Capobianco, Alessandro. Corona, e palma militare di artiglieria. Nellaquale si tratta dell'inventione di essa, e dell'operare nelle fattioni da terra, e mare, fuoci artificiati da giuoco, e guerra; d'un nuovo Instrumento per misurare distanze [...].

€ 1,800.00

Third edition of an early artillery manual by Capobianco (d. 1610), the artillery captain of the Italian city of Crema. First published in 1598, it "provides an excellent overview of Italian artillery in general at the end of the 16th century [...] and includes a highly interesting construction of a distance meter" (cf. Jähns). Capiobianco's newly invented instrument is discussed on ff. 51v-54; the corresponding illustrations show its construction and use. Other chapters deal with fortifications, the manufacture of guns, artillery wheels, and ballistics, the latter with references to Tartaglia's work on the subject, as well as festive fireworks and warnings of the same.

Ownership by "W. W. Radford", dated 1871, to flyleaf. 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, with his armorial bookplate to pastedown.

Binding slightly worn. Title-page limp, somewhat soiled, a small hole near the gutter; a few pages narrowly cut at upper margin.