Serlio, Il primo libro d'architettura, Paris, 1545, contemporary French brown morocco

Serlio, Sebastiano. Il primo libro d'architettura, di Sabastiano Serlio, bolognese. Le premier livre d'architecture de Sebastian Serlio, bolognois, mis en langue francoyse, par Iehan Martin [part 2:] Il secondo libro di perspettiva di Sebastiano Serlio bolognese. Le second livre de perspective de Sebastian Serlio. Paris: (Jean Barbé, 22 August) 1545

First editions of books I and II, first issues, a large copy. Serlio's introduction explains that he published Books IV (Regole generali di architettura, 1537, lot 603) and III (Le antiquità di Roma, 1540, lot 604) before Books I and II because their subject matter was less technical and therefore had greater general appeal. Books I and II concentrate on geometry and perspective.

These books were printed in Paris because Serlio had moved there in 1541 to work in the service of François I. His original Italian text is accompanied by the translation of Jean Martin, who translated numerous architectural works into French (for his Vitruvius, see lots 647 and 648) as well as the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (see Bibliotheca Brookeriana I, 11 October 2023, lot 26).

Folio (372 x 252 mm). Italic and roman type, parallel text in Italian and French. collation: aa⁴ a-h⁸ i¹⁰: 78 leaves (c8 blank). Title-page within woodcut border, 132 woodcuts, printer's device at end, cancel diagram pasted over diagram on b5 verso, woodcut plate bound between i3 and i4, quire c misbound. (One small wormhole in the text of the first few leaves, one woodcut shaved, some slight worming at outer margins towards the end).

binding: Contemporary French brown morocco (380 x 252 mm), concentric frames of multiple blind fillets, one containing a border of a repeated arabesque tool in blind, small central stamp, plain spine and edges. (Binding somewhat rubbed with substantial restoration.)

provenance: Alecxander [sic] Cerra, early inscription at foot of title — Sotheby's, sale, 18 May 1989, lot 116. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: Edit16 53897; Mortimer, Harvard French 492; Vène, Bibliographia Serliana 9