![DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel unn richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], 1525. – [Bound with:] Etliche underricht, zu befestigung der Stett, Schlosz, und Flecken. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], October 1527. -- Hierinn sind begriffen vier bücher von menschlicher Proportion. Edited by Willibald Pirckheimer. Nuremberg: Hieronymus Andreae Formschneider for Dürer's widow, 31 October 1528.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/NYR/2016_NYR_12262_0083_000(durer_albrecht_underweysung_der_messung_mit_dem_zirckel_unn_richtschey101841).jpg?w=1)
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DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel unn richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], 1525. – [Bound with:] Etliche underricht, zu befestigung der Stett, Schlosz, und Flecken. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], October 1527. -- Hierinn sind begriffen vier bücher von menschlicher Proportion. Edited by Willibald Pirckheimer. Nuremberg: Hieronymus Andreae Formschneider for Dürer's widow, 31 October 1528.
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DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel unn richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], 1525. – [Bound with:] Etliche underricht, zu befestigung der Stett, Schlosz, und Flecken. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], October 1527. -- Hierinn sind begriffen vier bücher von menschlicher Proportion. Edited by Willibald Pirckheimer. Nuremberg: Hieronymus Andreae Formschneider for Dürer's widow, 31 October 1528.
First editions. An important Sammelband containing three treatises Dürer wrote toward the end of his life and which he also designed for the press. These include: a treatise on mensuration which introduced to Northern Europe techniques of perspective and mathematical proportion in drawing, painting, architecture and letter forms, which Dürer learned in Italy; a treatise on fortification; and a work on the proportion of the human body. The last work, issued shortly after Dürer's death, was the first work to discuss the problems of comparative and differential anthropometry.
3 works bound in one, folio (308 x 211 mm) comprising: Underweysung: 90 leaves (with final blank). Numerous woodcuts of geometrical diagrams and architectural renderings, two, on P4v and Q1r, extended with pasted-in folding slips to demonstrate a point in perspective, two figures on C5v and K1r printed on pasted-in cancel slips correcting the original figures; two half-page woodcuts showing artists using Dürer's drafting apparatus for drawing in perspective, the second with Dürer's monogram and dated 1525 (as are 2 of the triumphal column cuts); roman and gothic alphabets. (Some staining, dampstaining to upper margin, P1v and P2r with dark staining affecting a few lines.) -- Etliche underricht: title with large woodcut arms of Ferdinand I, 20 woodcut illustrations or diagrams of fortifications some with folding extensions, G1 errata-leaf; woodcut fraktur initials (A few holes to folding plates affecting text, some soft creases some browning and staining). – Proportion: Dürer's large woodcut monogram on title, approximately 136 full-length proportional woodcuts of human figures, many two to a page, and numerous smaller, geometrical or proportional woodcut diagrams, some of individual body parts (heads, arms, hands or feet), fraktur initials, flourished woodcut tail-piece ornaments, 5 fold-out sheets printed on both sides, colophon on verso of Z3, Gothic type, mostly double-column. (Some browning and staining.) Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over beveled, two brass clasps and catches (one catch missing, lower board with clean crack at center, some rubbing and staining). Provenance: “PS” (early woodcut bookplate); Joseph and Josephine W. Drexler (bookplate)’ Lucy Wharton Drexler (bookplate). Adams D-1057.
Unlike his Italian contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci, who published nothing, Dürer lived and worked in the world of printing and engraving. The son of a goldsmith, Dürer's godfather was Anton Koberger, who left goldsmithing to become the leading printer and publisher in Nuremberg. At the age of 15 Dürer was apprenticed to the leading artist in Nuremberg, Michael Wolgemut, whose workshop produced a large quantity of woodcuts. Throughout his career Dürer embraced the latest and best reproduction techniques, and may have derived more income from the sale of engravings and woodcuts than from painting. The Sammelband includes:
Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel unn richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen. FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest mathematical works published in German. Although written after his treatise on human proportion, the Underweysung der messung was the first of Dürer’s three theoretical works on art to be published. Conceived as a practical guide to the rules of geometry and principles of perspective for artists, architects, sculptors, stonemasons and other craftsmen, the work introduced to northern Europe a system of projection that had been refined by the artists of the Italian Renaissance. In it, Dürer formulated a comprehensive and mathematically sound basis for the realistic depiction of natural objects in space. "The connection of the beautiful with the natural, of the work of art with what is correct (i.e. mathematical) was a typical concept of the Renaissance. In the illustration of these principles lies the great historical importance of Dürer's theoretical writings... they were the foundation of accepted aesthetic dogma until the nineteenth century" (PMM). "Except for the Geometria Deutsch (ca. 1486-1487), a book of arithmetical rules for builders which Dürer knew and used, the Underweysung der messung is the first mathematics book in German. With its publication Dürer could claim a place in the front ranks of Renaissance mathematicians" (DSB). Berlin Kat 4607; Bohatta Ia; Meder XXVI 1; Norman 665; PMM 54; Stillwell Science 161; Fact and Fantasy 165.
