Vitruvius, De architectura libri decem, Venice, 1567, contemporary limp vellum

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

De architectura libri decem, cum commentariis Danielis Barbari... multis aedificiorum, horologiorum, et machinarum descriptionibus, & figuris... auctis & illustratis. Venice: Francesco de' Franceschi and Johann Criegher, 1567

folio (303 x 204mm.), woodcut printer's device on title-page and final verso, woodcut initials, woodcut illustrations (including a bird's eye view of Venice on R6v), that on D1 with a printed overslip, contemporary limp vellum, I1_6, Y1_6 and BB3_4 browned, other occasional light foxing or staining, binding slightly soiled and lacking four pairs of ties, lower hinge splitting

This Franceschi edition contains numerous woodcuts, some based on the ones from the Barbaro edition of 1556, and some new, cut by Johann Criegher, according to Franceschi's preface in the contemporaneous Italian edition.

The printed overslip on D1, above a woodcut from the 1556 edition, is mentioned by Mortimer as appearing in one of the Harvard copies, but not all. It also appeared in the 1556 Marcolini edition.

LITERATURE:

BAL RIBA 3498; Edit16 48319; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 550

PROVENANCE:

Padre Stefano Garibaldi, of the Chierici regolari ministri degli infermi (or Camillans), inscription at foot of title-page