Author: FREITAG, Adam.
Title: L'architecture militaire ou la fortification nouvelle.Paris, Toussainct Quinet, 1640. Folio. With an engraved title-page, 35 double-page engraved illustration plates containing 185 numbered figures, and 8 double-page letterpress tables. Contemporary vellum.
Description: [8], 179, [1] pp.Third(?) French edition, the first one published outside the Netherlands, of the best, most detailed, best illustrated and most influential handbook of fortification from the Dutch golden age. Besides numerous fortification plans, profiles, sections and perspective views, the plates show bridges, gates, barriers, shelters, tools for digging, construction and demolition, a level, a battering ram, a windlass, a wheelbarrow, artillery, fences and a horse-powered Archimedes's screw for pumping water, while three plates show the arrangement of troops' quarters in camp. While some of the fortification plans are theoretical, others show the fortifications of cities of the Low Countries and Rheinland during the Eighty Years' War, including Antwerp, Wesel and Heusden. The text is divided into three "books", the first covering the origins, development and most recent Dutch improvements in the art of fortification, the second systematically presenting the various forms of fortification in a wide variety of shapes, and the third on offensive and defensive tactics of siege warfare as well as the furnishing and maintenance of fortifications.With some manuscript notes in French on paste-down. Browned with some minor foxing and spotting. Bookblock loosly attached to spine, binding with some stains. Reasonable copy.l Jordan 1303; cf. Jähns, p. 1111; this edition not in Sloos, Warfare.

Keywords: [KCVDN0K9X7XL] MILITARY HISTORY|[KCVDN0K9X7XL] MILITARY HISTORY -> [KCVE4Z8EMNPX] Fortification & Military Architecture|[KCVDN0K9X7XL] MILITARY HISTORY -> [KCVE5SPKXWFX] Military History up to 1700|