Serlio, Sebastiano

Il Sesto [Settimo] Libro Di Sebastiano Serlio Bolognese ?

      presso gli Heredi di Francesco de' Franceschi, 1600. Large 8vo, 2 volumes in 1; 27 leaves; pp. [6], 243; the Williamsburg copy of the second contains 36 pages not present here, likely an index; both titles with woodcut title-page; the first with 20 full-p. woodcut illustrations, the second with 120 woodcut illustrations, of floor plans, elevations, facades, windows, gateways, etc., each with a descriptive leaf of text. Both volumes interleaved throughout with a neat and legible word-for-word translation into English by an early owner, likely John Oliver whose ownership signature is on the title-p.; 19th-century half calf, front cover loose; otherwise very good. The sixth book describes 50 gates and the seventh book describes "noble" buildings, both public and private. Serlio (1475-1554) "is one of the four Renaissance authors ? who surpassed in importance Vitruvius and his 16th-century commentators. The first to publish an original and illustrated architectural treatise in Italian, Serlio was a painter and architect from Bologna ? He was an exact contemporary of Michaelangelo ? His systematic approach to particular kinds of buildings and his typological organization of architecture are the basis for his immediate success and enduring international following. He was the most influential architectural writer on actual building practices. His single principal contribution is that he broke architectural theory up into distinct and separate themes, which were then taken up individually by subsequent writers ? Serlio had initially planned his treatise in seven parts, but left nine different books ? Of these, only books 1-5 were published in his lifetime (including his work on Gates in 1551) ? Books 6-8 were sold by Serlio to Jacopo Strada, who published book 7 in 1575" (Millard, Italian, pp. 395-403). The 1575 Frankfort edition was owned by Thomas Jefferson. Both titles are at Colonial Williamsburg only in OCLC. See Millard, Italian, 128.