Etliche underricht, zu befestigung der Stett, Schlosz, und Flecken. FIRST EDITION, with the rare errata leaf, and uncorrected text. This treatise on the fortification of city, castle and marketplace was a practical work, inspired by the menace of a Turkish invasion. "As well as summarizing the science of fortification it contains some of Dürer's chief architectural work... Many of his ideas were put to use..." (DSB). Two editions were printed in the same month, the first with uncorrected text and an errata leaf (as here), and the other without the errata and the errors in the text corrected. A minority of copies of this first edition contain an extra folding sheet with a monogrammed woodcut dated 1527 showing a fortress under siege (Bartsch 137, not present here). Adams D-1057 (as Part II of the Underweysung); Fairfax Murray German 151 ("second edition"); Bohatta 11a; Cockle 766; Meder XXVIII 1; Stillwell Science 835.
Hierinn sind begriffen vier bücher von menschlicher Proportion. FIRST EDITION. Although published posthumously, Dürer's treatise on human proportion was the earliest of the three theoretical works written in his latter years. Dürer began formulating mathematical rules for the proportions of the human form soon after his first trip to Venice in 1494-5. For his mathematical formulations he drew upon the works of antiquity as well as the Italian rediscoveries; as for his other theoretical works, his goal was to establish a scientific basis for aesthetics and to provide practical guidelines for draftsmanship. "The book is the synthesis of Dürer's solutions to his self-imposed formal problems; in it he sets forth his formal aesthetic... Dürer's aesthetic rules are based firmly in the laws of optics--indeed, he even designed special mechanical instruments to aid in the measurement of human form. He used the height of the human body as the basic unit of measurement..." (DSB). Book IV is of the greatest interest as it presents for the first time many "new, difficult, and intricate considerations of descriptive spatial geometry... Dürer's chief accomplishment as outlined in the Vier Bücher is that in rendering figures...he first solved the problem of establishing a canon, then considered the transformation of forms within that canon... In so doing he considered the spatial relations of form and the motions of form within space" (DSB). Bohatta 17; Choulant-Frank, pp. 143-144; Garrison-Morton 149; Meder Dürer-Katalog XXIX 1; NLM/Durling 1295; Norman 666; Stillwell Science 622.).
First editions. An important Sammelband containing three treatises Dürer wrote toward the end of his life and which he also designed for the press. These include: a treatise on mensuration which introduced to Northern Europe techniques of perspective and mathematical proportion in drawing, painting, architecture and letter forms, which Dürer learned in Italy; a treatise on fortification; and a work on the proportion of the human body. The last work, issued shortly after Dürer's death, was the first work to discuss the problems of comparative and differential anthropometry.
3 works bound in one, folio (308 x 211 mm) comprising: Underweysung: 90 leaves (with final blank). Numerous woodcuts of geometrical diagrams and architectural renderings, two, on P4v and Q1r, extended with pasted-in folding slips to demonstrate a point in perspective, two figures on C5v and K1r printed on pasted-in cancel slips correcting the original figures; two half-page woodcuts showing artists using Dürer's drafting apparatus for drawing in perspective, the second with Dürer's monogram and dated 1525 (as are 2 of the triumphal column cuts); roman and gothic alphabets. (Some staining, dampstaining to upper margin, P1v and P2r with dark staining affecting a few lines.) -- Etliche underricht: title with large woodcut arms of Ferdinand I, 20 woodcut illustrations or diagrams of fortifications some with folding extensions, G1 errata-leaf; woodcut fraktur initials (A few holes to folding plates affecting text, some soft creases some browning and staining). – Proportion: Dürer's large woodcut monogram on title, approximately 136 full-length proportional woodcuts of human figures, many two to a page, and numerous smaller, geometrical or proportional woodcut diagrams, some of individual body parts (heads, arms, hands or feet), fraktur initials, flourished woodcut tail-piece ornaments, 5 fold-out sheets printed on both sides, colophon on verso of Z3, Gothic type, mostly double-column. (Some browning and staining.) Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over beveled, two brass clasps and catches (one catch missing, lower board with clean crack at center, some rubbing and staining). Provenance: “PS” (early woodcut bookplate); Joseph and Josephine W. Drexler (bookplate)’ Lucy Wharton Drexler (bookplate). Adams D-1057.
