The first vernacular edition of De Architectura by Vitruvius

De Architectura by Vitruvius.

VITRUVIUS POLLIO, Marcus.

Di Lucio Vitruvio Pollione de Architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in Vulgare affigurati: Cōmentati: & con mirando ordine Insigniti: per il quale facilmente potrai trouvare la multitudine de lí soi loci & in epsa tabula con summo studio expositi & enucleati ad Immensa utilitate de ciascuo Studioso & benivolo di epsa opera.

Como: Gotardo da Ponte for Agostino Gallo and Aloisio Pirovano. 1521. Folio (400 x 270mm), full 16th century vellum; 192 leaves (8 unnumbered leaves, 183 leaves foliated I - CLXXXIII, final leaf with note and errata); printed title with elaborate woodcut vignette 117 woodcut illustrations and diagrams (10 full-page), printer’s device (a smaller version of that for the title) on Z7 verso, errata and editor’s note on Z8 recto, large historiated and foliated white-on-black initials throughout.

A large and complete example of the Como Vitruvius from the library of Baroque architect Domenico Martinelli, the first edition of Vitruvius in the vernacular.

'De architectura' is the only text of Greco-Roman architecture that has survived from antiquity. Composed by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c.90 - c.20 B.C.), a military engineer specialising in siege engines, it was rediscovered in a Swiss abbey library in 1414 and first printed in 1486. This edition, translated by Cesare di Lorenzo Cesariano (1475-1543) and with a commentary by him, was the first in a living language.

The ownership inscription at the rear is that of Tiberio Carretto, dated 1596. On the title is 'Di Domenico Martinelli di Lucca', the famed architect Domenico Martinelli (1650-1718), whose patrons included the Prince of Lichtenstein, William of Orange (William III of England), Count Kaunitz, Jan Sobieski of Poland and the Elector of Brandenburg.

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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