Lot 113: COIGNET, Michiel (1549-1623). Instruction nouvelle des poincts plus excellents & necessaires, touchant l'art de naviguer. Antwerp: Henry Hendrix, 1581.

COIGNET, Michiel (1549-1623). Instruction nouvelle des poincts plus excellents & necessaires, touchant l'art de naviguer. Antwerp: Henry Hendrix, 1581. 4 o (224 x 160 mm). Large woodcut illustration on title, 4 woodcut volvelles (3 full-page) with woodcut hemisphere and diagrams. 18th-century vellum, decorated in blind (light chipping to spine ends). Provenance : Gotha, Ducal Library (early ink stamp on verso of title); Harrison D. Horblit (bookplate; his sale part I, Sotheby's London, 11 June 1974, lot 226). FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH OF THE FIRST MANUAL TO MAKE A CLEAR DISTINCTION BETWEEN PILOTAGE, NAVIGATION AND COSMOGRAPHY. In the first chapter Coignet explains that navigation is divided into "la navigation comune"--navigating when land or navigational marks are in sight--and "la navigation grande," when astronomical instruments are being used. Michiel Coignet was the son of the goldsmith and instrument maker Gillés Coignet. After working as a schoolmaster, he worked as Antwerp's wine gauger, and entered the service of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella of Austria as a mathematician and siege engineer. In about 1584 he set up his own workshop producing astrolabes, sundials, armillary spheres and surveying instruments. VERY RARE: the only other copies of this work in U.S. institutions are those in the New York Public Library, Harvard and Yale. The Yale copy has an inserted map from the first publication (?) of this text in Pedro de Medina De zeevaart , and this is presumably the copy inspected by Sabin and Alden & Landis. There is no other indication that this book was issued with a map. Alden & Landis 581/14; BM/STC Dutch p.54; Crone 85; Houzeau & Lancaster 10699; Sabin 14234. [ Bound with :] CATANEO, Girolamo. Le Capitaine. Lyon: Jean de Tournes, 1600. 4 o. Title within architectural woodcut border, 4 woodcut folding plans, 18 double-page woodcut illustrations in text, woodcut diagrams (a few woodcuts shaved). Later edition of this important work on fortification. Cartier 708.