Norton, Robert
The Gunner, shewing the Whole Practise of Artillery
£1,008
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
with all the Appurtnenances thereunto belonging. Together with the making of extraordinarie Artificiall Fire-workes, as for Pleasure and Triumphes, as for Warre and Service. London: by A. M. for Humphrey Robinson, 1628. Folio (28 x 18cm), contemporary mottled calf, spine relaid, label renewed, [14] 46 43-46 51-100 99-158 [2] pp., signatures A6 B2 [superscript 2]B2 C-Y4 (blanks 'A1' and 'Y4' early but probably not original), woodcut border to title, 29 engraved plates (numbered 1-11 and 13-27, 3 unnumbered, 20 folding, many closely trimmed cropping margins of image, the unnumbered plates all half-sheets, possibly comprising halves of other plates originally printed as folding sheets, and plate 12 with number cropped), diagrams in text, tear to head of spine, variable damp-staining, C3 with chip and closed tear in top margin, closed tear in L4, plate 8 (facing p. 138) with old repair [Cockle 114, calling for 'twenty-four full-page engravings'; ESTC S115254, calling for 29 plates of which 2 unnumbered and 25 folding; STC 18673]
Footnote
Note: An army officer and writer, Robert Norton (d. 1635) studied under John Reynolds, master gunner of England, and in 1627 was granted for life the post of engineer of the Tower of London. The plates, captioned in French and German, are printed from Theodor de Bry's plates to the 1614 edition of Ufano's Tratado della Artilleria, from which the work was adapted. ESTC traces eight copies in UK libraries; a handful of copies have appeared at auction, with varying plate counts, the folding plates often divided by binders into separate half-sheets.
Provenance: William Clarke (ownership inscriptions dated 1681 to initial blank); Stephen Hungerford Pollen (c.1869-1935), British army officer (bookplate), F. B. Lorch, South African business executive and military historian (red morocco book-label); H. H. Boyd (recent bookplate).