The German Vitruvius: fine illustrated edition, Praun copy

Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus. Zehen Bücher von der Architectur und künstlichem Bawen. Ein Schlüssel und einleytung aller Mathematischen unnd Mechanischen Künst, Scharpffsinniger fleissiger nachtrachtung oder Speculation künstlicher Werck […]. Alles mit schoenen künstlichen Figuren unnd Antiquiteten, und sonderlichen Commentarien […] gezieret und erkleret.

€ 18,000.00

A handsome copy of the first German translation (in its second edition) of the only architectural treatise to survive from classical antiquity. Considered the supreme authority by Italian Renaissance architects, it became the single most influential work for the later development of European architecture.

The translation by Walther Hermann Ryff (Rivius) was first issued in 1548. This finely illustrated edition boasts a total of 190 woodcut blocks, the majority of which are reprinted from the first. "The illustrations are attributed to Peter Flötner, Virgil Solis, Georg Pencz, Hans Brosamer and Erhard Schön, with initial letters by Hans Springinklee. They are mainly based on the 1521 Como edition, but many of the plates were used in Ryff's Bawkunst [1547]" (Fowler, p. 317f.). Chipps Smith concludes that Flötner was the principal artist of the project and that his designs were followed by Solis and Pencz. "Excepting Serlio's 'General Rules of Architecture' of 1542, the 'Vitruvius teutsch' was the first significant architectural treatise published in German. Much of the technical information was still relevant to 16th century architects and artists" (Chipps Smith).

This copy was originally owned by Baron Paul von Praun, one of the greatest art collectors of his day, who owned 250 significant paintings (including Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Dürer, and Titian), as well as forty terracotta models by Michelangelo. The present volume appears in Christoph Theophile de Murr's 1797 inventory of the collection (where it is listed as "Vitruvius verteutschet durch D. Gaultherum H. Rivium, Med. et Mathem. Basel, 1575").