Les quatre livres [...] de la proportion des parties & pourtraicts des corps humains. Traduicts par Loys Meigret lionnois, de langue latine en françoise. Derechef reveu et corrigé de nouveau.

Sm. folio: [2]-124 ff. (some sl. soiling and foxing, ff. sl. browned, marg. tear strengthened to f. 33 and lower corner of f. 75 repaired, dampstaining, marg. tear without loss to f. 116, marg. wormtrack).

Contemp. sheep, gilt coat of arms on covers, gilt orn. spine with raised bands, red edges (rubbed).

Third French edition (1st by L. Meigret: Paris, 1557) of a major work by the German humanist painter and graphic artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). This work (1st ed. in Latin: 1528) is the first published attempt to apply the science of human anatomical proportions to aesthetics, of which the idea came after a travel in Italy where Dürer had seen Da Vinci's works. It is divided into 4 parts: the 1st two parts discuss the proper proportions of the human form, the 3rd part adjusts the proportions using mathematical rules, with examples of extremely fat and thin bodies, and the 4th shows the human figure in motion. With woodcut human figures and numerous diagrams. This work was the 1st to use cross-hatching to show movement through shades and shadows in wood-engravings. The text is foliated except for 4 double-page plates which are paginated (73-74, 97-98, 99-100 and 118-119).
Ref. STCN. - Cp. Cicognara 320 (Fr. ed., 1557).
Prov. Balthazar-Alexandre de Jarente (1691-1768), marquis of Sénas and Orgeval, Cavalry Captain in the regiment of Saint-Germain (gilt supralibros; ref. Olivier 931). - Ms. entry from 1927.