Beschreibung:

DIETTERLIN, Wendel (c. 1550-1599). Architectura de constitutione, symmetria, ac proportione quinque columnarum . Nuremberg: Hubert and Balthasar Caymox, 1598.
DIETTERLIN, Wendel (c. 1550-1599). Architectura de constitutione, symmetria, ac proportione quinque columnarum . Nuremberg: Hubert and Balthasar Caymox, 1598. 2° (344 x 238mm). 210ll. of consecutively numbered plates and text; plates 187/188, 196/197, 202/203, 204/205 conjoined to form 4 folding sheets. Title in red and black with etched architectural border, etched portrait of the author, 4 etched part titles, and 193 (of 195) plates. 8 text leaves (of 9), in Latin and French, ff.23 including an engraved illustration. (Lacks plates 106 and 163 and final colophon leaf 210, general title creased, preliminaries misbound, waterstaining affecting plates particularly in the early part, slight tears to folds.) 17th-century calf, front cover with initials E[dward] P[earci] incised (rebacked and recornered, subsequently rubbed, scuff marks and large chip to front cover). Provenance : Edward Pearci, 1647 (ownership inscription on title; binding) -- John Pearci, 1659 (inscription on title) -- Edward Bird 1668 (inscription on preface leaf). FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, also published simultaneously in German. Fowler observes that 'the plates depict the most fantastic designs in the most lurid taste which show, for the most part, no regard for the possibility of execution in any building material'. The numbering is partly on the plates, and partly in ms, with some ms correction to the plate numbering 'almost certainly emanating from the publisher's office' (RIBA). There are known to be variant issues, and the numbering itself is not consistent. Cf. Fowler 105 (German edition); BAL/RIBA 881 (German edition, variant); Fairfax Murray German 134.