Instructions Patriotiques et Militaires,
Addressées Aux Anglois, Afin de s'opposer aux Invasions de l'Ennemi, dans les différentes Possessions de sa Majesté, Le Roi de la Grande Bretagne. Précédées de quelques Vues nouvelles, relatives à la Fortification; soumises au Jugement des Ingénieurs, & des Personnes qui cultivent L'Art de la Guerre. Par un Citoyen du Monde.
London: [no publisher,] 1780 Stock Code: 122062
French advice for British defence
First edition. Le Turc was a London-based Frenchman, who published other technical manuals on ladders, cannons and bridges. The present work is a military treatise, addressed to George III, offering proposals to enhance the defences of British overseas possessions. An English translation was intended, with a prospectus produced, but was never published.Le Turc, born in Lille in 1748, has been described as "a professional spy who combined a taste for excitement with patriotism and self-advancement" (Tombs,p. 82). He most likely studied engineering in Flanders
ESTC locates copies at just nine institutions, British Library, King's College London, Bodleian, St Johns Oxford, John Rylands, Zielinski Library of the Plock Scientific Society, Huntington, Library of Congress, Michigan.
Description
Duodecimo (174 x 99 mm). Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, flat spine divided by gilt Greek key bands and prettily tooled in compartments, green morocco label, gilt border of metope-and-pentaglyph roll to covers, gilt edge roll and turn-ins, gilt edges gauffered, "Antique Spot" pattern marbled endpapers, pink silk bookmark.
Illustrations
Four copper plates at rear (with text in English) showing fortifications and catapults.
Condition
Large armorial bookplate of Hugh Cecil, 5th Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944); also that of Robert J. Hayhurst, the bibliophilic chemist. Minor loss of morocco at head and foot of spine and very top of the front joint, early inked pressmark to verso of front free endpaper. A most attractive copy.
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