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Opera mathematica, ou oeuvres mathematicques, traictans de geometrie, perspective, architecture, et fortification


Perspective [Vredeman de Vries, Parts I & II]
Geometrie, contenant la theorie, et practicque dicelle necessaire a la fortification [Marolois]
Perspective, 5e partie de Joan Vredem: Vriese [Marolois]
Fortification ou architecture militaire tant offensive que defensive [Marolois]
Author: Samuel Marolois (French, 1572?–1627)
Hans Vredeman de Vries (Netherlandish, 1527–1606?)
Paul Vredeman de Vries (Netherlandish, 1567–after 1630)
Engraver: Hendrik Hondius, the Elder (Dutch, 1573–1650)
Engraver: Bartholomeus Dolendo (Dutch, about 1571–about 1629)
After: Pieter Stevens (Netherlandish, born about 1567)
Publisher: Hendrik Hondius, the Elder (Dutch, 1573–1650)
Publisher: Jan Jansen (Netherlandish, died in 1630)
1615–16
Place of Publication: The Hague, Netherlands

Medium/Technique Illustrated book with 238 engravings
Dimensions Overall: 29 x 38 x 5.5 cm (11 7/16 x 14 15/16 x 2 3/16 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Samuel and Dorothy Glaser
Accession Number1979.653
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsIllustrated books
The Hague: Hendrik Hondius [1615-1616?]

Catalogue Raisonné New Hollstein, Hondius, pp. 58-63, nos. 44-49; pp. 66-68, nos. 54-55; pp. 198-213, nos. 316-477; Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish, XLVIII [Vredeman de Vries], pp. 174-225, nos. 518-91 [lacking 517, 521, 531, 549]
Description(The Hague: Hendrik Hondius [1615-1616?]); Oblong folio; 238 leaves [incomplete, lacking title plates, letterpress texts, and six plates]; contemporary gilt-stamped vellum, beige linen box

As all title pages and letterpress leaves are lacking, it is impossible to tell which edition (or editions) this volume is composed of. It appears to be an edition of Samuel Marolois's collective issue of tracts on perspective, geometry, architecture, and fortifications entitled "Opera mathematica," first published in 1614 by Hondius, and continuing to be issued into the 1650s by Jan Jansen and others. The MFA copy incorporates three of Marolois's texts, on geometry, perspective, and fortifications, and the two parts of Hans Vredeman de Vries's treatise on perspective, first issued in 1604 and 1605. The order of this volume is: (1) Marolois, Perspective [lacking engraved title and pls. 16 & 17], (2) Vredeman de Vries, Perspective, Pts. I [lacking engraved title and pls. ij3, ij12, and 30] and Pt. II, (3) Marolois, Geometrie [lacking engraved title--though it has been offset on the verso of preceding leaf, and can be read to be the 1616 Hondius-Jansen issue], and (4) Marolois, Fortification. The Vredeman de Vries treatise on architecture is often found in the Marolois collective issue, but is not present here.

Illustrations of perspective views, geometric constructions, and architectural renderings
ProvenanceLibrairie Léonce Laget, Paris; purchased in 1974 from Laget by Samuel and Dorothy Glaser, by whom given to the MFA, December 19, 1979.