Beschreibung:

DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Institutiones geometricae . Translated by Joachim Camerarius. Paris: Christian Wechel, 1532.
DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Institutiones geometricae . Translated by Joachim Camerarius. Paris: Christian Wechel, 1532. 2° (318 x 220 mm). Woodcut printer's device on title and last leaf, 148 numbered woodcut diagrams in text, tipped-in extensions to diagrams on P6 and Q1. (Occasional light spotting, some light marginal soiling.) 18th-century sprinkled half sheep, red morocco spine label, edges green (extremities lightly rubbed, free endpapers repaired at inner margin). Provenance : Arnaud de Vitry (sold, Sotheby's, 10 April 2002, lot 241). FIRST LATIN EDITION of Dürer's landmark study on the theory of art, introducing to a northern European audience a 'completely new attitude to artistic creation which had crystallized in Italy during the Renaissance' ( PMM ). Dürer explains the application of practical geometry to drawings and paintings: 'these methods were to be applied to architecture, painting, lettering (Dürer designed both Roman and Gothic letters) and ornamental forms in general... in the illustration of these principles lies the great historical importance of Dürer's theoretical writings... they were the foundation of accepted aesthetic dogma until the nineteenth century' ( PMM ). The work was first published in German as Underweysung der Messung at Nuremberg in 1525. Adams D-1046; Harvard/Mortimer French 182; cf. PMM 54.