.jpg?w=1)
Details
ZONCA, Vittorio (1568-1602). Nuovo teatro di Macchine ed Edifici. Padua: Pietro Bertelli, 1607.
2o (282 x 188 mm). Copper-engraved title and 42 full-page engraved plates. (Title margins soiled and slightly frayed, dampstained on lower portion of textblock, some marginal soiling). English 17th-century calf (rebacked, corners repaired), quarter morocco folding case. Provenance: 17th-century English translations of plate captions; A. Brownslow (presentation inscription from Rev. W. Joyce, Docking 1870 on front pastedown); Brownslow Inc. the Vicarage Docking (inscription on front pastedown).
FIRST EDITION. "Zonca's was the first of a number of books on machines derived from the unpublished Trattado di architectura of the Sienese architect-engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501). Francesco's work, composed circa 1475, illustrated designs for a variety of machines including mills, pile-drivers, hauling and drayage machines, winches, cranes and pumps, rendered in a distinctive artistic style and with a technical expertise second only to that of Leonardo da Vinci; in fact, Leonardo himself owned and annotated a copy of Francesco's treatise" (Norman). The illustrations in Novo teatro di machine are taken directly from Francesco's work, and show the direct influence Martini's work had on Zonca, Ramelli, Besson, Strada, and others of the 16th-century Italian school of engineers. Berlin Katalog 1775; Cicognara 970; see Dibner 173; Riccardi II, 668-69; Singer Technology III, pp. 41, 172 and 451; Norman 2281.
2
FIRST EDITION. "Zonca's was the first of a number of books on machines derived from the unpublished Trattado di architectura of the Sienese architect-engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501). Francesco's work, composed circa 1475, illustrated designs for a variety of machines including mills, pile-drivers, hauling and drayage machines, winches, cranes and pumps, rendered in a distinctive artistic style and with a technical expertise second only to that of Leonardo da Vinci; in fact, Leonardo himself owned and annotated a copy of Francesco's treatise" (Norman). The illustrations in Novo teatro di machine are taken directly from Francesco's work, and show the direct influence Martini's work had on Zonca, Ramelli, Besson, Strada, and others of the 16th-century Italian school of engineers. Berlin Katalog 1775; Cicognara 970; see Dibner 173; Riccardi II, 668-69; Singer Technology III, pp. 41, 172 and 451; Norman 2281.