Art Militaire. 800-1600.

Tan calf spine with tan and brown boards. In French.

This is a late 19th century rendition of the Art Militaire (Military Arts) by Denis Diderot published circa 1762. The original book was often broken up for its diverse plates, This book is a dressed down rendition of an original which consisted of Plates vol. 1 Paris (1762) Folio, 253 x 393mm. 20 pages of descriptive text & 49 loose plates with their accompanying 4 text sheets. Slight browning to margins, a little spotting otherwise very good. The 37 plates and descriptive text for the entry of Art Militaire from volume I of plates, with the aditional 12 plates from the Supplementary Plates Volume. There are three sets of plates under this section in volume I, and these are titled Exercice (5 numbered plates), Evolutions (numbered plates 1-15), and Fortification (17 numbered plates, with plate 8 divided over two sheets). In the Supplementary Plates Volume there are another five sets of plates, and these are titled Tactique des Grecs (2 numbered plates, both with a 4 inch vertical incision within the left margin), Tactique des Romains (3 numbered plates), Art Militaire des Turcs (3 numbered plates, with one double plate), Fortification (1 unumbered plate), and lastly Nouvelle Artillerie (3 numbered plates, with two double plates, one of which is continued on a second sheet). There were orignally thirteen another plates in this suite from the Supplementary Plates Volume covering the topic Arms and Machines of War but these are all missing. 7 pages (238-244) from volume VI of the Encyclopà die (1756) including Exercices militaire des Romains 1 page (1018) from volume VII of the Encyclopà die (1757) including Gymnastique militaire 5 pages (511-514 & 577) from volume X of the Encyclopà die (1765) including information on La discipline des Romains en gà nà ral and Congà s militaires 1 page (250) from volume XII of the Encyclopà die (1765) including Peines militaires 3 pages (98, 573 & 858) from volume XIII of the Encyclopà die (1765) including Avantages des institutions militaires des anciens sur les nà tres, par rapport à la population, Rà compenses militaires and further information on Peines militaires 4 pages (101-104) from volume XV of the Encyclopà die (1765) including La discipline militaire des là gions With some browning to a few leaves. This large suite of plates covers almost all aspects of the military arts, displaying many manoeuvres, formations, and uniforms. Furthermore, illustrations of a variety of fortifications, canon, catapults and battle plans help to make this a broad-ranging and fascinating study of the subject. A large amount of text accompanies this suite of plates, describing military strategy, exercises and other topics, for instance the Roman military system. These include contributions by Charles-Louis deâ Authville Des Amourettes, Guilluame Le Blond, and Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt, the aristocrat who help fund the project and who wrote around one quarter of the Encyclopà die.