Descrizione

PALLADIO, ANDREA – I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura …
Venice, Domenico de Franceschi, 1570 (but Giambattista Pasquali, circa 1768-1770).

Folio (340×245 mm.), solid late 19th cent. stiff vellum, with title on calf label at spine, pastedowns in marbled paper, a clean copy with wide margins, in very good condition (very light waterstains to some leaves, a couple of leaves foxed). Engraved frontispiece replicating the title-page of the 1570 first edition, pp. (4), 63, [1]; (2), 76; (4), 42, [4]; (2), 131, [1], text completely illustrated with engravings perfectly copied from the 1570 original woodcuts.

This is the anthological edition of the Palladio’s 1st edition published in Venice by Pasquali on expenses of Consul Joseph Smith (who was the editor), to celebrate the 200 years anniversary from the Editio Princeps.
We know that already in 1759 Joseph Smith was thinking about this project and then he commissioned it to the printer Pasquali, also confirmed in the will of Joseph Smith, redacted the 5th April, 1761. Tommaso Temanza (the author of Palladio’s biography, edited in 1762) collaborated actively at this project since 1759, and probably also the famous engraver Antonio Visentini was called to give a hand, as a consultant for the engraving of the plates (then prepared by Pietro Monaco). Until today no direct references are available to establish the true date of this edition, except for a letter of Francesco Milizia to Temanza, dated 24 December 1768 (cfr Bottari-Ticozzi, 1822, p. 87), announcing the upcoming listing for sale on the market of this work. Fowler 232.