Serlio (Sebastiano) Libro Primo d'Architettura... [& Il Secondo Libro di Perspettiva...], second Italian edition, Book II with colophon leaf at end with woodcut printer's device on verso of otherwise blank leaf, title to Book I creased and torn at lower outer corner, Gio.Battista & Marchio Sessa, [1560]; Il Terzo Libro..., fourth edition, woodcut pictorial title, large woodcut printer's device to verso of final leaf, signature E misbound, Francesco Rampazetto for Marchio Sessa, 1562; Regole Generali di Architettura..., n.p., [c.1562]; Quinto Libro d'Architettura..., second Italian edition, large woodcut printer's device to verso of final leaf, 3C1-3D1 all torn and a little defective with some loss to woodcuts and text (old rather crude repairs with text supplied in ink manuscript), Gio.Battista & Marchio Sessa, 1559, together 5 works in 1 vol., titles to Books I, IV & V with same woodcut architectural border, woodcut initials and numerous illustrations and diagrams, some full-page, with 23 engraved plates of doorways from Book VI bound in at end, some soiling, light water- and damp-staining to lower outer corner of Books I-III but mainly Book I, nineteenth century roan-backed boards, worn, covers and backstrip becoming loose, [Fowler 306, 312, 320, 324; cf. Millard Italian 125], folio, Venice

⁂ Early printings of Books I-V of the first modern work on architecture to be published. Serlio's great treatise was planned as seven parts but only Books I-V were published in his lifetime, with Book IV Regole being published first, in 1537. Books I & II cover geometry, perspective and stage design, Book III depicts the surviving buildings of ancient Rome, Book IV is on the orders, and Book V on churches.