Fiammelli, Il principe difeso, Rome, 1604, vellum, Antonio Santini's copy

FIAMMELLI, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO

Il principe difeso, nel quale si tratta di fortificazione, oppugnazione, espugnazione, e propugnazione, ò difesa. Rome: Luigi Zannetti, 1604

folio (322 x 215mm.), title and *4v printed in red and black with woodcut armorial, folding woodcut plate entitled "albero delle fortificazioni", woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, woodcut diagrams, contemporary vellum, occasional light browning, upper hinge broken

FIRST EDITION. Fiammelli's work on the usefulness or otherwise of fortification stemmed from Machiavelli's debate that their construction showed a ruler's lack of trust in his subjects. Fiammelli, a Florentine mathematician and engineer who worked for the Duke of Parma in the Low Countries, examines all the ramifications of fortifications, showing that good ones are useful but that they have to be used competently to be effective.

This is one of several military works he wrote while resident in Rome at the end of his life. For another of his works, see lot 30.

LITERATURE:

Cockle 801; USTC 4034250

PROVENANCE:

Antonio Santini (1577-1662, merchant and mathematician, a friend of Galileo's who later became a monk of the Somaschan order and was buried at Montecitorio), inscription on title-page; Chiesa di San Biagio a Montecitorio, Rome, inscription on title-page