VIGNOLA, Giacomo Barozzi da (1507-1573) and Ignazio DANTI (1537-1586). Le due regole delle prospettiva pratica, edited by Danti. Rome: Francesco Zanetti, 1583. 2° (343 x 240mm). Engraved additional title by [?and after] Cherubini Alberto, woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials, woodcut printer's device on colophon [Vaccaro fig. 236], 29 engraved illustrations [?by and after Vignola], 8 full-page, and 122 woodcut illustrations [?after Danti], some full-page (occasional light spotting and marking, some unobtrusive dampstaining, title and some leaves with neat marginal repairs or partially remargined, one engraving trimmed affecting image, lacking final blank T4). Early 19th-century half paper over marbled boards, spine titled in letterpress, red speckled edges (front cover detached, some rubbing and chipping causing small losses on spine, new endpapers, early front free endpaper laid down onto rear free endpaper). Provenance: Hendrick vander Borcht, 1662 (inscription on early free endpaper, possibly Hendrik van der Borcht the younger, Dutch painter and printmaker, 1614-ca.1690). FIRST EDITION. 'THE FIRST PERSPECTIVE BOOK OF IMPORTANCE PRINTED IN ROME and perhaps the earliest in Italy to devote itself entirely to the subject of artificial perspective' (T.K. Kitao, quoted by RIBA). Vignola's Le due regole was probably begun in the 1550s and the drawings were probably finished in 1562 (the date which one of the illustrations bears). However, the work was not published in his lifetime, and the text of this edition is thought to have been established by Vignola and his son Giacinto in 1573, the year of the former's death. The text and the engravings prepared by Vignola were then passed to Ignazio Danti, who edited the work, and wrote an explanation and had the series of illustrative woodcuts prepared, and the work was finally published in 1583, with Vignola's text printed in a larger typeface to distinguish it from Danti's commentary. As Cicognara states, 'Questo è il miglior libro, che da noi si conosca per simili instituzioni, e rende conto giustissimo delle migliori opere precedenti ... La prima di queste edizioni è bellissima per la sua nitidezza' (811). In this copy the engraving on G4r is correctly printed. Adams B249; Cicognara 810; Fowler 386; Harvard Italian 538; RIBA 3444.