125a. Vitruvius Pollio.
ABREGÉ / DES DIX LIVRES / D'ARCHITECTURE / DE / VITRUVE.
/ A PARIS, / Chez Jean Baptiste Coignard, / ruë S.
Jacques, à la Bible d'or. / M. DC. LXXIV. / AVEC PRIVILEGE DU
ROY.
12mo. Title page (1 leaf); note (1 leaf); table of contents (4 leaves);
text (1-224); note (1 unnumbered p.); 11 engraved plates with explanations;
glossary (25 unnumbered pp.); license and errata (1 unnumbered
p.).
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who lived at the time of Augustus, was a
Roman architect whose codification of the art of architecture is one of
the earliest documents in the field to come down to us. The rediscovery
of a copy of his treatise caused great excitement. It was first printed in
1486, only some thirty years after the use of movable type became
known.
The translator of this edition says:
On a autrefois imprimé quelques abregez de Vitruve, mais il n'y en a point
où l'on ait suivi le dessein que Philibert de l'Orme en a donné dans son
troisième livre: Il souhaitte qu'en abregeant Vitruve, l'on mette en ordre les
matieres que cet Auteur a traittées confusement, & que ce qui se trouve
despersé en plusieurs endroits appartenant à un mesme sujet, soit amassé en
un seul chapitre. Cette methode que la pluspart des anciens Ecrivans ont
negligée, a esté suivie dans ce Traitté. [Translator's note]
A copy of either the Paris, 1674 or the Amsterdam, 1681 edition
(both translated by Perrault) was in Jefferson's library at the time of
his death and was sold as lot 722 in the 1829 sale. Kimball (pp. 100101)
says it was purchased in 1819 and identifies it as the Paris, 1674
edition, but there is nothing in the sale catalogue to indicate which of
the duodecimo editions it actually was.
Jefferson did not order it for the University. The library's copy of
the Paris, 1674 edition is a recent acquisition, the gift of the Thomas
Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
M?
*NA2515.V742.1674
