M. Vitrvvii Pollionis de Architectvra libri decem, cvm Commentariis Danielis Barbari, Electi Patriarchae Aqvileniensis: Mvltis Aedificiorvm, Horologiorvm, et Machinarvm Descriptionibvs & figuris, una cum indicibus copiosis, auctis & illustratis

Venice: Apud Franiscum Franciscium Senensem, & Ioan. Crugher Germanum (Francesco DeFranceschi & Johann Criegher), 1567. Hardcover. Very Good. Folio (289 x 205mm). Pagination: [20], 375, [1] pages (lacks p. 10). Collation: a(6), b(4), A(5 of 6, lacking A5), B-Z(6), AA-GG(6), HH(8). Title and rear verso leaf with woodcut printer’s device of the virtue of Peace, inscribed Pax, holding olive branch within cartouche border with masks. Title verso with full-page woodcut of the muse of architecture, raising ruler in right hand. The Plantin woodcut device “Labore et Constantia” printed in red ink supplied and mounted on blank verso of b4. Woodcut illustrations throughout of diagrams and geometric graphs of architectural interest (cross-sections of classical buildings, molds, and friezes) and other mathematical lines and planes, also including illustrations for the Vitruvian man (p. 89), the Venetian lagoon (p. 204), laborers at a hydraulic mill (pp. 348-349), parts of an organ(p. 351), and a racing charioteer (p. 353), all after Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). Woodcut four-line chapter initials throughout. Dedicated to Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517–1586). Text in Roman, Italic and some Greek. Contemporary limp vellum with manuscript title to spine VITRUVIUS CUM COMMENT BARBARI; (lacking ties, top of spinechipped, book block partly loose in binding; some intermittent foxing and stains, wormhole through text block affecting some text; otherwise good). This copy with a curious addition of a 16th-century doodle of a hybrid bearded man with animal body and long tail to title page. Later inscriptions with names on rear leaf, some smudged, but “Mexico” and “1766” visible. Another Spanish inscription mentioning Mexico again on rear pastedown. Unidentified branded ownership mark on top edges, possibly of a crowned heart.

Second Venetian edition of Vitruvius’s ten books De Architectura, with Latin commentary by the Italian humanist Daniele Barbaro (1514–1570) and printed by Francesco de Franceschi in 1567. Barbaro, a well-known Venetian patrician and patron of the arts, made editions ofVitruvius’s works in Italian (Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1556) and Latin, as here, a revised edition in smaller format. According to Barbaro, his commentary took over nine years to complete. The work is a landmark contribution to Vitruvian studies of the Renaissance; manyof his peers regarded Barbaro as an “intellectual light” of his time and his architectural treatises useful in current practice. The illustrations in this volume, including the famous Vitruvian man, were the result of a fruitful collaboration with Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), begun probably in the early 1540s. Together, their development of the illustrated architectural book greatly impacted the study of classic architecture and design aesthetics in the Renaissance. This revised edition is uncommon outside of the usualinstitutions.