45 results
2007ref. 1492New York: Harper Collins Publishers 2007. Boards. As new. Matthew ARMSTRONG. POP-UP BOOK MOVEABLE BOOK. Matthew ARMSTRONG full-color art. 4to; 7 pop-up pages; glazed color pictorial boards color pictorial pop-ups; never fully opened; fine as new. Seven complex pop-up scenes each spanning two pages designed by award winning artist and paper engineer Robert Sabuda b. 1965: The Magician's Nephew; The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; and The Last Battle. Harper Collins Publishers unknown books
1894ref. 9010Mittweida: R Schulze 1894. First Edition. Contemporary three-quarter leather. Good; some rubbing to the binding; one fldg. plate with gutter tape repair and burn into a small part of the image. 4to. There are 150 numbered plates some in partial color. A comprehensive analysis and guide to the theory and construction of all kinds of heavy lifting machines and cranes. This goes from the common screw jack to the heavy lift capacity of shipyard gantry cranes. Some of the cranes depicted are self propelled steam shovels. The plates are detailed sectional schematics. R Schulze hardcover books
1878ref. 9004Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black 1878. OFFPRINT. Original publisher's cloth. Very good; hinges strained. 4to 2 1 - 30 pp. There are text illus. A fundamental statement of the basic laws of mechanics of solids and theory of elastic deformation. This was considered to be the best explanation of the subject in the English language. Roberts Cat. p. 182; Todhunter & Pearson II/2 pp. 436-451. Adam and Charles Black hardcover books
1920ref. 31094Rotterdam / Amsterdam: Van Leer 1920. Fifth edition. Paper wrappers with mounted drawing and stamped titlestassled cord ties. A very good or better copy with a small crease on front wrapper corner small tears to the spine ends. Unpaged. 48 leaves. Illus. with 57 sepia photos. Obl. 4to. 47 leaves nearly all full page photos a few photo-imitation drawings printed on rectos only of ships factories cranes and dredges. Captions in English German French and Spanish. Wilton was a family owned business started in 1854 by Bartel Wilton expanding in the Netherlnds through the first quarter of the 20th century and finally merging under another name in 1929. OCLC shows one copy at the Maine Marine Academy. Van Leer unknown books
1805ref. 86618Boston: E. Lincoln Water Street 1805. First Edition. Octavo 23cm. Sewn wrappers; 622pp final page a blank. Moderate foxing and discoloration to title page; text quite fresh with sewing intact - Very Good. Documentary account of the controversy surrounding the construction of the South Street Toll Bridge aka the Dover Street Bridge connecting Boston to Dorchester in the years 1803-05. The case was an early example in America of publicly-supported private development involving the annexation of much of what is now South Boston and the destruction of substantial existing property on the South Street side. Various petitions for and against the project are presented in the current pamphlet; these are signed in type by some of the principal players in the scheme including William Tudor and Gardner Greene for and multiple citizens under the signature of Edward Tuckerman opposing. The bridge was constructed later in 1805. S&S 8207. RINK 2618. SABIN 6598. E. Lincoln, Water Street unknown books
1950ref. 11129New York: McGraw-Hill 1950. 1st edition. 8vo. 451pp. original cloth good condition. McGraw-Hill unknown books
1847ref. 58152New York: published by A. S. Barnes & Co. 51 John-Street 1847. 8vo pp. 336; 155 figures in the text; original brown cloth gilt-stamped spine; covers lightly rubbed; spine extremities chipped; otherwise very good. Early ownership signature of "AJ Brown." A popular and durable text. A tenth edition was reached by 1871. Gillespie 1816-68 was the first professor of civil engineering at Union College. To quote the DAB this work "was quickly recognized as useful in its field and held its place until long after his death." Hindle in his Technology in early America p. 59 notes it as "an excellent treatise on road construction." Kress C.7094. published by A. S. Barnes & Co., 51 John-Street unknown books
ref. 0000414Sammelband bound pamphlets. Collection of separately published pamphlets folding plates & extracts from periodicals bound in a 4to half black morocco album. A manuscript note in ink on the ffep translated from the French describes the contents as "individual works collected as a souvenir of Buenos Aires for our friend Pierre Michel-Levy 10/11/1904." Signed by Duclout. Binding worn: rubbed upper cover hanging by a cord contents generally very good one plate with long closed tear. Contents include: Conferencia final del curso de Teoria de la elasticidad dictado en le Fac de Ciencias Fisico-Matemaáticas de le Universidad de la Capital Buenos Aires: G Kraft 1888 8vo original wraps; 33 pp. Republica Argentina: Deuda publica exterior y capitales Europeos empleados por sociedades anonimas Buenos Aires: Felix Lajouane 8vo original wraps; 24 pp. Estudio sobre las hipotesis mecanicas que sirven de base a la teoria electro-magnetica de la luz de Maxwell Buenos Aires: Pablo E Coni 1892 8vo reprinted from los Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina 26 pp. Los fundamentos de la geometria y el conocimiento del espacio Buenos Aires: Pablo E Coni 1893 Tall 8vo original wraps; 118 pp plus 13 folding plates. Théorie du flambage