Besson, Jacques, Dauphinois | One of the first French works on machines and mechanical engineering

Besson, Jacques, Dauphinois 

Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum. Lyons: Barthélemy Vincent, 1578

Folio (374 x 243 mm). Title within architectural woodcut border, engraved head- and tailpieces, engraved initials, full-page woodcut diagram on A3r, 60 full-page engravings; lacking C4 blank, minor marginal soiling and dampstaining, final plate with a few small stains. Contemporary half vellum; boards worn with restoration to corners, hinges tightened.

There are three Lyons editions of 1578 of the Theatrum: one in Latin, one in French, and another with Latin and French title and French text. The present copy agrees with Mortimer’s probable third edition (Harvard 58), with the exception of the "Privilege," which is in French in the Norman copy (Mortimer notes: "the preliminary text is entirely in Latin.") In this edition, plates 17, 35, 39, and 51 have been replaced with copies by Rene Boyvin.

The Norman copy of Besson’s richly illustrated Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum. It is regarded as one of the first French works on machines and mechanical engineering. Originally published in Orleans with no imprint (ca. 1569) and under the title Instrumentorum et machinarum. . . liber primus, "Besson’s Theatrum illustrates an amazing variety of inventions, ranging from war machines to musical instruments to fire-fighting apparatus; the sixty full-page plates, reprinted from the first edition, were most probably designed by the Orleans architect Jacques Androuet de Cerceau" (Norman).

REFERENCES

Adams B-838; Harvard/Mortimer French 58; Norman 227

PROVENANCE

Haskell F. Norman (bookplate to front pastedown; Christie's New York, 18 March 1998, lot 41)