Mounted Regiments and Carriages Arriving in the Atlas Mountains

Book illustrations were an inseparable part of della Bella's oeuvre. He did a frontispiece for Galileo Galilei’s Dialogo sopra due massimi sistemi del mondo in 1632. In 1637, he illustrated the manuscript Le Nozze degli Dei, which was published on the occasion of the wedding of Grand Duke Ferdinand II to Vittoria della Rovere. In 1650, he produced a frontispiece for Giovanni Coppola’s poem Il Cosmo o ver l´Italia trionfante. The etching on display was part of the manuscript Il Mondo festegante published in Florence in 1661 as a guide to the ceremony marking the occasion of the wedding of Cosimo III and Marguerite d'Orléans. In addition to a portrait of the newlyweds, he did two more engravings documenting the magnificent festivities.