Kindly sent to us by the author, our library has been enriched with another prestigious publication, “History and evolution of the FLIGHT – From the origins to the twentieth century”, edited by Stefano Zucchi, scholar and passionate collector.
It is an extraordinary book work that draws, from the point of view of the illustrated objects, from the author’s private collection. 337 pages, with a very rich repertoire of illustrated specimens in color and b / w, which document the history and evolution of flight from its origins to the twentieth century.
In particular, the collection is the result of the careful, long and constant research carried out by Stefano Zucchi, a refined and competent collector, over many years of passion and study. It includes hundreds of relics of the history of “Aerostatic Art” and of the Air Force: books, pamphlets, manuscripts, documents, autographs, paintings, prints, drawings, edicts, original posters, medals, loose leaflets, sonnets, contemporary reports, gazettes, newspapers, postal items, tools, furnishing accessories etc …
The era goes from 1500, when the first ideas began to be born to allow man to realize the age-old dream of flying, to the thirties of the last century. Many of these pieces are unique, of a museum level, not registered in bibliographies and never appeared in specialized auctions. All are period originals, some of outstanding rarity. Most of them come from other prestigious collections or from the collections and relics kept by the direct heirs of the aeronauts.
This book is the complete catalog of the Zucchi collection, complete with hundreds of photographic images. The creation of the list followed these guidelines: Chronological order, date, subject, aeronaut, Photograph and image of the lot (in the case of books / brochures, photos of the title page and any prints contained therein), with detailed description.
Each historically important chapter or character has an introductory historical presentation. The commentary on each photographed lot therefore allows us to reconstruct, in summary, the most complete chronology of the aerostatic events that took place over the span of over 150 years, starting from the very first attempts using unmanned balloons, up to the dawn of Aviation. .
The section concerning the Italian and French aeronauts is particularly rich, also including many original autographs, unique pieces that ennoble the collection and make it absolutely unrepeatable.
Attached is the index of the work and a sequence of illustrative pages of the work.