SAXE (Maurice de). Les Rêveries ou Mémoires sur l'Art de la - Lot 164

SAXE (Maurice de). Les Rêveries ou Mémoires sur l'Art de la guerre [...]. A La Haye, Chez Pierre Gosse junior, 1756. In-folio, marbled calf, double gilt fillet framing the covers, gilt coat of arms in the center, ornate spine, red edges (period binding). ORIGINAL EDITION published posthumously by Zacharie de Pazzi de Bonneville. 40 engraved plates, 22 of them folded, illustrating all the themes covered in the work: orders of march or battle, equipment, fortifications, ballistics. Vignette with the Saxon coat of arms on the title, 23 headbands and 20 headpieces decorated with trophies. This military treatise, a great success with the great military men of the second half of the 18th century, theorizes on recruitment, maintenance and training of troops, then on the association of infantry and cavalry, fortification and entrenchment, and finally on the qualities necessary for generals, as well as the curious "Reflections on the propagation of the human species". COPY WITH THE ARMS OF THE DUC DE MONTMORENCY-LUXEMBOURG. Cancellated library wetstamps; plates slightly yellowed. Mennessier de La Lance, II-494; Colson 63; Pohler III-590.