Treatises, before 1800There are 15 items
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De artificiali p[er]spectiva
Toul, Pierre Jacobi, 1505 (9 July [i.e. 23 June])First edition of the first printed treatise on artists’ perspective, a practical book of instruction with a text in Latin and French illustrated by an astonishing series of full-page woodcuts demonstrating the perspectival representation of landscapes and of architectural exteriors and interiors, both with and without human figures, in a way which seems to belong to two centuries later, if not to our own time. It is the first book printed at Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle), one of twenty-two known copies, the first copy to be publicly offered for sale since 1935, and apparently one of only two copies remaining in private hands.
Bound with Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus. [De architectura libri decem] M. Vitruvius per Iocundum solito castigatior factus cum figuris et tabula ut iam legi et intelligi possit. Venice, Joannes Tacuinus, 22 May 1511
Bound with Dürer, Albrecht. Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel und richtscheyt, in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen, durch Albrecht Dürer zu samen getzogen, und zu nutz allen kunstlieb habenden mit zu gehörigen figuren, in truck gebracht, im jar. M.D.XXV. Nuremberg, [Hieronymus Andreae, called Hieronymus Formschneider?], 1525 -
[De architectura libri decem] M. Vitruvius per Iocundum solito castigatior factus cum figuris et tabula ut iam legi et intelligi possit
Venice, Joannes Tacuinus, 1511 (22 May)The didactic treatise On Architecture is the only text on architectural theory and practice to have survived from classical antiquity and the single most important work of architectural history in the Western world, having shaped humanist architecture and the image of the architect from the Renaissance to the present. The present, fourth edition, represents a turning point in Vitruvian studies. It delivers an ingeniously reconstructed and emended text integrated with diagrams and illustrations and complemented by a lexicon of Vitruvius’ technical terminology and by a table of the mathematical symbols that he used. Nearly all the Greek words are reinstated and the Greek text of the epigrams is published for the first time. The title proudly announces the editor’s achievement: “An exceptionally good text of M. Vitruvius prepared by Giocondo with figures and index so that it can now be read and understood”. Indeed, for the first time, the work was presented in a form which enabled Renaissance architects and engineers and their patrons to comprehend what Vitruvius really wrote.
Bound with Pélerin, Jean, called Viator. De artificiali p[er]spectiva. Toul, Pierre Jacobi, 9 July (i.e. 23 June) 1505
Bound with Dürer, Albrecht. Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel und richtscheyt, in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen, durch Albrecht Dürer zu samen getzogen, und zu nutz allen kunstlieb habenden mit zu gehörigen figuren, in truck gebracht, im jar. M.D.XXV. Nuremberg, [Hieronymus Andreae, called Hieronymus Formschneider?], 1525 -
Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel und richtscheyt, in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen, durch Albrecht Dürer zu samen getzogen, und zu nutz allen kunstlieb habenden mit zu gehörigen figuren, in truck gebracht, im jar. M.D.XXV
Nuremberg, [Hieronymus Andreae, called Hieronymus Formschneider?], 1525First edition (first state) of “Instruction in measurement with compass and ruler”, the first of the three theoretical treatises published by Dürer towards the end of his life, one of the earliest mathematical works published in the German vernacular, and among the most beautiful printed books of the German Renaissance.
