Volkommene Geschütz-, Feuer-werck- und Büchsenmeisterey-Kunst: hiebevor in Lateinischer Spraach beschrieben ... Anitzo in die Hochdeutsche Spraach übersetzet von T.L. Beeren. Mit Kupffern und einem gantzen neuen Theil vermehret durch D. Elrich.

SIEMIENOWICZ, Kazimierz

Frankfurt, Heinrich Friesen for Johann David Zunner, 1676. *** Première édition en allemand de ce très beau livre illustré du XVIIe siècle. La première partie traite essentiellement de pyrotechnie militaire et récréative. La fabrication des feux d'artifice y tiennent une large place. Livre magnifiquement illustré 2 frontispices gravé et 48 planches hors-texte. Une planche a un rabat imprimé. La seconde partie, relative à l'artillerie, n'est pas de Siemienowicz. Cet officier du Roi de Pologne, né en Lituanie est mort en 1651, en laissant son ouvrage inachevé. Une déchirure à une planche sans manque. Des rousseurs. Bon exemplaire. *** In-folio de frontispice, (16), 232, (4) pp., 22 plates, frontispice, 116, (6) pp., 26 plates. Contemporary stiff velum. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * First edition in German. Illustrated by 2 engraved frontispices and 46 engraved plates (some folding, 4 plates are bound together on part 2, p. 47, whom one is a folding flap). Kazimirz Siemienowicz, Lithuanian-born Lieutenant General of Ordnance in Service to the King of Poland, originally intended to write a two-part "Compleat Art of Artillery" but only the first part was finished before his death. The first part deals with caliber, pyrotechnics, rockets, fire-balls and the building of firework set-pieces. Due to its specialized nature, this treatise became the standard "recipe book" for firework displays and the ultimate, and often plagiarized, authority on military and recreational pyrotechnics for well over a century. "The first part of Daniel Elrich's 1676 translation is a quite faithful rendering of Simiemowicz's original Latin into German. However, Elrich then added new material of his own on the manufacture of saltpeter, the workings of a powder mill, and the construction of elaborate firework set-pieces, including a burning castle. This German edition is opened at illustrations of a rocket making shop and a selection of tools of the trade." (Brown University Library). Some browning. Ties of the binding are partly missing. Complete copy with the rare last folio : "Bericht an den Buchbinder". Very fine copy. - -. Item #16598

Price: 6,000.00 €