JONES, Inigo (1573-1652) - KENT, William (1685-1748, editore). - The Designs of Inigo Jones, consisting of Plans and Elevations for Publick and Private Buildings. [London]: William Kent, 1727. First edition of a major cornerstone of english classical architecture. Jones used Palladian principles when designing Banqueting House in Whitehall, Lincoln's Inn Chapel, and the grand portico at St. Paul's Cathedral, thus setting the style for the new school of English classical architecture of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of this work and used Jones's Italian architectural aesthetics when designing Monticello. Lord Burlington commissioned William Kent to edit this work, which includes designs by Kent and Burlington as well as those by Inigo Jones. "The Designs of Inigo Jones is an impressive and important book. Yet oddly enough more influential than any single building depicted in it were its plates of doors, windows, niches, etc. These plates seem to have had a formative effect upon Gibbs's Book of Architecture (1728) and from that point on became a standard feature of eighteenth-century pattern books" (Harris). 2 volumes in one, folio (505 x 350mm). First volume with engraved frontispiece, engraved portrait vignette on title, 51 engraved plates numbered 1-73, of which 7 double-page and 5 folding; second volume with engraved portrait vignette on title, 46 plates numbered 1-63, of which 17 double-page; engraved head and tail pieces and vignettes after William Kent (tears, sometimes restored, browning, staining and spotting). Contemporary russia, gilt fillet borders, gilt spine, marbled endpapers (extremities scuffed and rubbed, corners bumped, spine ends chipped with lower part of spine preserved).

Estimate € 800 - 1,200

Sold € 900