BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE



Author(s)

Salomon de Caus

Title La perspective...
Imprint London, J. Norton, 1612
Localisation Paris, Bnf, Res-V-442 (Gallica)
Subject Perspective
Transcribed version of the text

French

     The issue of the Perspective dated from 1612 is signed John Norton « Imprimeur du Roi de la grande Bretaigne, aus langues estrangeres ». It is often considered to be the first because of the rarity of the issue also published in London, in 1611, the preceding year, by the printer to the King, Robert Barker, who had put out the same year the "King James Bible", one of the seminal texts of English literature. Contrary to the Ensba copy, the Perspective of 1612 comprises the privilege granted to Salomon de Caus on November 18, 1611, for six years, added to one plate was its number (12) which did not appear in 1611, and the inscription "point de hauteur" below at the left.

Frédérique Lemerle (Centre national de la recherche scientifique,
Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2010

 

Critical bibliography

J. Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses ou magie artificielle des effets merveilleux, Paris, Perrin, 1969.

J. Baltrusaitis, Anamorphoses ou Thaumaturgus opticus, Perspectives dépravées, Paris, Flammarion, 1984, vol. 2.

D. Bessot, "Salomon de Caus (c. 1567-1626) : archaïque ou précurseur?", D. Bessot, Y. Hellegouarc'h & J.-P. Le Goff (eds.), Destin de l'art, Desseins de la Science, Caen, ADERHEM/IREM de Basse-Normandie, 1991, p. 293-316.

J.-P. Le Goff, "Tout ce que uous auez tousiours uoulu sçauoir sur la uie et l’œuure de Salomon de Caus (ca. 1576–1626), et entre autres choses : l’histoire d’un savant du premier XVIIème siècle aliéné au XIXème siècle et un manuscrit inédit (ca. 1625) de Salomon de Caus à la Bibliothèque de Valenciennes (ms. 339)", Circulation, transmission, héritage, Caen, IREM de Basse-Normadie, 2011, pp. 503-543.

C. S. Maks, Salomon de Caus, 1576-1626, Paris, Imprimerie Jouve & Cie, 1935.

A. Marr, "A Duche graver sent for : Cornelis Boel, Salomon de Caus, and the production of La perspective avec la raison des ombres et miroirs", T. Wilks (ed.), Prince Henry Reviv'd : Image and Exemplarity in Early Modern England, London, Paul Holberton Publishing, 2007, pp. 212-238.

L. Morgan, Nature as model : Salomon de Caus and early seventeenth-century landscape design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.

L. Vagnetti, De Naturali et Artificiali Perspectiva (bibliography on perspective). Studi e Documenti di Architettura, 9-10, Florence, Edizione della Cattedra di composizione architettonica IA di Firenze e della L.E.F., 1979, EIIIb7.