NASH (Paul W.) SAVAGE (Nicholas) BEASLEY (Gerald) MERITON (John) & SHELL (Alison) Compilers.

Early Printed Books 1478-1840: Catalogue of the British Architectural Library’s Early Imprints Collection.

      1994-2003. First Edition 5 Vols., numerous plates, orig. cloth. Early Printed Books includes detailed bibliographical descriptions of some 4200 books published between 1478 and 1840. As well as conventional bibliographical details (transcriptions of titlepages, collations, tables of contents, etc.) the illustrative elements of each work are described in unprecedented detail, in a manner specially-developed for this publication. At the end of each entry, before a description of the RIBA’s copy, there are notes which attempt to set the work in its context, to illuminate its history, critical reception and impact, and to discuss variations and peculiarities in its physical make-up. In many cases these notes are extensive and form, in effect, sustained historical essays on the works and authors under discussion. With the most important authors, attempts have been made to supply complete bibliographies, in addition to the detailed studies of the editions owned by the RIBA Library. Early Printed Books forms the most comprehensive bibliography of architecture and the related arts and sciences ever published. Each volume is illustrated with plates, reproducing woodcuts, engravings, lithographs and text-pages from the works described.The five volumes are arranged alphabetically by author, as follows: Volume 1 (published 1994). A-D (Academie-Dyce), 586 pages, with a foreword by Eileen Harris and an introduction by David Dean. With 35 plates and a frontispiece. This first volume contains descriptions of 960 books, among them important works by Robert Adam, L.B. Alberti (including the 1485 first edition of De Re Aedificatoria), the Blondels, John Britton, Sir William Chambers, Thomas Chippendale, A.B. Desgodetz and J.N.L. Durand.  Volume 2 (published 1995). E-L (Eaton-Lysons), 540 pages, with 37 plates and a frontispiece. A total of 1024 books are described in this volume. Among the authors included are Andrïe Felibien, Benjamin Franklin, Roland Frïart, James Gibbs, William Halfpenny, Inigo Jones, Antonio Labacco, Batty Langley, Jean Le Pautre and J.C. Loudon, as well as the Baron d'Hancarville's celebrated description of Sir William Hamilton’s collection of vases. This volume also includes a substantial collection of British official publications and Acts of Parliament relating to building, arranged under the heading for Great Britain.  Volume 3 (published 1999). M-R (McAdam-Rutter), 713 pages, with 37 plates and a frontispiece. This volume includes descriptions of 898 further books by authors such as Jean Marot, Peter Nicholson, William Pain, Percier and Fontaine, John Plaw, Andrea Pozzo, the Pugins, Raphael, Humphrey Repton, Luigi Rossini and the RIBA itself. This volume also contains extensive descriptions of the works of two of the most important authors in the canon, Andrea Palladio and G.B. Piranesi.  Volume 4 (published 2001). S-Z (Sadeler-Zuccaro), 807 pages, with 36 plates and frontispiece. This volume is the most substantial of the series (although it describes only 859 books), since it includes some of the most influential and widely-read architectural writers of the last two thousand years. Four great Italians - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Sebastiano Serlio, G.B. da Vignola and Vitruvius - are afforded nearly two hundred pages of bibliographical and historical detail. Other notable authors include K.F. Schinkel, Thomas Sheraton, John Shute (author of The First and Chief Groundes of Architecture of 1563, the first English book on the subject), Sir John Soane, the Society of Dilettanti, Stuart and Revett, Giuseppe Vasi, John Wood and Sir Christopher Wren. There are also detailed descriptions of Vitruvius Britannicus (edited by Colen Campbell) and its successor volumes by Woolf and Gandon, and of a unique collection of publisher's catalogues issued by Taylor’s Architectural Library between 1787 and 1828.  Volume 5 (published 2003). Indices, Corrigenda, Appendices and Supplement (A-Z), 840 pages, with 34 plates and a frontispiece. This volume completes the work. In addition to supplying a supplementary bibliography of the remaining 450 works which now make up the Collection, and corrections and additions to volumes 1-4, there are three detailed indices. The general index includes the names of all authors, editors, translators, architects, draughtsmen, engravers, lithographers, wood-engravers, printers and publishers, as well as the titles of the books described. Also included are such ‘copy-specific’ information as the names of owners, donors, annotators and binders of the RIBA copies. Where possible, the exact role of each individual included in the index is indicated. A ‘Selective Subject Index’ gives subject and genre access to the bibliography, and a separate index of printers and publishers allows geographical and chronological analysis of this important aspect of publishing history. This volume also includes appendices of pre-1841 periodicals, shelfmarks and late acquisitions.