Traité de perspective, où sont contenus les fondemens de la Peinture.

8vo: xxi-[3]-227-[9] pp.

Contemp. sheep, multiple blindst. borders on covers, gilt orn. spine on 5 raised bands (joints sl. rubbed and starting to split), marbled edges.

First edition of this extensively illustrated perspective handbook by the French Oratorian, mathematician and theologian B. Lamy (1640-1715). Engr. ill.: one fold. pl., 9 full-page pl. and 62 in text. "The work illustrates the 18th-c. attitude among the French authors of avoiding excessive abstraction in presenting the theory of perspective. Lamy distinguished between "perspective aerienne" (aerial) and "perspective lineale" (linear), which was not very common in his day. In his practice of perspective Lamy concentrated upon the construction of the image of a grid of squares by means of a distance point method. He then used the perspective grid for various procedures, such as determining the perspective image of a plane configuration [...] constructing images on a vault [...] and creating an anamorphosis".
Ref. BnF. - COPAC. - Cicognara 843. - Andersen, The Geometry of an Art, p. 472-473.