Vitruvius, De architectura libri X, Strassburg, 1550, contemporary pigskin dated 1550

VITRUVIUS POLLIO, MARCUS. M. Vitruvii Pollionis, viri suae professionis peritissimi, De architectura Libri X. Ad Augustum Caesarum accuratissime conscripti, & locis quamplurimis hac editione emendati. Adiunctis nunc primum Gulielmi Philandri Castilionii Galli, Civis Rom. Castigationes atque annotationibus in eosdem longe doctiss. Ad Franciscum Valesium Galliarum Regem. Una cum Lib. II. Sex. Iulii Frontini De acquaeductibus urbis Romae, & Nicolai Cusani Dialogo de staticis experimentis. (Strassburg: Georg Messerschmidt, August) 1550

A reprint of Ryff's translation (Strassburg, 1543), with the addition of Philandrier's Annotationes of 1544.

4to (200 x 150 mm). Roman and italic type, 36 lines plus headline. Collation: AA-DD⁴ EE-FF⁴ GG-HH⁴ II² A-Z⁴ aa-zz⁴ Aa-Ss⁴ α-ε⁴: 306 leaves. 156 woodcut illustrations, occasional marginalia and underlining in black and red ink, and notes on endleaves in an eighteenth-century hand. (Occasional light foxing, last few quires stained at foot with repairs to last few leaves).

Binding: German blindstamped pigskin over thin wooden boards (208 x 165 mm), with the date 1550 and initials B.S.V. stamped on upper cover, plain edges. (Rebacked retaining most of original spine, a few other small repairs to binding.)

Provenance: B.S.V., initials on binding — Johann Friedrich Christ (1701-1756, scholar and poet, professor at Leipzig Academy), sale, Leipzig, 8 August 1757, lot 3720 — Abraham Gottholf Kaestner (1719-1800, mathematician, poet, prolific author, professor of mathematics at Leipzig and later Göttingen), purchase inscription on pastedown ("Ex bibliotheca Io. Fr. Christii Prof. Lips. A.G. Kaestner G.1757"), and his note stating that there is a copy of the 1545 Annotationes in the Uffenbach collection in Göttingen — Library of the Bishop of Vermont, and Library of the Vermont Episcopal Institute, bookplates. Acquisition: Purchased in 1988 from D & E Lake, Toronto. References: BAL RIBA 3496