Bullet - Architecture Pratique - 1788

BULLET, PIERRE AND SEGUIN. — PRACTICAL ARCHITECTURE (PARIS, DIDOT, c. 1788).
Paris: Didot, [c. 1788-1789].
8vo. Full period calf, spine with very ornate raised bands.
Edition from the end of the eighteenth century, largely enlarged and updated by the entrepreneur Seguin from the tariff of materials of the year 1787.

Written by Pierre Bullet, architect of the Porte Saint-Martin and the Hôtel de Le Brun, this work is undoubtedly the most famous manual of construction and of cost estimates of the Ancien Régime. Used by several generations of architects, master masons and carpenters, it covers both the geometric layout of the classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) and the precise financial estimation of works, the laying out of plans and the rights of adjoining or servitudes according to the Custom of Paris.

A beautiful copy preserved in its period full calf binding. The smooth spine is exceptionally well adorned with sparkling gilding in the compartments. Rubs and losses on the headcaps and corners. Interior very clean on laid paper with a clearly printed frontispiece and the architectural plates hors-texte.

It is thanks to Pierre Bullet’s treatise that the “toisé” and the pricing of materials were harmonized under Louis XIV and Louis XV, enabling the rationalized construction of Parisian boulevards and large housing complexes. The presence of the magnificent frontispiece engraved in intaglio, associating classical theory with the engravings of entablatures and Doric capitals ("Entablement and Capital of the Doric Order"), gives a true artistic value to this practical manual. Presented in a full calf binding with a richly gilt eighteenth-century spine, this copy is a centerpiece for any section devoted to architecture, the fine arts and techniques under the Ancien Régime.