Analisi ed esame ragionato dell'arte della fortificazione e difesa delle piazze. Venice: Antonio Zatta, 1777. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt fillet and gilt spine, red edges (some scuffing). 11 x 7 3/4 inches (28 x 19.75 cm); [20], 300 pp., engraved title vignette, head and tail-pieces, 20 engraved folding plates, all from the circle of Zatta. Minor wear and scuffing to the binding, which is, however, sound and generally most attractive; outer margins of several plates a bit soiled or chipped where they project from the text block, but in all a fresh copy. Bookplate of Herbert Jekyll on the paste-down, and an old ink name on the endpaper of another family member.

A typographically delightful work on fortifications published by Zatta, the foremost Venetian publisher of the day, whose works are invariably elegantly printed on fine paper. The present example is no exception, with huge margins that almost qualify this copy as large-paper. It does not have the portrait of the King of Poland that is sometimes indicated, but we find no recent copy of auction in which this is present, and it may occur in only a few copies. The text deals with different shells and projectiles, a system of optical telegraphy etc.