European school (XVI) - L’Homme vitruvien — Homo ad circulum et ad quadratum.

Vitruvius — Cesariano (Cesare).
The Vitruvian Man — Homo ad circulum et ad quadratum.
[Côme, Gottardo da Ponte for Agostino Gallo and Aloisio Pirovano, July 15, 1521].

Large folio, original, printed recto-verso, from the famous first Italian edition of Vitruvius’ De architectura. A grand wood-engraved composition depicting a nude man inscribed within a circle and a squared grid, accompanied by Cesare Cesariano’s Italian commentary.

This spectacular figure illustrates the ideal proportions of the human body described by Vitruvius and their application to architecture. It is one of the oldest and most famous printed interpretations of the “Vitruvian Man.” It should not be attributed to Leonardo da Vinci: Cesariano offers here an independent interpretation of the same ancient text, published about thirty years after Leonardo’s handwritten drawing. The design of the figure is sometimes attributed by Cesariano to Pietro Paolo Segazone.

The Como edition of 1521 is particularly important: it constitutes the first printed Italian translation of Vitruvius, and the first translation of the treatise into a modern language. Its remarkable iconographic apparatus makes it one of the landmarks of Renaissance architectural publishing.

Condition: old sheet with margins; small break in the upper left border, light stains and signs of wear. Fine print, still vigorous. Original text printed on the verso. An old, interrogative attribution to Leonardo da Vinci in pencil beneath the engraving.

Rare iconic sheet of the Renaissance, sought after for the history of architecture, the sciences, anatomy, and the representation of the human body.