60 Great Books Bauman Rare Books - 36 - “No Architecture Book Has Ever Had Wider Influence”: 1721 Second Edition In English Of Palladio’s Four Books Of Architecture, Superbly Illustrated With 230 Engraved Architectural Plates 34. PALLADIO, Andrea. The Architecture of A. Palladio… Revis’d, Design’d, and Publish’d by Giacomo Leoni. London, 1721. Two volumes. Tall folio, periodstyle three-quarter brown calf gilt. $18,000. Second edition in English of Palladio’s vital treatise on architecture, including essays on building materials, the classical orders and decorative ornaments, with frontispiece portrait and allegorical title page, 218 magnificent copper-engraved plates (15 double-page) on 203 sheets, and 12 in-text engravings—all after drawings by Giacomo Leoni, handsomely bound. For two years, Palladio studied in Rome and in 1570 published his Quattro Libri, which “deals with every aspect of architecture from proportions to townplanning, the whole imbued with the gravitas that Palladio had derived from his study of ancient Rome… No architecture book has ever had wider influence, more especially in England… The Architecture in Four Books of Palladio was translated into English [from Freart’s 1650 French translation] and provided with a fine set of plates, specially redrawn by a Venetian architect, Giacomo Leoni” (Great Books and Book Collectors, 175, 186). Leoni’s edition was first published between 1715 and 1720. By March of 1720, the first edition had successfully sold out, prompting Leoni to offer to buy back any unwanted copies (Harris, 356). This second edition was quickly put through the press and delivered to all 141 new subscribers in 1721. With copper-engraved allegorical frontispiece and full-page portrait of Palladio by Picart. Harris 684. Bookplate of Henry Hoare (1705-85), banker and art patron retained. In 1734, Hoare bought the Palladian mansion Wilbury House in Wiltshire, and was elected MP for Salisbury. Neat repair to Plate V in Volume II, Book IV, remaining plates and text clean and fine. A handsomely bound copy in excellent condition, with a nice provenance.
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