[Observations Sur Les Antiquités De La Ville D Herculanum] Bellicard, Jérôme-Charles. 1726-1786 Archaeology,Art,Bookbindings - Contemporary,Etching/Engraving,Military

With:Architecture militaire ou traité de fortifications. [France, in or after 1754]. 8vo. [132], [12 blank]p. MANUSCRIPTin the same cursive hand andSIXTEEN NUMBERED FOLDING ENGRAVED PLATES with nearly one hundred figures of fortification and military equipment keyed to the text (L.-F. Baour). Ad I: EARLY MANUSCRIPT COPY OF THIS GROUNDBREAKING UNAUTHORIZED REPORT ON THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE OF HERCULANEUM, offering the first comprehensive description of the buildings, paintings, sculpture and artifacts unearthed between 1738 and 1750. Architect J.-C. Bellicard and royal artist Chas.-Nic. Cochin (1726-86) accompanied A.-F. Poisson de Vandières (1727-81; the king s mistress brother) on his Italian Grand Tour (1749-51). During their two-month stay in Naples, they illicitly studied the excavations at Herculaneum, then subject to a government ban on any reproduction or description of them in print. On the Frenchman s return home, they combined sketches drawn from memory and information obtained clandestinely and published their findings in English (1753) and French (1754). Bellicard s aesthetic judgments, positive and negative, influenced contemporary art historians. This manuscript follows the French edition but without the illustrations. In good condition. Gordon, "Subverting the Secrets of Herculaneum" in Antiquity Recovered edd. Gardner Coates & Seydl 37-57. Ad II: UNPUBLISHED HYBRID PRIVATE INSTRUCTIONAL MANUAL OF MILITARY ARCHITECTURE. The text provides practical exercises and treats regular and irregular fortifications, external defensive barriers, Vauban s methods and the fortified encirclement of a besieged town. The engravings of plans and elevations of various fortified structures were likely sold independently to students. One plate (no. 13) illustrates theWEAPONS AND ACCESSORIES REQUIRED TO LAY A SIEGE caltrops, grenades, cannon balls . In good condition (one plate slightly browned and split along the fold). Contemporary mottled sheep (scuffed, edges worn), spine and citron morocco label gilt, edges sprinkled red