The Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection. Volume 3 Northern European books, sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries

National Gallery of Art, Washington / George Braziller, New York, first edition, 1993. Cloth, 4to, 32 cm,. xii, 415 pp. From the blurb - "Northern European Books is the third volume in a series cataloguing more than six hundred illustrated books and bound series of prints. All were collected by the late Mark J. Millard, whose many interests included the study of European architecture, design, and topography. Now housed in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Millard collection comprises books published between the end of the fifteenth and the middle of the nineteenth centuries. Many are rare first and early editions. Here, an introductory essay placing the books in their historical context is followed by detailed bibliographical descriptions. The Millard books demonstrate how architectural developments in the German Renaissance, encompassing the Vitruvian tradition, reveal the influence of ancient Rome and Renaissance Italy. This is traced through the treatises of such artists as Sebastiano Serlio, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, and Andrea Palladio. The works of Peter Paul Rubens are but one example of the mediation of classical ideals that took place in the seventeenth century, before giving way to the rococo themes of the eighteenth century. The latter part of this century saw various transformations of the classical ideal of Greece. More than 140 titles in five languages offer a fine review of sources and practices in Northern European architecture, from the Renaissance through the baroque and into the neoclassical period. Selected engravings vividly illustrate Continental achievements and attitudes in architecture. Near Fine in a dustwrapper with a slightly faded spine-panel.