De sculptura liber [and:] Ludo[vici] Demontiosii De veterum sculptura, caelatura, gemmarum sculptura, & pictura libri duo [...] [ed. Matthias Martini].

4to: [8]-174-[2 bl.] pp. (toned, some spotting or marginal soiling, tear in front flyleaf).

Old limp sp. boards, flat spine (tanned, front cover loosening). Good copy.

Important early treatise on art, sculpture, physiognomy, classical literature, and aesthetics. It has been called the first printed book describing the principles of perspective. It inaugurated a new conception of art historical criticism. The 1st ed., published in 1504 (Florence), is considered the earliest of all treatises on the history of art. Gaurico’s treatise, devoted to bronze sculpture, is very much the culmination of a cultural shift. Although treating for the most part traditional technical questions (line, perspective etc.), he does so in a wide-ranging way. Its most notable contributions include the creation of a system of descriptive categories and a more formal consideration of physiognomy as a topic of aesthetic consideration. The work is also the principal source for many important biographical facts in the lives of artists. His standard of taste is basically that of the cultivated humanist of the day with a penchant for stylish classicizing (Mantegna). Pomponio Gaurico (1481-1532) was Prof. of Philology at the University of Naples, poet and humanist par excellence. His brother Luca was a celebrated mathematician, and made an influential Latin translation of Peckham’s treatise on perspective. With an additional treatise on sculpting by the 16th-c. French author Louis de Montjosieu. A third work announced on the title (Abraham Gorlaeus’ Dactylotheca - a collection of plates) is, as often, not present. Engraved title.
Ref. Cicognara 279. - Simoni (BL) M-51. - Not in STCN, STCV.