Colour Printing in Late 18th-Century Italy: Édouard and Louis Dagoty, 1770–1800

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to show the role of Édouard and Louis Dagoty in the dissemination of colour-printing techniques in 18th-century Italy. They learned an early variant of process printing from their father, Jacques Fabien Gautier, later Gautier-Dagoty, and worked in France and Italy. In 1783, Édouard moved to Florence, where he worked with the printer Giovanni Pietro Labrelis and the engraver Carlo Lasinio, who kept using this method until the end of the 18th century. In 1780, Louis worked in Turin before moving to Milan with the intention of copying and printing Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper in this way. In 1786, Louis Dagoty who was heavily indebted, left his family and his copper plates in Milan without completing his project.