RAMELLI, Agostino

Le Diverse et artificiose machine

Paris: L'auteur, 1588

First edition.

Folio (32.4 x 21.0 cm).

Seventeenth century vellum over boards.

This sumptuous treatise is the most celebrated of all renaissance technology books. Ramelli, a military engineer in the service of Henry III, published the book at his own expense. There are 194 full page engravings of mills, waterworks, and other machines, some of which anticipate devices that would not be realized for centuries. The plates and all the text pages are surrounded by decorative engraved borders.

from Agostino Ramelli, Le Diverse et artificiose machine, Paris 1588.