des pièces élastiques comprimées: Extrait du cours d'élasticité de la faculté des sciences exactes physiques et mathématiques de Buenos-Ayres Paris: np Imprimerie Chaix 1896 8vo original wraps an extract from the 1896 Memoires de la Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France; 45 pp. Various tipped-in extracts from Argentine periodicals including "La Biblioteca" and "La Ingeniera" from 1897 and 1898 on subjects as diverse as wireless telegraphy the filling and dredging of canals the testing of various South American woods with numerous microscopic cross-section photographs and numerous folding plates The collection concludes with a tipped in biographical article in Spanish which is translated and provided in part below: "Referred to as the "Champion of Relativity" Jorge born Georges Duclout 1854 – 1927 was the first to lecture on relativity in Argentina In 1922 the University of Buenos Aires Council approved his motion to send an invitation to fellow Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule alumnus Albert Einstein to visit Argentina and give a course of lectures on his theory of relativity The visit took place three years later in March – April 1925 Although by then Duclout was aging and in ill health a memorable visit took place between the two men The visit also produced the "Unpublished Opening Lecture for Einstein's Course on Relativity Theory in Argentina 1925" hardcover books
1893ref. 42477NY: The Engineering Record 1893. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. 1pp. 17 plates 1pp. 17 plates 4ads. Some spotting and darkening to the red cloth with a bit of glue residue on the front small chip to edge of front free endpaper with some light wear to the extremities else a very good example in publisher's beveled boards lettered in gilt. Rear endpaper loose but present. The Engineering Record hardcover books
ref. D1692n.p. n.d. Hardcover. Very Good. N.d. but early 1900s. Cloth-backed boards with lettering stamped in brown on upper board; contains 4 full-color illustrations with moveable flaps to demonstrate the inner workings of a electric engines. Boards rubbed and scuffed; spine tips and corners bumped. Illustrations are bright and clean. hardcover books
1916ref. 15490New Haven Connecticut : Roger Sherman Studio 1916. First Edition. Photograph. Near Fine. First Edition. An original silver print mounted on board. Image is 10 1/2 inches x 13 1/2 inches. Overall mount size 13 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches. Very nice tonality presents nicely in person. Photograph. A photograph of what is no doubt the 1916 Civil Engineering class at Yale showing students teachers and the" tools of the trade". It was taken in front of Winchester Hall then part of Yale's Sheffield School of Engineering. The building is no longer standing but we have included an reproduced image of the building for the new owner's reference. Much like medical class photographs which are prized for skeletons and other medical oddities collectors prize surveying instrumentation in Civil Engineering class photographs. This one has lots of great surveying instruments including four instruments on tripods surveying sticks an axe and a model of a bridge span. Several equations are chalked on the building pillars. "FUNDAMENTALS" is chalked on the street in front of the subjects. Photographs this large are very scarce on the marketplace this is the largest we have owned in the last 15 years. A fine addition to any surveying civil engineering Yale or Connecticut collection. Roger Sherman Studio unknown books
1946ref. 301694Stone & Webster Engineering Inc 1946. Illustrated. 145 pages. 8vo. stamped blue buckram. Some abrasions to lower spine. Includes detailed map of the top secret town called Oak Ridge. Map in excellent condition measuring 14.75 x 4.75 inches In 1942 the Department of Energy commissioned the building of the top secret town of Oak Ridge in eastern Tennessee developed to separate uranium for the Manhattan Project. This promotional book celebrates the contract from the war department in Oak Ridge and many other weapons manufacturing sites. Photographs of power plants and weapons manufacturing synthetic rubber plants and other factories. Stone & Wester claims to have maintained 'the best-kept secret in the history of the world.' in their involvement in the Manhattan project. Stone & Webster Engineering Inc unknown books
1852ref. 21036London: John Weale 1852. First Edition. Original tan printed wrappers. Very good. 4to 4 pp. 4 large folding plates. A presentation from Weale to Francis Peabody on the front wrapper. Francis is generally considered to be the first experimenter and American engineer of note in the field of hydraulics. After emigrating from England he eventually became the chief engineer to a group of manufacturing firms that utilized the controlled waters of the Merrimac River. They in turn had acquired the rights to a turbine installed and designed in the 1840s by Uriah Boyden. Francis was engaged to improve upon Boyden's turbine design. A large-scale installation of a much improved design of the approach guide vanes and outflow was installed on one of the canals in Lowell the installation is detailed in a book published much later by Francis. So comprehensive were the changes and improvements of the performance that the design became synonymous with Francis' name. The report is the rare first printing of the Francis design by John Weale the formidable architectural and engineering publisher in the UK. During the late 1840s and early '50s Weale undertook the publication of a series of "quarterly reports" as a periodical in an effort to catalog the manifold changes occurring in the engineering profession in all fields. As a publishing venture it failed; never having gained the market share to support a highly technical production requiring numerous complex illustrations. Toward the end the publications appeared only sporadically. The paper offered here is one of the last to issue from the press in the generous large quarto format containing detailed engraved illustrations. See Rouse History of Hydraulics pp. 165-168; DAB VI pp. 578-579; OCLC cites but two locations in the UK. John Weale unknown books
