(1534-35). VALTURIO (Robert). DE RE MILITARI LIBRI XII. - Lot 154

(1534-35). VALTURIO (Robert). DE RE MILITARI LIBRI XII. Paris, Christian Wechel, 1535 (Completed printing in September 1534). In-folio of [12]-383-[1] pages, hardback vellum (Pagnant). Third edition of the famous work of military art by the Italian engineer Roberto Valturio. Remarkably illustrated with NUMEROUS woodcuts, including 22 full-page ones "executed with precision and elegance", depicting catapults, cannons, rams, hydraulic constructions... These unusual engravings, depicting the war machines used by the ancients, with picturesque and instructive medieval modifications, are a copy of those illustrating the Verona edition of 1483. The author of these woodcuts, Mercure Jollat, an excellent Parisian engraver, gave them, through the details, a great concern for representation in space; his monogram is found on 3 engravings (p. 191, 298 and 317). Copy dated 1534, with title page refreshed to 1535. Mottling in upper margins, numerous handwritten annotations from the period and handwritten bookplate of Joannis Barate "aureliasensis in supremo senatu parisiensis patronis". A well-bound copy by Edouard Pagnant, bookbinder and member of the Ecole Estienne jury in 1900 (Mortimer, French no. 536) (USTC, 181175, 7 copies listed).