Lot 389: SERLIO, Sebastiano (1475-1554). Il terzo libro [d'architettura] nel qual si figurano, e descrivono le antiquita di Roma, e le altre che sono in Italia, e fuori d'Italia . Venice: Francesco Marcolini, March 1540. 2° (343 x 234mm). Woodcut

SERLIO, Sebastiano (1475-1554). Il terzo libro [d'architettura] nel qual si figurano, e descrivono le antiquita di Roma, e le altre che sono in Italia, e fuori d'Italia. Venice: Francesco Marcolini, March 1540. 2° (343 x 234mm). Woodcut architectural title, woodcut illustrations, some full-page, initials and colophon border. (Dampstaining in the fore- and bottom margins, and in a few leaves, some soiling on the title, light wear to the edges of the first and last leaves, a few illustrations shaved in the fore-margin.) Later, probably 18th-century vellum-backed boards, edges mottled in red (remnant of morocco label on the spine, extremities rubbed, some staining and wear). Provenance: shelf-marks on the pastedowns.

FIRST EDITION. 'The first genuine advance in architectural illustration seems to have been made by Serlio, and his Libro Terzo SET THE TYPE OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION IN ITALY FOR THE REST OF THE CENTURY' (Fowler). Serlio travelled throughout Europe and probably drew most of these ruins and buildings himself; he was 'the first writer of the Renaissance to attempt to publish a coherent, complete and practical theory of architecture in a series of illustrated volumes' (RIBA). Further parts appeared, with a complex publication history, but parts 4 and 3 were issued first. The Berlin Kat. 2560; Fowler 308; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 472; RIBA 2968 and cf.2966.