La Perspective Affranchie.
Paris, G. I Jollain 1661.
Folio (300 x 200 mm.). Engraved throughout by François Jollain l’aîné: Frontis., title, [xi], 154 [r. 156]p. including FIFTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
Contemporary mottled vellum over boards (bowed, minor defects), edges sprinkled red and blue.
Only Edition of this perspective manual written expressly to claim the one thousand franc prize offered in July 1657 by the renowned projective geometer Girard Desargues (1591-1661) to anyone in the Académie who could best his own work. Bourgoing’s lengthy preface lays out his ideas and methods, concisely comparing them point by point to Desargues’, which prove inferior in every case. “The most important innovations in fact consisted in the new terminology…and in the…effort to eliminate the use of the geometric plane” (Vagnetti, tr.).
The main text deals with figures, shadow and vanishing points. Introductory schematic synopses frame the arguments, which are carefully illustrated. The work ends with a poem addressed “To his Book” (tr.). In good condition (title worn and soiled with a small hole, scattered wax spots, narrow pale stain on three blank margins), bold signature of Debrugiere dated 1714 on the title, 18th-century signature of Bonnemain on the rear pastedown, Nantes bookseller J. Vatar’s early 19th-century bookticket on the blank title verso.
¶Vagnetti, De naturali et artificiali perspectiva EIII.b54; Poudra, Histoire de la perspective 388-96.
Price: $8,800.00