BLONDEL Cours d'architecture, ou traité de la décoration, distribution et construction des bâtiments. Paris, Desaint, 1771-1777. 9 volumes in-8 (including 3 vol. of large atlases in-8), basane racinée, gilt roulettes, smooth spine decorated, marbled edges (Binding of the period). First edition of this renowned work by the great 18th-century professor of architecture. This work - known as the "Petit Blondel", as opposed to the four folio volumes of L'Architecture française (1752-1756) that make up the "Grand Blondel" - consists of six volumes of text and six atlases of plates bound into three volumes. It sets out the content of the courses taught by Jacques-François Blondel (1705-1774) at the École des Arts, which he founded in Paris in 1743. The last two volumes were completed and published after Blondel's death by Pierre Patte, who had been his assistant. The atlases contain 377 plates, most of them folding, engraved by Croisy, La Gardette, Le Roy, Michelinot, Milsan, Pelletier, Ransonnette, etc., after drawings by Blondel, Bonnet, Cauchois and others. "This Cours d'architecture, rich in material of great interest to the student of this period, became the standard handbook of its day, largely superseding those of François Blondel and D'Aviler" (Fowler). From the library of Paul-Hubert Claparède (1892-1965), architect to the town of Chantilly, with handwritten bookplate dated 1913. Worn bindings with minor damage to some headpieces, stains and rubbing, some foxing and browned leaves. Fowler, n°51 - Berlin Kat., n°2429 - RIBA, I, 296 - Millard, I, 29.