Author: STEVIN Symon ( Simon ) -- :
Title: Castrametatio, Dat is Legermeting, Beschreven door Symon Stevin van Brugghe, Na d'oordening en 'tghebruyc van den ...Heere Maurits Prince van Oraengien....( bound with ) Nieuwe Maniere van Sterctebou door Spilsluysen. Beschreven door Symon Stevin van Brugghe.
Description: Rotterdam, by Ian van Waesberghe, inde Fame, 1617 (for both books), in-4°, 327 mm, title with woodengraved printer's mark + (1)(bl) + (6)nn pp (engraved portrait of Mauritz Prince of Orange ; engraved fullpage coat of arms) + 55 pp + (1)(bl) with 22 woodcut illustrations in the text. (Second title) title with woodengraved printer's mark + (1)(bl) + (2) nn pp + 59 pp + (3) nn pp. Bound in 19th century vellum paper over boards, spine with two leather labels, uncut margins. Upper joint broken but binding still firm. Title page with some stains and thumbing, small marginal paper repairs at three pages, a few small perpendicular wormholes. Notwithstanding these small defects still a fine and complete copy of the rare first edition. Cockle 703 ; Norman 2018. Simon Stevin of Bruges (1548 - 1620). First edition. The first book is devoted to the art of laying out a military camp (castrametation), with particular regard to the needs of Mauritz Prince of Orange. The second book deals with the construction and defensive use of sluices in fortifications and inundations for military purposes. This treatise is one of the earliest on the subject and contains the very first explanation of their use for tactical purposes, that is, for flooding the country and thus causing it to become inaccessible to the enemy ( Sarton ). .

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