DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU, Henri Louis. Elémens de l'Architecture Navale, ou Traité pratique de la construction des vaisseaux, Paris: Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1752, 4°, FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece after Ozanne and 24 folding plates on 23 leaves (a few plate margins browned), contemporary marbled calf (head of spine repaired, recornered, rubbed), bookplate of Lady White by descent from the Library of Sir William White (1845-1913). [Scott 266: "gives a detailed account of the construction of a ship with 70 canons"; Maggs Nautica 666; Polak 1859]

Details

DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU, Henri Louis. Elémens de l'Architecture Navale, ou Traité pratique de la construction des vaisseaux, Paris: Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1752, 4°, FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece after Ozanne and 24 folding plates on 23 leaves (a few plate margins browned), contemporary marbled calf (head of spine repaired, recornered, rubbed), bookplate of Lady White by descent from the Library of Sir William White (1845-1913). [Scott 266: "gives a detailed account of the construction of a ship with 70 canons"; Maggs Nautica 666; Polak 1859]

Lot Essay

Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782) was admitted to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1728, and as a botanist, chemist, agronomist and naval architect he had a breadth of interests that was "somewhat surprising even for an eighteenth century polymath." In 1732 he was appointed Inspecteur Générale de la Marine, and the first book in his impressive output was a 1747 treatise on the rigging of ships.

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