HELM, FRANZ - JOHANN AMMON. - PYROTECHNICS.
Armamentarium Principale Oder Kriegsmunition und Artillerey=Buch. Darinnen beschrieben. Wie ein Zeüghaus sampt aller Munition und zugehöre bestelt, und in rechtem Wesen soll unterhalten, auch von Salpeter, Schwefel und Kohlen samt allerhand vortheil mit Pulver, dessgleichen unterschiedene Muster von Brechzeugen, Fewerbfeilen, Wilden und Zahmen, Sturm, Wehr, Einleg und Mordfewer, neben andern requisiten zum Pulwer und Feweerwercken gehörig...
Franckfurt am Main, Johann Ammon, 1625. Small folio. Very nice recent hvellum in old style. Gilt titlelabel on back. Folded engraved titlepage with 2 views (one showing Statt Amberg) and 4 illustrations. (6), 113,(5) pp. With all 33 engravings in the text (11 nearly full-page, 22 half-page, and numb. 1-33 in the plate). The last 4 pp. deals with "Bericht der Wagenburg" and should have 4 plates, these are not present as they are not present in some of the other recorded copies. Some browning to a few quires, but in general good.
¶ Scarce first edition. The real author is not Ammon, but probably Franz Helm, whose manuscript had a wide circulation in the 15th century, and Ammon shortened and edited his printed work from 1536 with the title Buch von den Probirten Künsten. - The work takes up the making of all sorts of bombs, canons and fireworks (wheels and mines), their construction and their receipts of gundpowder together with the tools to produce them, all depicted in fine engravings. - Cockle No. 690 (gives no author and no collation) - Graesse I:222 (and without the 4 plates) - Jähns p. 995. - Rumpf No. 1106. - Chris Philip p. 12. A second edition was published in 1669 under the title "Laboratorium Militare".
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