TRATTATO DI SCIENTIA D'ARME, CON UN DIALOGO DI FILOSOFIA di Camillo Aggrippa Milanese.
Pp. [iv](including title on frontispiece verso)+[140](numbered to 70 on rectos only)+[ii](table & errata), engraved frontispiece portrait of the author, plus 56 copperplate illustrations (6 full page), numerous decorative initials; f'cap. 4to; later (18th century?) vellum, spine titled by hand, the boards slightly sprung and a trifle soiled; all edges red; coloured patterned (paste-papered) pastedowns, book label of David Levine, Sydney, above an earlier bookplate on the upper pastedown, neat early paper repairs to edges of first four leaves, the fore-edge of sig. Q1 a trifle cropped, a couple of short edge splits, a little light foxing and soiling (including some light offsetting from the illustrations); Antonio Blado, Rome, 1553. First edition. USTC 808101; Cockle 745. *A profusely illustrated treatise on fencing, dedicated to Cosimo de Medici, and considered to have laid the foundations of the modern art. Born in Milan, Camillo Agrippa (c. 1510-1595) moved to Rome in 1535, where he became acquainted with Michelangelo. (According to Cockle, page 192, the two large plates in this volume 'have been ascribed to Michelangelo, to da Vinci, and to Stradano'). Agrippa's work, based on his knowledge of geometry and mechanics, revolutionized the art of fencing. His treatise 'on the science of arms' is seen as the text that began the transition from the medieval 'cut and thrust' style of swordplay to the 'thrust-centric' style typified by the rapier. The anonymous armorial bookplate, featuring a stag trippant above the motto 'Amo' is probably that of Francis Scott, 2nd Earl of Buccleuch (1626-1651). Item #169783
Price: $9,000.00