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 about Vitruvius Iterum et Frontinus a Iocundo Revisi Repurgatique quantum ex collatione licuit

A tall copy of the richly illustrated first edition, first issue, of the first two books of Sebastiano Serlio’s (1475-1554) famous architectural treatise. Although Serlio’s text would later appear in numerous versions, the woodcuts found here are unique to this 1545 edition from the Parisian press of Jehan Barbé, a...... More about Il primo libro d'Architettura... Il Secondo Libro

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 about Livre de perspective

Rare first and only edition of this illustrated funeral book recording the ceremonies for Pope Paul V (1550-1621) held in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, with a fine suite of full-page engravings of ephemeral sculpture and architecture, including a series of 16 sculptures of Virtues by the great Gian Lorenzo... More about Breve racconto della trasportatione del corpo di Paolo V dalla Basilica di S. Pietro à quella di...

Rare first edition of this Mannerist suite of designs for triumphal arches and entrances, by a Florentine who had been invited to the French court by Marie de Medici, became royal engineer to Louis XIII, and built grottos and fountains on the grounds of St. Germain-en-Laye and Fontainebleau. He was... More about Livre d'architecture contenant plusieurs portiques de diffntes inventions, sur les cinq orders de...

First German-language edition and well-preserved copy of the Jesuit’s five-part book on the uses of “practical perspective.” First published in French in 1642 in response to Girard Desargues’ 1636 Manière universelle, in which Desargues advanced a new ‘double-scale’ method of calculating perspective, Dubreuil’s much longer work appeals to the “painters..... More about Perspectiva practica, oder Vollständige Anleitung zu der Perspectiv-Reiss-Kunst

Rare first edition of this richly illustrated work on practical perspective. “This is one of the most beautiful comprehensive ‘monumental’ treatises written in the eighteenth century” (Descargues, Perspective, pp. 138-44). Kemp identifies Heineken’s text as one commonly used by 18th-century artists to master the technicalities of perspectival representation (The Science..... More about Lucidum Prospectivae Speculum, Das ist: Ein heller Spiegel der Perspective

Rare first and sole edition of this provincially published architectural treatise by an Alsatian architect seeking to promote his work in the wider cultural environment straddling the Franco-German language divide. The work was published in Trier five years after the completion of Antoine’s most prestigious project to date, the hunting..... More about Traité d’architecture, ou proportions des trois ordres grecs, sur un module de douze parties....

Rare first and sole edition of this clear and systematic treatise on civil architecture, by Bergamo architect Nicolino de’ Calepio, of interest for the regional interpretation of classicizing forms. The treatise is divided into five parts, beginning with a discussion of building materials and other fundamentals such as taking measurements..... More about Elementi d’Architettura civile ridotti in Compendio

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 about Ragione ed intagli a contorno del dipinto eseguito ad ornamento dello scalone nel Palazzo della...

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 about Quelques operations d'Arpentage. Souvenir de la Saint-Libanos, 1857

Conceived by the Danish-Islandic artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) as part of the Contemporary Editions series at the Museum of Modern Art, Your House is one of the more intriguing achievements in 21st-century book arts. The subject of the piece is Eliasson’s house in Denmark, its negative spaces rendered in..... More about Your House