Details
FONTANA, Domenico (1543-1607). Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano et delle Fabriche di nostro Signori Papa Sisto V. Rome: Domenico Basa, 1590.
2° (383 x 250mm). Engraved title, portrait frontispiece, and 37 (of 38) plates by Natali Bonifazio da Sebenico after Fontana (2 double-page, 1 folding), 3 diagrams in text including one engraved. (Lacking colophon leaf, supplied in facsimile, lacking plate 75(3) as called for in Fowler, fols. L2.5 and L3.4 reversed in binding, some staining and soiling, several plates shaved or with tears, some repairs, first and final leaves creased.) 18th-century calf, gilt-stamped spine (worn). Provenance: early annotations in Italian (slightly trimmed) and underlining; Diego de Villanueva (1715-1774, ?Spanish architect), inscription laid in; Augustus Pugin (1812-52, English architect), inscription on front flyleaf.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF AUGUSTUS PUGIN. Fontana organised and directed the erection of the Vatican obelisk, the engineering marvel of the century, which required more than 900 men, 150 horses, and 47 cranes. It took 4 and a half months to complete (from 30 April to 10 September 1586), and the plates depicting it are "important examples in the development of architectural drawing" (Fowler). Fowler 124 (with 2 extra plates); Cicognara 3736; Brunet II, 1329; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 193.
2° (383 x 250mm). Engraved title, portrait frontispiece, and 37 (of 38) plates by Natali Bonifazio da Sebenico after Fontana (2 double-page, 1 folding), 3 diagrams in text including one engraved. (Lacking colophon leaf, supplied in facsimile, lacking plate 75(3) as called for in Fowler, fols. L2.5 and L3.4 reversed in binding, some staining and soiling, several plates shaved or with tears, some repairs, first and final leaves creased.) 18th-century calf, gilt-stamped spine (worn). Provenance: early annotations in Italian (slightly trimmed) and underlining; Diego de Villanueva (1715-1774, ?Spanish architect), inscription laid in; Augustus Pugin (1812-52, English architect), inscription on front flyleaf.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF AUGUSTUS PUGIN. Fontana organised and directed the erection of the Vatican obelisk, the engineering marvel of the century, which required more than 900 men, 150 horses, and 47 cranes. It took 4 and a half months to complete (from 30 April to 10 September 1586), and the plates depicting it are "important examples in the development of architectural drawing" (Fowler). Fowler 124 (with 2 extra plates); Cicognara 3736; Brunet II, 1329; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 193.