Overview: The exhibit featured books from the National Gallery of Art Library’s rare book collection and the graphic art department’s Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection. It focused on source material in architecture and engineering from the 16th through the 18th century.

Among the books on display were Ascanio Condivi’s Vita di Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1553, the first known work on an individual artist; Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi’s Insignium Romae Templorum…, 1684, depicting Michelangelo’s model (unexecuted) of the San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Rome; Filippo Buonanni’s Numismata Summorum Pontificum Templi Vaticani…, 1696 and 1715 editions, showing Michelangelo’s plan and façade for the Vatican’s new basilica; and Ferdinando Ruggieri’s Studio d’architettura civile…, volume 1, 1722, displaying MIchelangleo’s designs for the stairway and vestibule entrance of the Laurentian Library.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art. Neal Turtell, executive librarian, and Caroline Backlund, head of reader services, were cocurators.