Traité des mines
A precious manuscript with numerous period-colored illustrations, preserved in its contemporary vellum.
In-4 of 124 ff., (1) blank f. Contemporary limp vellum, traces of ties, calligraphed title on upper cover and spine.
250 x 195 mm.
[Vauban]. [Sir Folard]. [Hermann, Jacob]. [Surirey de Saint-Rémy]. Treatise on Mines. Manuscript. Circa 1760.
Very beautiful and valuable manuscript of the Treatise on Mines written in brown ink, with period coloring.
It is adorned with very rich illustrations including diagrams highlighted with watercolor in pink, green, brown, and gray.
This handwritten work, composed by several hands, brings together the treatises of the great engineers, strategists, and men of war close to King Louis XIV: Surirey de Saint-Rémy, Vauban, and Sir Folard.
Provincial Commissioner of the Artillery of France, Surirey de Saint-Rémy (1645-1716) would publish his “Memoirs of Artillery,” a detailed work that would serve for several generations in the training of French artillery officers, including Napoleon Bonaparte.
In the second half of the 18th century, the profound transformations in French artillery revolutionized this arm of war. This was a succession of specific decisions and technical progress.
Indeed, in the aftermath of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, the Le Tellier clan decided to make artillery a weapon in its own right, with modern equipment operated by a specific, well-trained, and sufficiently numerous staff. For thirty years, they focused on realizing this ambitious yet necessary project for Louis XIV’s policy of conquest. How to conduct a war based essentially on sieges without effective artillery?
At a time when the idea was increasingly accepted that officers must receive a minimum of training, and experience alone was no longer sufficient, Saint-Rémy wished to write a useful manual for every officer. His book had to be complete without being overloaded with unnecessary information. His approach was thus above all that of a teacher and not that of a doctrinaire, as he claimed himself.
“Military art books have both a theoretical and practical vocation: practical concerns go hand in hand with this interest in the development of science characteristic of the Enlightenment.
The mathematician Guillaume Leblond (1704-1781), specialized in the art of war, wrote his Treatise on the Attack of Fortified Places. The book’s illustrations are plates engraved in intaglio.
In this specialized field of military art, works should have a practical perspective, which explains why, alongside printed editions, one often finds very carefully crafted manuscripts.
The mine is a means of attacking fortresses by constructing a system of underground galleries supported by props and dug beneath a fortified enclosure, the foundations of which are undermined with a powder charge: the aim being to open a breach in the wall to allow assault on the place. The theory of explosives was developed by Bélidor thanks to his experiments in 1732 and 1753, and these works were continued by engineer Lefebvre.” (N. Hacquebart-Desvignes, French Military Art Books in the Age of Enlightenment).
Fine and valuable manuscript of the Treatise on Mines, adorned with numerous illustrations in period colors, preserved in its contemporary vellum binding.
