View full screen - View 1 of Lot 550. Leonardo da Vinci, Traitté de la peinture, Paris, 1651, modern red morocco gilt in period style.

Leonardo da Vinci, Traitté de la peinture, Paris, 1651, modern red morocco gilt in period style

Auction Closed

July 9, 02:57 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 4,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Leonardo da Vinci. Traitté de la peinture de Leonard de Vinci donné au public et traduit d'italien en françois par R.F. S. D.C. Paris: Jacques Langlois, 1651


First French edition of Leonardo's Treatise on Painting, dedicated to Nicolas Poussin, as premier peintre du Roy, by the translator, Roland Fréart, sieur de Chambray ("R.F. S. D.C."). Fréart had obtained a privilege for both the French and Italian versions on 30 April 1650; the privilege also covered Fréart's Parallèle de l'architecture (lot 524) and his translation of Palladio, indicating that all these works were part of the same intellectual project at the Imprimerie royale (the two Leonardo texts were printed by Langlois, and the other two by Edmé Martin). The privilege also gives Leonardo's text a different name, Arte della pittura.


It is now generally accepted that the Italian version (lot 552) was published before the French. Both editions are dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden, but while the Italian is also dedicated to Charles Errard, who provided the engravings, this later French edition is dedicated to Nicolas Poussin, the artist now closely associated with Leonardo's Trattato, who had seemingly been unhappy with the reworking of his drawings by Errard and the lack of acknowledgement in the Italian edition for his role in the Trattato project.


The French edition contains an illustration of the Mona Lisa for chapter CCLXXXVVII, which is not used in the Italian version.

For a full account of the creation of Leonardo's Trattato and the first printings, see the catalogue note to lot 549.


Folio (372 x 250 mm). Roman and italic type, 44 lines plus headline. collation: â4 +4 ++2 A-Q4: 74 leaves, text leaves with the watermark of the arms of Cardinal Richelieu. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Leonardo (with a different armorial watermark), engraved vignette on title-page, engraved initial, head- and tailpieces, engraved illustrations within decorative frames, some engraved by René Lochon after designs by Poussin reworked by Charles Errard.


binding: Modern red morocco gilt (378 x 266 mm), tooled in strictly period style, two frames of triple gilt fillets with leafy corner stamps, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges. 


acquisition: Purchased in 2011 from Laurent Coulet, Paris.