Helm, Armamentarium Principale oder Kriegsmunition und Artillerey-Buch, Frankfurt, 1625, modern half calf

[HELM, FRANZ]

Armamentarium Principale oder Kriegsmunition und Artillerey-Buch. Frankfurt: Johann Ammon, 1625

FIRST EDITION, folio (299 x 200mm.), title within engraved border, 4 engraved plates, numerous engravings in the text, modern calf-backed boards, new endpapers, modern pencil annotations, a few marginal repairs, minor browning or spotting

Franz Helm (c. 1500-1567) was an artillery master in the service of Charles V and various Dukes of Bavaria. Surviving manuscripts of this work have the title Buch von den probierten Künsten; the manuscript in Heidelberg (dated c. 1530) has the same image of an exploding cat and bird, which were designed to infiltrate an enemy position. This copy contains a note on the flyleaf in German stating that it was collated against a manuscript copy of Helm in the Hirsemann collects ion in 1906 (Hirsemann catalogue 330, item 213, a manuscript dated 1591).

LITERATURE:

VD17 23:295467B

PROVENANCE:

Wissenschaftliches Antiquariat Creutzer, Cologne, bookseller's label