Jefferson's fine arts library :: :: University of Virginia Library

[Half title:] BIBLIOTHEQUE / PORTATIVE / D'ARCHITECTURE
/ ÉLÉMENTAIRE, / A L'USAGE DES ARTISTES. / Divisée
en six Parties. / PREMIERE PARTIE. / Contenant / Les cinq Ordres
d'Architecture de Vignole.

[Title page:] REGLES / DES / CINQ ORDRES / D'ARCHITECTURE.
/ Par Jacques Barrozzio de Vignole. / NOUVELLE ÉDITION,
/ Traduite de l'Italien & augmentée de Remarques. / A PARIS,
RUE DAUPHINE, / Chez Jombert, Libraire du Roi pour l'Artillerie
/ & le Génie, à l'Image Notre-Dame. / M. DCC. LXIV.

8vo. Half title (1 leaf); engraved frontispiece ([ii]); title page ([iii]);
advertisement (v-viii); preface (ix-xii); table of contents (xiii-xiv);
license (xv-xvi); engraved half title (1 unnumbered p.); text (1-72);
67 engraved plates, of which 6 are folding.

The frontispiece was drawn by I. B. Corneille and engraved by I. Mariette.
The plate is very worn and is certainly an earlier plate with the
inscription for this new book superimposed For the title page, see Plate
CXLI.

I. B. (Jean-Baptiste) Corneille (1649-95), born in Paris, studied
with his father, Michel, and Charles d'Errard (see No. 46) as well as in
Rome. He married Madeleine Mariette, sister of Jean Mariette.

Jean (or I.) Mariette (1660-1742), born in Paris, was the son of a
family of painter-engravers. He studied with his brother-in-law, Corneille
and was advised by Charles Le Brun to concentrate on engraving. His

Plate CXLI. From No. 123a. Title page.

362

son Pierre-Jean (or I.) Mariette (1694-1774) had a greater reputation
and became, as well as an engraver, a notable collector of drawings.

Giacomo Barozzio, or Barocchio, da Vignola, called Vignola (150773),
came under the influence of Serlio (No. 113). He worked in Rome
from 1530; was in France, 1541-43; returned to Bologna, 1543-50; and
was in Rome again from 1550. His work both as architect and writer
has had immense influence in the world of architecture.

He published his Due regole della prospettiva pratica in 1538. The
first edition of the Regola delli cinqui ordini was 1562. It has had many
editions, translations, and adaptations since.

In the preface Vignola says:

Mon intention, cher Lecteur, est de vous exposer en peu de mots les
motifs qui m'ont déterminé à composer cet Ouvrage, pour le bien public, &
pour la satisfaction des personnes qui d'adonnent à l'Architecture.

Ayant exercé cet Art pendant bien des années dans les différens pays où
je me suis trouvé, j'ai toujours pris plaiser à examiner soigneusement les sentiments
des divers Auteurs qui ont écrit sur les proportions & les ornemens des
Ordres, en les comparant entr'eux & avec les monumens qui nous restent de
l'Antiquité, dans le dessin d'en tirer une regle certaine dans laquelle on puisse
avoir confiance, & qui fût approuvée par les Maîtres de l'Art, sinon dans son
tout, du moins en sa plus grande partie. Mon unique intention étoit alors de
me faciliter la connoissance de ces proportions, pour en faire usage quand
l'occasion s'en présenteroit. [P. ix]

The book, which is Part I of the Bibliothèque portative d'architecture
issued by Jombert in 1764 (see No. 46), consists mostly of the study
of orders, but there are many details besides. These show paving patterns,
interior entablatures, pedestals "extraordinaires," vaulting, and
symbolic columns.

Jefferson, who had owned only Part IV of the Bibliothèque before
the sale of his library to Congress, managed to obtain all four parts of
the set before his death. That set was sold as lot 723 in the 1829 sale.

He ordered the complete set for the University in the section on
"Architecture" of the want list, but there is no record of the library's
having acquired it. The present copy of the Vignola has come into the
collections recently, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.

U. Va.

*NA2810.V55.1764