BLONDEL, Jacques-François (1705--1774)
Cours d'architecture, ou traité de la décoration, distribution & construction des bâtiments; contenant les leçons données en 1750, & les années suivantes, par J. F. Blondel, architecte, dans son École des Arts. Publié de l'aveu de l'auteur, par M. R***. ([tomes V & VI:] ... commencé par feû J.F. Blondel, ... et continué par M. Patte, architecte ...) ...

A Paris (Place), chez Desaint, libraire,, 1771--77.
12 vols bound in 9 ; 20.1 cm. (8°)
Text: I: xxxiv, 478, [2] p.
II: [4], lxiv, 468, [4] p.
III: [4], cii, [2], 460 p.
IV: [4], cxiv, [2], 431, [1] p.
V: xxxii, 504 p.
VI: xxvii, [1], 519, [1] p.
Plates: I: [6] p., XXII pl. (10 fold.)
II: [2] p., XCIII pl. (18 fold.)
III: [4] p., LXXIII [i.e. 74] pl. (22 fold.)
IV: [2] p., LI [i.e. 52] pl. (20 fold.)
V: [2] p., LXXXV pl. (25 fold.)
VI: [2] p., LXXXVI--CXXXVI [i.e. 51] pl. (8 fold.)

The half-title reads 'Cours D'Architecture Civile'. The 'Planches pour le ... Cours' are divided into six parts, each with a separate title-page indicating the text volume to which the subsequent plates refer. The directions to the binder, however, call for the plate volumes to be bound in three, as here. There is a bis pl. XL in plate vol. III and two plates are numbered XXXIX in plate vol. IV. Volumes III--VI (text and plates) have imprint: Chez la veuve Desaint. Printer's statement from colophon: De l'imprimerie de Lottin l'aíné. Blondel was the leading architectural educator of his day and the most important contributor on architecture to the Encyclopédie. Only the first four volumes of the Cours, containing the lessons given by Blondel at his École des Arts in 1750 and the following years, were published before his death in 1774. Thereafter the work was completed by his disciple, Pierre Patte (1723--1814), who published volumes V and VI with their respective plates in 1777. Soane translated much of the introduction to vol. I towards the end of 1805, resulting in a manuscript of 466 pages which he had bound in book form together with his translation of Cordemoy's Nouveau traité de toute l'architecture (1706, q.v.; Soane Case 165). See D. Watkin, Sir John Soane enlightenment thought and the Royal Academy Lectures, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 130--4. BAL, Early printed books, no. 296.

Copy Notes Copy 1: Bought from Thomas Boone for 1 guinea on 4 July 1815. (Spiers Box). Volume I of the text is inscribed in pencil on the front free-endpaper xkx with 3 Vols. of Plates / in all 9 Vols -- £1=1s=0 / Complete / --S--.
Copy 2: 19.6 cm. Text vol. I has marginal notations in ink, pp. ix, xi--xii, 264. Text vol. II has a scrap of paper loose inserted between pp. 182--3, annotated in ink Les colonnes torses p.208 / Vitruvius speaks of four / Orders, Pliny also - / &also a fifth which / he calls Attic &says tha[t?] / their shafts were square; text vol. VI a scrap of paper loose inserted between pp. 338--9, annotated in ink Mrs Soane requests the / favor of Mrs Challea's, with a pencil sketch of a plan on the verso.

Binding Copy 1: C18th mottled calf, blind-ruled borders, gilt-tooled spines, red and black morocco spine-labels, marbled endpapers and edges.
Copy 2: C18th mottled calf, gilt-tooled spines with pomegranate motif, green and tan morocco spine-labels, marbled endpapers.

Reference Number 1715

Additional Names Thomas Boone; Pérouse de Montclos, Jean-Marie; Patte, Pierre (1723--1814); Bibliothèque de l'Architecture français; Académie d' Architecture