Author: [FORTIFICATION]. HOOFF, Cornelis Christiaan van.
Title: Grondbeginselen der vestingbouw, volgens de verschillende manieren van versterken van Pagan, Vauban en Coehoorn. Geconstrueerd getekend en beschreven door C C van Hooff. [The Hague], 1796. Folio. With a calligraphic title-page and 19 folding drawings (mostly about 32.5 x 51 cm, 6 longer: 78 to 138 cm, the longest assembled from 2 pieces before drawing) with 45 numbered figures, showing fortification plans and sections in black and red ink with coloured washes. With an 1857(?) photograph of a (ca. 1795?) miniature oval portrait of the author and 4 documents concerning the manuscript and the author's family (1933-1965), all loosely inserted. Contemporary half, tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine.
Description: [1], [1 blank], 81, [1 blank], [1], [3 blank] pp. plus 19 integral blank ll. with drawings tipped onto them.Unpublished manuscript for a complete introductory course in the design and construction of fortifications, with 19 large folding leaves with meticulously drawn fortification plans and sections in colour. It was compiled, drawn and written by Cornelis Christiaan van Hooff (1778-1812), then an 18-year-old Lieutenant in the Dutch Napoleonic corps of military engineers. The title notes that it follows the methods of Blaise François, Comte de Pagan (1604-1665), Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707) and Menno van Coehoorn (1634-1704), the greatest 17th-century French and Dutch masters of the art of fortification. Van Hooff began to study law but switched to engineering. The French Revolutionary army invaded the Netherlands in 1794/95 and the Batavian Republic was proclaimed on 19 January 1795. Van Hooff became a Lieutenant in the corps of engineers on 28 October 1795. He produced the present manuscript in the following year. He was to rise to the rank of Lieuitenant-Colonel in 1809, but requested and received an honorary discharge in 1810, apparently due to poor health, and died in 1812 at age 33. With library stamp. In very good condition. The binding is rubbed, but still good.l For Van Hooff: Van der Aa VIII, pp. 1084-1085 (mentioning what may be the present manuscript).

Keywords: [403A2955597B] AUTOGRAPHS, DOCUMENTS & MANUSCRIPTS|[403A2955597B] AUTOGRAPHS, DOCUMENTS & MANUSCRIPTS -> [C351C9CFA94C] Manuscripts & Documents|[KCVDN0K9X7XL] MILITARY HISTORY|[KCVDN0K9X7XL] MILITARY HISTORY -> [KCVE4Z8EMNPX] Fortification & Military Arch