Augmented edition of THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF VITRUVIUS (1511), the first attempt to establish a critical text of the only surviving ancient architectural treatise, one notoriously difficult for its technical matter and crabbed means of expression. It is notable that this was undertaken by a practicing architect, Fra Giovanni... More

A tall copy of the first edition, first issue of the first two books of Serlio's general treatise, devoted to geometry, perspective and theatrical scenery, and as such considered "the first published account of modern theatrical practice" (Hewitt, The Renaissance Stage, p. 21). As with the whole of the treatise... More

A very attractive copy of the first edition of this rare work on perspective, which Updike calls “one of the handsomest volumes of its time.” It is through this work that Jean Cousin became known as the major theorist of artists' perspective in sixteenth-century France, and was credited with perfecting... More

First edition of this potted version of Venetian history as seen through the portraits and other paintings hanging in or decorating some of the public rooms of the Palazzo Ducale after the fire of 1577, of art historical interest for the disposition of numerous famous Venetian paintings during the 16th... More

Rare first and only edition, first issue, of the Vicenza architect Ottavio Revesi Bruti’s (c. 1585-1648) richly illustrated folio describing his new instrument for accurately constructing scale drawings of the architectural orders without reliance on laborious calculations, a boon both for practical architects eager to avoid difficult mathematics on the... More

Scarce edition of this important treatise on perspective by the most scientifically rigorous of 17th-century French theorists, of particular interest for its contention that “the illustrations to earlier treatises were often defective” (Millard), thus making it the first work on the subject to treat the problem of didactic illustration in... More

Rare first edition, third issue, of an extensively illustrated German-language comparative treatment of the classical Orders by the Nuremberg architect-engineer Georg Andreas Böckler (c. 1617-87). In this practical treatise Böckler cites his indebtedness to the writings of Vitruvius, Archimedes, Palladio, Scamozzi, Vignola, Barbaro, Serlio and Hans Blum (Serlio’s principal interpreter... More

A fine pen-and-ink drawing and a very rare letterpress broadside, both relating to the baker’s trade in 18th-century Brussels. The drawing depicts St. Honoratus of Amiens (d. c. 600), a bishop saint who came to be especially venerated by bakers in France following the donation of land by the Parisian... More

A handsomely bound copy in contemporary gilt calf of the rare first edition of an illustrated treatise on the two famous Marian icons housed at the church of Santa Maria presso San Celso in Milan. The Notizie istoriche intorno alla miracolosa imagine at once stresses the miraculous nature of these... More

An untrimmed and largely unopened copy of the  first edition of this work on the biographies of well-known architects, very rare in this state: a work whose importance to the historiography of architecture equals that of Vasari for Renaissance artists, just as the author intended. After historical surveys of ancient... More

Rare first and only edition of a presentation work by the painter and essayist Pietro Fea da Casale (1771-1842) commemorating his designs for the ‘Scalone d’Onore’ in Turin’s Palazzo di Città (now known as the Palazzo Civico). The volume, which includes 4 full-page reproductive etchings executed by the artist himself... More

French surveying manuscript with twenty delicate watercolor and wash illustrations, presenting solutions to a range of topographic problems. The detailed diagrams note the locations of the requisite graphometers and levels, and the accompanying text includes calculations and formulae. The book includes a range of practical exercises, such as measuring the... More