‎SPECKLIN, D.‎
‎Architectura Von Vestungen. Wie die zu unsern zeiten, an Stätten, Schlössern und Claussen, zu Wasser, Land, Berg unnd Thal, mit ihren Bollwercken, Cavaliren, Streichen, Gräben und Läuffen mögen erbawet (..) ordentlich und nützlich sollen gebraucht werde - [ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT 16TH CENTURY GERMAN WORKS ON FORTIFICATION AND TOWN-PLANNING]‎

‎Strasbourg, Lazarus Zessner, 1599 Folio (343 x 232 mm). In contemporary limp vellum. Binding with light wear and a few dots and marks. Free end-paper annotated in contemporary hand. Front free end-paper with large tear. Contemporary occassional marginal annotatnios throughout. Waterstain to outer margin of leaves, primarily. (8), 110 (2) ff. + 23 double-page engraved plates plus 1 single page plate (out of 25 - some misbound as one-page plates as usual) and numerous woodcut illustrations in the text,‎

Reference : 60163

‎The rare second edition of Speckle’s important and superbly illustrated work on fortification and town-planning. First published in 1589, this is one of the few independent German contributions to the literature of fortification in the sixteenth century. The importanze of Speckle's work was immidiately recocnized and it function as one of the main references to the theory of fortifications and defensive architecture for several decades.“He [Speckle] planned his town with radial streets and octagonal walls. The streets and blocks were parallel to the walls and grouped on a central place space were reserved for the castle residence next to the place. Cattinara in Italy was built on this plan, as was Nice, founded almost at the same time (about 1680). As applied to Nice, the plan founded a quarter of a circle with six bastions and a tree-filled space occupying the rest of the enclosure, with the castle in the far corner situated on a rocky eminence overlooking the town”. (Dickinson, The West European City, p.421) BM STC German, 1455-1600:, P. 824Jordan 3551‎