VILLE, Antoine de.

Second edition, first published 1628, of Antoine de Ville’s sumptuously illustrated book of military architecture, from the library of John Evelyn (1620-1706), English polymath, diarist, horticulturalist and bibliophile.

De Ville begins with a series of methods for geometrical calculation of various polygons, as well as descriptions of the components of modern fortification, before relating their application to regular and irregular forts, and those with less than six bastions at the corners, which included fortified ports, fortifications on bridges, etc. The second and third books contain De Ville’s theories for attacking and defending fortifications and fortified towns, with historical examples, including mounting and repelling surprise attacks, fighting long sieges, conducting sorties, mining and countermining, destroying pontoon bridges, etc. He also gives advice on suppressing ‘seditions and revolts’. De Ville’s work was innovative in regard to the methodology that he set out for tracing the arrangement of fortifications, according to fixed figures for the base side of a polygon, at either 150 or 180 paces. His genuinely original contribution, however, related to his calculations for the bastions at the corners. Essentially, he developed the Italian Renaissance design of fortifications into a science. The plates depict birds-eye designs for forts as well as perspectival views of forts within imaginary landscapes, often combined with geometrical diagrams, which are in other cases contained within architectural borders.

John Evelyn, famous diarist, horticulturist and bibliophile, left Oxford in 1637 without taking a degree and travelled on the Continent, including time spent in Paris, which he eventually left in 1647. He therefore purchased this book not long before his return to England, where he devoted his time to designing gardens at his house of Sayes Court, Deptford, and writing several books on horticulture. He was a founding member of the Royal Society and also wrote on sculpture, medals, theology, and pollution. ‘Evelyn was an active bibliophile throughout his life, who devoted much interest to his library. His 1687 manuscript catalogue … lists c. 4000 volumes, and over 800 pamphlets … His years in Paris … helped to form his tastes for handsome books and bindings … made in both Paris and London, in both calf and goatskin to a high quality; he spent more on bindings than the average book purchaser of the time’ (BOO). Evelyn proposed a system of shelfmark classification employing 24 letter shelfmarks and 95 word shelfmarks. In reality, he used all 26 letters of the alphabet but only 23 words. These bore no relation to subject matter, as he intended, but may have represented a purely practical classification by size: Hercules and Vulcanus were exclusively used to denote folio books (J. McL. Emmerson, ‘Dan Fleming and John Evelyn’ in Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, 27.1-2, p. 59). Many of Evelyn’s books were sold during his lifetime: he instructed his son to ‘“dispose of the duplicates, and to purge out many frivolous French books and other trash, to exchange them for such books as we want, and are of more use”’ (ibid.). This French book evidently survived, passing to Evelyn’s descendants, and was sold at Christie’s in 1977, lot number 1524.

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