Beschreibung
8°, contemporary quarter calf over decorated boards (head of spine defective; other binding wear, especially to corners; some worm damage to front front cover), spine gilt with crimson morocco label, gilt letter. Twenty-five folding engraved plates. In good to very good condition. Extensive nineteenth-century manuscript annotations in margins. Oval blue stamp in upper outer corner of recto of front free endleaf of José Saldanha Oliveira e Souza and B.M. Tavares de Proença. (2 ll.), 4, 390 [i.e., 393], 3 pp., 25 folding plates (the first two unnumbered, the rest numbered 1 through 23). Apparently lacking preliminary pp. [ix]-xxiii. *** FIRST EDITION. Divided into Five Parts: Containing the Treatise of Materials; Ground, Aerial and Aquatic Fireworks; Balloon Fireworks; Fires for the Theatre; and Military Fireworks. The portion devoted to the theatre includes several specific applications. The Ruggieris were a celebrated clan of pyrotechnicians originally from Bologna but long settled in France, where they became pyrotechnicians to Louis XV, Louis XVI and Napoleon III. The Élemens was first published in 1802 and was greatly expanded for each subsequent edition. Its appearance marked the first major treatise on fireworks since the publication of the last edition of Frezier's Traité des Feux d'Artifice in 1747. The present work appeared again in 1810, 1811 and 1821. There was a German translation of 1807. An abridged Italian translation appeared in 1853.Provenance: D. José de Saldanha Oliveira e Souza, who also used the name José Luiz de Saldanha (1839-1912), was a son of D. João de Saldanha Oliveira Juzarte Figueira e Sousa, 3º conde de Rio Maior, and brother of António José Luís de Saldanha Oliveira Juzarte Figueira e Sousa, 4º conde and 1º marquês de Rio Maior. A chemist and mineralogist, parliamentary deputy, and high government official, he studied mathematics and philosophy at Coimbra University, wrote on subjects as varied as agriculture, finance, and engravings, and amassed an important library. He was a devoted proponent of progress in the national agricultural sector, which he considered one of the primary sources of public wealth. See Grande enciclopédia XIX, 402; Innocêncio XIII, 66-7; Aditamentos, pp. 254-5. The Casa da Anunciada library of the counts of Rio Maior was one of the best private libraries ever formed in Portugal. It was dispersed for the most part not long after the April 1974 Portuguese revolution.*** Philip, Firework Books, R060.1. Jisc locates a single copy, at National Library of Scotland. NUC: MiU, CtY, PU-S. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 25577
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