DURAND JLN Précis des leçons d'architecture données... Lot 58

DURAND JLN Précis des leçons d'architecture données à l'Ecole Polytechnique. Paris, Didot 1821-1823-1825. 3 volumes in-4°, (I) 1 ffnch - viii - 110 pp - 1 ffnch - 10 & 22 plates ; (II) 3 ffnch - 104 pp - 32 plates (soiling). Bound in contemporary half blond basane. Gonsiorowski wet stamp. Third edition of this important treatise, which had a major influence on the teaching of architecture. All plates are mounted on a central tab. The book begins with generalities (qualities of materials, use, forms and proportions) and then moves on to composition (combination of elements, parts of buildings, whole buildings). It then develops several chapters in which buildings are classified by type: public buildings (temples, palaces, colleges, libraries, museums, observatories, lighthouses, market halls, theaters, hospitals, prisons, barracks, etc.) or private buildings (townhouses, apartments, kitchens, stables, sheds, farms, hotels, etc.). As in the copy in the Fowler collection, the plates in the first volume are numbered from 1 to 10 and then from 1 to 22, following the first and second parts of the course. Most of the finely engraved plates are by Charles Normand or Baltard.