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Rare fortification handbook for the common man

EYLEND, Martin.
Modus artis fortificatoriae Belgicus, Niederländisch Festung bawen, ..., zum andern mal in Druck gegeben, an vielen Orten corrigirt, vermehrt und verbessert.
Dresden, Wolfgang Seyffert, 1630. 4to. With about 60 woodcut illustrations in the text. 20th-century half parchment, with marbled paper covering most of the spine. [4], 100 pp.
€ 2,500
Rare second(?) edition, in the original German, of a brief compendious handbook of fortification following the Dutch methods and tactics. In the years 1600 to 1625, the Dutch Prince of Orange, Maurits van Nassau (1567-1625), proved the efficacy of the new Dutch ideas and techniques in fortification and siege warfare in the Eighty Years' War against Spain. With the German States now embroiled in the hostilities that spread to other parts of Europe as the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), there was a great practical interest in these new methods. While foreign authors were beginning to incorporate Dutch methods in their manuals, these tended to be up-market works, out of the reach of the common soldier or even many officers, and they also failed to keep up with the rapidly developing Dutch art of fortification. The present cheap compendium, indifferently printed on coarse paper, gives a much better idea of what common soldiers, lower-level officers and the interested general public would have learned about the new Dutch art of fortification than the great works by famous authors.Title-page and last page browned and the former also has a small stain, otherwise in very good condition. A fortification handbook for the common man, rare in all editions. VD17, 23:287401X (3 copies); Jähns, pp. 1105-1106 note; not in Cockle; Sloos.
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Europe  >  Low Countries
Low countries
Military history  >  Fortification & Military Architecture