Digges, An arithmetical warlike treatise named Stratioticos, London, 1590, contemporary calf

DIGGES, LEONARD AND THOMAS

An Arithmetical Warlike Treatise named Stratioticos Compendiously teaching the Science of Nombers as well in Fractions as Integers, and so much of the Rules and æquations Algebraicall, and Art of Nombers Cossicall, as are requisite for the Profession of a Souldier. London: Richard Field, 1590 

4to (194 x 130mm.), full-page woodcut armorial on verso of title (shaved at fore-edge), 2 folding woodcut plates, woodcut armorial and printer's device at end, with final blank, contemporary calf gilt with arabesque centrepiece, flat spine gilt, red speckled edges, early printed fragments in binding from a Latin incunable on canon law, a few leaves torn with loss, plates with tears at folds, binding slightly rubbed 

Second edition (see lot 119 for the first). This copy is the variant with a colon after "Leicester" in the title, rather than a comma. Digges revised this text in light of his practical experience with the Earl of Leicester in the Low Countries in 1585-1587, in particular with regard to artillery and ballistics. He also states on the title-page that this edition has been revised in line with contemporary Continental publications on military practice; Digges had access to the substantial library of John Dee in Mortlake.

LITERATURE:

Cockle 25; ESTC S109690; STC 6849

PROVENANCE:

Col. Turner, 7 Golden Square, inscription on flyleaf; Thomas Francis Fremantle, armorial bookplate, purchased from Pickering & Chatto, 22 April 1903, £6-6s