Di Lucio Vitruvio Pollione De architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in vulgare affigurati: commentati: & con mirando ordine insigniti

Di Lucio Vitruvio Pollione De architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in vulgare affigurati: commentati: & con mirando ordine insigniti

Marcus Pollio Vitruvius

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The publication of Vitruvius’s classical text De architectura had a tremendous impact on Renaissance architectural theory. While many printed editions appeared from the late fifteenth century onward, Cesariano’s was the first to include modern commentary and significant illustrations. The images promote an idealized vision of space defined by mathematical principles of harmonic order and proportion.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Di Lucio Vitruvio Pollione De architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in vulgare affigurati: commentati: & con mirando ordine insignitiDi Lucio Vitruvio Pollione De architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in vulgare affigurati: commentati: & con mirando ordine insignitiDi Lucio Vitruvio Pollione De architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in vulgare affigurati: commentati: & con mirando ordine insignitiDi Lucio Vitruvio Pollione De architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in vulgare affigurati: commentati: & con mirando ordine insignitiDi Lucio Vitruvio Pollione De architectura Libri Dece traducti de latino in vulgare affigurati: commentati: & con mirando ordine insigniti

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.