![DRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel von richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen, ... zu nutz allen kunstlieb habenden. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], 1525.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/NYP/1998_NYP_08854_0078_000(104748).jpg?w=1)
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DRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel von richtscheyt in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen, ... zu nutz allen kunstlieb habenden. Nuremberg: [Hieronymus Andreas Formschneider], 1525.
2o (288 x 200 mm). Collation: A-N6 O-Q4. 89 leaves (of 90, without final blank Q4). Gothic type. Bohatta's first state of the title-page, errata on Q3v. Two large woodcuts of artists using apparatus for drawing in perspective, woodcuts on nearly every page of geometrical diagrams, architectural designs, and roman and gothic lettering, of which several full-page and one double-page, woodcut diagrams on C5v and K1r printed on pasted-in cancel slips, woodcuts on P4v and Q1r extended with pasted-in folding slips, stabbed farmer in woodcut on I1v bloodstained. (Occasional light mostly marginal foxing, woodcut on M6r just shaved, repaired fold break to slip on Q1r, marginal stain to K4-6.) Modern blind-tooled morocco over pasteboard, pair of brass clasps, by Philip Dusel. Formerly bound with a copy of the first German edition of Johannes ab Indagine's popular treatise on chiromancy and physiognomy (Strassburg, 1523), as suggested by an early inscription on title.
FIRST EDITION of Drer's treatise on mensuration, one of the earliest mathematical works published in German. Although written after his treatise on human proportion (see lot 79), the Underweysung der Messung was the first of Drer'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 Drer formulated a comprehensive and mathematically sound basis for the realistic depiction of natural objects in space. "The connexion 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 Drer'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 Drer knew and used, the Underweysung der Messung is the first mathematics book in German. With its publication Drer could claim a place in the front ranks of Renaissance mathematicians" (DSB).
Adams D-1057; Berlin Katalog 4607; BM/STC German p. 256; Bohatta Ia; PMM 54; Stillwell Science 161; Norman 665.
2o (288 x 200 mm). Collation: A-N6 O-Q4. 89 leaves (of 90, without final blank Q4). Gothic type. Bohatta's first state of the title-page, errata on Q3v. Two large woodcuts of artists using apparatus for drawing in perspective, woodcuts on nearly every page of geometrical diagrams, architectural designs, and roman and gothic lettering, of which several full-page and one double-page, woodcut diagrams on C5v and K1r printed on pasted-in cancel slips, woodcuts on P4v and Q1r extended with pasted-in folding slips, stabbed farmer in woodcut on I1v bloodstained. (Occasional light mostly marginal foxing, woodcut on M6r just shaved, repaired fold break to slip on Q1r, marginal stain to K4-6.) Modern blind-tooled morocco over pasteboard, pair of brass clasps, by Philip Dusel. Formerly bound with a copy of the first German edition of Johannes ab Indagine's popular treatise on chiromancy and physiognomy (Strassburg, 1523), as suggested by an early inscription on title.
FIRST EDITION of Drer's treatise on mensuration, one of the earliest mathematical works published in German. Although written after his treatise on human proportion (see lot 79), the Underweysung der Messung was the first of Drer'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 Drer formulated a comprehensive and mathematically sound basis for the realistic depiction of natural objects in space. "The connexion 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 Drer'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 Drer knew and used, the Underweysung der Messung is the first mathematics book in German. With its publication Drer could claim a place in the front ranks of Renaissance mathematicians" (DSB).
Adams D-1057; Berlin Katalog 4607; BM/STC German p. 256; Bohatta Ia; PMM 54; Stillwell Science 161; Norman 665.