Lot 339: PARIS 1545 -- SERLIO, Sebastiano (1475-1554). Il primo [- secondo ] libro d'architettura... Le premier [- second ] livre d'architecture. Paris: J. Barbé, 1545.

PARIS 1545 -- SERLIO, Sebastiano (1475-1554). Il primo [-secondo] libro d'architettura... Le premier [-second] livre d'architecture. Paris: J. Barbé, 1545.

2o (368 x 239 mm). Title border with the crowned salamander of François I at head and measuring instruments at foot, 132 woodcut illustrations (26 full-page), and one plate. (Light marginal dampstaining at end, d3 torn and repaired.) Modern half vellum.

FIRST EDITION of one of the first modern works on architecture. Serlio's text are concerned with the fundamentals of geometry and perspective "but book two contains three elaborate full-page designs for the theater" (Mortimer). These are a "scène comique" and two "scène satyrique." "Sebastiano Serlio is one of the four Renaissance authors, with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Andrea Palladio, and Vincenso Scamozzi, who surpassed in importance Vitruvius and his sixteenth-century commentators" (Millard). Berlin 2563; Brunet V:304; Fowler 303; Harvard/Mortimer French 492; Millard French 153.