Borromini's Book: The "Full Relation of the Building" of the Roman Oratory

29 x 21.5 cm. Quarto. 536pp. Photographs, plans, drawings., index, bibliography Grey cloth in dust jacket. Very light yellowing to page edges and jacket flaps. From the jacket: "The "Full relation" of the Oratory House in Rome was written down by Father Virgilio Spada but the voice is that of its chief architect, the brilliant Italian-Swiss Francesco Borromini (1599-1667). It was published only in 1725; this fully illustrated first English edition makes accessible in translation a unique and fascinating story of the architect's aesthetic and technical problems in taking over a project already under way, and his solutions - a tale indeed to hold "children from play, and old men from the chimney corner." Borromini now stands as one of the greatest artists of the Italian Baroque. The Companion draws on both previous and new research to place the Oratory building and its architect in context - historical, architectural, biographical and topographical. It leaves no doubt that Borromini was not mad, irrational or eccentric, accusations laid even in his life-time and still repeated. Although not a biography, the major sections cover his career, personality and early life, his sources and ideas, his unique approach to design and symbolism, and his relations with patrons and other architects, in particular the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose own architectural work appears in a new light." Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.…