EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION OF THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT ENGLISH EDITIONS OF PALLADIO ~ The First English edition of Palladio (1663); Leoni’s first edition of The Four Books (1715 to 19) ; Isaac Ware’s translation (1738)

Three Landmark Editions  · 1663 · 1715 · 1738

Exceptional opportunity to acquire the three most important English editions of Palladio — landmark publications in the history of British Palladianism. Each copy collated complete, with all leaves and plates present and in their original bindings – a state remarkable in any one of these editions, let alone all three together.

1. 1663 – THE FIRST BOOK OF ARCHITECTURE BY ANDREA PALLADIO

Godfrey Richards’ Palladio – The First Edition in English of any text deriving from Palladio

London: Printed by J.M. and sold by G. Richards … and by Simon Miller …, 1663.

Quarto.  Engraved frontispiece by John Chantry; 63 etched plates and 3 folding plates; woodcut diagrams within the text.

Bound in 17th-century mottled calf, single gilt filet, gilt spine, red leather lettering label (originally label replaced),  skillfully re-backed preserving original spine, rubbed at extremities.  Remarkable to find in its original binding.

Title trimmed with some loss; date partially erased from title; a few pencil marks; occasional spotting and staining.

Before Richards, there were few books in English dedicated to Architecture and no English translation of any part of Palladio’s work existed. As the author writes in his preface to the Reader: “The Scarcity of Books of Architecture in English, and the zeal which I find our Ingenious Artists have to entertain any thing of that Subject, encouraged me this Essay..”

Since the appearance of this book in 1663, more has been written about Palladio than any other architect in history.  This small volume is therefore of crucial importance in the development of the Anglo-Palladian movement and the history of architecture.

[Fowler 219: “important because it was the first presentation of Palladio in English and it had great influence on the development of English architecture”;

Richards’ translation was substantially derived from Pierre Le Muet’s French version, Traicté des Cinq Ordres (Paris, 1645), and encompassed Book I only, together with Le Muet’s additional material on the design of windows, doors, and staircases. Despite this borrowing, the book was immensely popular for over seventy years among British builders and carpenters, running through twelve editions.

It was not until Giacomo Leoni’s complete edition published between 1715 and 1720 that all Four Books of Palladio appeared in English.

The British Library’s original copy of this edition was destroyed in the Second World War. A British Library Journal entry (Department of Printed Books Acquisitions, 1965–1975) records that the Library’s copy — apparently the earliest known — was acquired only from the Patent Office, and was described as apparently unique at the time.

The Library’s original copy of this edition was destroyed in the war. It is an extremely rare book, and was, until the apparently unique copy of the 1663 edition was acquired from the Patent Office, the earliest known edition of this extremely influential work. British Library Journal : Department of Printed Books Acquisitions 1965-1975.  English Books 1641-1700. By M. J. Jannetta:

The present copy is complete. The erratic pagination after p. 198 matches exactly two other complete copies examined. In his dedication to his “Worthy and much Honoured Friend, Daniel Colwall, Esq.,” Godfrey Richards describes the work as “intended for an assistance to our Ingenious Workmen”.

Alongside Palladio it carries original designs by William Pope for roof construction and timber framing — this was not a book for the library shelf but a working manual for the English building trade. Our copy belonged to one W(illia)m Shaw whose name is inscribed on the endpapers. His practical noted on the rear pastedown detail measurements of cornices, quantities of plaster, etc.  Practical architectural books of this early period are nearly always found in poor condition and few survive the centuries intact.  Moreover this copy of Richard’ 1663 Palladio was published three years before the Great Fire of London – it is likely that many copies were lost in the conflagration.

Copies in any condition let alone those retaining all the pages (including the front and rear endpapers), the three folding sheets and the 63 etched plates are of the greatest rarity in the marketplace.  

II. 1715 – 1719 – THE ARCHITECTURE OF A. PALLADIO IN FOUR BOOKS

Giacomo Leoni’s Edition · The First Complete English Translation of the Four Books of Palladio. 

London: Printed by John Watts, for the Author, 1715.

4 parts in 5 tall folios issued in parts between 1715 and 1720.  Splendid engraved allegorical frontispiece designed by Sebastian Ricci;  portrait of Palladio engraved by Picart; list of subscribers; 218 copper-engraved plates some signed by Picart, Vandergaucht. (15 double-page and folding) on 203 sheets; 12 in-text engravings, all after drawings by Giacomo Leoni.

A superb, unsophisticated large paper set as issued in five volumes.  Collated complete with all the text pages, endleaves and plates present. The unpressed pages and plates particularly clean and bright and printed on thick paper.  No cleaning, washing or restorations of any kind. .

Contemporary reverse calf/suede, the boards elegantly blind-tooled.  Probably a publishers binding as delivered from the John Watts printing house between 1715 & 1720. Somewhat rubbed and worn at head and foot of the spines.  Some reversed calf fragments have peeled away from boards in a few places.  Notwithstanding, these are very appealing bindings in entirely original unrestored state.  Worming in inner margins of volume II touching edge of a few engraved plates, some worming in upper blank margins of volume V.  The Earls of Macclesfield North Library armorial bookplate with handwritten press mark 113.H.9 in all five volumes.

The first complete English translation of Palladio’s Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, marking a turning point in the history of British Palladianism.   Its publication ignited the Palladian revival in England and its American colonies, directly influencing the Earl of Burlington, William Kent, Colen Campbell, and, later, Thomas Jefferson. The trilingual volumes carry parallel texts in Italian, French, and English.

