DÜRER Albrecht. Les quatres livres d'Albert Durer 1557

LES QUATRE LIVRES D’ALBERT DURER, Peintre et Géometrien Tres excellent, De la Proportion des parties et pourtraicts des corps humains.

Traduicts par Loys Meigret. Lionnois, de langue Latine en Françoise.

À Paris, chez Charles Perier, demourant en la rue saint Jean de Beauvais, à l’enseigne de Bellerophon. 1557

Folio, 325 x 210 mm. Later vellum binding, spine with five raised bands. White endpapers, title page and epistle 2ff., then 124ff. comprising 145 woodcuts.

Title page, last leaf, and leaf a1 reinforced at the margins, small repair to leaf r4; some engravings slightly trimmed, occasional stains, foxing, and browning. Later vellum binding with wear, headcap rubbed.

Complete copy, collation similar to the copies held by the INHA and the BNF, with the same pagination errors except for the first fold-out, which presents the engraving as a double-page spread on the verso of page 3, not on a folded sheet.

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1510801t/f3.planchecontact
https://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr/viewer/7281/?offset=#page=5&viewer=thumb&o=bookmark&n=0&q=

First published by his wife Agnes six months after his death in 1528, this book was the culmination of a long preparatory work for Dürer. To create it, the artist left behind nearly 1,500 pages of reflection, experimentation, and artistic formulas. He accompanied his writings with woodcuts intended to make his theories more accessible.

This book was quickly published in its Latin version by Joachim Camerarius, which allowed for its wide dissemination and brought the Four Books widespread success in Europe among artists and scholars. It went on to be reprinted and translated several times. (1)

Of all these reprints and translations, Brunet considers only three original editions: the Latin edition of 1532-34, the French edition of 1557, and the Italian edition of 1591. (2)

The original French edition of 1557 is distinguished by the quality of its woodcuts, executed with exceptional precision and virtuosity (4), and also by its translation by the Lyon-born humanist and linguist Louis Meigret (Loys Megret Lionnois).

This linguist advocated for a phonographic reform of French spelling, which he was unable to implement. He did, however, achieve a certain degree of fame thanks to the reputation of his grammar, known for being unreadable, but, on another subject, for the quality of his translations. The humanist Muret praised his "sweet language," emphasizing the elegance and fluidity of his style. His first translation of Dürer's work was quite successful and was republished in 1613. (3)

The intellectual contribution of the 1557 edition lies in Loys Meigret's precise translation of these complex concepts. The book, divided into four parts, unfolds as follows:

1- The First Book: Fractional Measurement. Dürer presents a method for dividing the human body using fractions of its total height.

2- The Second Book: Alberti's System and the Exempeda. Dürer elaborates on his approach. He introduced a measurement method inspired by the Italian theorist Leon Battista Alberti, using a graduated ruler.

3- The Third Book: The Geometry of Variations. In this book, Dürer teaches how to modify the proportions of a standard figure to create variations: fat, thin, tall, short.

4- The Fourth Book: The Theory of Motion. This final book analyzes the behavior of proportions when the body is in motion.

Panotsky describes the First Book as follows: “This First Book contains five different types of male and female figures measuring seven, eight, nine, and ten ‘heads’ respectively; in addition to a description of certain technical procedures such as parallel projection (1647–1649), it provides detailed measurements of the head—male and female—the hand, the foot, and the baby. All proportions are given in three dimensions and expressed as aliquots of the total length.” According to Dürer, none of these five types deserved to be called deformed, or even ugly, although he would certainly have considered types B and C, "mittelmassige" ("medium" or rather "moderate"), descendants of the early Apollos, as closer approximations of "techte Hiibsche" ("true beauty") than type A, "grobe baurische" ("crude and rustic"). Panotsky - Albercht Dürer. 1945, p. 266

The visual result of the engravings and their composition with typography impresses with their aesthetic rendering. This work, with its refined lines and scientific precision, remains as modern as ever and evokes images belonging to the unconscious of our civilization, much like Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

According to a Sotheby's listing quoting Panotsky, this book was widely used by painters in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it laid the foundations of scientific anthropometry. Panotsky compares its importance to that of Luther's translation of the Bible, Dürer had managed to assimilate the theoretical problems of the Renaissance without betraying his nature as a Northern artist. (5)

A magnificent and complete copy, a testament to the technical innovations of the Renaissance, this book is a lesson in humility for our generation. It bears witness to what this era brought to humanity and continues to bring us. More than a major advance in descriptive geometry, it is "an open book" on the genius of one of the greatest artists of the last millennium.

(1) Mathieu Deldicque - Caroline Grand. Albrecht Dürer: Engraving and the Renaissance. Éditions de la BNF. 2022

(2) BRUNET II. 914

(3) Cendrine Pagani-Naudet. News about Louis Meigret: Humanist and Linguist. Classique Garnier. 2021

(4) BRUN. 175
145 engraved figures, executed with astonishing precision, copies of those in the edition published in Nuremberg in 1528, at the expense of the artist's widow.

(5) Sotheby’s “Books And Manuscripts” 2010.05.18 Lot.5