ANDREW HOPKINS AND ARNOLD WITTE

From deluxe architectural book to builder's manual: the Dutch editions of Scamozzi's L'Idea della Architettura Universale

Vincenzo Scamozzi's treatise L'Idea della Architettura Universale was first published in in 1615 as a large and expensive, deluxe folio edition.' Following in the footsteps of Serlio and Palladio, Scamozzi's work was profusely illustrated with plans and elevations of various edifices and included an extensive treat- ment of the orders of architecture, which described the five canonical forms of columns, as well as recording some of his own buildings. His intention to write ten books also linked Scamozzi's work to the earlier architectural treatises of and Alberti. The high cultural tone of L'Idea, with its masses of eru- dite classical knowledge, was matched by the dedications of the six published books to leading European rulers.? Yet, subsequent translations of Scamozzi's treatise present a work largely shorn of its erudition and transformed into what was essentially a builder's or craftsman's manual. This change was brought about in Holland in the middle of the seventeenth century in the context of rival Dutch editions of Scamozzi's treatise: one a deluxe architectural book, the second

i V. Scamozzi, L'Idea dellaarchitettura universale di TlincenzoScamozzi architetto divisa in X libri (Venice 1615).Folio. In two parts. Editio princeps. Printer, Giorgio Valentino. All further refer- ences to the first edition, with Book and page numbers will be indicated as follows 1615: III, p. 25. For Scamozzi's life and work see T. Temanza, hila di VincenzioScamozzi Vincentino architetto (Venice 1770).Idem, s.v., Fite dei celebriArchitetti, e ScultoriVeneziani (Venice 1778),pp. 409-74, especiallyp. 412 for Scamozzi's treatise. F. Scolari, Dellavita e delleopere dell'architetto Ijincenzo Scamo?i.? commentario(Treviso 1837). F. Barbieri, VincenzoScamozzi ( 1952). D. Lewis, 'Vincenzo Scamozzi', in: MacmillanEncyclopedia of Architects,4 vols. (New York & London 1982),vol. 3, pp. 667-72.Four earlier studies have been fundamental in preparing this article: W.G. Keith, 'Drawings by Vincenzo Scamozzi', in: Journal of the RoyalInstitute of BritishArchitects, 42 (1935),pp. 525-35.JJ. Terwen, 'Vincenzo Scamozzi's invloed op de Hollandse architectuur van de zeventiende eeuw', in: Bulletinvan de l?oninkl?keNederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond (1966),pp. 129-30. W. Kuyper, Dutch ClassicistArchitecture (Delft 1980),pp. 210-28 & pp. 316-26. C. Elam, 'Vincenzo Scamozzi and the Medici Family: some unpublished letters', in: RenaissanceStudies in honourof CraigHugh Smytlt,ed. A. Morrogh (Florence 1985),pp. 203-18.Kuyper offers a generally good discussionof Dutch edi- tions of Scamozzi, but there are several important inaccuracies regarding the chronology of the first editions by Bosboom and Dancker Danckerts, for which see below. 2 I6I5: i: Maximilianof Austria, n: Carlo Emanuele,Duke of Savoy and Piedmont, m: Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, m: Cosimo n, Grand Duke of Tuscany, VII: Francesco Maria n della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, vm: The Moderators and Deputies of Vicenza, and the members of the Accademia Olimpica. 275 and third simplified versions of Scamozzi's orders, and the fourth a compendium of the orders according to Palladio, Vignola and Scamozzi.3 The original 1615 Italian edition of Scamozzi's treatise comprises only six of its ten projected books. Part One includes Book I on 'the excellence of archi- tecture, its parts, and that which is common to excellent architects'. Book II treats 'the regions and countries, the quality of sites, and the forms of cities and fortresses'. The subject of Book III is private buildings, 'for convenience, and for delight'. Part Two includes Book via on the orders, and ornaments. Book vn examines building materials, and Book VIII discusses the foundations and roofs of buildings. Of the four unpublished books, Book is was to have treated all types of public buildings, Book v sacred buildings, Book ix the finishing details of buildings, and Book x the alteration and restoration of buildings, together with land reclamation.4 In the work as published in 1615 there are two elabo- rately engraved title-pages, 800 pages of text and indices, and 43 copperplate engravings, 39 of which illustrate Book via on the orders. There are also 42 woodcuts, with 28 alone illustrating Book III. It was most probably a grandeur of vision which prevented the completion of L'Idea, in preparation since I59I.5 When, in the 1590s, Scamozzi decided on folio size copper-plate and woodblock illustrations, he committed himself to the elaborate and expensive, but traditional large format used for first editions of archi- tectural treatises.b Whether Scamozzi's work would have been a publishing suc- cess in Italy will never be properly known as he died in August 1616, just eight months after its initial publication in December 16l5, and the 67o copies remain- ing at this time, probably from an original print run of 1000, were purchased by the publisher Justus Sadeler from Leiden.7 Certainly Scamozzi's treatise never

3 The various Dutch editions are listed chronologicallyin the Appendix, and indicated here in the notes by their date of publication, 3:1658 & 5:1661.2:1657. 6:1662. 7 :1664. 4 i6t5: Proemio to Part i: 'i: dell'eccellenza[di architettura], e parti di essa, e quello che appar- tiene a gli eccellenti Architetti. ii: delle Regioni, e Paesi, e qualita de'siti, e forme delle Citta, e Fortezze. in: de gli edifici privati per comodo, e per delitie. 1v: di tutti i generi de gli edifici pub- lici. v: de gl'edificiSacri, e simigliant.m: di gli Ordini, & ornamenti. vn: delle materie per edificare. VIII:del fondare, & elevare in coperto essi edificij. ix: de'loro finimenti. x: delle riforme, e ristau- rationi de gli edifici, e di bonificar i Paesi'. The engraved title-pages to each part provide a simi- lar list of the contents of each book. 5 In a letter of 4 June 1616 to Curzio Picchena in Florence, Scamozzi asserted that he had begun work on his treatise 25 years earlier, which would be in 1591,for which see (Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo, 1330, fo. 182, published by) Elam, art. cit. (n. i), p. 212, Document 4. 6 W. Timofiewitsch, 'Die Grundrisszeichnung Vincenzo Scamozzis im Salzburger Museum Carolino-Augusteum',in: FestschriflKarl Oettingerzum 60, ed. H. Sedlmayr & W. Messerer (Erlangen- Niirnberg 1967),pp. 4ti-32, has convincinglysuggested that the dates inscribed on the back of the plates indicate when the drawings were prepared, not when the actual works were undertaken by Scamozzi, as Danckerts thought. This view is reiterated by Elam, art. cit. (n. i), p. 210, n. 29. 7 L. Puppi, 'Sulle relazioni culturale di Vincenzo Scamozzi', in: AteneoVeneto, 7 (ig6g), pp. 49- 66, esp. Document 4. It is not known for certain if Sadeler obtained other items or not. That Sadeler obtained the copper-plates is unlikely as 38 of the original 39 were first re-used in the 1685 French edition, Les cinq ordresd'architecture de VincentScamozzi, Vicentin, architects de la Republique de henise:Tirez du sixièmeLivre de son Idéegenerale d'Architecture: avec les planchesoriginales. Par Augustin