Draft:Domenico Lovisa

Domenico Lovisa was an Italian publisher, active in Venice in the first half of the 18th century from his workshop in Rialto. He published books on a wide range of topics, musical works and maps. Lovisa is best-known as the publisher of Il Gran Teatro di Venezia, a collection of engravings with views of Venice and famous Venetian paintings. As Venice became one of the main destination of the Grand Tour in the 18th century there was great demand for depictions of the city and its famous sights to be taken home as souvenirs. Venetian view paintings by artistis like Michele Marieschi and Canaletto were collected by the European aristocracy and entered Royal collections. Prints from engravings such as Il Gran Teatro di Venezia could be produced in higher numbers and achieved much greater circulation. Before Il Gran Teatro di Venezia only one collection of engravings had been published by Luca Carlevarijs under the title of Le fabriche, e vedute di Venetia. It contained 103 views of Venice. . Following the success of Lovisa's series Giovanni Battista Pasquali published in 1735 the first set of Venetian views by Canaletto engraved by Antonio Visentini under the title of Prospectus Magni Canali Venetiarum. Consul Joseph Smith had originally commissioned the views from Canaletto in 1726. The first series of Visentini engravings significantly contributed to Canaletto's success and was followed by two more which were engraved and published in 1742 together with the Prospectus. In 1741 Michele Marieschi published his collection of 21 Venetian views entitled Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum prospectus A series of 20 Venetian views entitled Prospectuum aedium, viarumque insigniorum urbis venetiarum nautico certamine, ac nundinis adiectis'' engraved by Giambattista Brostolon was published by Ludovico Furlanetto in 1763.

Life
Born around 1690 and died around 1750 in Venice Lovisa had his bottega (workshop) sotto i portici di Rialto (under the arches of Rialto) from where he worked as publisher and printer. Although he didn't make any engravings himself, Lovisa collaborated with eminent Venetion engravers of his time. The fact that he took on and completed a substantial project like Il Gran Teatro di Venezia suggests that his workshop was successful and well established amongst Venetian publishers of the first half of the 18th century.

Il Gran Teatro di Venezia
Lovisa is best known for publishing a series of Venetian views (Vedute) and engravings of paintings in 1720. The first edition consisted of two volumes, the first with approximately 57 plates of engravings of famous Venetian paintings, including works by Veronese, Titian, Tintoretto, Palma il Giovane. They were engraved by Andrea Zucchi, Domenico Rossetti (1650-1736), Giacomo Barri, Domenico Bonavera (b 1640), Pietro Sante Bartoli, Agostino dalla Via and others. The second volume contained views of Venice engraved by Filippo Vasconi (1687-1730), Giuseppe Valeriani (d 1761), Carlo Zucchi and Andrea Zucchi, as well as an unidentified monogrammist, S.F. At least another three editions of Il Gran Teatro di Venezia were published by Lovisa before 1750, suggesting significant commercial success of Lovisa's ambitious project.