Bound with Pélerin, Jean, called Viator. De artificiali p[er]spectiva. Toul, Pierre Jacobi, 9 July (i.e. 23 June) 1505
Bound with Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus. [De architectura libri decem] M. Vitruvius per Iocundum solito castigatior factus cum figuris et tabula ut iam legi et intelligi possit. Venice, Joannes Tacuinus, 22 May 1511 -
A suite of prints known as "Temples et Habitations fortifiées" or as the "Petits Temples"
[Orléans], c. 1547-1548An engraved architectural pattern book presenting eighteen different projects for temples, tombs, churches, and residences for the country and city, in a series of fifty plans, elevations, and sections. It is among the earliest pattern books featuring designs for domestic architecture to be printed anywhere in Europe and also one of the first publications of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, a pioneer in the production of the architectural model book. Five complete copies are preserved in Parisian libraries and two incomplete copies elsewhere. Our copy retains its original binding and is in quite exceptional state of preservation. -
Quinque et viginti exempla arcuum
Orléans, [published by the author], 1549This series of engravings of Roman triumphal arches composed in the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Orders, and selon l'ordre salomonique, is among the earliest dated publications of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, a pioneer in the production of the architectural model book. A complete set comprises a title and twenty-five plates. Six plates are missing from our group: the title, Larc dAncone, Larc de Benevente, Larc de Veronne par Vitruve larchitecteur, Larc de Suse, and Arc selon lordre ionique. The nine antique arches (the arches of Titus, of Septimius Severus, and of Constantine, in Rome; and the arches of Ancona, Verona, Benevento, Pola, Susa, and Ravenna) are mostly plagiarised from illustrations in Serlio's Terzo Libro and Quarto Libro, with Androuet du Cerceau integrating details and inscriptions that Serlio described separately. Androuet's sources for the other designs have yet to be identified. -
De architectura Jacobi Androuetii Du Cerceau, opus
Paris, Benoît Prévost, 1559This is the first of three extensive books on house-building published by Androuet du Cerceau. It was issued by the same printer in the same year under the title Livre d’Architecture… contenant les plans et desseings de cinquante bastiments tous différens. As often, it is found here with the author’s Second Livre d’Architecture, in which designs for chimneys, window surrounds, doors, fountains, wells, garden pavilions, and funerary monuments, are provided. The once-fine binding of our copy is characteristic French work of about 1570 decorated in gilt with centre- and corner-pieces, and a complex monogram on both covers, which we dismember into the letters A B C E M N O R S T. It could be standing either for a motto or for a name.
Bound with Androuet du Cerceau, Jacques. Le second livre d’architecture, par Iacques Androuet du Cerceau. Contenant plusieurs & diverses ordonnances de Cheminees, Lucarnes, Portes, Fonteines, Puis & Pavillons, pour enrichir tant le dedans que le dehors de tous edifices. Avec les desseins de dix Sepultures toutes differentes. Paris, André Wechel, 1561
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Architectura, oder Bauung der Antiquen auss dem Vitruuius, woellches sein funff Collummen orden, daer auss mann alle Landts gebreuch vonn Bauuen zu accommodieren
Antwerp, Gérard de Jode, 1581Four “column books”, a type of pattern book intended for the man of practice – building masters, stonemasons, sculptors, cabinet makers, stained glass artists, painters of architectural backgrounds, and all “ingenious lovers of architecture”, reducing Vitruvius’s architectural theory to a more narrow description of column orders, and showing those craftsmen interested the new foreign (Italian) fashion how to choose the right columnar elements and combine them appropriately on real buildings or in decoration. Their author, the productive and multi-talented artist Jan Vredeman de Vries, has only lately been recognised as one of the most successful disseminators in countries north of the Alps of the ideas and forms of the Italian Renaissance, as the “chief motor behind the spread of the so-called Antwerp Mannerist architecture” (Krista de Jonghe), whose “paper architecture” had an impact on a variety of media not just in Europe but also in the New World.
