Libro Primo [Secondo, Terzo, Regole Generale, Quinto] d'Architettura

Venice: Sessa, n.d. [1560-1562]. Hardcover. Good+. 18th-century Italian calf-backed paper-covered boards, the spine in six compartments (5 raised bands), with gilt-stamped lettering in morocco spine label in the second, other compartments with gilt-stamped decoration; folio (322 x 230 mm); 5 parts in 1 volume; with 4 letterpress part titles (one printed in red and black), each within a woodcut surround, plus numerous woodcuts in text, some full-page. Binding scuffed and worn, with some chipping at spine tips, along joints and edges of boards. Lacking fol. 12 in Part I and pp. 91-94 in Part III; title to Part I cut down and with early re-margining; blank (truncated) margins of some other leaves repaired with occasional loss to headlines; a few leaves with old dampstain. Inscription on the first title-p., dated 1637; 19th-century book label of J Bernard and ink signature of art historian Meyer Schapiro on front paste-down. Some early (late-16th or early-17th century) marginalia in one or more hands, including a few nicely accomplished pencil sketches (a face in profile, a merman, architectural details, an ear). An interesting, unique copy.

A later mixed edition of Serlio’s masterpiece, and one of the great triumphs of Venetian book-production in the late-16th century. Serlio first studied drawing and perspective at Pesaro before moving to Rome in 1514, where he became a follower of Bramante. Initially a painter, he studied architecture under Baldassare Peruzzi. In this, the first great architectural treatise of the Renaissance, Serlio writes of geometry, perspective, classical architecture, and more -- the text beautifully complemented by wood-cut architectural plans, details, perspective schemata, and geometric figures. (Inventory #: D7072)