The Bridge Of The SSa. Trinita, Over The Arno, At Florence. - Drawn And Measured, And Accompanied By Explanatory Remarks, By Lewis Vulliamy, Architect, Late Travelling Student Of The Royal Academy. -
London:: Published By The Author, 361, Oxford Street; And Printed By R.G. Gunnell, 10, Poultry. -, 1822.
Physical Description
[2], 8 p., 4 pl. (the first is dble. and fold.); 490 mm.
General Note
Some copies have cancel-slips pasted onto p.8 (correcting transcriptions of Latin inscriptions on the bridge).
Contents
[T.p., dedic.] - Preface - List Of The Plates (I-IV) - [Text]; Notes; [colophon] - [Plates].
Responsibility Note
All four plates are signed as drawn and etched by L. Vulliamy. Each carries his imprint as publisher (and the date).
The printer's name and address are repeated in the colophon.
The work is dedicated by the author to Lord Burghersh, British envoy to the Duchy of Tuscany (afterwards 11th Earl of Westmorland).
References
Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Library ... Early printed books, 4 (2001), no. 3556, p.2337.
Summary Note
The publication-date of July 1822 is also carried by all four plates.
The work describes Ammanati's bridge of the Holy Trinity, Florence, made between 1567 and 1570 and, as Vulliamy observes, admired for its elegant design and the strength and lightness of its construction. Its curve, Vulliamy concludes (p.8), 'certainly is a portion of a regular ellipse'.
The plates are all captioned 'Bridge Of The Trinita'. The figures within each plate are also captioned. The first plate shows elevation and plan of the bridge; the second, transverse sections; the third, sections and plan of the parapet and mouldings; the fourth, elevations and plan of centering and piling.
The book is one of two publications which resulted from Lewis Vulliamy's Royal Academy travelling scholarship of 1818 - the other being his Examples of ornamental sculpture in architecture (1823). The scholarship had enabled Vulliamy to spend four years travelling, mainly in what are now Italy, Greece and Turkey.
Provenance
Acquired 14 March 2003; bought from bookseller Jarndyce. A preliminary leaf is inscribed in ink, 'John Wolfe Barry from John L. Wolfe - March - 1862'. The front pastedown is inscribed in pencil (by the bookseller?), 'Author's copy with his MSS notes ...'.
Copy Note
Three folded leaves of unsigned measured drawings of the bridge in ink are bound in at the end. The first is captioned, 'Center Arch'; the second, 'Side Arch'. Six pages of unsigned manuscript notes in ink about the bridge are also inserted loosely.
Binding Note
20th-century half calf, marbled-papered boards, upper cover carrying red morocco label lettered 'The Bridge Of The SSa Trinita At Florence Vulliamy · 1822'.
Architecture - Bridges - Engineering - Italy - Tuscany - Florence - History - 16th century
Plans - Elevations - Sections - Art history - Great Britain - 19th century
Pictorial works - Great Britain - 19th century