Descrizione

Broadsheet (385x277 mm) printed on recto only. Engraved coat-of-arms of the author Giulio Ferrari at the top. Traces of folding, some marginal staining.
The rare broadsheet contains two sonnets composed by Baron Giulio Ferrari on the occasion of Grand Duke Paul Petrovich's (the future Tsar Paul I) and his wife Maria Feodorovna's (Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg) visit to Venice in January 1782 as part of their 14-month European Grand Tour. They traveled incognito under the pseudonym “Comte et Comtesse du Nord” (Counts of the North), a tour arranged by Empress Catherine the Great to enhance Russia's diplomatic standing and allow the heir to gain experience in European affairs.
Ferrari is the author of other occasional poems, including the Poesie italiane sopra l'ultima guerra consecrate alla S. R. M. di Federico il Grande Re di Prussia da Giulio Ferrari patrizio vicentino (Vicenza, G. B. Vendramini Mosca, 1766) and Prosa e rime del Baron de' Ferrari di Vicenza Ciambellano di Sua Maestà Federico il Grande Re di Prussia (Vicenza, Stamperia Turra, 1780).