Classic fortification treatise: author's presentation copy

Heidemann, Christoph. Architectura militaris.

Munich, Johann Jäcklin, 1664.

Folio (206 x 310 mm). 3 parts in one volume. (10), 98 pp., blank leaf. 62 pp., blank leaf. 26, (2) pp. With additional engraved title by Melchior Küsell and 27 double-page engraved plates. Contemporary full vellum (lacking ties). Coloured edges.

 6,500.00

First edition of this classic 17th century treatise on fortification architecture.

Author's presentation copy for his immediate superior, the Bavarian Lord Chamberlain, Count Maximilian Portia (d. 1679) from the Bavarian line of the counts Porcia and Brugnera, who hailed from Pordenone in Friuli, with Heidemann's full-page, elegant German inscription to the pastedown. Count Maximilian was descended from the military writer Jacopo di Porcia.

The engineer Heidemann served under the Elector of Bavaria and is regarded as a "firm adherent of Speckle's. Heidemann's construction was plainly reproduced in Sturm's 'Architectura militaris'" (Jähns).

Occasional browning and minor dampstaining. Vellum binding somewhat soiled and slightly worn at extremities. Provenance: Maximilian, Graf von und zu Porcia und Brugnara; latterly 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 (purchased from Charles Sawyer, London, 21 February 1955, at £20).

References

VD 17, 23:294435N. Jähns 1343. Cf. Ornamentstichkat. Berlin 3531.

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