Della architettvra militare del capitanio Francesco de' Marchi bolognese, gentil'hvomo romano, libri tre : nelli qvali si descrivono li veri modi del fortificare, che si vsa a' tempi moderni : con vn breve, et vtile trattato, nel quale si dimostrano li modi del fabricar l'artigliaria, & la prattica di adoperarla, da quelli che hanno carico di essa.

[superscript pi]A² a2-a4 b² A-F⁶ G⁸ H-2O² [2P]⁸ 2Q² 2R⁴ 2S² 2T-2X⁶ 2Y⁴ 2Z-3A² 3B⁸ 3C-6T² [6V-6Z]² [dagger-2 daggers]⁶ chi-2chi².

Device on t.p. signed B.V.F. (Virtù). Headpieces, some signed M.S. Tailpieces. Figured initials (saints, putti), as well as floriated and arabesque; some factotum.

In the present copy plates 155-161 are not numbered. It lacks both the added plate LXXVIII following 3K² and the view of Malta, 3K1v-3K2r being blank. However, four additional double-page plates follow Libro 3, the fourth of which is the missing view of Malta.

Mortimer gives 161 numbered plates in describing the Harvard copy, engraved on 157 copperplates (CXXXVII-CXLIIII appear two to a plate). She notes that some copies have a plate LXXVIII bound in after 3K2. This plate corresponds to the text on 3K1r and 3K2v, which the view of the 1565 siege of Malta on 3K1v-3K2r does not.

Dall'Oglio published an ed. consisting of the plates only in 1597. In the present ed. they are grouped together to form Libro 3, and the legends giving their position in the preliminary ed. have mostly been masked. See Mortimer.

Plate I bears the legend that de Marchi began this work in August, 1546, while Dall'Oglio's dedication to Vincenzo Gonzaga is dated 12 May 1600.

The t.p. is that of the first of four issues; see Mortimer. The addendum on making artillery is labelled Libro quarto in the caption title, [dagger]1r.

Mortimer, R. Italian 16th-cent.,

Mode of access: Internet.

Two ownership inscriptions appear on the t.p. Above the device is the 5-line Latin gift inscription, dated 12 October 1680, of: Magister Aegidius Dez Defontaine, doctor and fellow of the Sorbonne and counselor to Philippe, duc d'Orleans, etc. At head in the same hand: pour La bibliotheque de la maison professe de St. Louis, des RR PP. de la Compagnie de Jesus.

Binding: 19th-century purple grained cloth, goatskin back and corners. Author and title in gilt on red leather spine label. An oval cut in the cloth at center of both boards reveals the arms, stamped in gilt on leather, of Dominique de Vic, Archbishop of Auch (ca. 1588-1629); see Olivier, Reliures armoriées, 472. Page edges sprinkled red. Centered on front pastedown is Giovanni Muzio's etched bookplate by Giacomo Manzù.

1st plate in Getty copy bound in upside down.