[18], 92, [2], 93-116, [2], 117-120, [2], 121-748, [4] pp. Copper-engraved frontispiece, engraved title vignette of Pantheon, engraved headpiece, & 114 engraved plates (14 folding); title page printed in red and black. (folio) 41.3x25.5 cm (16¼x10"), period mottled calf, rebacked in period style, raised spine bands, morocco lettering piece. First Edition.
First edition of Isaac Ware's important comprehensive overview of Georgian architectural theory and practice, with the first state of plates (with plate numbers inside frame, and reading "Warwick Shire" for "Berk Shire" on plate 70/71). A street urchin working as a chimney sweep, Ware was adopted by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington at the age of eight after which he was groomed and educated as a young nobleman, and apprenticed to the architect Thomas Ripley when he was about 17. He is primarily remembered today as translator of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. In the present work, Ware proposes "to collect all that is useful in the works of others, at whatsoever times they have been written, or in whatever language; and to add the several discoveries and improvements made since that time by the genius of others, or by our own industry...to make our work serve as a library on this subject to the gentleman and the builder; supplying the place of all other books...." The work is truly encyclopedic, covering in ten books nearly every imaginable element of architectural design, from choosing a site to ornamental detailing. With unnumbered leaves of text descriptive of the plates inserted between pp.92-93, 116-117 and 120-121; slip inserted containing a further description of plate 3. . Fowler 436; Park List 84. Ownership signature of Geo. Barlington, Shrewsbury, to the back of the frontispiece.
Condition:
Covers somewhat pockmarked from the mottling; only occasional light foxing and aging within, very faint dampstaining to lower corners/margins of last 100 or so pages, lower corners of last 20 or so leaves creased, p.248 soiled, following two (index) leaves creased, soiled and damaged with marginal restoration but no loss of text; a quite respectable copy in very good condition.