Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

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£ 3 000
Auction dateClassic
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +01:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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United Kingdom, London
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ID 470239
Lot 136 | Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Opera. 1604

DÜRER, Albrecht (1471-1528). Opera. Das ist, Alle Bücher des weitberhümbten und Künstreichen Mathematici und Mahlers. Arnhem: Johan Jansen, 1604-1603.



First complete edition of Dürer's collected works in German. It brings together his three major treatises: on measurement, symmetry, perspective and construction of the letters of the alphabet; on the proportions of the human body; and the design of fortification systems. The edition is illustrated with numerous woodcuts Dürer made with the original blocks from the editions of 1525-1528, and include overslips and double-page or folding leaves. Bruckner 3, with main title in variant ß; Meder XXVI, XXVIII and XXIX.



3 parts in one volume, folio (295 x 193mm). Dürer's woodcut monogram on main title and on first 2 part-titles, woodcut intials and numerous text-illustrations, many full-page, double-page or folding. Part 1 with 2 printed woodcut folding overslips on P4 and Q1, and complete with final blank Q4; part 2 complete with final blank Z6; part 3 title with large woodcut coat of arms of Ferdinand I (small worm track at centre of gutter extending from beginning through first 6 leaves, title trimmed at top by 15mm, presumably to erase provenance; part 2 with short tear to B4 just into woodcut on recto, tiny marginal nick to K3, lower corner tips of M6 and P4 with neat repairs, U5 trimmed close into woodcut on verso, X2 with large 140mm tear into image with small amount of loss, many of the female genitalia stained in an attempt to censor with occasional loss of a few letters; part 3 with leaf B6 separated from B1 and loosely inserted, D3.4 with tiny repair on creasefold, F2.3 with short tear along creasefold in blank area; variable browning, spotting and staining throughout the whole work, a few leaves with edges frayed). Contemporary binding reusing late 13th-century manuscript vellum leaf from a missal (short splits to joints at head and tail of spine, original manuscript erased from spine and contemporary title and classmark added in ink manuscript). Provenance: Mich[ael] Streiter (late 18th/early 19th-century inscription on title).

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