Benedetto Eredi Biography
Benedetto Eredi was born in 1750 in Ravenna, where he learned the principles of the art of engraving. He later moved to Florence, where he worked, recorded and published especially together with GB Cecchi. At the beginning, Eredi collaborated with Ignazio Enrico Hugford, an English painter and designer, who was superintendent of the Academy of Drawing. Hugford was the author of almost all the pencil and watercolor drawings from which the three hundred engravings of the "Series of the most illustrious men in painting, sculpture and architecture" were taken, in 12 volumes and a supplement, edited by Gaetano Cambiagi in Florence from 1769 to 1775. Eredi collaborated on the series starting from the fifth volume. During this period, Eredi also engraved an Allegory of Glory, with characters including Dante and Virgil, for the "Eulogies of the illustrious Tuscan men" of Lucca from 1771 to 1774. Eredi and GB Cecchi collaborated for a long time, so much so that two friends decided to set up a company together, not only as engravers, but also as merchants, looking for reproduction themes in Florence and other Italian cities. Among the works signed "Cecchi & Eredi" we remember the two volumes Bonarum artium splendors XII tabulae a praestantissimis Italiae pictoribus expressae (1776, 1779), Florentiae, in folio, plates 24. The plates reproduced paintings preserved in the churches and in the royal palace of Florence , and also of other important cities in Tuscany. From December 1779 to 1787, the engravings by Cecchi and Eredi were published, which would later form part of the Collection of 24 prints representing paintings copied from some galleries and palaces in Florence, Florence, with engraved frontispiece. The collection was dedicated to Francis, Grand Crown Prince and Ferdinand, Archdukes of Austria. Eredi's participation in works of notable importance signals the appreciation he enjoyed, such as "l'Etruria pittrice", two volumes (1791, 1795) published in Florence by Marco Lastri for the publishers Niccolò Pagni and Giuseppe Bardi. The exact date of Eredi's death is not known, but it is clear that it occurred after 1815 (therefore the date of 1812 reported by Thieme-Becker is not reliable).
