Olympia-2015

73. LOSTELNEAU, Colbert de. Le mareschal de bataille. Contenant lemaniment des armes. Les evolutions. Plusieurs bataillons, tant contrel’infanterie que contre la cavalerie. Divers ordres de batailles. Avec un brefdiscours sur les considerations que doit avoix un souverain, avant que lecommencer de guerre. Paris, Estienne Migon, 1647.Folio, pp. [xii], 459, [1, blank], 48 near full page engravings of pikemen andmusketeers, and with over 400 typographic illustrations printed in red, black andyellow; title in red and black; a fine copy, bound in full nineteenth-century brownmorocco, gilt coat of arms of Count de Mornay-Soult of Dalmatia on both covers,triple gold fillet border, dentelles, gilt edges, spine richly gilt in compartments, titleand date gilt to spine; bookplate of Armand Gritton to front pastedown. £5500First and only edition, printed for privatecirculation, of this military treatise writtenduring the Thirty Years’ War by Colbert deLostelneau, French Marshal and Commander ofthe French Royal Guards, advising infantryofficers on the training and organisation of theirtroops, in a period which had seen a dramaticgrowth in army size and drastic changes inmilitary tactics.Lostelneau begins with step-by-step instructions, accompanied by 48 largeengraved plates based on those by Jacob de Gheyn in his Wapenhandelinghe,demonstrating the use of the infantry’s two main weapons of the period, themusket and the pike, and follows with recommended drill manouvres, batallionformations and battle orders, which he illustrates with over 400 geometricdiagrams printed in three colours, with a new technique invented by the printer,achieved with a specially cut font of characters. The work ends with an essaycounselling the king, and military leaders in general, on how best to be preparedfor war.