Vitruvius, The Architecture, 1826 First Edition

Description: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio held the important post of chief army engineer for Julius Caesar's legions. As such, he had broad responsibility for building war machines such as catapults, siege towers, and artillery ballistas. He was responsible for camp locations, cleanliness, aqueducts, road building, and fortifications. He traveled with Caesar throughout the Empire and studied Greek architecture and engineering. We know all this about Vitruvius because he tells us as much in his book De Architectura, libri decem (The Architecture in Ten Books), dedicated to Julius Caesar's nephew and successor, Caesar Augustus. In his book Vitruvius gives primary attention to the science, art, and engineering involved in building structures of any sort. We today would call this the discipline of architecture, but ancient architects were responsible for much more than just architecture. Vitruvius discusses site location, water management, landscaping, surveying, interior decoration, acoustics, materials, craftsmanship, and even the effect a building has on the health of the occupants. His guiding principle is that all structures must be based on the qualities of firmitatis, utilitatis, and venustatis - stability, utility, and beauty. De Architectura was rediscovered in 1414 by Poggio Bracciolini, who dedicated his life to publishing ancient texts found in monasteries throughout Italy. The work allowed Renaissance architects to learn the secrets of the ancient Romans and Greeks, and fostered a revival of interest in classical architecture that continued to exist until the early twentieth century. Michaelangelo, Bramante, and Palladio all consulted Vitruvius, as did many Renaissance humanists, the most notable of whom was Leonardo da Vinci. One of the great appeals of classical architecture is that the third principle of beauty is accomplished by recognizing that man himself is the model for all buildings, because his body is beautifully proportioned. Vitruvius described this sense of proportion in a famous passage in which he discusses what has come to be known as Vitruvian Man: The navel is naturally placed in the center of the human body, and if in a man lying with his face upward, and his hands and feet extended, from his navel as the centre, a circle be described, it will touch his fingers and toes. It is not alone by a circle, that the human body is thus circumscribed, as may be seen by placing it in a square. For measuring from the feet to the crown of the head, and then across the arms fully extended, we find the latter measure equal to the former; so that the lines at right angles to each other, enclosing the figure, will form a square. The beauty of this image was evident to Vitruvius as it was to Renaissance thinkers. Man is indeed the measure of all things. His figure embodies the perfection of the circle and the square, and his body is proportionate in all important respects. Thus too should the structures he builds, lives in, and worships in, correspond to the perfect proportions of the human body. Vitruvius' book describes the ways in which ancient architects followed the rules of proportionality in all of their buildings. Renaissance artists tried mightily to draw the Vitruvian Man, as he was called, within both a circle and square, but the results were always awkward. It was Leonardo who realized that Vitruvius was wrong in one critical step. A circle does indeed encompass the proportions of a man when centered on the navel, but for the square to work it must be centered on the genitals. This is made clear in Leonardo's famous drawing of Vitruvian Man, included here for you as a reference (but not part of De Architectura). Upon the publishing of the original text of De Architectura in Latin, scholars began the task of translating the work in other languages. One of the most famous translations in English is that of Joseph Gwilt (a painting of him is included in the photos here, and is in the National Gallery in London). Gwilt's father was an architect and surveyor, and Gwilt established his own architectural credentials when he entered the Royal Academy as a student at age 17. A trip to Italy in 1816 introduced him to Roman architecture, and he determined to undertake the scholarly task of translating Vitruvius to English. Gwilt hired the very best artists and draftsmen to draw the plates included in the book, which depicts for example the three orders (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) as they apply to columns. Gwilt's De Architectura went through several reprintings and changes in his lifetime, and remains a best seller among architectural books even today. This is because De Architectura is a foundational, essential book for understanding classical architecture, as no other book like it has survived antiquity. The artistic aspects of Gwilt's book are of high enough standards that first editions are to be found in the collections of the Getty Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art, as an example. The 1826 first edition is also, of course, found in almost all national libraries. Joseph Gwilt provides a list in the front of his book of all of the gentlemen who subscribed to the first edition, and from this we can surmise that about 270 copies were distributed, before a second edition was printed almost immediately thereafter. The fact that so few copies of the first edition were published, and that most of these today are in public museums and libraries, means that private copies rarely come on the market. If you are an architect, or if you know someone starting out in the field, this first edition of Gwilt's De Architectura would be a brilliant, and scarce addition to a personal library.

Price: 1430 USD

Location: Morris, Illinois

End Time: 2024-11-26T22:40:17.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.63 USD