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Fortification ca. 1645, including 16 fine drawings of barriers, tools and other equipment, with 3 other manuscripts on applied mathematics including many line diagrams and 2 sundials

[FORTIFICATION & APPLIED MATHEMATICS].
[4 manuscripts on fortification building, practical mathematics, navigation, the surveying of land and dikes, and sundials].
[The Netherlands, ca. 1645-ca. 1747]. 4 manuscripts. Folio (binding 38 x 22 cm; leaves 33 x 21 cm). 4 manuscripts (mostly in Dutch, but 1 in Latin and another partly in French) written in brown ink on laid paper in 4 different hands (plus a few later additions), the earliest with 16 skilfully executed illustrations of wooden barricades and tools and equipment for building fortifications, the others illustrated with line diagrams including 2 sundials. Loosely inserted in later limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1794?).
€ 2,250
A collection of four manuscripts (plus two additional leaves) devoted to fortification (beautifully illustrated with 16 pen and ink drawings of barriers and building tools and equipment); plain and solid geometry and its applications, with problems and solutions, possibly from an examination (with 14 line diagrams plus 2 on an added leaf); maritime navigation, triangulation, determination of longitude, compass corrections and correcting a course for currents, with problems and solutions, possibly from an examination (with about 50 line diagrams); and the surveying of land and dikes and the conversion of measurements, with problems and solutions, possibly from an examination (with a double-page sundial, and a similar sundial on an added leaf).
Manuscript 2 lacks 2 or possibly more leaves of text, in ad 4 the added leaf with the full-page sundial has a tear into the sundial and a large transparent brown stain. Many of the leaves have tattered edges or small stains. In spite of these defects, the manuscripts form valuable primary sources for education in applied mathematics. The splendid drawings in ad 1, with extensive accompanying text, provide very detailed information about barriers used against enemy infantry and cavalry ca. 1645, and about the tools and other equipment used to build fortifications at that time, and the two sundials in the ca. 1747 manuscript are especially interesting.
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