Fourquevaux, Instructions for the warres; Ive, The Practise of Fortification, 1589, 2 parts, modern red morocco

[FOURQUEVAUX, RAYMOND DE BECCARIE DE PAVIE, BARON DE]

Instructions for the warres. Amply, learnedly, and politiquely, discoursing the method of militarie discipline. Translated by Paule Ive (The practise of fortification). London: Thomas Man and Tobie Cooke, 1589

2 parts, 4to (185 x 131mm.), black letter, woodcut device on title-pages, woodcut headpieces and initials, woodcut illustrations, one (of 2) folding woodcut plate, additional engraving bound opposite each title-page, modern red morocco gilt by W. Pratt, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, additional engravings (including two engraved title-pages, one of Edmund Gunter and the other of David Papillon) pasted to endleaves, lacking second folding plate, worming through first gatherings, some browning, a few leaves with loss to margin 

Paul Ive was a military engineer who travelled extensively and consulted widely as a designer and overseer of construction. His early experience in fortification was gained in the Low Countries where he presumably witnessed the construction of several forts while fighting the Spanish. Within ten years he had become one of the country’s principal experts on fortification during Elizabeth’s reign. Sir Walter Ralegh described him as having "an excellent gift in these works, and that which is rarely joined to such knowledge, as much truth and honest as any man can have".

The Practise of Fortification is a pragmatic and succinct manual which emphasises Italian and Dutch style fortifications. The work contains numerous diagrams and plans that are pictorial in style, as opposed to the severely mathematical styles of some of his contemporaries. Ive, in his translations, publications and engineering, was important in introducing continental military techniques and concepts to England.

The two additional engraved plates bound as frontispieces are very finely engraved. Each one shows a soldier in the centre within an elaborate border composed of animals and insects (for the first) and satyrs and grotesques (for the second). The same border appears around a print in the British Museum, by Theodore de Bry, dating from 1592 (1876, 1014.420).

LITERATURE:

Cockle 41 & 42; ESTC S109957

PROVENANCE:

C. Inglis, M.D., booklabel and separate armorial label with motto "Recte faciendo securus"; Thomas Francis Fremantle, armorial bookplate