Egenolff's manual on ballistics and artillery, fireworks and the art of warfare

[Büchsenmeisterey]. Büchsenmeisterey. Geschoss, Büchsen, Pulver, Kugeln, Salpeter, Feurwerck und Pfeil etc. Zum Schimpff und Ernst zu machen, zuzurichten, und nach jedes Gewicht, Stein und Lot zugebrauchen. Dabey gemeine Kriegsrecht, Räth, Regiment, und Ordnung. Sampt der Lehre Keysers Maximiliani deß ersten, so im in seiner Jugent gemacht, und durch einen erfarnen trefflichen Man[n] seiner Kriegsräthe zugestellet ist.

(Frankfurt/Main, Christian Egenolff d. Ä. Erben), 1582.

8vo. 86, (2) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With 2 woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary full vellum with fore-edge flap.

 4,500.00

Rare compilation on ballistics and artillery, incorporating early treatises on fireworks and warfare, regimental regulations (VD 16, G 1057), and an educational work on the art of war written for Emperor Maximilian, here printed in a different blackletter reminiscent of Schönsperger's Theuerdank fraktur, the famous ornamental typeface specially cut for Maximilian in 1512.

Some browning; a few edge flaws. Interior lower hinge repaired. Quite charmingly bound in a contemporary vellum binding with a flap. Rare: Only 5 copies known in institutional collections (Wolfenbüttel; Staatsbibliothek Berlin; Amsterdam, University Library; Antwerp, Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek; Univ. of Aberdeen). The Flemish Heritage Library erroneously attributes authorship to Franz Joachim Brechtel (1554-93), whose work on the same subject first appeared at Nuremberg in 1591. Provenance: from the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research (purchased from Sotheran's, December 1936).

References

VD 16, B 9134 (a single record). USTC 615040. Richter (Egenolffs Erben) 484. OCLC 248948877. Cf. Jähns 653 (1597 edition). Not in Kat. der k. k. Kriegs-Bibliothek.

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