Mémoires sur la Fortification Perpendiculaire.

Par Plusieurs Officers du Royal Corps du Génie. 4to. Sixteen folding plates. Some light browning, otherwise very good in contemporary cat's-paw calf, raised bands to the spine, spine gilt in compartments, upper joint starting towards the tail, but sound, head- and tail-caps chipped, but overall an attractive copy. [iv], 290pp. ?. publisher's catalogue

Fourcroy, a man described by Duffy as "... dull, ambitious and inexhaustible...", succeeded in having himself made Supreme Engineer of France in 1776 despite "... never in his life [having] directed a siege or large-scale construction..." Piqued by Montalembert's publication of La Fortification Perpendiculaire and following a demonstration of the efficacy of the massively armed fortresses described therein - at the Isle de Aix in 1781 - Fourcroy recruited "... the long-retired Major Grenier and the young officer de Frescheville..." to compile the present work as a refutation. Others joined the fray and by the time of d'Arçon's publication of Considérations Militaires et Politiques sur les Fortifications in 1795 the battle was over, Montalembert defeated, and "The triumph of engineering conservatism in France", as Duffy describes it, was complete. [See Duffy The Fortress in the Age of Vauban and Frederick the Great, 1660-1789 pp.153-163 for a description of this debate: "The Crisis of Permanent Fortification."].

An attractive copy of an uncommon item, later armorial bookplate of William Ferrand to the front pastedown.

Stock Code: 83453