THE TEN BOOKS

OF ARCHITECTURE

BY

VITRUVIUS,

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect and engineer of the 1st century BC. His "De Architectura" is the only major treatise on the architecture of classical antiquity to have survived.

CORRECTED AND TRANSLATED

newly into French, with Notes & Illustrations.

This prestigious edition was translated by Claude Perrault, a physician and architect most famous for designing the eastern facade (the Colonnade) of the Louvre Palace.

A small circular institutional ink stamp on the left side of the page depicting a crown over a shield with a cross, likely indicating the book belonged to a royal or religious library.

A decorative woodcut vignette serving as a printer's device, featuring a central shield with three bees under a crown, all enclosed within a laurel wreath. This was the emblem of the printer Jean Baptiste Coignard.

IN PARIS,

At the shop of JEAN BAPTISTE COIGNARD,

Coignard was a highly influential printer who held the title of "Printer to the King" and the French Academy.

Saint Jacques Street, at the sign of the Golden Bible.

Before street numbers were common, Parisian shops were identified by distinctive signs like the "Golden Bible."

1673.

original: "M. DC. LXXIII."

WITH THE KING’S PRIVILEGE.

Privilege du Roy: A legal monopoly granted by the King to a printer, protecting them from unauthorized copies or "pirated" editions for a specific number of years.