Androuet Du Cerceau, Jacques, The Elder

ANDROUET DU CERCEAU, Jacques, the elder (c. 1520-1586). Le premier [second] volume des plus excellents Bastiments de France. Paris: the author, 1576-79.
R2 o (390 x 280mm). 2 volumes bound in one. Collation: A 8 (letterpress title, dedication, description of 15 buildings), [1-64 2 ]: 76 ENGRAVINGS (etching added to some copperplates) on 64 full sheets; 2 A 8 (letterpress title, dedication, description of 15 more buildings, 8 blank), [65-125 2 ]: 71 ENGRAVINGS (etching added to some copperplates) on 61 full sheets. The plates mounted on stubs at the time of binding to facilitate opening the volume. (Several center-folds deteriorated or repaired, a number of plates a little browned, margins of final plate stained.) Early-18 t h -century French mottled calf binding, gilt spine, red-sprinkled edges, original endpapers, (joints cracked, headcap and corners restored).
Provenance: Father Joseph (inscribed on first title, quite possibly by the author: Pere Joseph Jacques with the final s ending in a paraph) -- Acquired from Librairie De Nobele 1965.
FIRST EDITION of "an unparalleled graphic documentation of the royal châteaux and palaces of 16 t h -century France. Dedicated to Catherine de' Medici, the book includes plans, elevations, and perspective views of thirty buildings" (Fons Sapientiae, Dumbarton Oaks 1977, no. 1). Some of the most famous Renaissance buildings that survive today are included: the Louvre, Vincennes, Chambord, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Gaillon, Blois, Amboise, Fontainebleau, Chenonceau, Chantilly and Anet; even more importantly, it forms a record of those that have disappeared, such as the Tuileries and Bury. Androuet du Cerceau is known to have travelled in Italy in the early 1530s. He was largely responsible for introducing Italian Renaissance architecture and decoration to the French court and other aristocratic patrons. This is perhaps a PRESENTATION COPY, but the inscription forms rather brief evidence. FINE IMPRESSIONS. Brun p. 188; Destailleur pp. 26-27; H. von Geymüller, Les Du Cerc