Lot 45: VITRUVIUS POLLIO, Marcus. De architectura . Edited by Fra Giovanni Giocondo (1433-1515). Venice: Giovanni Tacuino, 22 May 1511.

VITRUVIUS POLLIO, Marcus. De architectura. Edited by Fra Giovanni Giocondo (1433-1515). Venice: Giovanni Tacuino, 22 May 1511.

2o (289 x 203 mm). Collation: AA4; A-N8 O6; P10. 124 leaves, P10 blank (the register on P9r incorrectly calls quire O "quaternus"). Roman type, a few words in Greek, shoulder notes, index at end in triple column. Four-piece decorative woodcut title border with scrolling foliage and dolphin motifs, 136 woodcut illustrations and diagrams in the text, most within double rule borders, printer's device on P9v (Kristeller 326), one 9-line and ten 7-line woodcut initials. (Foot of title-page trimmed affecting image, leaves of first quire repaired at gutter, some spotting and pale staining throughout). 19th-century parchment-backed vellum (joints starting, lightly soiled). Provenance: Leo Johann Jacob Erbarti (contemporary signature title-page); Christoph Wenzel Graf von Nostitz (1742-1804) Czech book collector (armorial bookplate, signature on title-page); W. Gedney Beatty (1869-1941), American architect (gifted to): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Department of Prints (bookplate recording the bequest, cancelled).

FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. The three previous editions contained a few schematic woodcut diagrams, but this Tacuino edition is the first to be extensively illustrated with woodcuts of architectural details and plans, machinery in use, etc. Tacuino's woodcut title border with dolphins, "one of the most influential pieces of ornamentation of the sixteenth century" (Mortimer), was apparently printed here for the first time. This edition, dedicated to Pope Julius II, was edited by the Veronese architect, epigraphist and editor Fra Giovanni Giocondo, who during the last year of his life collaborated with Raphael and Sangallo on St. Peter's after Bramante's death in 1514. Adams V-902; Berlin Kat. 1798; Cicognara 696; Essling 1702; Fowler 393; Harvard/Mortimer Italian 543; Millard Italian 156; Norman 2157; Sander 7694.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART