Durer, Albrecht (1471-1528)

"ALBERTI DURERI CLARISSIMI PICTORI ET GEOMETRA DE SYMMETRIA PARTIUM IN RECTIS FORMIS HUMANORUM CORPORUM, LIBRI IN LATINO CONUERSI. Norimbergae, Excudebatur Opus aestate a Christo Servatore Genito M.D.XXXII in aedibus viduae Durerianae (1532)"

      "Description : [in folio] - leaves [80] with woodcut illustrations.Collation : A-E6 , F4, G-N6, O4Note : missing O[4] last blank leaf. Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 – April 6, 1528) German painter and engraver. He was born and died in Nuremberg. Dürer is best known in art history as one of the outstanding creators of old master print. His printed works were often executed in series, including the Apocalypse (1498) and his two series on the passion of Christ, the Great Passion (1498–1510) and the Little Passion (1510–1511). Dürer's best known individual engravings include Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and speculation. His most iconic images are his woodcuts of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1497–1498) from the Apocalypse series, the ""Rhinoceros"", and numerous self-portraits in oils. The artist probably did not cut his own woodblocks but employed a skilled carver who followed his drawings faithfully. Durer’s artworks earned his author considerable reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded among the greatest artist of the Renaissance in Northern Europe ever since. His work reflected the spirit of his time, when social and religious upheaval were common. He was sympathetic to the reform work of Martin Luther, who at Dürer's death wrote to a friend, ""Affection bids us mourn for one who was the best’Despite complaining of his lack of formal education, especially in the classical languages, Dürer was greatly interested in intellectual matters, and learned much from his great friend Willibald Pirckheimer, whom he no doubt consulted on the content of many of his images. He also derived great satisfaction from his friendship and correspondence with Erasmus from Rotterdam and other contemporary scholars. Dürer succeeded in finishing and producing two books during his lifetime. One on geometry and perspective, The Painter's Manual (more literally, the Instructions on Measurement) was published at Nuremberg in 1525 and it is the first book to be published on mathematics in German. His work on fortification was published in 1527, and his work on human proportion of which the present copy is the first latin edition was brought out in four volumes shortly after his death at the age of fifty-six, in 1528 in german language and translated and 4 years in latin between 1532 ( first 2 parts) and 1534 ( third and fourth part) by Joannis Camerarius .Dürer’s reputation spread throughout Europe already during his lifetime, well beyond his native city of Nuremberg, a thriving center of trade and culture. Like Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer became deeply involved in scientific and mathematical studies; his application of scientific principles to the creation of art marks the beginning of art theory in Northern Europe and Germany particularly. This rare volume includes the first two books of Dürer’s De Symmetria Partium in Rectis Formis Humanorum Corporum (Books on the normal proportions of the parts of the human form), it is the first latin edition by Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574) of the Von menschlicher Proportion. It will be only 2 years later in 1534 that the following 2 books titled De varietate figurarum et flexuris partium will separately appear by the same printer. Dürer’s beautifully illustrated study of the measurements and proportions of the human form is a pioneering work in scientific illustration containing a large number of wonderfully carved full pages woodcuts of the human body in its entirety and in different positions, with a whole array of different projection schemes for measuring human proportions. Dürer’s intriguing designs had definitely a major impact on Northern Renaissance art. A modern reader may find it difficult to see how the decision to originally write and publish this books in German was a problem for Renaissance humanists. Yet even Erasmus qualified his praise of Underweysung der Messung adding the observation that the otherwise excellent book was written in the vernacular. Indeed Camerarius’ Latin edition, illustrated using the original woodblocks of the german edition, laid the foundations for the international reception of Dürer’s writings and delivered its original message to the general audience of artists, scholars and scientists of the time outside the boundaries of Germany.Attractive copy in overall good antiquarian condition of this very rare work, late mute paperboard binding, a few internal marginal defects including old reparations at marginal tears on the lower margins at leaves N3, N4 and N[5] and a restoration to integrate the lower right end corner worn out due to use on titlepage for about one centimeter, a few marginal contemporary notes in black ink, and some stains, the last blank leaf of the last gathering o[4] is missing as reported in note of the physical description, for the rest a nice copy of this very rare and important book.FIRST LATIN EDITIONEXTREMELY RARE Cfr.: Graesse, II, 452; Wellcome, II,1920 ; Bohatta, 28. Meder, p. 289. Choulant-Frank, pp. 143-147. Cicognara, 321. Bestermann, Old Art Books, 34. Durling, 1299. B. ROEHR, History and bibliography of artistic anatomy, pp. 58-59 e 377: ""The first illustrated treatise on proportions"". Schlosser-Magnino, 274"