BULLANT (Jean). Petit traicté de géométrie et d'horlogiograp - Lot 51

BULLANT (Jean). Petit traicté de géométrie et d'horlogiographie pratique (1564), followed by Recueil d'horlogiographie, contenant la description, fabrication et usage des horloges solaires, by Jehan Bullant, architecte de haut & puissant Seigneur, Monseigneur le Duc de Montmorancy, Pair, & Connestable de France (1561). Very rare collection of two major 16th-century treatises on gnomonics (or the science of sundials), illustrated with numerous woodcut figures, in contemporary bindings. Paris, Guillaume Cavellat, Jean Bridier, Vincent Sertenas, 1561-1564. 2 titles bound in 1 vol. in-4 (24 × 19 cm), 28pp ; 142pp. Full vellum, boards framed with cold fillet, smooth spine with title inscribed in ink (period binding). The skin is stained and worn, particularly on the covers, and the spine has wormholes, but the binding is very solid and makes the work safe to handle. The leaves show scattered freckling and wormholes throughout the volume at the foot of the inner margin, affecting neither the text nor the figures; at the beginning and end of the work, the remains of torn blank leaves. The two titles bound in this work are extensively illustrated with in- and out-of-text plates. In the first ("Petit traicté de géométrie et d'horlogiographie pratique"), dated 1564, there are 22 in-text figures; 52 in the second ("Recueil d'horlogiographie"), dated 1561, some of which are full-page, and 5 tables. An exceptional reunion of these two very rare first editions, here in full contemporary binding. Prestigious provenance: the copy belonged to Arthur Brölemann, a member of a famous dynasty of bibliophiles. The "Petit traicté" of 1564 is absent from the BNF; and neither of these two titles can be found in the library of the Duc d'Aumale, who owned a magnificent copy of the "Reigle généralle d'architecture des cinq manières de colonnes" by the same author. Jehan Bullant (1515-1578) is considered one of the greatest French architects of the Renaissance. He worked for Anne de Montmorency at Écouen and Chantilly, and was comptroller of crown buildings under Henri II (1557). We owe him a number of works on architecture, geometry and gnomonics, of which we present here the two occurrences linked together. Provenance : - Arthur Brölemann (ex-libris) - Early handwritten bookplate on title page, unfortunately indecipherable.