Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato della pittura, Florence, 1792, a prize binding dated Turin 1828

Leonardo da Vinci. Trattato della pittura di Lionardo da Vinci ridotto alla sua vera lezione sopra una copia a penna di mano di Stefano Della Bella con le figure disegnate dal medesimo corredato delle memorie per la vita dell'autore e del copiatore. Florence: Jacopo Grazioli & Gioacchino Pagani, 1792

This Florentine edition is different from the previous few lots; the illustrations are by the Florentine artist Stefano della Bella, and comprise mostly diagrams; Della Bella had owned a manuscript copy of the Trattato dated 1630, for which he drew his own illustrations (the manuscript is now in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, MS Ricc. 2275); it is likely that his illustrations predate Poussin's more famous ones. The text is also taken from a different source than the Paris 1651 editions. Like Poussin and Errard, however, he was also in the employ of Cardinal Mazarin in Paris in the 1640s.

The text was edited by Francesco Fontani (librarian at the Riccardiana), who added substantial footnotes to the preliminary Life of Leonardo, which is followed by a Life of Stefano della Bella, and an essay by Giovanni Lami (the previous Riccardiana librarian) on Italian artists in the centuries before Cimabue; the works by Alberti, by contrast, are no longer included with the Trattato. 

4to (266 x 200 mm). Roman type, 44 lines plus headline. collation: A⁴ B² a-i⁴ A-M⁴ N²: 92 leaves. Engraved vignette on title-page, engraved frontispiece portrait of the dedicatee, Hieronymus von Colloredo, archbishop of Salzburg, engraved headpiece with a portrait of Leonardo, engraved diagrams within the text (one full-page). (Title slightly browned, first few leaves slightly foxed.)

binding: Contemporary straight-grained morocco-backed marbled boards (270 x 213 mm), a prize binding with gilt lettering on upper cover addressed to Giuseppe Dosset for the prize in geometrical design, dated on lower cover Turin, 1828. (Binding somewhat rubbed.)

provenance: Giuseppe Dosset, name on binding. acquisition: Purchased in 2011 from Librairie Paul Jammes, Paris.