Traité théorique et pratique de l’art de bâtir

Rondelet, Jean-Baptiste.

Traité théorique et pratique de l’art de bâtir. 5 volumes text in 6 volumes and one plate volume.

Paris, Chez l´auteur, Endos Panthéon 1812-1814.

XVI, 442; (4), 351; (4), 412, (4) + IX tables; (4), 416, 7 + 2 folded tables, (4), 143, (5) +1 folded table; (4), a – r, XXXV, 36 + 1 tables; 14, (2), 346 + 16 tables + 13 folded tables. [plate volume=] 194 plates many folded, numbered 1 – 188, + 69, 90, 152, 161, 165 and 169 bis.

Text volumes 30,5 x 23 cm, plate volume 30,5 x 42 cm. Contemporary half calf.

EUR 1200

Jean-Baptiste Rondelet (1734-1829), a pupil of Jacques-Francois Blondel and Boullée, travelled through Italy in 1783-84. His five-volume „Traité théorique et pratique de l’art de bâtir“ was a pratical pedant to Durand´s  „Précis des lecons“. He summarised his architectural aesthetic in the perface to he first volume, many of he ideas expressed being thos of Blondel and Durand. The main source of Rondelet´s importance ist he comprehensive theory of materials and building construction given in the second, third und fourth volumes of his work. He was one of he first to undetake systematic analysis of the use of iron and the statics of iron structurers, to which he was first drawn while workind under Soufflot at the Panthéon in Paris. He examined iron bridges in detail and wrote an analytical study oft he famous bridge at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, built in 1777-81. Kruft, Architectural theory, London 1994, 275.

Text with heavier foxing in places, some plates soiled at outer margins, otherwise well preseved and broadmargined copy in decorative contemporary bindings.