BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

Consult in image mode

Transcribed version of the text

French

     At an unknown date the copper plates of Van Schille’s volume came into the possession of the Antwerp engraver and printer Theodoor Galle (1571-1633), who reissued the volume. The title page of this edition is the same as the edition of 1580 except that the imprint of Gerard de Jode is removed and replaced by the address of Galle (Antverpiae Apud Theodorum Gallaeum). There is no date, however, and the year of publication of this edition remains unknown. It must have been printed between around 1590 and 1633. In the literature (Bury, Breman 2000) this edition is sometimes dated to c.1593 but the reason for this dating is unclear.
     Another minor modification is that the number “15” is removed from the title page. The fourteen plates are unchanged, except that they are now numbered (bottom right) from 2 to 15. Their sequence may or may not have been the order as originally intended (if there was such an order to begin with); either way there does not seem to be any rationale behind their particular sequence in this edition. The copper plates are recorded in the 1636 inventory of Galle’s estate, which describes them simply as “fortresses, fifteen plates” (frotressen vyfthien platen).
     This edition is extremely rare. Apparently the only extant copy is in a private collection. Another copy formerly in the Leuven University Library was lost in 1914.

Pieter Martens (KU Leuven – Université catholique de Louvain) – 2015

Critical bibliography

P. Bragard, Dictionnaire biographique des ingénieurs des fortifications. Pays-Bas espagnols, principauté de Liège, Franche-Comté, 1504-1713, Namur, 2011, pp. 187-188.

P. Breman, One hundred books on military architecture and artillery, plus related prints, games, drawings and a selection of reference works, Oxford, P. Breman ed., 1999, cat. n° 74.

J. Bury, P. Breman, Writings on architecture, civil and military c.1460-1640, ’t Goy-Houten, Hes & De Graaf, 2000, p. 93.

F. Donnet, “Schille (Jean ou Hans van)”, Biographie Nationale, vol. XXI, Brussels, 1913, col. 716-718.

P. Lombaerde, “New techniques for representing the object: Hans Vredeman de Vries and Hans van Schille”, Heiner Borggrefe, Vera Lüpkes (eds), Hans Vredeman de Vries und die Folgen, Marburg, 2005, pp. 101-108.

H. Nalis et al., The Van Doetecum Family (The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700), 4 vols, Rotterdam, 1998, vol. 3, pp. 137-143 (n° 642-656).

H.E. Wauwermans, “Etude bibliographique sur la fortification de Jean van Schille (d’Anvers) ingénieur et géographe 1573”, Bulletin van de Maatschappii der Antwerpsche Bibliophielen, 1882, dl. 1, pp. 41-56.