DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). De varietate figurarum et flexuris partium ac gestibus imaginum ... nunc primum in Latinum conversi. Translated from German into Latin by Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574). Nuremberg: Hieronymus Formschneyder, 1534.

DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). De varietate figurarum et flexuris partium ac gestibus imaginum ... nunc primum in Latinum conversi. Translated from German into Latin by Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574). Nuremberg: Hieronymus Formschneyder, 1534.

2o (293 x 195 mm). Roman type. 60 leaves including four fold-out sheets printed on both sides. Approximately 60 full-length proportional woodcuts of human figures, many two to a page, and numerous smaller, geometrical or proportional woodcut diagrams, mainly of the human head, 4 fold-out sheets, 2 printed on both sides. (A few margins closely cropped, occasionally just clipping woodcuts or captions, a little light staining to joins in fold-out sheets, occasional very faint marginal finger-soiling.) Modern vellum, gilt-lettered spine label.

First edition in Latin of Books 3 and 4 of Drer's Vier Buecher von Menschlicher Proportion (Nuremberg, 1528). The posthumous translation was the work of the classical scholar Joachim Camerarius, who had access to Drer's papers after his death. "Without Camerarius' efforts, Drer's works would not have had their extraordinary popularity in Europe. His language, in its idiomatic originality, could not possibly be understood by those European scholars who were not familiar with German. Michelangelo would never have seen Drer's Theory of Proportion were it not for Camerarius' Latin translation" (Exhibition Catalogue, Albrecht Drer, Nuremberg 1971, p. 253). Adams D- 1049; BM/STC German, p. 256; Fairfax Murray German 153.