Vegetius Flvius, Renatus.; Scriptores rei militaris

DE RE MILITARIA: Libri Quatuor (Ed. G. Bud!)

      Paris: C. Wechel, 10 cal. September, 1532. First edition printed in France, the First Wechel Edition, (the 1534 edition was the earliest known to Brunet (V.1162)). Beautifully illustrated with engraved title-page and one half-page diagram and 119 large engraved plates. Folio, bound in full vellum sometime later with morocco lettering label gilt. 144 leaves including the 59 leaves with engraved illustrations. Collation: a4, A-Y6, Z8. A very handsome copy, very well preserved, the binding in excellent condition and clean, some minor and early edge restoration at the initial leaf, occasional evidence of age, the plates and textblock crisp.. RARE. A VERY EARLY PRINTING, THE FIRST IN FRANCE OF ONE OF THE GREATEST WORKS ON THE MILITARY ARTS THAT HAS EVER BEEN PENNED. This printing of Vegetius contains a wonderful suite of woodcuts carved with considerable vitality and imagination. The 118 illustrations depict various weapons and machines of war. Some of the cuts hearken back to the very first military woodcuts, which appeared in the 1472 Valturius, while others are famous for Opre-figuringO later inventions, such as diving suits and air mattresses. OThe title-page contains a woodcut of a military council before a tent and a cut of a man loading a cannon on the verso. On leaf a4v, facing the first page of the text, is a full-page woodcut of a lansquenet, with the title, OVegetius De re militariO on a tablet in the lower left-hand corner of the cut. The block is repeated on leaf Q1v at the end of VegetiusO text. Illustrating the text are one half-page diagram and one hundred nineteen full-page cuts, printed as groups of plates, recto and verso of each leaf, included in the pagination, at the end of each of the four books. These are from the Steiner German text of 1529. The Vegetius subjects are in some cases the same as those in editions of Valturio. The Wechel Valturio was completed in July of 1532. All early illustrated military works are rare, and this work is one of the earliest obtainable.