Bound with Architectura 3e stuck. De oorden tuschana, in tvveen ghedeylt in XII. Stucken. Antwerp, Widow of Hieronymus Cock [Volcxken Diericx], 1578
Bound with Das ander Buech, Gemacht auff die zvvay Colonnen, Corinthia und Composita sampt jren podien, basen, cornicen, capitellen, architraben, phrisen und coronamenten. Antwerp, [Widow of Hieronymus Cock (Volcxken Diericx)], 1581
Bound with [Das Erst Buch, Gemacht Auff de Zvvey Colommen Dorica und Ionica, sampt iren podien, bases, cornicen, capitelen, architraben, phrisen und coronamenten]. [Antwerp, Widow of Hieronymus Cock (Volcxken Diericx), 1581] -
A remarkable volume containing eight books of ornament and seven suites of prints, published at Amsterdam, Antwerp, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg, Prague, and Strasbourg, between circa 1562 and 1605, together with three series of drawings executed by a single hand on related papers manufactured at Bern in Switzerland between 1601 and 1608. The paper used by the binder for the paste-downs also was made at Bern, circa 1601-1608, and it may be inferred that the volume was assembled and bound there, probably about 1605
[Bern], c. 1562-1605This highly interesting and well-preserved volume was compiled at Bern about 1605 to provide an architect or artisan with a convenient repertory of exempla for the ornamentation of architecture, sculpture, and metalwork. In it the owner assembled contemporary printed ornament and safe-guarded some drawings – probably his own – to ensure they were easily accessible whenever need for them arose.
At the time our volume was assembled, Daniel Heintz the Younger (1574-1633) was establishing himself as the pre-eminent architect of Bern. Heintz gave his library to his nephew, the architect, painter, and cartographer Joseph Plepp, and some books eventually passed into the Burgerbibliothek Bern. Mostly architectural treatises and compendia of ornament, those “Heintz-Plepp” volumes contain no marks of ownership, and are identifiable only through entries in the Library’s “Donationenbuch”. Several books are in Bernese bindings and for one (a Sammelband of models of Schweifwerk ornament) the binder employed a paper stock found in our volume. There is additional, circumstantial evidence that suggests Daniel II Heintz was the compiler-owner of our volume.
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Livre d’architecture contenant plusieurs portiques de differentes inventions, sur les cinq ordres de colomnes
Paris, Melchior Tavernier, 1631First issue of a series of forty designs for monumental doorways and entrances in a Mannerist style, by a Florentine who had been invited to the French court about 1598 to create grottoes and fountains in the grounds of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and later in Marie de Médicis’ garden of the Luxembourg. Of all the Orders, Alessandro Francini found the massive Doric most suited to these kinds of monuments, and he uses its form and proportions in nineteen designs, while six designs develop the Tuscan column, six the Ionic, five the Corinthian, and three feature the Composite Order. -
Scvdiero di varii disegni dArme e targhe fatto a benefitio publico per il scvltori pittori e intagl.ri inuentate dal cav.re Bernard.no Radi
Florence, 1636A rare suite of etched designs of escutcheons and cartouches destined for coats of arms, intended to provide sculptors, painters, and engravers, with models and ideas, dedicated to Cardinal Gian Carlo de' Medici, second son of Grand Duke Cosimo II of Tuscany. Inserted at the end of the volume by a recent owner are two drawings associated with a series of twenty-four etchings of decorative cartouches and ornaments, designed and probably also etched by Agostino Mitelli, and published at Bologna by Agostino Parisini with a dedication to Francesco Maria Zambeccari, in 1636. -
Parallèle de l’architecture antique et de la moderne: avec un recueil des dix principaux autheurs qui ont écrit des cinq Ordres
Paris, Edmé Martin, 1650First edition of this important text on the rules and proportions of the Orders of Columns, an epitome of the standard works on the subject by Palladio, Scamozzi, Serlio, Vignola, and other Italian and French authorities. It comprises a series of explanatory texts and visual comparisons showing how the Orders were employed by ancient and Renaissance architects and roundly condemns their incorrect usage and attempts at reform on the part of many architects. The book inaugurated the architectural part of the celebrated “Quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns”. -
