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Details
BESSON, Jacques (1540?-1573). Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum. Additional text by François Béroalde de Verville. Lyon: Barthélemy Vincent, 1579.
2o (395 x 266 mm). Architectural woodcut title-border with classical figures, putti, grotesques and geometric forms, full-page woodcut diagram on A3r, 60 full-page engravings. (Some light browning and spotting to text and plates, some wormtrack repairs to lower blank margins of some leaves.) Contemporary single gilt-ruled vellum. Provenance: acquired from Lathrop C. Harper, 1966.
There are three Lyon editions of 1578 of the Theatrum which precede this edition: one in Latin, one in French, and another with Latin and French title and French text. The title and text of this edition is in French, and the plates agree with Mortimer's probable third edition (Harvard 58), with plates 17, 35, 39, and 51 replaced with copies by René Boyvin (signed with his monogram).
Besson's lavishly illustrated Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum is one of the first French works on machines and mechanical engineering. It was originally published in Orléans with no imprint (ca 1569) under the title Instrumentorum et machinarum...liber primus. "Besson's Theatrum illustrates an amazing variety of inventions, ranging from war machines to musical instruments to fire-fighting apparatus; the sixty full-page plates, reprinted from the first edition, were most probably designed by the Orléans architect Jacques Androuet de Cerceau" (Norman). Adams B-841; see Mortimer French 58 (probable third edition, 1578); Norman 227 (1578 edition).
2o (395 x 266 mm). Architectural woodcut title-border with classical figures, putti, grotesques and geometric forms, full-page woodcut diagram on A3r, 60 full-page engravings. (Some light browning and spotting to text and plates, some wormtrack repairs to lower blank margins of some leaves.) Contemporary single gilt-ruled vellum. Provenance: acquired from Lathrop C. Harper, 1966.
There are three Lyon editions of 1578 of the Theatrum which precede this edition: one in Latin, one in French, and another with Latin and French title and French text. The title and text of this edition is in French, and the plates agree with Mortimer's probable third edition (Harvard 58), with plates 17, 35, 39, and 51 replaced with copies by René Boyvin (signed with his monogram).
Besson's lavishly illustrated Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum is one of the first French works on machines and mechanical engineering. It was originally published in Orléans with no imprint (ca 1569) under the title Instrumentorum et machinarum...liber primus. "Besson's Theatrum illustrates an amazing variety of inventions, ranging from war machines to musical instruments to fire-fighting apparatus; the sixty full-page plates, reprinted from the first edition, were most probably designed by the Orléans architect Jacques Androuet de Cerceau" (Norman). Adams B-841; see Mortimer French 58 (probable third edition, 1578); Norman 227 (1578 edition).