Vitruvius, I dieci libri dell' architettura, Venice, 1556, later speckled calf, the Garden copy

VITRUVIUS POLLIO, MARCUS. I dieci libri dell'architettura di M. Vitruvio tradutti et commentati da Monsignor Barbaro eletto Patriarca d'Aquileggia. Con due tavole, l'una di tutto quello si contiene per i capi nell'opera, l'altra per dechiaratione di tutte le cose d'importanza. Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1556

A TALL COPY OF THE FIRST PRINTING OF BARBARO'S INFLUENTIAL ITALIAN TRANSLATION. Barbaro, a Venetian patrician, was assisted by Andrea Palladio, who also designed some of the illustrations; Barbaro and Palladio had spent the early 1550s together in Rome examining antiquities and the remains of Roman buildings, in order to understand the relationship between Vitruvius's text and the buildings themselves.

Barbaro's translation is accompanied by his commentary, which references not only other architectural treatises but also significant works on mathematics, geometry, engineering, astronomy, philosophy and agriculture, demonstrating Barbaro's wide range of knowledge, as well as indicating that the text was aimed at scholars rather than working architects or builders. Barbaro's inclusion of comments on specifically Venetian issues were directed at his fellow Venetian noblemen.

The illustrations were designed by Giuseppe Porta (known as Salviati) as well as Palladio, given the similarity between some of these illustrations and those in Palladio's Quattro libri. The plans of the theatre of Curio on L2v-L3r have large volvelles; Pliny stated that two wooden semicircular theatres were rotated towards each other to form an amphitheatre, during the games put on by Curio in 53 BC.

Folio (417 x 268mm). Roman type. Collation: A⁸ B⁶ C⁷ D-G⁸ H⁶ I⁸ K-L⁹ M-Q⁸ R⁶ S-T⁸ V⁴: 151 leaves. Title within historiated woodcut architectural border, 131 woodcut architectural illustrations and diagrams (8 double-page, many full-page), 6 illustrations with woodcut overslips or extensions, 3 complete volvelles, 12 eleven-line woodcut initials ornamented with city views, more than 100 six-line woodcut historiated initials, 2 pages with music, woodcut printer's device on final page, pasted cancel illustrations on E8v and 7Fr. (Occasional light marginal staining or browning, D4 with marginal restoration, a few leaves with marginal wormholes.)

Binding: Eighteenth-century speckled calf (424 x 282mm), spine gilt in seven compartments, red morocco label to second compartment, speckled edges, brown half morocco drop-backed folding box by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. (A few marks to binding.)

Provenance: [Bernard Quaritch, sold in March 1978 to] — Haven O'More and Michael Davis, The Garden Ltd, bookplate, sale, Sotheby's, New York, 9 November 1989, lot 61. Acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. References: BAL RIBA 3522; Edit16 28623; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 547