Fréart, Idee de la perfection de la peinture; Euclid, La perspective, Le Mans, 1662-1663, contemporary mottled calf

Fréart, Roland, sieur de Chambray. Idee de la perfection de la peinture demonstree par les principes de l'Art, et par les Exemples conformes aux Observations que Pline et Quintilien ont faites sur les plus célèbres Tableaux des Anciens Peintres, mis en Parallele à quelques Ouvrages de nos meilleurs Peintres Modernes, Léonard de Vinci, Raphael, Jules Romain, et le Poussin. Le Mans: Jacques Isambart, 1662 [bound after:]

Euclid. La perspective d'Euclide, traduite en françois sur le texte grec, original de l'autheur, Et demonstrée par Rol. Freart de Chantelou sieur de Chambray. Le Mans: Jacques Isambart, 1663

First editions. Presentation copy from Roland Fréart de Chambray (1606-1676) to the Abbey of St-Vincent, Le Mans. The second work is printed in Fréart's home town of Le Mans and given by him to the royal Abbey there. Fréart had gone to Rome in the 1630s, where he met Cassiano del Pozzo and Nicolas Poussin (see lot 549, a manuscript of Leonardo's Trattato della pittura). This is one of several works he composed on art and architecture; he also translated Palladio and Vitruvius into French.

2 works in one volume, Euclid bound first, 4to (220 x 147 mm). Roman and italic type, 26 lines plus headline. collation: Fréart: *⁴ â⁴ ê⁴ A-Q⁴ R⁶: 82 leaves (*4 blank). Woodcut headpieces. Euclid: *⁴ ê⁴ A-Q⁴: 64 leaves. Woodcut device on title-page, woodcut diagrams. (Tear in P1 of Fréart with slight loss of text).

binding: Contemporary mottled calf (223 x 159 mm), spine gilt in compartments, red speckled edges. (Binding slightly rubbed, joints partly cracked and rubbed, ends of spine slightly defective.)

provenance: "Ex dono authoris", inscription at head of Euclid title-page — Abbey of St Vincent of Le Mans, of the Congregation of St Maur, inscription on title-page (in the same hand as the above inscription) dated 1664 (the monastery was suppressed in 1791) — Département de la Sarthe, ink stamp (dated Brumaire An 8; October-November 1799) on title, ê1 and A2 of Euclid — extract from an old French sale catalogue pasted to lower inside cover. acquisition: Purchased in 2007 from Librairie Thomas-Scheler, Paris.