About this Item
Small 4to, pp. [vii], 254, 197 x 123 mms., fine full-page woodcut of soldier on horse before first page of text, 13 woodcuts in text, 26 letter diagrams of troop formations, including one full-page. woodcuts and plans in text; some upper margins closely trimmed. Domenico Mora (1530 - c. 1610) was an Italian writer and military leader who had lived twenty years in Poland working at the service of two kings of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stephen Báthory and Sigismund III Vasa. The work is divided into four parts, the first discussing the duties of a commanding officer; the second covers battle plans, tactics, and strategy; the third, fortification; and the fourth on attacking, conquering, and holding territory, usually a city. Mora expressed some scepticism about soldiers and the vocation of soldiering, asserting that many if not most were undisciplined, given to rape, plunder, and random killings. BOUND WITH: RUSCELLI (Girolama): Precetti dell Militia Moderna, tanto per Mare quanta per Terra, Trattati da diversi nobilissimi Ingegni, & raccolti con molta Diligenza dal Signor Girolamo Rkuscelli. Ne' qkuali si contiene tutta l'arte del Bombardiero, & si mostra l'orine che ha da tenere il maestro di campo, quando kjuvole accampae il suo essercito. Opera non meno dilettevole, che utile, molto necessaria a' Principi, & a tuti la disciplina militare. Col Privilegio. In Venetia, Appresso gli Heredi di Marchio Sessa, 1583. 4to, foliated, [4], [1] - 59, with vignette of Sessa's cat on title-page, full-page woodcut illustrations and vignettes in text. Girolamo Ruscelli (1518 1566) was an Italian mathematician and cartographer active in Venice during the early 16th century. It has been said of Ruscelli that he was was able to write on glass (for example on wine goblets) in such a way that the words remained invisible until they were treated with a special mixture "whose composition will surely never be discovered." 2 volumes in 1, boun d in later 18th century full polished calf, gilt borders on covers, spine ornately gilt in compartments, with one red morocco titling label (fragment only of second label), a very good copy with the armorial bookplate of Hopetoun House on the front paste-down end-paper and that of Thomas Francis Fremantle on the recto of the front free end-paper. A very good to fine copy. Cockle 663; Spaulding & Karpinski 30 (for Ruscelli). Seller Inventory # 9709
Contact seller
Report this item
