VITRUVIUS Pollio, Marcus (70-23 BC).
Les dix livres d'architecture de Vitruve. Edited and translated by Claude Perrault.
Paris: Jean Baptiste Coignard, 1684. Second Perrault edition.

Comparables: Swann, 2006 - $2,760; Christie's, 2016 - $2,750.

Folio (17 x 11 2/8 inches). Engraved frontispiece, 68 plates (numbered I-LIV, **, LV-LXIV, [unnumbered on 4Q], ***** ), including 8 double-page, head- and tail-pieces, diagrams in the text, initials (some occasionally heavy browning). Contemporary mottled calf (extremities a bit worn with minor loss). Engraved armorial bookplate of Baron de Bellet on the front paste-down.

Brunet argues that the second edition with Perrault's scholarly commentary and translation is more complete than the first (1673) and is, therefore, to be preferred. Cicognara comments that among the editions and commentaries of this edition of Vitruvius "tiene a buon dritto uno dei primi luoghi" (justly considered one of the best)! The ten books of Vitruvius's celebrated "De Architectura", the only architectural treatise to survive from antiquity, comprises: the elements of architecture, town planning including fortification; building materials; temples, columns, foundations etc.; civil and domestic buildings; plasterwork and the interior of buildings; and technical matters such as hydraulics, astronomy, sundials, machinery and military engineering. "By exemplifying the principles of classical architecture "De architecture" became the fundamental architectural textbook for centuries" (PMM).

Brunet V:1349; Cicognara 730; Fowler 418 (note).

Seller Inventory # 72lib542