The book «La pratica della perspettiva di opera molto utile a pittori, a scultori & ad architetti» written by Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro was published in 1569. It is written in old Italien, in an ancient font, which made it quite impossible to read. I tried to read several passages, but I couldn’t understand anything except some single words.
As the title points out; the book should explain the practice of perspective, which should be useful for painters, sculptors and architects.
The book can be divided in 9 chapters:
Chapter 1 is about the principles of the perfect and consists 9 subchapters.
Chapter 2 I coudn’t realy translate but it is something about ground plans and consists 11 subchapters.
Chapter 3 is about the development of ground plans and consists of 38 subchapters.
Chapter 4 also about groundplanes and scenes and consists of 18 subchapters.
Chapter 5 I coudn’t translate but it consists of 3 subchapters.
Chapter 6 is something about the schematic of star maps and consists of 4 subchapters.
Chapter 7 is about the priciples of light and shadow and consists of 2 chapters.
Chapter 8 is about the perspective drawing of human body and consists of 4 subchapters.
Chapter 9 I coudn’t translate but it consists of 5 subchapters.
The book consists of 202 pages and has a sketch or a drawing on pretty much every page. The height of the book is 30.3 cm, it is 21.5 cm wide and about 2 cm thick. Which is equivalent to a folio. Over the years the book has become worn out and appears to be very fragile.