VITRUVIO M.P. - De Architectura - 1522

VITRUVIO, Marco Pollione

M. Vitruvii De Architectura Libri decem recently with the greatest diligence corrected and revised, with the addition of Iulij Frontini De aqueductibus libris due to material affinity.

Florence, heirs of Filippo Giunta, November 6, 1522.

In-8° (mm 161 × 102 at the binding). 192, 24, [20] pages.

139 wood engravings in the text (including the famous Vitruvian Man, architectural orders, plans and sections of buildings, hydraulic machines, sundials, measuring instruments and geometric diagrams).

Modern binding (20th century) in full dark brown leather, boards and richly gold-decorated spine in antique style (files, vegetal friezes and central coats of arms), title in gold on the spine. Hinges with small restorations and some defects, volume slightly sprung.

Cintro edition of 1522 of the most important treatise on architecture from antiquity. Vitruvius’s work (1st century BC), rediscovered in the Quattrocento, became the theoretical foundation of Renaissance and modern architecture.
The ten books systematically treat:
• principles and proportions of architecture
• building materials
• temples and orders
• public and private buildings
• decoration and painting
• waters and aqueducts (with Frontinus’s text)
• astronomy and gnomonics
• machines and engineering

The 139 wood engravings, of great expressive force and technical precision, constitute one of the richest iconographic corps of Vitruvian images of the early sixteenth century and include some of the most famous images in the history of architecture (Vitruvian Man on page 46 of the Liber Tertius, Corinthian capitals, hydraulic machines, ships with oars, etc.).

This is one of the first illustrated editions of De Architectura printed in Italy after Fra’ Giovanni Giocondo (1511). The 1522 Venice edition is particularly sought after for its typographic quality, the richness of the engravings, and the presence of Frontinus’s text on the aqueducts, which makes it a complete volume of great interest both for historians of architecture and for collectors of Renaissance illustrated books.

Complete and in good condition copies are rather rare on the antiquarian market, especially with the intact woodcut apparatus and a high-quality binding, even if modern.