1950ref. 140949395New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company 1950. First edition. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition first printing. xiii. 1 451 pp. Bound in publisher's navy cloth ruled in blind on front board and lettered in gilt on spine. Near Fine with trivial foxing to upper textblock edge light offsetting from jacket to endpapers and owner inscription to front pastedown. In a scarce Very Good unclipped dust jacket with sunned and creased spine panel light foxing and moderate wear. The first edition of the foundational text of the American computer industry. This well-organized compendium of components techniques and concepts was developed by a research team that had its roots in wartime naval cryptanalysis. McGraw-Hill Book Company unknown books
1968ref. 5022Antarctica 1968. Very good. 65pp. report typed on rectos only plus 28 leaves illustrated with eighty-six black-and-white mounted photographs each approximately 5 x 7 inches most accompanied by typed paper caption strips plus three loose photographs. Quarto. Original pressboard wrappers with metal spine fastener with printed title leaf pasted to front board. Minor wear to binding photos in generally nice condition. A typed report accompanied by detailed photographs documenting the 1967-1968 projects carried out by U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Unit 201 in Antarctica dubbed "Deep Freeze '68." The projects involved the upgrading and expansion of facilities at McMurdo Station and Palmer Station including water sewer and energy infrastructure improvements and laboratory and living-quarters construction. The original photographs here provide more than eighty-five detailed and well-captioned views of Antarctic construction architecture and engineering involved in the execution of “Deep Freeze ‘68” with sixty-five pages of typed reports providing a dense written summary in support of the project. Battalion Unit 201 had been newly established in 1967 as a Seabee unit specializing solely in Antarctic construction to continue supporting the series of "Operation Deep Freeze" missions first headed by Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the 1950s to establish a permanent research infrastructure on the then-largely unexplored Antarctic continent. Plagued by material shortages and the savage regional climate Unit 201 was disbanded at the end of “Deep Freeze ‘71” as the brief building season made the continuation of a dedicated Antarctic construction unit unfeasible. unknown books
ref. 12844Various locations in Cuba and Pennsylvania: contents ca 1973. 25 leaves totaling 40pp. illustrated with thirty black-and-white and sepia-toned photographs with detailed manuscript captions plus seven large clippings from school publications and six additional ephemeral items. Oblong folio. Black cloth with alligator-patterned cloth on front board with manuscript title below a drawn representation of a small pennant for Lehigh University. Covers worn frayed and chipped alligator-style cloth curling a bit along fore edge. A few items loose from adhesive and a few with small tears scattered spotting and soiling. Overall very good condition with fascinating materiality. A lovingly-compiled photograph album and memorial book created by a young woman named Magdalena Sofia Guitart in tribute to her godfather Rafael Genó a Cuban engineer who studied at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Juan Rafael Genó Rizo was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1883. A doctoral thesis on Cuban architecture found online deems him one of the premiere Art Deco architects of Santiago and the only one to obtain a degree abroad. Genó graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from Lehigh in 1909 and from the University of Havana in 1913. He died in Miami Florida in 1973. This doting scrapbook was compiled and heavily captioned in Spanish which we hereafter present in translation as a "Memorial which with love and pride I dedicate to my godfather and some of his works; a pale reflection of all the good he has done in his life" by Magdalena Sofia Guitart who was born in 1936 in Santiago and arrived in Miami in 1958. She includes photos of Genó as a baby and a boy of 11 "From a very young age as you can see here my godfather was a little gentleman" as well as in uniform alongside Mexican and Costa Rican comrades at Pennsylvania's Wayne Field. She lauds his "triumphs" and "genius" in "thousands of battles." Genó likely came to the United States following the Spanish-American War during the growth of Cuban immigration resulting from increased American