[Buch von den probierten Künsten]

Description
Manual concerning the manufacture and use of gunpowder, ammunition, mines, grenades, flares, smokescreens, and traps, as well as the loading and firing of cannons. Concludes with a copy of the privileges of the guild of cannon-masters (Buchsenmaister) as granted by Frederick III in 1444 (f. 126r-133v).
Creator
Helm, Franz, approximately 1500-1567
Form
manuscripts (documents)
codices (bound manuscripts)
pen and wash drawings
treatises
Manuscripts, German
Manuscripts, Renaissance
Date
1575
Language
German
Subject
Artillery -- Early works to 1800
Artillery
Explosives -- Early works to 1800
Military art and science -- Early works to 1800
Military art and science
Guilds -- Germany
Guilds
Explosives
Geographic Subject
Germany
Collection
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)
Extent
132 leaves : paper, color illustrations ; 305 x 190 (217 x 130) mm bound to 307 x 210 mm
Notes
Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, ii + 132; 2-76, [i], 77-130, 132-133; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 27-28 long lines; vertical bounding lines ruled in drypoint.
Script: Written in German cursive script.
Decoration: 30 illustrations in colored ink or colored washes over ink drawings, most being of types of weapons and explosives, with 2 illustrations of cannon-masters framed in red ink (f. 2r, 105r) and a landscape showing the use of animals to carry explosives into a city, also framed in red ink (f. 60r); headings in red and black.
Watermark: Cross in circle belonging to Piccard Three Mounts, Class X, nos. 2879-3059 (mainly Munich and Augsburg, also Donauwörth and the Tyrol, 1555-1635).
Binding: Contemporary leather, stamped and gold-tooled (but varnished and blackened), over late-18th or early-19th-century-leather over wooden boards.
Origin: Probably written in Bavaria, in the late 16th century.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.
German.
Related works
The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page
Unique at Penn blog post
Digital facsimile for download (OPenn)
Also listed in
Penn Libraries Catalog
Physical Location
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Manuscripts, Oversize LJS 442
Provenance
Formerly owned by Girard Dupeireux (no. 124), perhaps a gift from his brother-in-law (Schwager), Baron Valentin von E[??], 1731 (inscription, f. 2v).
Formerly owned by Franz Ludwig, Graf von Holnstein aus Bayrn (armorial bookplate, inside upper cover).
Formerly owned by the Furstl. Ysenburg und Büdingen'sche Bibliothek zu Büdingen (library stamps, f. 2v, 3r)
Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Nov. 2002.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.
Dupeireux, Girard, former owner.
Holnstein aus Bayern, Franz Ludwig, Graf von, former owner.
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Resource Type
Text

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