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ALEOTTI, Giovanni Battista.
[MANUSCRIT] - Regole generali
di prospettiva di Gio. Battistaz Aleotti, detto l’Argenta.
Italie, vers 1620.
In-folio (425 x 280 mm) 7
ff.n.ch., encre sur papier, illustré de diagrammes
et schémas ; cartonnage ancien
(reliure italienne).
8 000 / 10 000
€
Vitry, 15.
Manuscrit autographe de deux chapîtres, apparemment inédits, concernant
la perspective, rédigés par l’architecte et ingénieur Aleotti de Ferrare (1546-
1636). Le manuscrit traite des principes de géométrie euclidienne ainsi que
des liens entre la perspective et les scènes de théâtre tel que décrits dans les
dix livres d’architecture de Vitruve.
Dr. Myra Nan Rosenfeld a examiné et authentifié ce manuscrit le 24 mai
2002. “
Giovanni Battista Aleotti, called L’Argenta (1546-1636) was a Ferrarese
architect, hydraulic and military engineer, as well as a cartographer and designer
of theaters and stage sets. He was architect to Alfonso II d’Este, last duke of
Ferrara, to Ranunccio I Farnese, fourth Duke of Parma and Piacenza, to Enzo
and Ippolito Bentivoglio, and to the papal military commanders who took over
Ferrara in 1598. Aleotti was also a prolific writer. He published several books on
hydraulics and military engineering, most notably
Gli artifizios e curiosi moti
…
(1589),
Difesa per riparare alla sommersione
… (1601),
Relazione intorno
alla Bonificazione Bentivoglio
(1612), as well as an index of his own writings…
Unpublished manuscripts by Aleotti on hydraulics, architecture, astronomy and
meteorology, fortifications, and artillery are found in the Biblioteca Comunale
F. Bertoldi, Argenta, and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. An unpublished
manuscript with writings and illustrations on perspective long thought to be lost,
is mentioned on the first folio of Aleotti’s will in the
Archivio di Stato of Ferrara
(Archicio Notario Anticho, Notaio Mainardi Guarini, Matricolo n. 852, pacco
n.23, folio 217-v-222). It was to have been dedicated to Duke Federico Savelli,
the commander of the Papal troops in Ferrara and was intended by Aleotti to be printed… Aleotti’s treatise on perspective must have been written toward
the end of his life, since in the introduction, he mentions two theatres he built after 1600, the theatre of the Accademia degli Intripidi in Ferrara (1606),
and the wooden theatre in the Farnese Palace in Parma designed for Duke Ranuccio I Farnese (1617-1618). In this fragment of his treatise on perspective,
Aleotti discusses the connections between perspective and stage design according to Vitruvius’s definition of scenographia in Book I, Chapter II of this
Ten Books on Architecture
, the principles of Euclidian geometry, and one-point perspective. The illustrations in this fragment are derived from those
of Piero della Francesca,
De prospective pingendi
, of which Aleotti owned a manuscript, now in the British Library and of Giacomo Barozzi Vignola,
Le due regole della prospettiva
(1583)
”.
Le manuscrit est accompagné d’une lettre autographe signée d’Aleotti, datée du 3 décembre 1631, adressée à son patron Cesare Vesuvio concernant
des affaires financières.
Reliure tâchée, coin recollé avec ruban adhésif.
Provenance : Arnaud de Vitry (vente 2002, lot 15).
Unpublished, illustrated autograph manuscript on perspective by the Ferrarese architect and engineer Aleotti, investigating the principles of
Euclidian geometry and one-point perspective, as well as the connections between perspective and stage design raised by Vitruvius.