entered into partnerships for publishing: in 1567 with Perino Zecchini de Guarlottis and in 1576 with Lorenzo Vaccari. In 1577 he was employing a printer: Francesco Cornuti.