Palladio, I quattro libri, Venice, 1570, calf-backed boards

PALLADIO, ANDREA

I quattro libri dell'architettura... ne' quali, dopo un breve trattato de' cinque ordini, & di quelli avertimenti, che sono piu necessarii nel fabricare; si tratta delle case private, delle vie, de i ponti, de i xisti, et de' tempii. Venice: Domenico de' Franceschi, 1570

4 parts in one volume, folio (296 x 200mm.), titles within elaborate architectural woodcut border, woodcut initials, numerous woodcut illustrations and diagrams (some full-page), woodcut printer's device on final verso, with blank leaf kk4 but without blank leaf 4R4, seventeenth-century Italian calf-backed boards, early annotations, title-page with small repair at foot, signature I2 shaved, a few small marginal tears and repairs, small stain at foot of gutter in 4G-4H, binding repaired at head of lower joint, spine chipped at head, extremities slightly rubbed, otherwise a good copy

FIRST EDITION of Palladio's magisterial and widely influential architectural treatise, which both describes his own buildings and analyses the design and construction of major surviving Roman buildings. Palladio first travelled to Rome in 1541 to examine Roman remains and he collaborated with Daniele Barbaro on his edition of Vitruvius of 1556.

LITERATURE:

BAL RIBA 2383; Censimento 16 CNCE 27391; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 352; PMM 92

PROVENANCE:

P.D., 1937, pencil inscription on flyleaf