Lot 104
Collado, Luis.
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 16 January 2008 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Pratica manuale di artiglieria. Venice: Pietro Dusinelli 1586. First edition, folio, [vi] 92 ll, woodcut architectural titlepage, central arms of the dedicatee 'Don Carlo d'Aragona', 2 woodcut plates, 6 full-page and 29 text woodcut illustrations, woodcut initials and ornaments, contemporary limp vellum, some patches of wear, two small wormtrails [one touching a few letters], very slight marginal stains or thumbing, very early small armorial stamp on titlepage, a few marginal annotations in a later Italian hand
Footnote
Note: Luis Collado was engineer of the Spanish army in Italy during the last quarter of the 16th century. First edition of his important work on artillery, according to Cockle 'the only edition of the original form of Collado's famous work.' 126 chapters deal with all aspects of this topic, including: the qualities and duties of gunner generals and other officers; naval artillery; the invention of gunpowder; the casting, possible defects, uses, pieces, proportions, etc., of various types of artillery; how to load and shoot in different conditions (at night, sea, etc.); the making and use of powerful mines; the composition of gunpowder; the making and use of different kinds of projectiles; the writing of secret messages. Images of various types of cannons and diagrams detailing their diameters, proportions, etc. illustrate the text.
BM STC It. C16th p. 189. Brunet II p. 132.