attention of the island country. All of the content in the album is artfully presented within decorative rules or floral borders providing an unusual flair to the presentation. The book displays not only the hand-drawn Lehigh pennant on the cover but also large artistic renditions of the campus and an internal shot of its library clipped from school publications and comparing views from 1873 1909 and 1933 the relevance of Lehigh at the later date is unclear. Additional photographs and decorative designs share the story as "our engineer" returns to Cuba and "begins to demonstrate his knowledge" in the mines of Ponupo. Soon "his hard work integrity and honesty led him to be chosen" for other feats of engineering including "la Iglesia church Los Desamparados constructed by my godfather 1932" and a train terminal in Guantánamo. Images and a photographic clipping laud his renovations of "Colegio La Salle" in 1937. There are also six photos and a clipping showing Genó's work on the altar for the Eucharistic Congress held in Santiago in 1936 during which the original statue of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre Patroness of Cuba was granted a canonical coronation by Pope Pius XI. The album also holds a clipping naming Genó as president of the Board of Directors of Santiago's Urban Property Center an inauguration ribbon and brochure for the Municipal Food Market in 1950 with which he was also involved and photos of the celebrated engineer later in life. A captivating and carefully-assembled homage created by a Cuban immigrant to the United States honoring a loved one who was educated in Pennsylvania and then returned to his home country to serve as a noted engineer during the first half of the 20th century. contents ca unknown books
1919ref. 2655Various locations including Wyoming Nebraska and Iowa 1919. Very good plus. Forty-two original black-and-white photographs and real photo postcards most with manuscript annotations bound into a two-ring leather binder. Two additional postcards laid in. Minor occasional dust soiling but overall in excellent shape. An intriguing pocket-sized binder containing a collection of photographs and real photo postcards documenting large-scale construction projects in the American West mostly involving concrete projects such as dams drainage reservoir infrastructure railroads and more between about 1913 to 1920. All of the projects occur on or west of the Mississippi River in locations such as Keokuk Iowa; Ardmore South Dakota; Grand Island Nebraska; and Arminto Wyoming. The projects cover a wide range of subject matter from a simple base for a railroad mail sack crane to entire dam wall construction and seem to feature several involving sprayable concrete commonly known as gunite. This material was rather new in the 1910s but is still widely in use to the present day. The majority of the images are captioned in manuscript identifying the project or location or often both. These include a power-generating dam in Keokuk; reinforcement of a reservoir dam near Lysite Wyoming; widening of a cut for the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad through Arminto; memorializing a concrete crib wall for the same railroad at the Bancroft St. Vincent Omaha; the installation of an eighteen-inch wall casting and sinking the Kelly well in Grand Island; documenting frost action on a brick chimney and water tank and also picturing a "concrete gun" in Worland Wyoming; and others. The images are organized into two sections with small tabs one reading "Dams" and the other "Miscellan." The compiler of the pictures is not identified but he or she was most likely involved in the operational aspects of the construction projects. One of the captions is initialed at the bottom "JRH" which may help scholars identify the compiler with further research. The binder itself was produced in Kansas City which may be an additional clue to the compiler's identity. A small but focused collection featuring major western construction projects from the early-20th century. unknown books
1930ref. 232561930. Stanford University Military Engineering Archive Documenting the First Army Ordnance Reserve Gauging Program ca. 1930. Stanford University photo archive documenting the emergence of interwar military-industrial technical education ordnance gauging instruction and precision engineering research on campus during the early development of Stanford's engineering and applied science programs. Rather than depicting science classrooms in a general sense these photographs specifically document the technical culture surrounding Army ordnance training instrumentation systems machine calibration and laboratory-based engineering instruction that linked universities to the expanding infrastructure of American military preparedness between World War I and World War II. Taken together the archive captures Stanford at the moment when higher education increasingly merged scientific research industrial precision manufacturing and military technical training into a unified research model that later shaped the wartime and Cold War defense university system. Photo archive of 11 large silver gelatin photographs each approximately 8" x 10" Stanford University California dating from 1930 into the 1950s; two later views mounted to decorative yellow board. Several photographs depict laboratory interiors filled with precision instrumentation gauging apparatus optical and