L'Architecture Navale, Contenant la Manière de construire les Navires, Galères, Chaloupes & autres especes de Vaisseaux; l Explication des Termes de la Marine; & les Définitions & proportions de toutes sortes de Bâtimens de Mer. Avec une Description des Marées, des Dangers, Ecueils & Courans à éviter dans les Routes & Voyages; & une Table des Longitudes & Latitudes des principaux Ports des quatre parties du Monde… accompagné du Routier des Indes Orientales et Occidentales.

DASSIÉ, François

Published by Laurent d’Houry, Paris, 1695

About this Item

WITH DIRECTIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRANS-ATLANTIC GALLEONS, AND SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE WEST INDIES. 4to. [24.5 x 19 cm]. (6), 285 pp, (3); (2), 209 pp, (3), plus 9 plates of which 6 folding. Pp 113/4 added as a cancel *P before p. 201, as issued. Bound in contemporary calf with gilt spine. Gutters a little weak, with occasional light damp-staining; overall a good, broad-margined copy with all plates well-preserved. The "first [French] treatise on ship-building" (Polak, 2247), in a slightly revised second edition following the introduction of the Code Noir in 1685. In contrast to the first edition of 1677, the present edition s preface now speaks of France s "desirs ardens pour l accroissement de son Empire, & l avantage de ses Sujets"; detailed instructions are given (with folding illustrations) for the construction of enormous galley ships for trans-Atlantic commerce during the heyday of French slave-trading. As issued, the work is bound with the author s Le Routier des Indes Orientales et Occidentales, further emphasizing the global dimensions of French trade during this era. Addressed to naval officers and others involved in practical shipbuilding, "l'ouvrage de Dassie est considere comme le premier traite d'architecture navale" (Polak). The chapters give a table of proportions of eight different classes of ship, as well as proportions for the mast and a method for designing a ship of 70 canons. "If it had to be summarized, this book bears the great interest of having been illustrated with plates in which the ship is depicted following the projection plans, which is very new for this period and is probably explained by the profession of Dassié, who was a Master of Design of the Navy at Toulon." (Le livre maritime au siècle des Lumières, p. 104, trans.). Also of interest are sample inventories of supplies and equipment suggested by Dassie for each class of ship.As in the first edition, Dassié s shipbuilding manual is here bound together with a practical guide to navigating common trade routes. Le Routier des Indes Orientales et Occidentales offers 26 sample routes around the East and West Indies, based primarily on Dutch and Portuguese sources, as well as observations on the best season for each route, and useful ports along the way. The routes pass by way of Canada, India, the Cape of Good Hope, Mozambique, and so on; also of interest are the typical slave-trading routes of Lisbon Angola and France-Guinea-Brazil. The Macclesfield copy of the first (1677) edition, also in contemporary calf, made £6,875; both editions are often found lacking plates (witness a copy of the first edition currently offered by Peter Harrington for £8,000 with only 8 plates). OCLC shows US copies of the 1677 edition at USF, Yale, Illinois, Harvard, Minnesota, Texas A & M, NYPL, and Michigan; but the present second edition is held at Berkeley only (citing just 4 folding plates). * Sabin 18655; Graesse II, 336; Chadenat 4739; and cf Little, The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main (2007), p. 309; Chatterton, Sailing Ships and Their Story (1915), pp. 242-3; and Wilson, A History of Shipbuilding and Naval Architecture in Canada (1994), p. 12 (passim).

Seller Inventory # D0216

Bibliographic Details

• Title: L'Architecture Navale, Contenant la Manière de construire les Navires, Galères, Chaloupes & autres especes de Vaisseaux; l Explication des Termes de la Marine; & les Définitions & proportions de toutes sortes de Bâtimens de Mer. Avec une Description des Marées, des Dangers, Ecueils & Courans à éviter dans les Routes & Voyages; & une Table des Longitudes & Latitudes des principaux Ports des quatre parties du Monde… accompagné du Routier des Indes Orientales et Occidentales.
• Publisher: Laurent d Houry, Paris
• Publication Date: 1695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Americana
  • Science & Medicine
  • Illustrated