Lot 23: Pietro Sardo on fortifications and artillery

SARDI, PIETRO

Corno dogale della architettura militare. Venice: [Giunta], 1639. First edition. Old vellum, edges sprinkled. 11 1/2 x 7 7/8 inches (29 x 20 cm); half-title, engraved title-page with portrait of the author at the foot, [24], 220 pp. woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, engraved illustrations (some double-page), 8 double-page or folding etched plates outside the collation, and 38 illustrations in text (8 of which are double-page) throughout. The binding neatly rebacked, the half-title with a small paper restoration, some minor staining or toning but generally a clean copy, the stamp of a German military school on the eight plates, as well as the title verso and half-title (which also bears the earlier ink ownership of a Jesuit college), the fore-margin of the engraved title trimmed into the plate, a small piece of paper adhered to a minute tear on the final leaf.

An important work on fortification and artillery, dedicated to Francisco Erizzo, Doge and "Serenissimo Pricipe" of Venice, largely influenced by methods developed in the Low Countries. This is something of a tour de force of illustration, with its elegant plates and diagrams.