"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

PALLADIO, Andrea. The Architecture of A. Palladio; In Four Books Containing A Short Treatise of the Five Orders, and the most necessary Observations concerning all Sorts of Building… Revis'd, Design'd, and Publish'd by Giacomo Leoni. London: John Darby, 1721. Two volumes. Tall folio (11-1/2 by 18 inches), period-style three-quarter calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, red morocco spine labels, marbled boards.

Second edition in English of Palladio's enormously important 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.

Although the first part of Palladio's monumental work had been translated into English in the 1600s, it was not until Giacomo Leoni's 1715 first edition in English that the complete work was published. Leoni's edition ignited the great Palladian revival in England and its American colonies. Thomas Jefferson, for example, had many copies in his library and used Palladio as a basis for his design of Monticello. When ordering the capitals for the Pavilions at the University of Virginia from Italy, Jefferson specified that they be carved after particular plates in this 1721 edition. "Palladio is the Bible," he told a friend whom he urged to get a copy of the treatise, "and stick close to it" (Randall, 151).

One of the few architects of the early Renaissance to be trained as a builder, Palladio was recognized by the great Italian architect and scholar Trissino and adopted as his protégé. For two years Palladio studied in Rome and in 1570 published his Quattro Libri, which "deals with every aspect of architecture from proportions to town-planning, 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. It was swiftly translated into other languages and went through numerous editions. There can be no major city in Europe that does not contain a building influenced by Palladio, and there are a great many more in America… 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 advertise in the Daily Courant an 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. It includes essays on building materials, the classical orders and decorative ornaments, Palladio's own designs and his reconstructions of Greek and Roman designs, plans for ancient towns, bridges, highways, and basilicas, and plans for the reconstruction of early Roman temples. With copper-engraved allegorical frontispiece and full-page portrait of Palladio by Picart. Harris 684. Fowler 224. See Avery 160. Bookplate of Henry Hoare (1705-85), banker and art patron, owner of a "Palladian mansion," retained on front pastedowns. Hoare's grandfather was the founder of Hoare's Bank. "Henry (known in the family as Henry the Magnificent) moved to Stourhead [designed by Colen Campbell, author of Vitruvius Britannicus] on his mother's death in 1741, but succeeded his father immediately as a partner of Hoare's Bank in 1726, abandoning his previous life, which he had led largely at Quarley in Hampshire 'hunting and drinking with other young men of his age', and applied himself to serious study of the classical writers. In 1734 he bought the Palladian mansion Wilbury House in Wiltshire, and was elected MP for Salisbury. Later he went abroad to pursue his study of painting and began collecting works of art. The death of his uncle Benjamin made him undisputed senior partner of the bank and the steady rise in deposits and profits reflected his constant attendance to bank affairs" (ODNB).

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.