Dürer, Albrecht

Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel und richtscheyt, in Linien unnd ganzen corporen.  Nuremberg: [Hieronymous Formschneyder,] 1525



Folio (11⅛  x 7½  in.; 282 x 190 mm).  Numerous woodcuts in text of geometric diagrams and architectural renderings (two with overslips, one with fore-edge fold at M4, figs. 26 at K1r and 36 at C5v are printed as cancels pasted over the original figures), roman and gothic alphabets, and two half-page woodcuts showing a drafting apparatus for drawing in perspective, the second with Dürer's monogram and dated 1525; some scattered soiling and spotting, dampstaining to upper margins of a few leaves, edges trimmed with slight loss to a few images.  Nineteenth-century half brown morocco, spine gilt in six compartments, marbled boards, edges gauffred over red, marbled endleaves; some wear and rubbing to extremities.  Half brown morocco clamshell case, spine gilt-lettered.

Theodor Freiherr von Cramer-Klett, Hohen-Aschau (armorial bookplate) — Reuter (armorial bookplate)

Adams D1057; Berlin Katalog 4607; Norman 665; PMM 54; Stilwell Science 161

First edition of Dürer's first theoretical treatise and the second mathematical work to be printed in German.  Instruction in the Art of Measurement introduced Northern Europe to the principles and practice of perspective developed in Renaissance Italy by Alberti, della Francesca, and others.  While its immediate application was intended for the fine arts, its methods were applicable to other disciplines such as architecture, lettering and ornamentation, and it therefore became a useful manual to a broad range of artists and craftsmen.