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Details
BESSON, Jacques (16th c.). Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum. Additional text by F. Broalde de Verville. Lyons: Barthlemy Vincent, 1578.
2o (374 x 243 mm). Architectural woodcut title-border with classical figures, putti, grotesques and geometric forms, full-page woodcut diagram on A3r, 60 full-page engravings. (Some minor marginal soiling and dampstaining, mostly affecting text, lacks C4 blank, final plate with a few small stains.) Contemporary half vellum (boards worn, hinges tightened).
There are three Lyons editions of 1578 of the Theatrum, one in Latin, one in French, and another with Latin and French title and French text. This copy agrees with Mortimer's probable third edition (Harvard 58), with the exception of the Privilege which is in French in the Norman copy (Mortimer states "the preliminary text is entirely in Latin"). In this edition, plates 17, 35, 39, and 51 have been replaced with copies by Ren 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 Olrans 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 Orlans architect Jacques Androuet de Cerceau" (Norman). Adams B-838; Harvard/Mortimer French 58; Norman 227.
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There are three Lyons editions of 1578 of the Theatrum, one in Latin, one in French, and another with Latin and French title and French text. This copy agrees with Mortimer's probable third edition (Harvard 58), with the exception of the Privilege which is in French in the Norman copy (Mortimer states "the preliminary text is entirely in Latin"). In this edition, plates 17, 35, 39, and 51 have been replaced with copies by Ren 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 Olrans 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 Orlans architect Jacques Androuet de Cerceau" (Norman). Adams B-838; Harvard/Mortimer French 58; Norman 227.