First edition, in the original Dutch, of a revised and modernized introduction to the methods and principles of fortification established by the greatest French exponent of the art, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707). As usual in Vauban's approach, the text is divided into two principal parts, the first and longest discussing regular (symmetrical) fortifications and the second discussing irregular fortifications, the latter with a drop-title. But in each part Siderius distinguishes three different manners of constructing the desired forms, a new presentation that quickly became "authoritative" (Jähns). Siderius notes as the greatest weakness of earlier manuals that they gave only rules to follow without explaining the reasons behind them, which he considered dangerous, so he here set out to fill that gap. The 29 plates are clear and precise, and fold out to display the entire image outside the book's margins, so that one can consult the plates and text simultaneously. The folding tables are similarly designed.
With an (1850s?) owner's inscription on the title-page of Captain [Hermannus] Welsink (1809-1888), a military engineer from the Hague. An unsigned pencil note facing the title-page is said to be by Willem Hendrik Schukking (1886-1967), also a military engineer. Folding tables bound in together facing page 29 instead of facing pages 29 and 228. With an occasional minor and mostly marginal water stain, slightly affecting 4 plates, occasional very minor browning and an occasional minor marginal defect, but sill in very good condition. Binding worn along the extremities. Jähns, pp. 1446 & 2769; Sloos, Warfare 8141; STCN (3 copies).