Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo

4to (9 1/2 x 7 7/8 in.; 244 x 174), Engraved title-page, 13 full-page engraved illustrations (some after Dürer, one with folded margin), numerous woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces, large woodcut device on colophon; light dampstain all over the volume, some small holes in margins, not affecting text or illustration, trimmed very shortly (especially the upper margin) affecting words, engraved title and colophon printed on thicker paper (supplied?). Early seventeenth century red morocco binding, gilt panels with corner ornaments, gilt fillets, spine compartments with gilt title and ornaments; rubbed, some very small ink stains, little wormholes.

Philip Lord Hardwicke (bookplate)

STC 16698; ESTC S111822; Harris 519

First English translation of books 1-5 of Lomazzo's Trattato (first published in Milan in 1584). "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, rather than its exhaustive exposition of later Mannerist theory imbued with the religious principles of the Counter Reformation" (Harris, p.297). The original text was unillustrated; the images here were supplied by Haydock and are his earliest extant engravings.

Very fine copy of the first treatise on painting to be published in English