"Traité de Fortification ou les elements de la... Lot 588

"Traité de Fortification ou les elements de la guerre donné à l'école de la Ferre 1723." Manuscript, 20 x 16,5 cm, [ca. 240] ff. (incl. a few blanks), in a French, unidentified, script in pen and brown ink, and 23 part. hand-coloured drawings on folding pl., all on laid paper (tr. of use). Half cloth covered with the same decorated paper as the covers (used). Early anonymous manual for the instruction of artillerists at one of the first artillery schools, the "École royale d'artillerie de La Fère" of Fère-en-Tardenois in Aisne. The school, founded after Louis XIV's royal ordinance (1720), owed its fame in a large part to the quality of the teachers, in this case it was probably the engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor (1698-1761) who was professor from 1720 until 1740. Based on the work of Blaise François Pagan (1603-1665) and Vauban, this manual includes 3 tables ("Table de la base des angles plans compris par deux cotés de 30 pieds chacune", "pour regler l'épaisseur qu'il faut donner aux pieds droits des vouttes des magazins à poudre", "pour expliquer les mesures") and 23 architectural drawings.