VITRUVIUS POLLIO, Marcus; GIOCONDO, Giovanni, ed. [with] FRONTINUS, Sextus Julius.

£3,750 · Offered by Sokol Books

.A beautifully illustrated pocket-edition of Vitruvius classic De Architectura , printed in pseudo-Aldine/Giunti format in Lyon - a very useful compendium for practitioners. Vitruvius (80/70-15BC) was a Roman architect and engineer; his De Architectura is the only architectural work that has survived from antiquity. Divided in ten books, it 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. Books IX and X offer intricate illustrations of machinery to pump water, astronomical instruments for calculations, and even two charming celestial planispheres with figurative zodiac signs and constellations... . . .. The edition was created through a careful assembly of the elements of the most recent editions of Vitruvius, published in Italy in the previous decade or so. Textually speaking, any edition of this text had to rely on previous editions published in Venice and Florence. The starting point could only be not

• Binding: Hardcover

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