[ARCHITECTURE]. POLLIO, Marcus Vitruvius (“Vitruvius” ca. 80 - 70 B. C. - post 15 B. C.) Di Architettura. Edited by F. L. Durantino. Venice: Niccolo Zoppino, March 1535. Large 8vo. Illustrated with woodcut title-page border and 136 woodcuts throughout, plus numerous woodcut initials. [xii], I-CX fols. Approximately 11 7/8 x 8”. Bound in late 18th or early 19th century half sheep over marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt, green gilt morocco lettering label on spine (some wear, sunning to spine including a tear at the tail-cap, title-page slightly soiled with a faint ink notation and a repair (about the size of an American quarter) at the right center, some soiling to the margins of some index leaves and three final leaves of text, and traces of ink correction (or censorship) of the second Vitruvian man woodcut (verso of fol. XXII), occasional minor thumbsoiling. A bright, fine copy of this beautifully-illustrated post-incunable edition of this classical Roman treatise. SECOND DURANTINO EDITION, text in Italian, translated from the Latin. The woodcut title border shows several figures in battle array, including Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. As mentioned above there are two “Vitruvian Man” illustrations after Leonardo da Vinci (created by da Vinci around 1492). Other illustrations include geometrical and astronomical diagrams, plans and elevations of buildings, columns and other architectural details, and detailed scenes of machinery. The woodcuts “are close copies of the full set of blocks from the Giocondo edition of 1511 printed at Venice by Giovanni Tacuino. The copies were made by the first Durantino edition… Zoppino secured all of the 1,524 blocks except one; that on leaf N1r is a recutting with the heads of the figures strangely enlarged… The layout of the illustrations and text of the Durantino editions [1524 and this one, 1535] follows Tacuino’s Latin edition of 1511.” (Mortimer/Harvard: Italian Books II, 545). Adams V-916.
Vitruvius’ De architectura libri decem (“Ten Books on Architecture”) is the only complete architectural treatise and related arts to survive antiquity to this day, and is perhaps the most important work on the history of architecture in the Western world.