Scamozzi - L'Idea Della Architettura Universale - 1678

[ARCHITECTURE – ARCHITECTURAL ART – RENAISSANCE – ORDERS OF COLUMNS – COPPER ENGRAVINGS]

Monumental foundational work on architecture – FIRST GERMAN EDITION of 1678 with 81 (of 85) copper engravings

“L’Idea Della Architettvra Vniversale … Grund-Regeln der Baw-Kunst oder klärliche Beschreibung der fünff Säülen-Ordnungen und der gantzen Architectur des berühmten Baumeisters …”

Vincenzo Scamozzi
Nuremberg, Hoffmann, 1678 – First German edition!

With engraved illustrated title, 1 half-page text engraving, and 81 (of the original 85) copper-engraved plates, 4 of them folding. Folio.

Vincenzo Scamozzi (1552–1616), alongside Palladio, ranks among the most influential architectural theorists of the Italian Late Renaissance. His Idea della Architettura Universale, first published in Venice in 1615, systematizes classical architecture in ten books and became one of the most widely consulted architectural treatises in Europe. Architects from the Netherlands to Scandinavia drew upon his rules of proportion, particularly his celebrated doctrine of the five orders of columns. The present Nuremberg edition of 1678 made this foundational work available for the first time to a German-speaking audience of architects, craftsmen, and builders, and played a significant role in the dissemination of Palladianism throughout the German-speaking world.

The splendid illustrated engraved title of this German translation, engraved by Sigmund Gabriel Hipschmann, was carried over from the Venetian first edition of 1615 and provides an impressive opening to the volume. The numerous copper-engraved plates depict the orders of columns in their various forms, portals, palace façades, masonry, and floor plans in meticulous detail—a visual compendium of classical architecture that served not only as a theoretical work but also, in practical terms, as a pattern book for builders and craftsmen.

A copy of this rare first German edition in such a substantial state of completeness appears on the market only intermittently.

Condition: Modern half-leather binding with decorated cloth-paper sides and gilt lettering to spine; binding rubbed and somewhat scuffed in places. Title page and a few additional leaves professionally restored; otherwise a good and clean copy of this important work. Of the original 85 copper-engraved plates, 81 are present, including 4 folding plates.

Pagination: Engraved title + 1 half-page text engraving + 81 (of 85) copper-engraved plates + 192 pp.