Architectura civil recta, y obliqua. Considerada y dibuxada en el Templo de Ierusalen. Erigido en el Monte Moria por el Rey Salomon. Destruido por Nabucodonosor Emperador de Babylonia. Reedificado por Zorobabel Nieto de los Reyes Iudos. Y restaurado despues por el Rey Herodes. Y ultimamente convertido en cenizas por los Soldados de Tito Hijo de Vespasiano Emperador. Promovida a suma perfeccion en el templo y palacio de S. Lorenço cerca del Escurial
Vigevano (Italy), En la Emprenta Obispal por Camillo Corrado, 1678First printing of the most ambitious Spanish architectural treatise to date, a provocative work in which the author argues the superiority of “oblique” architecture to “straight” (Vitruvian) architecture, and famously censures Bernini’s designs for the colonnade around St. Peter’s Square, staircase in the Vatican, and equestrian statue of the Emperor Constantine. The book is the earliest of eight publications issued under the imprint “En la Emprenta Obispal por Camillo Corrado” (Typis Episcopalibus apud Camillum Conradam) at the Italian town of Vigevano, where Caramuel was bishop from 1673 until the end of his life. It is notably difficult to obtain “complete” and in good condition, and its absence from collections of architectural books developed over many years, such as the RIBA/British Architectural Library, Fowler Collection of Early Architectural Books at Johns Hopkins University Library, and Canadian Centre for Architecture, is telling evidence of the difficulty of procuring a copy. -
Varie opere di Prospettiua inventate da Ferdinando Galli d:o il Bibiena Bolognese Pittore, et Architetto dell A: SS.ma del Sig:re Duca di Parma Raccolte da Pietro Abbati, et intagliate da Carlo Antonio Buffagnotti
Bologna, Le diede in Luce, e Stampò Giacomo Camillo Mercati in Bologna, c. 1719The Varie opere di Prospettiua is a collection of 72 mostly large-format plates documenting Ferdinando Galli Bibiena’s early activity as a designer of theatrical scenery and ephemeral architecture. It was assembled by Pietro Giovanni Abbati (fl. 1683-1745), a pupil of Ferdinando Bibiena during his tenure as “Pittore di Corte” to the Farnese Dukes of Parma, in collaboration with Carlo Antonio Buffagnotti, an industrious printmaker from Bologna. The work apparently had entered commerce in some form by 1704. In our copy the title is in second state, with its date (variously read as 1701 or 1707) erased. An obscure printseller, Giacomo Pelegrino Longhi, was responsible for the reissue, which incorporates eleven prints of scenery designed by Bibiena and executed by Abbati for spectacles performed in Turin in 1699. -
Engraved plan, elevation, and sections of the Cathedral of Bologna (Metropolitana di San Pietro), drawn by Flaminio Minozzi, engraved by Lorenzo Capponi, and dedicated to Cardinal Vincenzo Malvezzi
[Bologna], Lorenzo Capponi, 1760A rare publication commemorating the newly rebuilt Cathedral of Bologna (Metropolitana di San Pietro), dedicated by the printmaker-publisher Lorenzo Capponi to the Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Vincenzo Malvezzi Bonfioli (1715-1775), who had consecrated the church on 15 August 1756. The restoration of the primitive Romanesque-Gothic structure had been underway already for more than a century, when Benedict XIV took charge, commissioning the new façade by the architect Alfonso Torreggiani (1743-1755) depicted here (it was modified later by Francesco Tadolini). -
Les Édifices antiques de Rome, mesurés et dessinés tres-exactement sur les lieux par feu M. Desgodetz, Architecte du Roi. Nouvelle édition
Paris, Claude-Antoine Jombert (De l’Imprimerie de Monsieur), 1779A highly interesting copy of Desgodets' Les Édifices antiques de Rome, the canonical work on the ancient monuments of Rome from almost the date of publication until the early nineteenth century, containing drawings and notations by the French architects Jacques-Guillaume Legrand and Jacques Molinos, who in 1785 had travelled to Rome for the purpose of correcting and augmenting Desgodets’ work and with the intention of publishing a full revision.
