[FUNCK, Jakob and Marc Guérard d'ILLENS].
Plans et journaux des sieges de la derniere guerre de Flandres.
Strasbourg, Melchior Pauschinger, 1750. 4to. With 25 folding engraved maps with some hand-coloured details, and several, often repeated, woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], 113, [1 blank] pp.
€ 1,500
First edition, one of the two simultaneously published issues, of a richly illustrated account of sieges of Flemish towns during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). The two authors, Jakob Funck and Marc Guérard d'Illens, both captain in the French army, dedicated the book to the French minister of war, the Count of Argenson. The book is divided into 24 "journals", each describing the siege of a different town in Flanders in chronological order, starting at the siege of Menin in 1744 and ending with Maastricht in 1748. Each journal has its own folding plate, showing a ground plan of the besieged city and its fortifications with the "plan des attaques" highlighted in yellow. Included after the preliminaries is a table with a survey of the besieged towns, with the dates of the sieges, the days the battles took place, and the names of the leaders of the attacking and defending army. The map and plans are detailed and finely drawn, decorated with cherubs, monsters, ships, frogs, loving couples, soldiers, and some have additional artistic value, with maps with enlarged details rolled out on top of another map.
Binding rubbed along the extremities and spine slighty damaged. One leaf reinforced in the gutter, some water stains and a number added in ink on one of the plates. Otherwise a good copy. Not in Jähns; Jordan.
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