Büchsenmeisterey-Schul, Darinnen die New angehende Büchsenmeister und Feurwercker, nicht weniger die Zeugwartten, in den Fundamenten und rechten Grund der Büchsenmeisterey, auch allerhand Feurwercken […] underwisen, und gelehrt werden. Alles auss eygender Erfahrenheit gantz vertrewlich beschriben, vermehret […] und für Augen gestellt.
Augsburg: Johann Schultes, 1643. Second, enlarged and revised edition. In contemporary blind-tooled pigskin, covers with multiple ornamental roll borders and a central panel, spine with five raised bands and later gilt-lettered leather label. [7] leaves 151 pp. With an engraved portrait of Berthold Schwarz, and 44 numbered engraved plates, mostly double-page or folding, by Raphael and Jacob Custos and Matthias Rembold. Binding rubbed and soiled, with wear and small losses at extremities. Internally somewhat browned and spotted, with occasional staining and foxing; some plates with marginal wear and old restorations; two leaves of the preliminary matter detached. Overall in good condition. An extensively illustrated seventeenth-century manual of artillery, gunpowder, ballistics, and military and recreational fireworks, by the German architect and engineer Joseph Furttenbach.
Second, enlarged and revised edition of Furttenbach’s Halinitro-Pyrobolia (Ulm, 1627), his illustrated manual of artillery, gunpowder, ballistics, and military and recreational pyrotechnics.
Written as a practical manual for gunners, fireworks specialists, and arsenal keepers, the Büchsenmeisterey-Schul covers the preparation and testing of gunpowder and its components, artillery and measuring instruments, ballistics and projectiles, and the construction of military and recreational fireworks (Lustfeuerwerke). The 44 technical engravings, largely retained from the earlier edition, illustrate artillery and its components, instruments, trajectories, pyrotechnic devices, and firework displays. The 1643 edition adds further illustrative material, including the scene of the legendary Berthold Schwarz discovering gunpowder, accompanied by a poem on its invention.
Joseph Furttenbach the Elder (1591–1667) was a German architect, engineer, mathematician, and pyrotechnician. He spent a formative decade in Italy, where he studied architecture, engineering, and stage design, notably in the circle of Giulio Parigi in Florence. Returning in 1621, he settled in Ulm, becoming municipal architect and later a city councillor. His numerous illustrated technical works range from civil and military architecture and hydraulics to mechanics, artillery, pyrotechnics, and theatre design. The Büchsenmeisterey-Schul reflects this intersection of military engineering, practical mechanics, and Baroque spectacle.
Surviving copies vary considerably in their preliminary matter. The present copy, like the Dresden copy, contains only the engraving of Berthold Schwarz at the supposed discovery of gunpowder; the Regensburg and Deutsches Museum copies lack Furttenbach’s portrait, while the Coburg copy lacks all three additional preliminary engravings: the folding allegorical title, Furttenbach’s portrait, and the Berthold Schwarz engraving. All four copies examined contain the same contemporary manuscript correction on the first page of the Vorrede (line 13), cancelling “oder” in “die rechte Theoria, oder waare Praxis” and supplying “und”; the present copy retains the uncorrected reading. Its title-page also differs in the disposition of the red and black printing, which is more closely spaced and in places nearly overlaps.
VD17 23:230397Z; Cockle 692; Jähns II, 998ff.; Philip F130.3; Lotz, p. 129; Honeyman 1388; Bibliothek des Deutschen Museums, Libri Rari 109; Graesse II, 647.
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Price: €5,000.00