A MILESTONE IN MILITARY ARCHITECTURE AND FORTIFICATION TECHNIQUES

CAPRA, ALESSANDRO. La nuova architettura civile, e militare, divisa in due tomi, in questa nuova impressione diligentemente corretta, ed accresciuta. Cremona, Pietro Ricchini for Giuseppe Forbici, 1717.

4to, 2 volumes in one, contemporary vellum binding, pp. [28], 356; [12], 184.

Woodcut initials, head and tailpieces, woodcut portrait of Capra on p.[9] and *8 verso, architectural woodcut borders on pp. [10], 1, 79, 137, 183, 251, and *2, numerous woodcut diagrams.

7 FOLDING WOODCUT PLATES REPRESENTING MILLS, WAR MACHINES, FORTIFICATIONS AND A VERY INTERESTING MAP OF CREMONA.

Numerous illustration along the text, many of them full page.

FIRST COLLECTIVE EDITION of Capra’s «Military and Civil Architecture», his two masterpieces, originally published separately in Bologna in 1678: the first, under the title of Nuova architettura famigliareand in 1683 the second, under the name of Nuova architettura militare.

The first part is divided in 5 chapters, dealing with constructions techniques, hydraulics, civilian machines and mills . The second part is divided in three books, dealing with geometry, fortifications and war machines. A great importance has been given to machines, to which are dedicated more than 80 woodcuts.

Alessandro Capra, an architect from Cremona, was in the employ of the Spanish governors of Milan and devised many different machines to help the town of Cremona withstand a siege during the Thirty Years’War. Among the other works he designed the Pontremoli Cathedral.

References: Riccardi I, 235; Cicognara, 462.

A waterstain through the volume, but unsophisticated and untrimmed copy in its first binding.