( 1557 - 1614 )
Folio (425x275 mm). Two parts bound in one on later half leather with gilded title on spine. Old ex-libris on binding. Engraved title-page. With Medici coat of arms arms at the top and those of Sirigatti at foot of title-page, repeated on title-page of part two. Large woodcut printer's device at the end of the volume. Light occassional discolouring, but overall in very fine condition. 1 ff. (allegorical titlepage), 3 ff. (of dedication and index), 43 plates numbered with parallel text, 1 f. (large woodcut printer's device), 22 copper engraved plates (including the title-page of the second part) numbered 44-65. i.e. 65 plates in total - fully complete. The rare first edition of this most important work on the art of perspective: "Questa e la più elegante delle edizioni di libri prospettici per i tipi, pei caratteri, per la carta" (Cicognara 860). Sirigatti's work is famous for being one of the very earliest thorough works solely dedicated to the art of perspective. Combining the visual language of the German book tradition of Lencker and Jamnitzer with the Italian tradition of linear perspective treated previously by Serlio and Barbaro and earlier that of Leon Battista Alberti (unillustrated), as applied to stage design and architectural theory, this is one of the seminal Italian works on the subject of perspective. Presumably this work functioned as basis for Galileo s drawing technique.The book quickly became very popular and several Italian editions were reprinted in the 17th century; its reputation was so long-lived that an English translation was published no less than 160 years after the original. The work is divided in two parts: The first part is dedicated to the elementary rules of perspective to plane and solid geometric figures (which also contain musical instruments like the lute (plate 41 and 42)). The second part depicts architectural elements, facades of palaces and churches, in polyhedrons of various forms and regular Platonic solids, with several references to Luca Pacioli's "divina proportione". Furthermore, Sirigatti famously contributed to the study of theatrical perspective: "He is the first to mention that the full effect of the perspective frame, for instance in a stage set, can be enjoyed only by those sitting along the main axis. This is a fundamental aspect of absolutist theater that no doubt had been noticed by designers of princely entertainments earlier, but is first commented on in print by Sirigatti, whose observations were taken up more extansively by Pietro Accolti." (Millard).Two problems were endemic in perspective designs. First, because perspective scenery exploits the difficulty of the eyes in judging the sizes and distances of objects, it works best by assigning the spectator to a single point of vision and manipulating relative magnitudes to make small images represent objects that are larger and farther away. Second, the apparent magnitude and distance of painted objects tended to clash with the fixed size of live actors when applied to the theater, threatening to produce absurd combinations of scale when performers wandered upstage. Sirigatti was first to "acknowledge the problem of spectator position. Sirigatti proposed a way to combine a painted perspective backdrop with fixed three-dimensional scenery that diminished in size as it neared an upstage vanishing point". (Camp, The First Frame). Sirigatti was not only influential in the theory of architecture and stage design. FUNDAMENTAL WORK ON PERSPECTIVE Cfr. Comolli III, 157-158; Fowler 336; Gamba 1648: «Magnifica l'edizione»; Graesse VI, 417; Piantanida 4414: «celebre e importante trattato prospettico matematico»; Razzolini-Bacchi della Lega 318; Riccardi II, 460: «Bella e rara edizione, pregievole in ispecial modo per la eleganza degl'intagli»; Adams S-1224; Cicognara 860; Graesse VI,417; Macclesfield 1896; Mortimer 479; Millard 129 (the 1625-edition).