This spectacular production was the successful venture of Giacomo Leoni, a Venetian architect recently arrived in England from the court of the Elector Palatine at Düsseldorf. Leoni had “resolved from the beginning to spare no Expense” on his sumptuous publication.  The printer was John Watts, London’s most important printing house in the first half of the eighteenth century. Revered for  “excellently good printing” this was the shop where many eminent printers including Benjamin Franklin learned their craft.  The English text was commissioned from the renowned military engineer and architect Nicholas Dubois.  The celebrated Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci was engaged to design the frontispiece and portrait of Palladio.  The esteemed French engraver  Bernard Picart of Amsterdam alongside three leading London engravers – Vandergucht, John Harris and John Cole – were commissioned to reproduce his redrawn and shaded plates.  The thirty-nine plates from Picard’s shop were executed in Amsterdam.

Book I was published in 1715 as per Leoni’s advertisement in the Daily Courant.  Initial recipients included the Countess of Burlington, Thomas Archer, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Sir John Vanbrugh, Dubois, and Leoni’s fellow Venetians – the painters Sebastiano and Marco Ricci.  Book II was issued in 1717.  Book III came out in 1718 – The “List of those who have subfcribed to this Work, after the Publication of the First and Second Books” most notably included His Czarian Majesty, Emperor of Great Russia; His Highness The  Duke of Parma, Earl of Burlington and Sir Robert Walpole.  Book IV appeared the following year with a roster of Italian subscribers. On January 15, 1720 the final volume was issued with a royal privilege affording copyright protection for 14 years.

Leoni’s landmark publication was first complete English translation of Palladio’s Quattro libri.  Leoni allowed himself considerable (Baroque) license in interpreting Palladio’s original 1570 woodcuts  introducing ‘many necessary Corrections with respect to Shading, Dimensions, Ornaments, &c.’ The annotations by Inigo Jones announced on the title page never appeared in this edition: they were first included in the third Leoni edition, of 1742.

The first edition was only available by subscription: 308 names appear in the subscriber’s list, although fewer copies were printed.  Leoni ran out of copies of Books I and II as early as March 1720.

Complete copies of the first Leoni edition in any condition are uncommon.  Fine, unsophisticated copies in their original bindings, with all leaves (including endleaves) and plates fresh, bright and intact are very rare indeed. This set is in Country library fresh condition as with numerous books from The Earls Of Macclesfield Removed From Shirburn Castle. Other than the present Macclesfield copy,  the last such excellent unrestored example was the Duke of Newcastle’s set sold by Sims Reed more than 20 years ago. 

III. 1738 – THE FOUR BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE 

Isaac Ware’s Translation produced for Lord Burlington: The Most Accurate English Edition

London: Isaac Ware, 1738. Folio 4 parts in one volume, 2o (447 x 290 mm). 4 engraved sectional title pages.  213 numbered engraved plates, the first 7 in the letterpress text, 205 full-sized folio plates; engraved headpieces and tailpieces by P. Fourdrinier and Isaac Ware after William Kent;

The title borders and plates are reverse productions on copper of the original woodcuts of 1570. The unsigned plates are by Ware. 

First and Only Edition of Isaac Ware’s translation made from the original Italian edition from 1570.  An exceptionally fine and handsome copy bound in contemporary mottled calf.

Text and plates bright and virtually pristine. This copy contains the often missing list of subscribers; index; Dedication by the translator to the Earl of Burlington, acknowledging his assistance, signed by Isaac Ware.  Collated complete with all plates. The pages and plates bright. The finest copy of this book that we have seen in commerce, at auction or in libraries.

First edition of Isaac Ware’s English translation of Palladio’s I Quattro Libri – the definitive and only translation for almost 260 years, until the publication in 1997 of Robert Tavernor and Richard Schofield’s translation for the MIT Press.  Isaac Ware’s translation — sponsored by Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington — is generally considered the best and most reliable English edition (ODNB). It was the third English translation of the complete treatise, but the first to be taken directly from the Italian original rather than from an intermediary French version. Ware’s qualifications were exceptional: his profession as an architect, his skill as a draughtsman and engraver, his access to Burlington’s collection of Palladio drawings, and his command of Italian made him uniquely suited to the task.

‘Ware’s translation was the most literally reliable of any; for this he was expressly indebted to Lord Burlington, who ‘with his own hands’ revised and corrected it. The plates however were entirely his work. He exactly traced and engraved them himself; but, although he was very much more faithful to the originals than Leoni had been, he did on occasion add a little shading of his own, and, in order to present a tidier appearance, separated plans and elevations that were overlapping in the Italian edition.’ (Eileen Harris assisted by Nicholas Savage. British Architectural Books And Writers 1556-1785. Cambridge, 1990).

In promoting his own competing translation in 1737, Isaac Ware accurately observed that Leoni ‘thought fit not only to vary from the scale of the originals, but also in many places to alter even the graceful proportions prescribed by [Palladio], by diminishing some of his measures, enlarging others, and putting in fanciful decorations of his own. . . .’

Publication was in parts: Book I appeared in June or July 1737, dated 1738 on the title page, with the remainder published before 1743. Ware’s engraved illustrations — though reversed mirror images of Palladio’s original woodcuts — remained the most accurate English renderings available for over 250 years.

The list of illustrious subscribers include Burlington, John, 5th Earl of Orrery, Sir Robert Walpole, Matthew Brettingham, Henry Flitcroft, Willliam Kent, Roger Morris, Thomas Ripley and John Wood [the Elder], William Hogarth Francis Hayman, and Samuel Johnson.