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FONTANA, Domenico (1543-1607). Della trasportatione dell'obelisco vaticano et delle fabriche di nostro signore papa Sisto V…. Liber primo. Rome: Domenico Basa, 1590.
2º (420 x 280mm). Engraved title and portrait by Natal Bonifacio, 40 engravings after Fontana, 35 full-page, one folding, 2 double-page, and 2 half-page on one leaf, one of the last signed by Girolamo Rainaldi, both in first state. Three diagrams in text, one engraved, woodcut initials, many plate descriptions within type ornaments. (A few leaves browned, some worming at inner or bottom margins, a little staining and occasional thumb soiling.) Contemporary vellum with flat spine and yapp edges (some stains, slightly bowed). Provenance: Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (1578-1637; title several times inscribed ‘Bibliotheca Archid. Ferdinandi’) – shelf marks – bookplate removed.
FIRST EDITION OF FONTANA'S REMARKABLE ENGRAVINGS DEPICTING ONE OF THE ENGINEERING FEATS OF THE CENTURY, FERDINAND II’S COPY. The first twelve plates concern the execution of Fontana’s plan for moving the huge obelisk from behind the sacristy of St. Peter's, where it had lain since the reign of Caligula, to its present location at the center of the Piazza. In Dibner's words, the plates constitute 'one of the handsomest and most complete records of any engineering problem' (Moving the Obeslisks, Norwalk, Conn., 1952, p.25).The book's other plates are devoted to the papal palace and other buildings that Fontana executed for Sixtus V who died in the year of publication. BL/STC Italian p.272; Brunet II, 1329; Cicognara 3736: ‘opera pregevole per la dottrina di questo valente meccanico, e dotto architetto’; Dibner, Heralds 174; Fowler 124; Honeyman 1334; Mortimer/Harvard Italian 193; Norman 812; Olschki 16955; Riccardi I, 466.
2º (420 x 280mm). Engraved title and portrait by Natal Bonifacio, 40 engravings after Fontana, 35 full-page, one folding, 2 double-page, and 2 half-page on one leaf, one of the last signed by Girolamo Rainaldi, both in first state. Three diagrams in text, one engraved, woodcut initials, many plate descriptions within type ornaments. (A few leaves browned, some worming at inner or bottom margins, a little staining and occasional thumb soiling.) Contemporary vellum with flat spine and yapp edges (some stains, slightly bowed). Provenance: Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (1578-1637; title several times inscribed ‘Bibliotheca Archid. Ferdinandi’) – shelf marks – bookplate removed.
FIRST EDITION OF FONTANA'S REMARKABLE ENGRAVINGS DEPICTING ONE OF THE ENGINEERING FEATS OF THE CENTURY, FERDINAND II’S COPY. The first twelve plates concern the execution of Fontana’s plan for moving the huge obelisk from behind the sacristy of St. Peter's, where it had lain since the reign of Caligula, to its present location at the center of the Piazza. In Dibner's words, the plates constitute 'one of the handsomest and most complete records of any engineering problem' (Moving the Obeslisks, Norwalk, Conn., 1952, p.25).The book's other plates are devoted to the papal palace and other buildings that Fontana executed for Sixtus V who died in the year of publication. BL/STC Italian p.272; Brunet II, 1329; Cicognara 3736: ‘opera pregevole per la dottrina di questo valente meccanico, e dotto architetto’; Dibner, Heralds 174; Fowler 124; Honeyman 1334; Mortimer/Harvard Italian 193; Norman 812; Olschki 16955; Riccardi I, 466.
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