17. Bélidor (Bernard Forest de, French military and civil engineer, 1693?-1761) Bombeiro Frances, ou Novo Methodo de Lançar Bombas com exactidao, manuscript in Portugese, calligraphic title and 492pp., 8 folding pen and ink drawings, title and some other pp. slightly damp-stained, offsetting and staining on front endpapers, contemporary calf, damp-stained, some surface wear, corners worn, sm. 4to, [?c. 1770s].
est. £150 – £200
Belidor wrote numerous books dealing with mathematics, artillery, and hydraulics. The above work, a manual of rules and tables was reprinted for many years and used extensively by many countries. Belidor is best known for his classic work Architecture hydraulique, published in 4 volumes between 1737 and 1753, being the first work of its kind to apply integral calculus to practical problems.