Unlike his Italian contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci, who published nothing, Dürer lived and worked in the world of printing and engraving. The son of a goldsmith, Dürer's godfather was Anton Koberger, who left goldsmithing to become the leading printer and publisher in Nuremberg. At the age of 15 Dürer was apprenticed to the leading artist in Nuremberg, Michael Wolgemut, whose workshop produced a large quantity of woodcuts. Throughout his career Dürer embraced the latest and best reproduction techniques, and may have derived more income from the sale of engravings and woodcuts than from painting. The Sammelband includes:
Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel unn richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen. FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest mathematical works published in German. Although written after his treatise on human proportion, the Underweysung der messung was the first of Dürer’s three theoretical works on art to be published. Conceived as a practical guide to the rules of geometry and principles of perspective for artists, architects, sculptors, stonemasons and other craftsmen, the work introduced to northern Europe a system of projection that had been refined by the artists of the Italian Renaissance. In it, Dürer formulated a comprehensive and mathematically sound basis for the realistic depiction of natural objects in space. "The connection of the beautiful with the natural, of the work of art with what is correct (i.e. mathematical) was a typical concept of the Renaissance. In the illustration of these principles lies the great historical importance of Dürer's theoretical writings... they were the foundation of accepted aesthetic dogma until the nineteenth century" (PMM). "Except for the Geometria Deutsch (ca. 1486-1487), a book of arithmetical rules for builders which Dürer knew and used, the Underweysung der messung is the first mathematics book in German. With its publication Dürer could claim a place in the front ranks of Renaissance mathematicians" (DSB). Berlin Kat 4607; Bohatta Ia; Meder XXVI 1; Norman 665; PMM 54; Stillwell Science 161; Fact and Fantasy 165.
Etliche underricht, zu befestigung der Stett, Schlosz, und Flecken. FIRST EDITION, with the rare errata leaf, and uncorrected text. This treatise on the fortification of city, castle and marketplace was a practical work, inspired by the menace of a Turkish invasion. "As well as summarizing the science of fortification it contains some of Dürer's chief architectural work... Many of his ideas were put to use..." (DSB). Two editions were printed in the same month, the first with uncorrected text and an errata leaf (as here), and the other without the errata and the errors in the text corrected. A minority of copies of this first edition contain an extra folding sheet with a monogrammed woodcut dated 1527 showing a fortress under siege (Bartsch 137, not present here). Adams D-1057 (as Part II of the Underweysung); Fairfax Murray German 151 ("second edition"); Bohatta 11a; Cockle 766; Meder XXVIII 1; Stillwell Science 835.
Hierinn sind begriffen vier bücher von menschlicher Proportion. FIRST EDITION. Although published posthumously, Dürer's treatise on human proportion was the earliest of the three theoretical works written in his latter years. Dürer began formulating mathematical rules for the proportions of the human form soon after his first trip to Venice in 1494-5. For his mathematical formulations he drew upon the works of antiquity as well as the Italian rediscoveries; as for his other theoretical works, his goal was to establish a scientific basis for aesthetics and to provide practical guidelines for draftsmanship. "The book is the synthesis of Dürer's solutions to his self-imposed formal problems; in it he sets forth his formal aesthetic... Dürer's aesthetic rules are based firmly in the laws of optics--indeed, he even designed special mechanical instruments to aid in the measurement of human form. He used the height of the human body as the basic unit of measurement..." (DSB). Book IV is of the greatest interest as it presents for the first time many "new, difficult, and intricate considerations of descriptive spatial geometry... Dürer's chief accomplishment as outlined in the Vier Bücher is that in rendering figures...he first solved the problem of establishing a canon, then considered the transformation of forms within that canon... In so doing he considered the spatial relations of form and the motions of form within space" (DSB). Bohatta 17; Choulant-Frank, pp. 143-144; Garrison-Morton 149; Meder Dürer-Katalog XXIX 1; NLM/Durling 1295; Norman 666; Stillwell Science 622.).