Vitruvius, Architettura, Perugia, 1536, old vellum

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Architettura, con il suo commento et figure [translated by Giambatista Caporali]. (Perugia: Giano Bigazzini, 1 April 1536)

folio (277 x 206mm.), woodcut title-page, woodcut illustrations (some full-page), including a portrait of Bigazzini on the second leaf, old vellum, many leaves with marginal paper repairs, some staining or browning, a few leaves shaved at head (affecting headline), M5 damaged at foot with slight loss of text, quires N and O with repaired wormhole at foot (affecting text on O2)

The portrait of Conte Giano Bigazzini shows him in military dress; he had worked as a condottiere for the Republic of Venice before retiring to his native Perugia and immersing himself in literary and artistic pursuits. His private press produced just two works: this edition of Vitruvius's first five books prepared by the artist Caporali, and a volume of poems by Lodovico Dolce. The printer may have been Luca Bini who was in Perugia at this time.

LITERATURE:

BAL RIBA 3536; Edit16 54111; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 546; Sander 7700

PROVENANCE:

Arcangelo Guglielmelli (c.1650-1723, a Neapolitan architect and painter), inscription at foot of title-page (erased) and second leaf