Publisher: Paris: Chez Duchesne, Libraire, rue Saint-Jacques, au-dessous de la Fontaine Saint-Benoît, au Temple du Goût, 1755.
Illustration: 8 folding engraved plates illustrating classical orders and architectural details
Edition: Nouvelle édition (revised and expanded)
Binding: Contemporary mottled calf, spine with raised bands and gilt floral tooling. Rubbed and worn with losses at head and tail, corners rounded, joints cracked but holding.
Description: One of the most influential architectural treatises of the Enlightenment, Laugier’s Essai sur l’Architecture is best remembered for introducing the idea of the “primitive hut” as the natural and universal origin of architecture. His proposal that all architectural forms should be measured against this rational, stripped-down archetype challenged the elaborate excesses of Baroque design and set the stage for the rise of neoclassicism.
This 1755 Paris edition is revised, corrected, and expanded, with the addition of a dictionary of architectural terms and eight large folding engraved plates that vividly illustrate the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, as well as entablatures, pediments, and façades. These plates provided the visual grammar of the neoclassical movement, making this edition the most practically useful to architects, scholars, and students of the mid-18th century.
Laugier, a Jesuit priest, was both theorist and critic, urging architects to reject empty ornament and rediscover structural clarity. His radical simplicity influenced an entire generation — from Boullée and Ledoux in France to Jefferson in America — and his Essai became one of the cornerstones of Enlightenment aesthetics.
This copy is bound in contemporary mottled calf, showing the honest wear of use: rubbing, rounded corners, and cracked joints. Yet the text remains crisp, and most importantly, the plates are complete and well-preserved, a point that dramatically strengthens its desirability. Copies complete with all plates are increasingly scarce, and this example captures the Essai at its moment of greatest impact, when it was actively shaping the vocabulary of modern architecture.
For collectors, it offers the dual appeal of intellectual importance and striking visual content. For institutions, it is a primary source essential to the study of architectural theory. It remains one of the rare books that not only recorded history but changed the very way buildings were conceived.
Condition: Fair to Good. Binding rubbed and worn with losses at head and tail, corners rounded, joints cracked but intact. Interior generally clean with scattered foxing and light toning; plates crisp, folding well-preserved with only minor edge wear.
Annotation: Complete with 8 folding engraved plates; second edition (1755) with added dictionary of terms.
Item #162
Price:
$1,500.00
