Sagredo, Raison d'architecture antique, Paris, 1555, contemporary limp vellum gilt with HD stamp

Sagredo, Diego de. Raison d'Architecture Antique, extraicte de Vitruve, & autres anciens Architecteurs, nouvellement traduicte d'Espaignol en François, à l'utilité de ceulx qui se délectent en edifices. Paris: (Benoît Prévost for) Gilles Gourbin, 1555

A French version of Diego de Sagredo's Medidas del romano of 1526; see lot 592 for the first French edition in the same anonymous translation. This edition was divided between two Parisian publishers: Guillaume Cavellat and Gilles Gourbin. This copy has the title page with the Gourbin imprint, but with Cavellat's hen device on the verso of leaf g8, which is usually blank in Gourbin copies.

The monogram HD on the binding is widely attributed to Hierosme Du Vivier; for a red morocco binding with the same monogram, with more details about Du Vivier, see lot 578.

4to (204 x 151 mm). Roman type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: a-g⁸: 56 leaves. Woodcut headpieces and initials, 113 woodcut architectural illustrations (4 leaves with foredges folded to retain the marginal woodcuts), woodcut printer's device on final verso. (Some dampstaining and cockling, small wormhole in first few leaves.)

binding: Remboîtage of contemporary French limp vellum richly gilt (203 x 162 mm), gilt centre- and cornerpieces on a ground of a small leaf stamp, monogram HD surrounded by S-fermés in blank central section of centrepiece, decorated overlapping foredge flaps, flat spine gilt, faded red edges. (Dampstain to rear cover, binding somewhat warped, new pastedowns.)

provenance: Possibly Hierosme Du Vivier (fl. 1660-ca 1720), monogram on binding — Lecoq(?), early inscription on title-page — Charles Friesé (1901-1970, architect and bibliophile), bookplate. acquisition: Purchased in 2015 from Llibreria Antiquària Comellas, Barcelona. references: Mortimer, Harvard French 478; USTC 77612; not in the standard architectural literature