Beschreibung:

Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus. Architecture ou Art de bien bastir, de Marc Vitruve Pollion Autheur Romain antique mis de latin en Françoys, par Jan Martin Secretaire de Monseigneur le Cardinal de Lenoncourt. Pour le Roy très chrestien Henry II. Paris: (Barbe Herissault & heirs of Jean Barbé for) Jacques Gazeau, 1547
First edition in French, A tall copy with deckle edges in a fine contemporary binding attributed to the workshop of Gomar Estienne.
This first French publication of Vitruvius enabled his work to be accessible not just to scholars, but also to those without Latin, as the translator states on D2v. Jean Martin was a humanist scholar who made other translations from Italian into French, including the architectural works of Alberti and Serlio, and he states that he is trying to be as clear as possible in his translation, with explanations of terminology where necessary, rather than being strictly literal.
The woodcuts are partly based on those from the 1511 and 1521 editions of Vitruvius, with other original woodcuts, all of which were cut by Jean Goujon; some of the cuts were used in Barbé's earlier edition of Serlio. The woodcut portrait on the title is considered to be the translator Jean Martin or possibly the printer. Jean Barbé died while the book was in preparation, and the name in the title-page imprint is of his brother-in-law and business partner.
The elegant binding is similar to some executed by the Atelier de Fontainebleau for Henri II, a few of which also had the stippled ground imitating marble (such as Ptolemy, Cosmographia, BN lat. 4802), and to some bindings on Thomas Wotton's books made by Wotton Binders B and C, who also created bindings with painted black interlaced decoration (such as Davis Gift 42 and 47). Another binding from the workshop of Gomar Estienne with painted highlights on some tools is on a Hebrew manuscript bible now in the Bibliothèque nationale, MS Hebrew 16 (illustrated in Fabienne Le Bars, "Marusias & Co: the influence of Hieronymus Cock's print series on bookbinding in sixteenth-century Paris, Simiolus 39 (2017), 197-214, p.208).
Folio (382 x 257 mm), ruled in red. Roman type, with chapter titles in italic, 45 lines plus headline. collation: πA4 A-Cc6 [2]A-D6: 184 leaves (Cc6 and D6 blank). Woodcut portrait of bearded man on title-page and repeated on final verso, 160 woodcut illustrations, including 31 full-page or nearly full-page blocks, F5 with an additional printed sheet pasted to foredge to produce a folding leaf. (Erased ownership inscription on title, ff. 2 & 3 remargined, probably supplied from another copy, ff. 74, 76, and 77 remargined, probably at the time of binding).
binding: French tan gilt and painted calf by Gomar Estienne (378 x 254 mm), probably made ca 1552, covers with interlaced strapwork and azured leafy stamps and swirls, some tooling with traces of gilt but also possible oxidised silver, all heightened with black, green, yellow and white paint, with some sections filled with a stippled ground of black, green, yellow and white paint, stubs from 2 pairs of fabric ties, flat spine decorated by interlaced black strapwork forming a line of 7 lozenges stippled with black, green, yellow and white paint, plain gilt edges. In a modern morocco window drop-backed box by P. Goy & C. Vilaine. (Some areas of repair and restoration to covers, particularly at corners, probably with some retouching of paint, joints and head and tail of spine repaired with a few sections of interlaced decoration repainted, lower cover slightly stained, repaired tear to front flyleaf.)
provenance: Le Vallois, early inscription on rear flyleaf — blue gilt booklabel of a bird — pencil collation by Lucien Scheler on flyleaf. acquisition: Purchased in 2016 from Stéphane Clavreuil, London. references: BAL RIBA 3509; Fowler 403; Mortimer, Harvard French 549; USTC 23492