PELERIN Jean dit VIATOR La Perspective positive de Viator. Latine et françoise. Revue, augmentée & réduite de grand en petit par Mathurin Jousse, de La Fleche.

Vagnetti, EIIb2 (note) ; Vitry, 669.

Extremely rare first edition of the first French translation of the Perspective by Viator by the Lyon Jesuit architect, Etienne Martellange (1569-1641). Etienne Martellange was responsible for the construction of many Jesuit colleges and churches, as well as for a collection of drawings of numerous views of cities and monuments. His plans and drawings are kept in the cabinet des estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

The charming plates, inspired by the Toul edition, were reduced and engraved by the famous master locksmith and architectural theorist Mathurin Jousse (1575-1645) from Martellange’s drawings. Jousse, a native of La Flèche, is best known for having published three construction treatises devoted to locksmithing, carpentry and stereotomy, the first of their kind in France.

Small stains in margins; last leaf washed and lined with small hole filled, nevertheless a very nice copy of this rare edition.

Provenance: Arnaud de Vitry (his library, Sotheby’s 2002, lot 668) – Thomas Vroom.