Dissertazione sopra la Porpora Antica e sopra la Scoperta della Porpora ne'Murici. Scritta nell'Occazione di Rispondere alle Critiche del Dr. Ambrogio Fusinieri

8vo.  225 x 150 mm., [8 ¾ x 6 inches].  112 pp.  Original blue paper, printed wrappers, stitched as issued; front wrapper with some creases and the spine with some rubbing, otherwise sound and attractive.

First and only edition of Bartolommeo Bizio's response to the work of Dr. Ambrogio Fusinieri's essay on the creation of the color purple from the internal organs of mollusks found in abundance in the Mediterranean Sea.  Bizio relies on the writings of Aristotle and Pliny and provides a detailed description of the variety of mollusks described by the ancients and the methods used to render the liquor from the shellfish.  He follows this with details describing the difficult process required to produce the color purple for use by painters and cloth makers in the ancient world.  Called Royal Purple, this pigment was a rare and valuable color thus making it both rare and expensive.