Les arts de l'homme d'epée, ou Le dictionnaire du gentilhomme. Premiere [-troisieme] partie

Paris: chez Gervais Clouzier, 1678. First edition, 3 volumes, 12mo, 3 folding engraved plates; 20th-century quarter parchment over marbled boards, gilt-lettered spines; mild dampstain at bottom half of spine of volume III, else very good and sound. Bookplates of Mario and Fiammetta Witt. Mario Witt assembled one the most famous libraries of maritime literature which was sold by Bloomsbury in 1996. Leo S. Olschki was founder in 1886 of the prestigious Italian publishing house of the same name. His daughter Fiammetta Witt (née Olschki) married Mario Max Witt (earlier Wittkower). She is the granddaughter of Leo S. Olschki, and niece of Leonardo Olschki and Cesare Olschki. The three volumes consist of all that is needed to be known to the young courtesan: L'Art de Monter a Cheval; L'Art Militaire; and, L'Art de la Navigation (i.e. The Art of Riding the Great Horse, The Military Art, and The Art of Navigation). Guillet de Saint-George (1624-1705), was a French comedian and scholar. and the first historiographer of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Guillet took the name of "Guillet de Saint-George" by which he is generally known, in 1661. He also wrote accounts of travels in the countries of the Levant for which he used the pen name of "Sieur de La Guilletière. Craig, pp. 4-5; Zischka, p. 73; the Cordell Collection has only part 3 of the 1688 edition.