Vitruvius, De architectura, Florence, Filippo I Giunta, 1513, contemporary Roman brown morocco by Paolo di Bernardino Bancheli (?)

Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus. Vitruuius iterum et Frontinus a' Iocundo reuisi repurgatique quantum ex collatione licuit. Florence: Filippo I Giunta, October 1513

The first pocket edition of Vitruvius, with the text presented in italics in imitation of the Aldine editions. It is an adaptation of Fra Giocondo’s edition in folio format (Venice 1511), with its illustrations reduced in size and simplified (and four new cuts added). A new dedication to Giuliano de’ Medici replaces one to Pope Julius II (died February 1513), the errata of 1511 are assimilated, and the text of Frontinus (De aqueductibus urbis Romae) is subjoined.

Longstanding uncertainty about the extent of Giocondo’s collaboration in production of this 1513 edition, undertaken when he was almost eighty years of age, has been dispelled by the discovery by Adolfo Tura of a copy of the 1511 edition, marked-up with Fra Giocondo’s autograph editorial interventions and with signs of casting off in the Giunta printing shop (Vicenza, Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, CAP. C XVI 7; see Adolfo Tura, “Un Vitruvio a Vicenza, un Alberti a New York” in Pegasus. Berliner Beiträge zum Nachleben der Antike 13 (2011), pp. 29-39).

8vo (163 x 98 mm). Italic type with some Roman and Greek, 30 lines plus headline. collation: π⁴ A-Z⁸ AA⁴ a-c⁸ A-C⁸: 240 leaves. Title within ornamental woodcut border, woodcut initials, numerous woodcut illustrations, woodcut Giunta device on final verso. (Title stained, marginal wormholes to first 6 leaves, intermittent dampstaining to lower margin, closed tear to F2 affecting illustration)

binding: Roman brown morocco over thin wooden boards (162 x 102 mm), circa 1513, by Paolo di Bernardino Bancheli(?), blind-tooled (possibly silvered, now oxidized), border formed by two groups of three blind fillets, inner border of repeated arabesque, horizontal band of clover-like tool within triple fillets at top and bottom of central panel, in center floral tool stamped four times stem to stem forming a cross, three rosettes above and below, spine with four compartments with blind saltire over cross, two clasps, one lacking (Rubbed, hinges cracked, worming and staining to endpapers, front flyleaf partially detached.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, note on Vitruvius on endleaf verso, contemporary annotations throughout. acquisition: Purchased from Pierre Berès, Paris, 1991. references: Renouard XXXVII/45; Edit16 28727; USTC 863682; Decia & Delfiol pp. 80-81 no. 45