BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     After having published in 1566 Serlio's Books I-V, combined with the Extraordinario libro (in-4°) and in 1569 these same books in a Latin translation (in-folio), Francesco de' Franceschi offered an enlarged edition in 1584. This time it included Book VII which had been published for the first time in 1575 in a bilingual version (Italian-Latin) in Frankfort by Jacopo Strada. The work, dedicated to Daniele Barbaro as in 1566, is also placed under the patronage of Vincenzo Scamozzi, celebrated by two sonnets at the beginning of the volume and the person to whom Book VII is dedicated. The index is attributed to Giandomenico, Vincenzo's father, who died in 1582. In the letter with which the collection opens ("Al molto honorato... M. Francesco Senese"), addressed to Francesco de' Franceschi, Ludovico Roncone, the poet from Vicenza, the executor of Scamozzi's will, says he discovered the Index among the father's and son's papers; it would therefore be the fruit of their work in common.
The typographical formatting of the volume in-4° repeats that of the 1566 Venitian edition: the title pages are composed identically, even if they do not always introduce the same books (the title page of Book III harks back to that of Book I, that of Book IV to that of Book II...).

Frédérique Lemerle (Centre national de la recherche scientifique,
Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2006

Critical bibliography

M. Morresi, "L’édition de Tutte l’Opere d’Architettura à Venise chez Francesco de’ Franceschi en 1584", S. Deswarte Rosa (ed.), Sebastiano Serlio à Lyon. Architecture et imprimerie, Lyon, Mémoire active, 2004, pp. 256-257.

M. Vène, Bibliographia serliana. Catalogue des éditions imprimées des livres du traité d’architecture de Serlio (1537-1681), Paris, Picard, 2007, pp. 121-123.