Rare and Unusual Books

Published: London, for the author,
Date: 1728.
Description: viii (incl. subscribers list of 116 names), 128pp, 2pp index + 13 engraved plates (9 being double-page), and incl. 4 text engravings and 8 head- or tail-pieces (mostly by G. King). Marbled boards, gilt lettered vellum spine. Title a bit grubby, faint damp markings to some early text pages (thin, on margins only), otherwise vg with nice fresh and clean plates. Folio, 51x38.
Notes: A highly significant publication in the history of British garden architecture, positioned between the early formal garden designs and 18th century greater landscape ideas. Castell’s book, dedicated to Lord Burlington, has the Latin texts and translations of Pliny the younger’s descriptions of his villas at Tusculum and Laurentum, as well as material by other authors on the siting of villas. There are reconstructions of the villas and their settings, many by Fourdrinier. Castell died in the debtor’s prison in 1729. This copy is one of a rare variant edition of this work: pages 17 to 20 being completely re-written to provide a more succinct and focussed discussion of the Laurentian villa (pagination goes from 17 to 20, as published).
ISBN:
Price: £1950.00