mechanical measuring devices machine-tool equipment calibration benches microscopes drafting stations and technical worktables arranged for instruction and inspection work. One especially important close-up photograph shows a large precision gauging or rotational calibration apparatus associated with ordnance measurement and machine tolerance testing. Surrounding the device are machined cylindrical components threaded fittings gauge rings and polished metal parts likely used in dimensional inspection bore alignment concentricity testing or interchangeable manufacturing instruction. Another darkened workshop view depicts what appears to be a heavy precision lathe or gauging bench fitted with a mounted cylindrical test component equipment consistent with ordnance inspection and military engineering instruction during the interwar period. Additional photographs show groups of students and instructors posed around technical apparatus inside instrumentation laboratories while later mounted photographs document more formalized postwar engineering office and drafting environments associated with large-scale technical administration and research organization. Most important is a detailed handwritten verso inscription reading: "Equipment used Feb 1930 Ordnance School at Stanford University. This was first time a course in gauging was given in any Army Ordnance Reserve Unit permanent facilities excepted. Instructor; Lieut Merrill S. Hingo. Photo; Lieut Howard Story Taylor." The inscription firmly identifies the archive as documentation of early Army ordnance reserve technical instruction conducted at Stanford and specifically ties the machinery to military gauging education. In the 1920s-30s "gauging" referred not merely to ordinary measurement but to the specialized science of precision dimensional inspection used in artillery manufacture weapons-part standardization shell tolerances bore measurement interchangeable machining systems and industrial calibration. Such instruction formed a critical component of modern military-industrial production where even minor deviations in machining tolerances could affect artillery accuracy chamber pressure shell seating or mechanical reliability. Several outdoor group portraits further reinforce the military context. One large group stands beneath a doorway marked "Military Science and Tactics" while another includes Colonel Donald C. Cubbison a career U.S. Army officer and West Point graduate who served as professor of military science and tactics at Stanford from 1930 to 1935 before later attaining the rank of major general during World War II. His appearance situates the archive directly within Stanford's interwar military training system and links the photographs to broader national efforts to train technically educated reserve officers in engineering ordnance artillery science and industrial preparedness. The archive also reflects Stanford's broader transformation into a modern research university centered on applied science and engineering. During the interwar years Stanford's scientific departments expanded laboratory instruction instrumentation programs and research-based technical education under faculty including Robert E. Swain John P. Mitchell William H. Sloan and George S. Parks. Parks in particular became associated with analytical chemistry and geochemical laboratory science disciplines heavily dependent upon precision instrumentation and calibrated measurement systems. The engineering and laboratory culture documented here overlaps with contemporary developments in industrial metrology applied physics materials testing optical measurement and machine-tool inspection that increasingly tied university research to industrial production and military logistics. What makes the archive especially significant is the way it documents the transitional infrastructure between traditional university instruction and the emerging defense-oriented research university model. These photographs preserve not simply classrooms but the physical systems of technical education itself: calibration benches inspection machinery gauging apparatus optical instruments drafting rooms and laboratory spaces where students and reserve officers were trained in the precision engineering practices underlying twentieth-century industrial warfare and mass manufacturing. In doing so the archive visually traces the early foundations of the university-based defense engineering culture that would later expand dramatically during World War II and the Cold War throughout California research institutions and the broader military-industrial complex. Photographs are sharp and highly detailed with clear views of equipment and interiors; handwritten identifications remain legible. The two mounted 1950s photographs have several large tears without image loss with lighter handling wear elsewhere. Overall good condition. unknown books
