Biringucci, Pirotechnia, Venice, 1550, later vellum-backed carta rustica

BIRINGUCCI, VANNOCCIO

Pirotechnia. (Venice: Giovanni Padovano for Curzio Troiano Navò, 1550)

4to (207 x 147mm.), title within woodcut border, woodcut initials and illustrations, woodcut printer's device on final leaf, later vellum-backed carta rustica, lower blank corner of B8 excised, V4 poorly printed at head, occasional light staining

Second edition. Biringucci's work on metallurgy included many processes necessary for the military, including the manufacture of guns and cannons, gunpowder and other explosives. A few of the woodcuts and some of the text was later used in Whithorne's Certain waies (see lots 284 and 461).

For another copy of this edition, see lot 434