THE FIRST BOOK SUCCESSFULLY PRINTED WITH COLOURS

FOSSÉ, (CHARLES LOUIS FRANCOIS).

Idées d'un Militaire pour la Disposition des Troupes confiées jeunes officiers dans la Défense et l'Attaque des Petits Postes. Dédié a M. le Duc du Chatelet.

Paris, de l'Imprimerie de Franc. Amb. Didot l'Ainé. Chez Alexandre Jombert, jeune, 1783.

4to. Cont. full mottled calf with gilt red title-label to richly gilt back. Neat professinal repairs to back, hinges and boards. Title-page and first few leaves with a bit of brownspotting, otherwise internally very nice and clean with only occasional scattered minor brownspotting. Woodcut printer's device to title-page, large coloured vignette to dedication-leaf (etched and colour printed), 11 coloured plates, 10 on which folded - all plates etched and colour-printed. Library-stamp on t-p. (14), 116, 60 pp. + 11 leaves of plate-description, on which the plates are mounted at top, 2 pp. of approbation and privilege. On thick, good paper. A very nice, crisp and complete copy w. clear colours.

First edition of the main work of the French military engineer Fossé (1734 - 1812). This military work, divided into two sections, one dealing with military strategies concerning defending and attacking, the other dealing with military plans and how to construct maps, is especially renowned for the extraordinary coloured plates by LOUIS MARION BONNET.

The plates, depicting plans and maps, show for one of the first times the perfection of the illustrating-process called the CRAYON MANNER adapted to colour-printing, and the work is probably the first book printed using this technique. The technique of printing with colour only began about 20 years before this work was issued; during the first many years, though, many attempts failed, and it wasn't till Bonnet came up with the coloured crayon manner that it was really a success. Bonnet increased the number of plates in order to make it possible to print with several colours. The crayon manner became a great success in Europe and is a fore-runner of the lithography-process. All the plates are signed by Bonnet and are in at least four colours.

This work is also renowned for its splendid typography that later on became known as the Didot-style. Graesse II:620. Brunet II:1354.

Order-nr.: 38917