Libro d'ogni sorte di fortificationi,

Sì regolari, ch’inregolari, piatteforme, revelini, mezzelune, opera a’corno, coronate, tenaglie, forti da campagna, ridote, mezzeridote, stele di più sorti; con metodo facillissimo à pratticarsi nel’ operare in campagna. Rome?, ca. 1700

4to (10 3/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 263 x 197 mm). Illustrated calligraphic manuscript in Italian, 70 leaves, written in neat semi-cursive script with headings in roman capitals, 40 lines, within red-ink border-rules, on heavy paper watermarked fleur-de-lis in double circle with letter V surmount, 11 large diagrams and illustrations inserted as folding "plates," 41 full-page and 6 smaller diagrams and illustrations in text, all executed in red and black inks and heightened with red and pink washes; some of the illustrations pricked for copying, occasional light foxing, very short worm trail to inner margin of first 8 leaves, well outside the border-rules. Eighteenth-century Italian polished mottled sheep gilt, red morocco spine label lettered "Archit milit.", gilt floral-patterned pastedowns, plain free endpapers, edges gilt; extremities rather rubbed, a few scratches.

Antonio Sempiterni Tolotti, of Rieti, inscription on title; Tolotti was apparently an engineer, and published a description of a flow-meter in 1823 — Ray Livingston Murphy (bookplate)

A very attractive manuscript treatise on military architecture, profusely illustrated with diagrams, sections, plans, and views. Neither the author nor the scribe is identified, and the work is apprently unpublished.