MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO (c. 80-70 BC - after c. 15 BC), BERARDO GALIANI (1724-1774)


L’Architettura di Vitruvio Pollione tradotta e commentata dal marchese Berardo Galiani accademico ercolanense, e architettto di merito dell’Accademia di S. Luca. Edizione Seconda Ricorrettta dagli errori occorsi nella prima, e coredata degli stessi rami disegnati, e fatti incidere dal medesimo Traduttore In Napoli presso i fratelli Terres, 1790

§ Folio; Engraved frontispiece, Title page, XX, 272 pag., XXV full page plates and [25] leaves of explanation of each plate. Signature a-e1-2, A-Z1-4, Aa-Ii1-4, Kk-Nn1-2; frontispiece, title page, plates and unnumbered leaves without signature. Large- size engraved vignette on title page, some woodcut illustrations, several beautiful large tail-pieces. Contemporary boards. Some browning in places but a very good copy.

Second edition, published in the same year in Naples and Siena with different frontispieces; the first edition was published in Naples in 1758. Berardo Galiani graduated in civil and canonical law, but he soon developed a strong interest for architecture and archeology, in which fields he worked ever since. His most famous work is the translation of Vitruvio works, based on two Latin codices obtained thanks to Giovanni Gaetano Bottari. Galiani also draw all the illustrations and added an exaustive commentary. “... pregevole edizione... si distingue non soltanto per gli ampi commentari, che riassumono e sviluppano tutta la ricerca filologica precedente, ma anche per le 25 tavole, tutte disegnate dal G. stesso, a corredo di un testo che era giunto completamente privo dell'apparato iconografico originario” (... valuable edition ... it stands out not only for the extensive commentaries, which summarize and develop all the previous philological research, but also for the 25 tables, all drawn by G. himself, accompanying a text that had arrived completely devoid of the original iconographic apparatus) (Carrafiello).
Ref: Tommaso Carrafiello, Berardo Galiani, in DBI, ad vocem.