An extensively illustrated 2-volume manuscript manual on fortification (vol. 1) and artillery (vol. 2), written in German by an "Unteroffizier in der 8ten Artillerie-Brigade", a non-commissioned artillery officer. It includes not only permanent fortifications, but also temporary ones for use in the field. It was probably written around the time of the First Schleswig War between Prussia and Denmark (1848-1851). Each volume has an extensive hierarchical table of contents occupying 40 and 81 pages respectively. Even at this late date our author continues to cite Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), Louis XIV's Maréchal de Camp, as the leading authority on the construction of fortifications. We have not identified Mahlendorff, though the Prussian Staats-Kalender for 1848 and 1852 records a doctor of that name in Köslin (now Koszalin in Poland), apparently associated with the military. The author put a vertical crease in each leaf to divide each page into a wide inner column for the text and a narrower outer column for the illustrations. The seven folding slips all show fortification plans.
With occasional minor foxing and with unintended folds in a couple of the folding slips, but otherwise in very good condition. The bindings are rubbed and the spines slightly damaged, but they remain structurally sound. A Prussian officer's illustrated manuscript fortification and artillery manual from ca. 1850.