Vitruvius 1614, with beautiful woodcut illustrations

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio:

Zehen Bücher von der Architectur und künstlichem Bawen.

Basel, Sebastian Henricpetri, 1614. Folio. (34 x 20 cms.) XXXII + 616 pp., including final leaf with woodcut printer’s device, often lacking. Title printed in red & black. With c. 190 woodcut illustrations including many full-page.

Old vellum-backed boards, recent ms title on spine, yapp edges, leather ties renewed (one defective). Occasional foxing and browning of text, but an attractive copy. Neat old ownership inscription on title, large engraved armorial bookplate of Christoph Wentzel, Graf von Nostitz (1648-1712, initials C.W.G.V.N.). Recent provenance: Swedish architect Ivar Tengbom (1878-1968), one of the best-known representatives of the Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1910s and 1920s; with the Tengbom family to date.

Fourth, final edition of Hermann Ryff’s (1500-1548) German translation of Vitruvius’ De Architectura libri decem (Ten Books on Architecture). It is the first German version, known as the ”Vitruvius Teutsch”, and originally appeared in 1548. The translation made this canon of Renaissance architecture accessible to master builders in German-speaking countries who, as a rule, had no command of Latin. The importance of Ryff's German Vitruvius for the establishment of Renaissance architecture north of the Alps can scarcely be overestimated.

Berlin Cat. 1812.

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