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Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and draftsman, was the most celebrated artist of the Northern Renaissance. Dürer’s reputation spread throughout Europe during his lifetime, beyond his native city of Nuremberg, a thriving center of trade and culture. Like Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer became deeply involved in scientific and mathematical studies; his application of scientific principles to the creation of art marks the beginning of art theory in Northern Europe and of scientific writing in Germany.
This Octavo Edition reproduces a rare volume that brings together the first two books of Dürer’s De Symmetria Partium in Rectis Formis Humanorum Corporum (Books on the normal proportions of the parts of the human form) with Underweysung der Messung (Instruction in measurement). This sammelband (a volume containing more than one work) is bound in exquisite Bohemian vellum with the arms of Emperor Rudolf II impressed on the front cover. Rudolf II’s widely varied interests transformed Prague into a European cultural center, attracting the era’s most influential scientists and artists. Rudolf was a passionate collector of Dürer’s work, and it is fitting that a book intended for artists bears his arms.
De Symmetria is Dürer’s beautifully illustrated study of the measurements and proportions of the human form. Underweysung der Messung is a pioneering work in scientific illustration that contains over 150 woodcuts, including outstanding examples of orthographic projection and several of Dürer’s most intriguing designs. It presents a wide range of geometric subjects, with the basics of linear, plane, and solid geometry laying a foundation for practical applications for architecture and art, including the construction of columns and the rendering of alphabets. Its most notable achievement is the analysis of perspective; in that regard, Dürer’s treatise had a major impact on Northern Renaissance art.
The original book imaged for this digital edition:
12 x 8 3/8 inches (305 x 213 mm)
This Octavo Edition reproduces a rare volume that brings together the first two books of Dürer’s De Symmetria Partium in Rectis Formis Humanorum Corporum (Books on the normal proportions of the parts of the human form) with Underweysung der Messung (Instruction in measurement). This sammelband (a volume containing more than one work) is bound in exquisite Bohemian vellum with the arms of Emperor Rudolf II impressed on the front cover. Rudolf II’s widely varied interests transformed Prague into a European cultural center, attracting the era’s most influential scientists and artists. Rudolf was a passionate collector of Dürer’s work, and it is fitting that a book intended for artists bears his arms.
De Symmetria is Dürer’s beautifully illustrated study of the measurements and proportions of the human form. Underweysung der Messung is a pioneering work in scientific illustration that contains over 150 woodcuts, including outstanding examples of orthographic projection and several of Dürer’s most intriguing designs. It presents a wide range of geometric subjects, with the basics of linear, plane, and solid geometry laying a foundation for practical applications for architecture and art, including the construction of columns and the rendering of alphabets. Its most notable achievement is the analysis of perspective; in that regard, Dürer’s treatise had a major impact on Northern Renaissance art.
The original book imaged for this digital edition:
12 x 8 3/8 inches (305 x 213 mm)
Lutheran Letterforms
Dürer’s Underweysung der Messung ends with the artist’s famous analysis of lettering, one of the earliest attempts to rationalize principles of typographic design. Dürer also describes a technique for optically sizing inscriptions on the face of tall monuments in order to make the words at different heights appear the same size to a viewer on the ground. His example is Martin Luther’s translation of the phrase from 1 Peter 1:25 “Das Wort Gottes bleibt ewig” (The Word of God will last forever). This Bible phrase had tremendous cultural relevance, having become a slogan of Lutheran evangelicals. Without mentioning current events, Dürer’s monument implicitly takes a stand.
Dürer’s Underweysung der Messung ends with the artist’s famous analysis of lettering, one of the earliest attempts to rationalize principles of typographic design. Dürer also describes a technique for optically sizing inscriptions on the face of tall monuments in order to make the words at different heights appear the same size to a viewer on the ground. His example is Martin Luther’s translation of the phrase from 1 Peter 1:25 “Das Wort Gottes bleibt ewig” (The Word of God will last forever). This Bible phrase had tremendous cultural relevance, having become a slogan of Lutheran evangelicals. Without mentioning current events, Dürer’s monument implicitly takes a stand.
Vernacular Volumes
This sammelband includes the first edition, lavishly illustrated with the original woodcuts, of the first two books of Dürer’s Von menschlicher Proportion (Four books of human proportions) in the Latin translation De Symmetria by Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574). A modern reader may find it difficult to see how Dürer’s decision to publish his books in German was a problem for Renaissance humanists. Yet even Erasmus qualified his praise of Underweysung der Messung with the observation that the otherwise excellent book was written in the vernacular. Camerarius’ Latin translation, illustrated using the original woodblocks, was the foundation of the international reception of Dürer’s writings.
This sammelband includes the first edition, lavishly illustrated with the original woodcuts, of the first two books of Dürer’s Von menschlicher Proportion (Four books of human proportions) in the Latin translation De Symmetria by Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574). A modern reader may find it difficult to see how Dürer’s decision to publish his books in German was a problem for Renaissance humanists. Yet even Erasmus qualified his praise of Underweysung der Messung with the observation that the otherwise excellent book was written in the vernacular. Camerarius’ Latin translation, illustrated using the original woodblocks, was the foundation of the international reception of Dürer’s writings.
Sumptuous Sammelband
The two works by Albrecht Dürer reproduced here were bound together in limp vellum some fifty years after publication. As the gilt arms testify, the binding is associated with the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), and his first cousin Karl, Margrave of Burgau and Archduke of Austria (1560-1618). The front cover bears the Emperor’s large gilt arms, the back cover those of the Archduke. Both were great-great-grandsons of the Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519), himself a patron of Dürer. The volume might easily have been a gift from one to the other, in a presentation binding. Rudolf II was too young to have known Dürer, who died twenty-four years before his birth, but he lived in the afterglow of his fame, and served as patron of several generations of German and Austrian artists for whom Dürer was a continuing and monumental inspiration.
The two works by Albrecht Dürer reproduced here were bound together in limp vellum some fifty years after publication. As the gilt arms testify, the binding is associated with the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), and his first cousin Karl, Margrave of Burgau and Archduke of Austria (1560-1618). The front cover bears the Emperor’s large gilt arms, the back cover those of the Archduke. Both were great-great-grandsons of the Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519), himself a patron of Dürer. The volume might easily have been a gift from one to the other, in a presentation binding. Rudolf II was too young to have known Dürer, who died twenty-four years before his birth, but he lived in the afterglow of his fame, and served as patron of several generations of German and Austrian artists for whom Dürer was a continuing and monumental inspiration.
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