1621ref. 12041Venice: G Guerrigli a Spese dell' Autore 1621. First Edition. Full contemporary vellum. A very good bright copy; backstrip with a later overlay; text block split after the first signature; natural paper flaw to the lower fore corner of plate 3 touching the engraved surface; scattered spotting; recased at an earlier date. Folio 12 1 - 142 pp. There is an engraved title with a portrait of the author 18 large text engravings and 9 engraved plates. Sardi claimed to have completed 38 yrs. of study and military service throughout Europe. He had traveled in France Holland Germany and Spain and was in imperial service in Brussels in 1600. There he was responsible for the design of the hydraulic system for the garden of the Coudenberg palace. He is remembered for the publication of his Corona Imperiale . - a tract on fortification published in 1618. But shortly thereafter he had printed the important treatise on artillery and gun founding offered here. The book is divided in three sections. The first section treats the history of ballistics the second is an account of the geometric principles and design of cannon and the testing of brass castings. The third section is devoted to the design and construction of gun-mounts wheel carriages the use of gun-powder this section was excerpted and reprinted by Stubbes in the UK in 1670 and rules of ballistics; other chapters offer various designs for naval cannon and the use of same in the defense of ports against warships. Later chapters are devoted to the use the use of cannon in the defense of Alpine passes. The treatise benefits from generous and handsomely executed illustrations of the principles and designs set forth. An important book. The book was recased at an earlier date and the vellum covered boards somewhat amateurishly rebacked; but still an appealing copy. Cockle # 688; Millard Ital. Arch. pp. 381 - 384; Riccardi II 423. see Breman for the author and commentary; the same for Schutte. G Guerrigli a Spese dell' Autore hardcover books
1824ref. ST19673Rome: Crispino Puccinelli 1824. Second Edition with the Addition of Later Machines and Premises. 520 x 370 mm. 20 1/2 x 14 1/2". 4 p.l. XXIX 1 46; 4 48 pp. Two volumes bound in one. Edited and with notes on the life and work of Zabaglia by Filippo Maria Renazzi. SPLENDID CONTEMPORARY RED MOROCCO VERY ATTRACTIVELY GILT covers with frames formed by thick and thin gilt rules filled with alternating fleuron tools above an undulating ribbon roll central panel framed by multiple gilt rules connecting ornate floral corner- and sidepieces flat spine divided into panels by multiple plain and decorative rules these panels with rectangular centerpiece composed of volutes arabesques and floral tools marbled endpapers. Engraved portrait of Zabaglia by Girolamo Rossi after a drawing by Pietro Leone Ghezzi engraved vignettes on both title-pages and 62 FINE ENGRAVED PLATES 10 OF THEM FOLDING after designs by Francesco Rostagni. Berlin Katalog 2755; Brunet V 1515 ; Graesse VII 501; Cicognara 968 all citing the first edition. Trivial signs of use to the binding and contents with insignificant imperfections only: AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE COPY the attractive binding lustrous and virtually unworn and THE PLATES REMARKABLY CLEAN FRESH AND BRIGHT with especially ample margins. This is a remarkably beautiful copy inside and out of the second enlarged edition of a fundamental work for the history of engineering and the construction of buildings expanding the original 1743 edition for educational use with text in academically appropriate Latin in addition to the original Italian. Niccola or Nicolò Zabaglia 1667-1750 began working as a day laborer on the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in 1686 and was employed full time on the project by 1691. According to Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani "by 1696 he was able to demonstrate his ability as a mechanic moving the large porphyry cup and the bronze statues placed in the Vatican baptistery." Although illiterate he was an ingenious practical engineer. DBI notes that "the preparation of scaffolding and exceptional castles and the transport of extraordinary weights" were his strongest skills. For the Vatican he organized the removal transportation and installation of several obelisks at St. Peter's and other churches figured out a way to move a large marble altar and prepared the scaffolding needed to construct maintain or restore areas of St. Peter's. He was involved in strengthening its famed dome after the earthquakes of 1703 and 1730 inventing the necessary machines to do the work and training the construction crew. This volume's splendid oversized engravings illustrate the machinery and instruments used for the restoration of the dome—elaborate hoisting devices construction tools pulleys scaffolding ornamental tiles etc.—as well as the craftsmen at work. The transportation of the Vatican obelisk by Domenico Fontana in 1590 is represented by a fine selection of plates from Carlo Fontana's work on St. Peter's "Templum Vaticanum" published in 1694 and derived from Domenico's original "Delle transportazione dell'obelisco Vaticano". This undertaking may be compared with the plates depicting Zabaglia's methods for transporting and erecting obelisks. The greatest honor conferred on the unofficial "Engineer of the Vatican" in his lifetime was the first edition of this work published at Rome by Niccolò & Marco Pagliarini in 1743 with a total of 55 plates. The present second edition is enlarged with a biography of Zabaglia written by jurist Filippo Maria Renazzi 1742-1808 and with eight more plates which are among the very best and largest in the book; it is less commonly encountered than the first edition. This may be due to the fact that if put to the intended use in educational settings copies of the 1824 edition would have seen far more wear and tear than the earlier printing. Crispino Puccinelli unknown books
