BRETEZ, Louis.
La perspective pratique de l'architecture. Contenant par leçons une manière nouvelle, courte et aisée pour représenter en perspective les ordonnances d'architecture & les places fortifiées.
Paris, Charles Antoine Jombert, 1751. Folio. With an engraved frontispiece, and 59 full page engraved plates (52 numbered, 5 unnumbered, 2 with text). Contemporary gold tooled mottled brown calf, red edges, marbled end papers. [2] ll. + 60 plates.
€ 2,500
Enlarged edition of an extensive pictorial course in practical perspective for use of artists, architects and professional draughtsmen, with 60 large and beautifully engraved plates. The course starts with the principles of geometry, and then delves into columns, arches, vaulted ceilings, staircases, perspective for the theatre, and military perspective, including fortifications. It was created by architect and cartographer Louis Bretez (d. 1737), who is well known for designing the famous "plan de Turgot", a splendid bird's eye view of Paris. La perspective pratique de l'architecture is his book and was first published in 1706. The present edition is the second, which has been enlarged with five additional plates.
With a bookplate ("De la bibliothèque de M. ... (?)") mounted on the second free flyleaf . The edges and corners of the boards are scuffed, the boards are somewhat rubbed, lacking the title label on the spine, the hinges have weakened, but the structural integrity of the binding is still intact, missing a portion of leather at the head and foot of the spine. The title page is slightly foxed, some of the plates are slightly soiled, the edges of plate 19 are slightly frayed. Otherwise in good condition. Fowler 66 (mentions only 4 additional plates); Vagnetti EIVb3; cf. Berlin Kat. 4727 (other ed.); Kemp, The science of art, p. 227; not in Catalogue of the British architectural library.
Related Subjects:
