Two Folio volumes, mm 415x275; Vol. 1: 7 unnumbered papers (double Italian and Latin frontispiece, engraved antiporta, dedication to Augustus Leopold in Latin and Italian, imprimatur with full-page engraving on verso depicting the architect's tools, preface to reader), 102 papers showing 102 numbered full-page engraved plates with related text opposite on verso of previous paper (including the large folded plate depicting the fresco of the dome of St. Ignatius in Rome, included in this edition for the first time), an index card at the end. Vol. 2: 9 unnumbered maps (double frontispiece, antiporta engraved by Teodoro Ver Cruys, dedication to Joseph I in Latin and Italian, another full-page engraved plate, preface to the reader in Italian, imprimatur), 105 unnumbered maps with118 full-page engraved plates, 2 index cards, one full-page engraving, 8 unnumbered maps with the "Breve instruttione per dipingere a fresco" in Italian and Latin. Refined capitals with phytomorphic and zoomorphic friezes within silographically engraved vignettes. Beautiful, solid, six-rib coeval vellum, manuscript title on the spine in brown ink. Fine binding in full coeval vellum, titles stamped in gold on the spine within frames with roller friezes, red splash cuts. A very important treatise in the history of perspective as it was conceived in function of its practical use by painters and architects, with a simple and accurate exposition, aided by the use of clear illustrative plates, with increasing difficulty: the first part deals with the theory of perspective, the second is a practical guide to perspective drawing in practical function. With Il Pozzo, perspective returns to being an artistic subject and no longer a scientific-mathematical one as it had been dealt with in the 17th century. The work was an enormous success and there were many editions, after the first Capitoline edition printed by Giovanni Giacomo Komarek in 1693 (vol. I) and in 1700 (vol. II). Various publishers published the two volumes on different dates to satisfy the market, always with the same editorial layout, so that the volumes were interchangeable; hence one often finds combined volumes with different dates, but perfectly interchangeable. Compared to the first edition of the first volume (1693), here the portrait of Pozzo engraved in 1717 by Carlo Allet and the large folded plate (number 100) engraved by Arnold Van Westerhout and Giovanni Girolamo Frezza depicting the 'Glory of Saint Ignatius', a fresco by Andrea Pozzo, completed in 1694 for the vault of the Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome, are added. The other engravings, made by Vincenzo Mariotti, a pupil of Pozzo's, are the same as those in the first edition. Vagnetti 1979 "A very important work, fundamental in the historical development of perspective, because it condenses in an organic unity... the requirements of operational practice with those of scientific exactitude sustained by the theorists, employing a clear and concise exposition to comment on over 200 very clear and beautifully engraved plates. Very good condition, fresh, marginalised volumes, genuine and absolutely complete in the iconographic part. Slight oxidation to a few pages. Comolli 1964: vol. III, pp. 173 - 175; Riccardi I, 317 - 318. Rossetti 8471 and 8472. Fowler 1961: pp. 251 - 253. Vagnetti 1979: p. 416.