Traité de la coupe des pierres, ou methode facile & abregée, pour aisément se perfectionner en cette science.

Traité de la coupe des pierres, ou methode facile & abregée, pour aisément se perfectionner en cette science.

Second issue of the first edition (1728) of "the most accurate and complete work on the subject of stone-cutting for building" (BAL). An abundantly and clearly illustrated manual on cutting stone for architectural construction, with meticulously detailed instructions. The main text is divided into five parts covering doorways and entry vaults, other vaults, pendentives (sections of domes), rampant (asymmetrical) arches and spiral stairs. All five parts are extensively illustrated, mostly with one or two plates for every chapter, in total 120 full-page plates and 1 large folding plate (plate size 47.5 x 61 cm) showing plans, cross-sections and views of gates, doorways, halls, tunnels, vaults, domes, corridors, niches, windows, staircases, etc. along with some measuring tools. The present copy is said to be on large-paper: it is in any case about the same size as the BAL copy, giving it generous margins. With an 18th-century manuscript bookplate, partly torn away. The large folding plate is somewhat browned and tattered, with small tears around the edges (1 running into the image and 2 crudely repaired with tape, mostly in the margins), a couple text leaves are also browned, an occasional further plate or text leaf shows minor, mostly marginal browning or spots and the last few leaves have a marginal restoration in the upper outside corner, but the book is otherwise in good condition. The binding has been rebacked and the flaking leather stabilized, but most of the gold-tooled spine is clear and the book is now structurally sound. An essential source for the history of stone masonry, beautifully and extensively illustrated.l BAL 1765; not in Berlin Kat.; Fowler; Millard; Vagnetti. Contemporary calf, sewn on 7 cords, richly gold-tooled spine with a gold-tooled red morocco label in the second of 8 compartments, red edges, green ribbon marker, curl-marbled endpapers (blue, red, green, yellow and white in that order). Rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece by Thomassin after Bertin (a personification of Geometry instructing putti in her art), a letterpress title-page with the woodcut royal arms, 5 divisional titles for the 5 parts, a woodcut diagram on p. 3 and numerous architectural plans and views (in orthographic projections and in perspective) and designs for stone cutters printed from 97 engraved copper plates (96 full-page and 1 larger than double-page on a folding sheet of larger format). In parts 1-5, 67 plates are numbered I-LXVII, but 24 of them have a second accompanying plate with the same number, usually labelled in the form "suite de la planche 47" (but XXIV and XXVII using roman rather than arabic numerals), and 4 plates have an additional folding slip tipped on: XV (a small fold-out extension), suite 63 (a simple slip) and suites 33 & 44 (each with a slip that can be folded up to make a three-dimensional figure). In the appendix, 6 plates are lettered A-F. For the reader's convenience the publisher adds 37 repeat plates so that 1 plate may appear 2 or 3 times, though the tipped-on slips are not repeated. Many plates also indicate the page they are to face, the repeated ones sometimes with two page numbers so that one could be masked. In many cases plates are printed on both sides of a leaf, so that one leaf may show two impressions of the same plate or impressions of two different plates. The manner of inserting the plates probably varies from copy to copy, but when a roman numeral plate has a second accompanying "suite" plate the present copy usually shows them printed side by side on a whole sheet bound as a fold-out. Several single-page plates are printed alone on a whole fold-out sheet, so that they can be seen while the reader pages through the book. A. Coquart signed or initialed most of the plates. Further with 3 engraved headpieces (plus 3 repeats) showing putti cutting and hauling stone at building sites (opening the dedication to Louis XV and the five parts, the one for the dedication with the scene as background to the crowned French royal arms), 2 engraved decorated initials (the one for the dedication with a sun), numerous woodcut decorations (some in early rococo style), woodcut decorated initials, and decorations built up from typographic ornaments. Most of the text is set in the famous Romain de Roi, exclusive to the Imprimerie Royale. Pages: [16], 185, [1 blank] pp. plus plates. Artikel-Nr. 14941

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