Early work on pyrotechnics

Boillot, Joseph. Artifices de feu et divers instruments de guerre. Das ist, Künstlich Feurwerck und Kriegs Instrumenta [...].

Strasbourg, Anton Bertram, 1603.

Folio (206 x 301 mm). (8), 183, (1) pp. Title printed in red and black within engraved borders. With 91 engravings in the text, woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces. 19th century half calf over marbled boards.

 2,800.00

Scarce first German edition of this early work on pyrotechnics, printed in German and French parallel text. "The only work on artillery by a Frenchman published in the 16th century" (Jähns). The engravings, by Boillot, show various types of guns and cannons, grenades, mines, etc. One engraving depicts Berthold Schwarz, weighing the ingredients of gunpowder, the devil poised behind him with a gesture of benediction.

Binding slightly rubbed at extremeties. Some browning and light staining, small paper flaw to leaf B1. Handwritten ownership to title: "Justus Laigneau, Doctor Medicus Patavinus". The French physician Laigneau served King Louis XIII as medical inspector of hospitals. Later in the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research.

References

VD 17, 3:312613N. Jähns I, 654 ff. Graesse I, 473. Cf. Cockle 933.

Stock Code: BN#51093 Tags: , ,