RAMELLI, Agostino (c. 1531-after 20 August 1608). Le diverse et artificiose machine ... nelle quali si contengono uarij et artificiosi mouimenti, degni di grandissima speculatione, per cauarne beneficio in ogni sorte d'operatione. Composte in lingua italiana et francese . Paris: by the author, 1588.
RAMELLI, Agostino (c. 1531-after 20 August 1608). Le diverse et artificiose machine ... nelle quali si contengono uarij et artificiosi mouimenti, degni di grandissima speculatione, per cauarne beneficio in ogni sorte d'operatione. Composte in lingua italiana et francese . Paris: by the author, 1588. 2° (340 x 230mm). Roman (French) and italic (Italian) types. Engraved title within architectural frame by Leonard Gaultier, each leaf of text printed within a border of typographical fleurons, engraved portrait of Ramelli by Gaultier on title-page verso, 194 engravings (174 full-page, 20 double-page) numbered I-CXCV (CXLVIII and CXLIX combined on a single engraving), three signed with the cipher 'JG'. (e4-e5 shorter in outer margin, occasional light marginal dampstaining, soiling and spotting, some browning, clean tear with dampstain on S1, few other small marginal clean tears). Mid 20th-century cloth backed in morocco by Kelly and Son, gilt spine (light rubbing, corners bumped). Provenance : 18th-century notes tipped in at end — Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820; his presentation of the book on 21 April 1800 recorded by the Royal Institution in a 1801 library catalogue). FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE 16TH CENTURY AND A LANDMARK IN BOOK DESIGN. ‘The plates in Ramelli’s treatise are artistically as well as technologically superb, the bilingual text beautifully printed, and both plates and text surrounded by handsome borders of typographic ornaments. The reasons for this sumptuousness were twofold: first Ramelli had dedicated the book to his patron Henri III; and second, he had previously had several designs stolen from him by a trusted associate (probably Ambroise Bachot, later engineer to Henri IV), who published them in corrupt and mutilated form and claimed them as his own. As a result of this experience Ramelli planned his treatise as a particularly lavish work that would be difficult to counterfeit, and produced and published it from his own house where he could maintain absolute control over the project’ (Norman). The book itself is a very fine example of the exquisite work of late 16th-century French printers and artists. Ramelli’s work had a great influence on later mechanical engineering. The Royal Institution, founded in 1799 at the London house of Sir Joseph Banks, records the gift of this book as the first given by Banks to the library. Mortimer, Harvard French 452; Brun, p.280; Norman 1777; Dibner, Heralds of Science 173.
RAMELLI, Agostino (c. 1531-after 20 August 1608). Le diverse et artificiose machine ... nelle quali si contengono uarij et artificiosi mouimenti, degni di grandissima speculatione, per cauarne beneficio in ogni sorte d'operatione. Composte in lingua italiana et francese . Paris: by the author, 1588.
RAMELLI, Agostino (c. 1531-after 20 August 1608). Le diverse et artificiose machine ... nelle quali si contengono uarij et artificiosi mouimenti, degni di grandissima speculatione, per cauarne beneficio in ogni sorte d'operatione. Composte in lingua italiana et francese . Paris: by the author, 1588. 2° (340 x 230mm). Roman (French) and italic (Italian) types. Engraved title within architectural frame by Leonard Gaultier, each leaf of text printed within a border of typographical fleurons, engraved portrait of Ramelli by Gaultier on title-page verso, 194 engravings (174 full-page, 20 double-page) numbered I-CXCV (CXLVIII and CXLIX combined on a single engraving), three signed with the cipher 'JG'. (e4-e5 shorter in outer margin, occasional light marginal dampstaining, soiling and spotting, some browning, clean tear with dampstain on S1, few other small marginal clean tears). Mid 20th-century cloth backed in morocco by Kelly and Son, gilt spine (light rubbing, corners bumped). Provenance : 18th-century notes tipped in at end — Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820; his presentation of the book on 21 April 1800 recorded by the Royal Institution in a 1801 library catalogue). FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE 16TH CENTURY AND A LANDMARK IN BOOK DESIGN. ‘The plates in Ramelli’s treatise are artistically as well as technologically superb, the bilingual text beautifully printed, and both plates and text surrounded by handsome borders of typographic ornaments. The reasons for this sumptuousness were twofold: first Ramelli had dedicated the book to his patron Henri III; and second, he had previously had several designs stolen from him by a trusted associate (probably Ambroise Bachot, later engineer to Henri IV), who published them in corrupt and mutilated form and claimed them as his own. As a result of this experience Ramelli planned his treatise as a particularly lavish work that would be difficult to counterfeit, and produced and published it from his own house where he could maintain absolute control over the project’ (Norman). The book itself is a very fine example of the exquisite work of late 16th-century French printers and artists. Ramelli’s work had a great influence on later mechanical engineering. The Royal Institution, founded in 1799 at the London house of Sir Joseph Banks, records the gift of this book as the first given by Banks to the library. Mortimer, Harvard French 452; Brun, p.280; Norman 1777; Dibner, Heralds of Science 173.
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