BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

      This brief collection of five plates followed by a page of explanations was printed by the publisher Johann Petreius, who also published Ryff’s other books, the Der furnembsten notwendigsten der gantzen Architectur Bericht in 1547 and the first edition of the Vitruvius Teutsch in 1548. Here we have a short 6-leaf summary of the orders (in-quarto), which, like the author’s other books, draws on previous Italian publications: Cesariano’s Vitruvius (1521) and Serlio’s Terzo libro (1537). The first is the inspiration for leaf 5, which repeats the engravings of folio LXIII representing the five orders. As for the second, it shows the models of the first four plates. Unlike Serlio, Ryff does not deal with the five orders successively, but like Alberti and Sagredo, he analyzes the different parts of the columns, beginning with the bases and the pedestals (f. 1), then giving examples of capitals (f. 2) and entablatures (ff. 3-4). In fact, this is not really a treatise on the orders, but rather an anthology of fragments of monuments from antiquity, temples, arches and various other monuments, with a specific list in the text which concludes the book.

Yves Pauwels (Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2014

Critical bibliography

I. Dann, “Walther Ryff”, H. Günther (ed.), Deutsche Architekturtheorie zwischen Gothik und Renaissance, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1988, pp. 79-88.

H. Günther, “Les ouvrages d’architecture publiés par Walther Hermann Ryff, à Nuremberg en 1547 et 1548”, S. Deswarte-Rosa (ed.), Sebastiano Serlio à Lyon. Architecture et imprimerie, Lyon, Mémoire Active, 2004, pp. 501-503.

J. Jachmann, Die Architekturbücher des Walter Hermann Ryff: Vitruvrezeption im Kontext mathematischer Wissenschaften, Stuttgart, Ibidem-Verlag, 2006.

H. Röttingen, Die Holzschnitte zur Architektur und zum Vitruvius Teutsch des Walther Rivius, Strasbourg, Heitz, 1914, pp. 21-22.