VEGECE (Flave Rene noble and illustrious man), VOLCYR DE SER - Lot 881

VEGECE (Flave Rene noble and illustrious man), VOLCYR DE SEROUVILLE (Nicolas) - Du fait de guerre: et fleur de chevalerie. Quatre livres. Sexte Jule Frontin / homme consulaire / des stratagemes / especes / & subtilitez de guerre / quatre liures. Aelian de lordre et instruction des batailles. Ung liure. Modeste des Vocables du fait de guerre. One binder. Pareillement cxx histoires concernans le fait de guerre / ioinctes a Vegece. Traduicts fidellement de latin en francois: & collationnez (par le polygraphe humble secretaire & historien du parc d'honneur) aux liures anciens / tant a ceulx de Bude / que Beroalde / et Bade. Paris, Par Chrestian Wechel, A lenseigne de lescu de Basle En la rue sainct Jacques, 1536 ; in-folio, 7 ff.n.ch. (title, prologue, interleaved leaf not belonging to the work, table) + 320 pp. and 2 ff. n.ch., 19th century half parchment binding, smooth spine, brown leather title-piece. First French edition of Vegetius' treatise on the military art, translated by Nicolas Volcyr de Serouville (1480-1541), secretary to Duke Antoine de Lorraine. The work is superbly illustrated with 120 full-page woodcuts already used by Wechel for his 1532 Latin edition of Vegetius, but placed in a different order. The illustrations, "of a heavy and heavy workmanship, offer an astonishing succession of complicated and ingenious war machines and even projects of scaphanders and tanks." The large full-length portrait of Maximilian, copied after Dürer, completes the suite, and is repeated on the verso of the penultimate leaf. Very fine condition. Our copy contains the title page of the German edition of 1529. Brunet V, 1162. Brun, 307. Harvard, French sixteenth Century books 488, Noel 2010, Chartener 107. Consultant: Mr. Philippe HENRY