[Architecture] Architecture Moderne, ou l'Art de bien Bâtir

pour toutes sortes de personnes tant pour les maisons des particuliers que pour les palais. Contenant cinq traites (...) [by Charles Etienne Briseux]. Paris, C. Jombert, 1728 (=1728-1729), 2 volumes, text volume: 5 parts in one volume, (8),96; 59,(1); 44; 60; 74,(2) p., with double-page engraved frontispiece and 6 folding, engraved plates; plate volume: double-page engraved frontispiece, (4) letterpress p. (title and approbation) followed by 144 numbered, engraved plates (partly double-page and 10x (large) folding), contemporary uniform calf, 4to.

Here and there slightly browned, bindings worn. Good copy with old letterpress ex libris "Ce livre appartient à Mr. J.H. Derasse, près les Capucins à Tournay" in both volumes. The first edition, reprints appeared in 1752 and 1764. Millard, French Books, 40: "The Architecture Moderne, on the planning and construction of domestic architecture, marks a watershed between sixteenth- and seventeenth-century publications on models for houses of all sizes and eighteenth-century rococo house publications with their emphasis on the design and construction of homes for the well-to-do. (...) In contrast to earlier works on architectural theory, which were mainly concerned with theoretical discussions of the orders and related problems of proportioning and ornamentation, this treatise is concerned only with material related to practical problems of planning and construction, following such models as the building handbooks of Louis Savot and Bullet."