Irina Burau
“La Perspective avec la raison des ombres et miroirs” Salomon de Caus
The author of the book was Salomon de Caus, a French engineer and physicist. The title leaves hardly anything up for imagination. One knows exactly what to expect from a book with a title as theoretical and precise as this. His book is designed to teach people the art of perspective drawing. To give it some structure the book is divided into different chapters. In the list of contents each chapter is arranged in alphabetic order. Another structuring element is the way de Caus explains his theory. First the reader is presented a text which contains the theory. After said text an illustration follows. Most of the illustrations take up a whole page of the book. These illustrations make it easier for the reader to understand de Caus theory and use it better later. Some of the illustrations are almost complete instructions on how how to draw, turn or shade said object. The theory starts off quite easy and gets harder towards the last pages.
This book is very detailed as it covers almost 140 pages in just theory and must have had quite an impact. The preface ended with:”Par le roy et son conseil”. The book got published in 1612. During that time Salomon de Caus thought art to the English Prince. This book might have been of good use to him.