FOURNIER (Father Georges). Hydrography: Theory and Practice - Lot 161

FOURNIER (Father Georges). Hydrography: Theory and Practice of All Aspects of Navigation. Introduction by Jean Boudriot, René-Charles Duval, Jacques Humbert, and René Mordacq. Grenoble, Éditions des 4 Seigneurs, 1973. Large quarto, full tan sheepskin, cold-stamped and gilded in the 17th-century style (publisher’s binding), presented in its original slipcase. A remarkable facsimile reprint of one of the most famous treatises on navigation from the Ancien Régime, written by the Jesuit Georges Fournier (1595–1652), a mathematician, hydrographer, and maritime theorist. First published in the 17th century, this work constitutes an exceptional synthesis of the nautical knowledge of its time, covering shipbuilding, ship handling, cartography, astronomy applied to navigation, the art of pilotage, and fleet organization. This edition faithfully reproduces the illustrations and plates from the original, notably the famous depictions of ships and the technical fold-out diagrams detailing the maritime architecture and rigging of large warships. The large fold-out plate depicting the “Description of a Royal Ship” remains one of the most spectacular iconographic documents dedicated to 17th-century naval history. With a preface by several specialists in French maritime history, this publication has greatly contributed to restoring access to a text that is fundamental to the study of early navigation and naval architecture. A very fine copy, preserved in its decorative publisher’s binding and protective slipcase. A reference work for enthusiasts of maritime history, early naval history, and naval bibliophilia.