Siemienowicz, The Great Art of Artillery, London, 1729, contemporary calf

SIEMIENOWICZ, KAZIMIERZ

The great art of artillery... translated from the French, by George Shelvocke. London: for J. Tonson, 1729

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, folio (305 x 188mm.), title printed in red and black, woodcut initials and headpieces, engraved frontispiece and 23 folding plates, contemporary calf, red edges, minor browning, binding slightly scraped, joints partially cracked

First English edition of the Polish-Lithuanian general's great treatise on rocketry and pyrotechnics, first published in Latin in 1650 (see lot 415), and remaining the standard work on these subjects for at least two centuries. Shelvocke, a Navy officer and a privateer, based his translation on Pierre Noizet's French edition of 1651.

LITERATURE:

ESTC T166910