Lomazzo, A tracte containing the artes of curious paintinge, Oxford, 1598, English red morocco gilt, Lely's copy

Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo. A tracte containing the artes of curious paintinge carvinge & buildinge written first in Italian by Io: Paul Lomatius painter of Milan and Englished by R.H. student in physik [part 2:] The second booke of the actions, gestures, situation, decorum, motion, spirit, and grace of pictures. Oxford: Joseph Barnes for Richard Haydock, 1598

First English translation of books 1-5 of Lomazzo's Trattato (first published in Milan in 1584; see lot 558). "It was the first book on the arts to be translated and the reason for its choice must have been its thorough treatment of painting, which was not to be found in any earlier treatises" (Harris, p.297). The original text was unillustrated; the images here were supplied by Haydock and are his earliest extant engravings.

A tantalising note on the front free endpaper records that this copy was bought for "20 scill. of Mr Lely", suggesting that it may at one point have been owned by the painter Sir Peter Lely. The likelihood of this provenance is strengthened by two annotations in the same early modern hand, both in book 3 (Of Colours). The first of these is an "n.b." boldly penned at the outer margin of II2r, beside Lomazzo's description of "a rare secret, which will cause the colours in a Frisco to continue as faire as if they were laid while the chalke is fresh: namely the white of an egge beaten very thin and mixed with your colours as occasion shall serve". Lely's paintings are notable for their assured use of colour—often used to embody a sense of power and superiority in his sitters—so it is exciting to find evidence of him reading Lomazzo in this very practical capacity, in order to hone the technical virtuosity through which he established his painterly reputation at the English court. Elsewhere, at the lower margin of KK3r (a section listing the symbolic connotations of the colour black in the texts of classical authorities), Lely has added in his native Dutch tongue "In Turkijen de beul gael alleen in Swart" (In Turkey the hangman only goes in black). Whilst it is unclear whether he had a specific composition in mind here, this annotation nevertheless reveals Lely's attentiveness to the subtle means by which a painting can convey meaning through the symbolic associations of colour.

As a fluent Italian speaker, Lely would not have needed to read Lomazzo in translation. However, he clearly held an interest in the evolving reception of the Renaissance artistic treatise in early modern England. Not only was he the dedicatee of Alexander Browne's An Appendix to the art of painting in miniature or limning (London, 1675), a work heavily influenced by Lomazzo, but his library is also known to have contained at least one other English translation of an artistic treatise—namely an author's presentation copy of John Evelyn's An Idea of the perfection of painting (London, 1668). Lely may well have referred back to Haydock's Elizabethan translation of Lomazzo when judging the merits of these more recent works in the genre by Browne and Evelyn. 

4to (246 x 175 mm). Roman type, 46 lines plus headline. collation: π⁶ *⁶ A-K⁶ AA-RR⁶ SS⁸. 13 full-page engraved illustrations, some after Dürer, one with folded margin, numerous woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces, large woodcut device on colophon. (Title and colophon leaf laid down, colophon leaf supplied from another copy as not present in 1937 sale, light dampstaining throughout, some small holes in margins, not affecting text or illustrations, cut somewhat close, especially on the upper margin, affecting words).

binding: English Restoration red morocco gilt (251 x 182 mm), probably 1660s-1670s, double gilt fillet around sides, central rectangle formed by double gilt fillet with flowery ornament at outer angles, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges. (Joints cracking, extremities slightly rubbed).

provenance: manuscript note to upper margin of front free endpaper "20 scill. of Mr Lely", very plausibly Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), celebrated portraitist and court painter of Charles II, or possibly his son John Lely (1668-1726) — Philip Yorke (1690-1764), 1st Earl of Hardwicke, bookplate (by family descent to Wimpole Hall, Cambridge until 1894 when the estate sold to Thomas Agar-Robartes) — Francis Agar-Robartes, seventh Viscount Clifden (1883-1966), sale, Sotheby's, 22 July 1937, lot 115, to Edwards — sale, Christie's, 18 November 1981, lot 260 — Dr. & Mrs. H.R. Knohl, Fox Pointe Manor Library, Anaheim, California, bookplate loosely inserted, sale, Sotheby's New York, 26 October 2016, lot 191. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: STC 16698; ESTC S111822; Harris 519; Robin Halwas, "Lely's Library", Web, accessed 9 April 2024