L'Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l'art, des moeurs et de la législation.

LEDOUX, Claude-Nicholas. L'Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l'art, des moeurs et de la législation. Engraved dedication to Alexander I of Russia, and 125 numbered engravings, 20 of which are 2 to a plate, including two additional titles by Van Maelle, Sellier and others after Ledoux. Folio, bound in later full polished calf in a board slipcase. Paris: for the author, [1804]. This was the only volume published of five projected, which were planned originally to have been issued at the rate of one a year. Ledoux, who was a pupil of Blondel, is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated architects of genius. L'Architecture is the most important source for his designs being issued in parts between 1803 and 1804, having been many years in the making. While Ledoux was in prison during the Revolution, "the treatise underwent a radical change and emerged as a strong, unique statement of a new relation of the architect to society. Ledoux now linked the architect to the Creator and considered him an active instrument in the formation of a new society" (Millard). Some browning and spotting to margins with one plate in facsimile and two plates with old hand colouring, priced accordingly. Despite the defects, this is an acceptable copy of this extremely rare monument of architectural history.