Etching, burin and drypoint, mm. 395x247, printed on virgin paper without watermark; third state out of five, first edition. Taken from "Opere varie". Specimen with large margins, well stamped on virgin Roman paper without watermark. Signature in plate by Piranesi on the lower left 'Gio.Batta Piranesi Architetto inventò, ed incise in Roma'. The engraving was made for the work Prima parte di Architetture e prospettive of 1743 and was later included in Opere varie, published in 1750 as a first edition; in 1761 Piranesi reworked some plates, added new ones and eliminated others, resulting in the final structure of the work. Apart from its undoubted graphic importance, this work represents a condensation of his later production: there are architectural plates, the first sketches of the Carceri and the Vedute. A good, well-impressed specimen with a halo at the right margin in the lower half and, in general, some paper blooming at the ends of the margins Robison 17 III/V; Focillon 6.