Alberti, La pittura, Venice, 1547, later half red calf

Alberti, Leon Battista

La pittura di Leonbattista Alberti tradotta per M. Lodovico Domenichi. Venice: Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, 1547

First Italian translation of Alberti's treatise on painting and perspective, made by Lodovico Domenichi from the Latin (see lot 425) and dedicated by him to the artist Francesco Salviati. It has been argued that the increase in interest in Alberti in the 1540s and 1550s is connected to the founding of the influential Florentine Accademia del disegno in 1562-1563.

Although Alberti also produced a version of this treatise in Tuscan, it was not widely known and was first printed in 1847.

8vo (161 x 100 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-E8 F4: 44 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page and final verso, woodcut initials. (Small wormhole at head of first quire, small hole in final leaf, occasional very light foxing.)

binding: Early nineteenth-century half red straight-grained morocco over marbled paper boards (167 x 108 mm), flat spine gilt. (Binding somewhat rubbed.)

provenance: Manuscript note in French about the book on flyleaf opposite title-page. acquisition: Purchased in 1994 from Ludwig Rosenthal. references: Edit16 722