VITRUVIUS POLLIO, Marcus.

Handsome, clean, crisp copy of this important edition of the founding work of Renaissance architectural theory, issued with translations by Johannes de Laet—polymath and director of the Dutch West India Company—of other major, nearly contemporary, contributions. It is ‘a superb edition, decorated with many woodcuts’, ‘somewhat scarce’ (Willems 1097)—a very useful compendium for practitioners. The first work is a Latin translation of ‘Elements of Architecture’ (1624), itself a free adaptation of Vitruvius’s major opus, by the English scholar and diplomat Henry Wotton (1568-1639). Following Vitruvius, he identifies the ‘ultimate end of architecture as building well’ and that good buildings should be ‘comfortable, solid and aesthetically delightful’. The second is the only surviving major ancient work on the subject—‘De architectura’ in ten books by Vitruvius (80/70-15BC), a Roman architect and engineer. He begins from the basics (what is architecture, the building of foundations, the qualities of woods and stones), and proceeds with the handsomely illustrated examination of building structures (the decoration and proportions of the five orders of columns) and the construction of specific buildings (e.g., temples, theatres or baths, private or communal residences), down to their painting and the effects of humidity. Most famously, in book III, Vitruvius related the proportions of temples to those of the human figure—a theory which inspired Leonardo’s immensely influential drawing of the ‘Vitruvian Man’ inscribed within a circle. There follow works on integrating architectural theories including Agricola’s on weights and measurements, Goldmann’s essay on the ‘voluta ionica’, Alberti’s works on painting and sculpture, and two commentaries, a technical dictionary, an index and a treatise on the pedestal of columns (‘Scamilli impares’) all relating to Vitruvius’s work. A handsomely printed, important compendium of major architectural theories, from antiquity to the mid-C17.