Alberti, Libri de re aedificatoria decem, Paris, 1512, contemporary tooled calf, Nordkirchen copy

Alberti, Leon Battista

Leonis Baptistae Alberti Florentini viri clarissimi Libri De re ædificatoria decem. Opus integrum et absolutum: diligenterque recognitum. Distinctum est autem nuper opus ipsum totum, quod antea pervia legebatur oratione per capita, nonnullis e textu rebus insignibus depromptis, et in margine annotatis. Facta est etiam capitum ipsorum non inelegans tabula cum dictionum et ipsarum rerum scitu dignarum que in margine sunt, indice admodum luculento. Paris: (Berthold Rembolt & Ludwig Hornken, 23 August 1512)

Second edition of Alberti's treatise, which was originally published in Florence in 1485, and the first book on architecture to be printed in France. It was edited by Geofroy Tory who added the sidenotes; the chapter divisions introduced in this edition (whether by Tory or Robert Duré) became the standard for later editions.

Alberti (1404-1472), a true Renaissance man who studied law and wrote poetry, is renowned for this work on architecture which resulted from the time he spent in Florence in the 1430s as part of the papal entourage and met Filippo Brunelleschi. On his return to Rome he completed this expansion of Vitruvius and dedicated it to Nicholas V in 1452.

Alberti's vision of architecture included not just practical and aesthetic features but also encompassed mathematics and hydraulics as well as classical influences on modern architecture and the weathering of buildings. From the 1440s onwards he also worked as an architect in both Rome and elsewhere in the Italian peninsular, creating plans for churches and palazzi but not involving himself in the actual construction process.

This copy contains two leaves of an Encomium re aedificatorie addressed to Lorenz Truchsess von Pommersfelden by Johann Kierher of Sélestat, bound at the end of the preliminary material, which does not appear in every copy. Kierher was a client of the Truchsess family and at this time was studying in Paris before becoming a canon at Speyer.

The binding seems French; the binder's initials have been attributed to a Cologne bookbinder, but Haebler thinks it more likely that this W.L. tool later came into the possession of the Cologne binder Wenzel Dörffer (Haebler I, p.273).

4to (202 x 136 mm). Roman type, 38 lines plus headline. collation: A8 B6 C2 a-x8 y4: 190 leaves. Title printed in red and black within woodcut border with Rembolt's printer's device, woodcut initials, Honken's printer's device at end. (Quire B waterstained.)

binding: Contemporary calf (213 x 148 mm) with roll-tooled decoration with the initials W.L., stubs from four pairs of ties, in drop-backed box. (Binding slightly rubbed, ends of spine repaired, a few wormholes in binding.)

provenance: Dukes of Arenberg, Nordkirchen bookplate on inside front cover (the library was dispersed by the 1950s). acquisition: Purchased in 1991 from E.P. Goldschmidt, London. references: BAL RIBA 47; BP16 101873; Mortimer, Harvard French 11