The reworked title plate of Piranesi's atmospheric early work, the Carceri d'invenzione. The plate shows a vast and cavernous underground prison, an unfortunate inmate chained upon a narrow and ruinous ledge above a monumental inscription that records the title of the work. Below, bridges, arches, and wooden gangways are festooned with chains, spikes, ropes, and loops. A large spiked breaking wheel can be seen on the floor of the prison. The original title, which in earlier strikes reads 'Invenzioni Capric di Carceri all acqua forte datte in luce da Giovani Buzard in Roma Mercante in Corso,' credits the original publisher Bouchard, but not the artist himself. Subsequent printings, as here, not only credit Piranesi directly, but changed the title of the series to the now familiar name 'Carceri d'Invenzione.' The 16 plates of the Carceri d'invenzione ('Imaginary Prisons') are amongst Piranesi's earliest major works, and represent the zenith of his architectural imagination. A series of fanciful images of prisons, the Carceri were first issued by Bouchard in 1750. Although dwarfed in popularity by Piranesi's later views of Rome, the Carceri are widely seen as Piranesi's most innovative and characteristic contributions to etching. Composed of monumental architectural features and nightmarish instruments of physical and psychological torture, the Carceri have had a profound effect on Piranesi's various admirers. Chief amongst these was Thomas de Quincey, the British author and self-confessed opium addict, who describes at length the powerful and feverish impact the Carceri had upon him and his fellow poet Coleridge. Hind 1. iii/iv, Robison 29 viii/ix, Wilton-Ely 26 (Later State), F24, C349.