




LENCKER (HANS) Perspectiva literaria, FIRST EDITION, COLOURED IN A CONTEMPORARY HAND, Nuremberg, Ulrich Neuber, 1567
£30,000 - £40,000
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LENCKER (HANS)
Footnotes
EXTREMELY RARE HAND-COLOURED COPY OF THIS SPECTACULAR GERMAN TREATISE ON PERSPECTIVE - INCLUDING THE FIRST COMPLETE ALPHABET CONCEIVED BY HANS LENCKER.
The very elaborate perspective figures were designed by the master goldsmith Hans or Johannes Lencker (1523-1585), and engraved by his colleague Matthias Zündt. Lencker was the eldest of a dynasty of goldsmiths and engravers from Nuremberg. He worked in many fields, including the design of tableware, glass cutting and the art of bookbinding, helping to inspire a whole generation of "perspective" artists, including the renowned Jamnitzer.
The Perspectiva literaria is extremely scarce, only two or three copies recorded as having sold at auction in the post-war period. USTC and World Cat locate a total of 8 copies, all in European institutions, mostly in Germany. The present copy, uniquely hand-coloured, contains 21 plates (of 22, a geometric figure plate is missing), comprising a frontispiece using the letters of the word "perspectiva", 12 plates of intricate letters of the alphabet in various perspective arrangements, and 8 plates of geometric figures. Some of the latter are very complex, such as a spiral-shaped faceted shell, a cone made of triangular faces, a knot of twisted cylinders, and a hollow cube surrounded by a polyhedron.