Vegetius, De re militari, [Erfurt, c. 1512], woodcuts only, later limp vellum, Vernon copy

VEGETIUS RENATUS, FLAVIUS

De re militari. [Erfurt: Hans Knappe, c. 1512]

folio (299 x 215mm.), A-P⁶ Q⁸, comprising full-page woodcut illustrations only, later limp vellum, lacking quires D-G⁶, a few small tears to binding

A publication containing the fine woodcut illustrations to Vegetius but without the actual text; Hans Knappe of Erfurt had previously issued an edition of the text in German translation in 1511, with most of the woodcuts (VD16 V465), but this edition contains an additional seventy odd illustrations not issued with that text. The woodcuts are partly based on an earlier Vegetius printed in Augsburg in around 1475, and contain anachronistic illustrations of cannons and soldiers in contemporary costume, indicating that the book was intended for practical rather than academic use.

VD16 ascribes the woodcuts to Peter von Mainz, an artist working in Erfurt at the time, whose initials appear on the title-page woodcut.

LITERATURE:

VD16 ZV 9905 (listing 2 copies, Munich and Schweinfurt only)

PROVENANCE:

George John Warren, 5th baron Vernon (1803-1866), of Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire, monogrammed bookplate with motto "Vernon semper viret", sale, Sotheby's, 12 June 1918, lot 510, extract from sale catalogue pasted to front flyleaf