"THE MYTHICAL FIRST EDITION OF THE ONLY TREATISE ON MILITARY ARCHITECTURE PUBLISHED IN AMERICA DURING THE COLONY. A MEXICAN IMPRINT WITH 73 FULL PAGE ENGRAVINGS"

La Gran Defensa. Nuevo méthodo de Fortificación. Dividido en tres órdenes: A saber: Doble, reforzado, y sencillo. Con varias invenciones, e ideas útiles, y curiosas. Con setenta y tres láminas. Tomo I [único publicado]. Su autor el theniente coronel don... ingeniero de los exércitos de Su Magestad. Quien lo dedixca a... Phelippe V, Monarca de las Españas. [Al fin:] Impressa en México, por la viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, impressora del Real y Apostolico Tribunal de la Santa Cruzada, alo de 1744.

Pages: [10], 193, [i.e. 195], [1] pages, 73 leaves of plates (chiefly double): illustrations, coat of arms, plans; 29 cm. A FINE, COMPLETE COPY. "Tomo 1" (ALL PUBLISHED). EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION of this complete manual of military tactics and fortification written by Felix Prosperi. The author presents a detailed set of military defense strategies, from the basics of fortification to advanced defense techniques. Prosperi, Felix. Ferrara (Italy), 1689 – Bologna (Italy), c. 1756 was a military engineer and writer. There is little news about his early life, almost certainly spent in Italy. Already in America, he began an intense activity as an engineer: in 1732 he drew up the plan for the Plaza de Santo Domingo, as well as the plan and profile of the fort on Xayna beach, on the same island; in 1735 he went to continental territory in the company of the engineer Luis Díez de Navarro in order to carry out the repair of the port and spring of Veracruz (Mexico); in 1736 he drew up the plans for the city of Veracruz and the castle of San Juan de Ulúa, with the projects for its defense, assuming two years later the direction of the repair works for the latter. In 1744 he published the work that we present here: the only treatise on military architecture published in America during the colony; the book presents not only a new method of fortification, but also a set of useful and curious inventions and ideas developed by the author during his long stay in America. This work must have had a very short print run and, possibly, very restricted circulation due to the delicate military information it contained. There are no early reissues. We have to wait almost 250 years, until 1992, for the University of Mexico to publish an edition commented by the Mexican architect D. Carlos Chanfón Olmos, who highlighted the great rarity of this work and its importance due to its new and original ideas; he also emphasized the beauty and originality of the illustrations. In the brief summary of Prósperi's work that Bernáldez published in 1868 (Palau 239.063), he stated on page 11: "….a book printed in Mexico in 1744, titled La Gran Defensa and dedicated to the Majesty of King D. Philip V;... copies of the only edition have disappeared in such a way that we only have news of three, one of them incomplete." Later, Bernáldez himself quotes the Belgian Brialmont (1864), who says: "…The first to propose a rectilinear front with flanking batteries in the capital of the front was Mortalembert; however, the mother idea of this layout is found in a previous work about 30 years ago, published in Mexico by the Spanish Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers Félix Prósperi: "It has been impossible for us to obtain a copy of this book, which is extremely rare..."NOTABLE FROM EVERY POINT OF VIEW. Palau 239062. WorldCat: 5 copies in US Libraries (Columbia, Indiana, Michigan, Southern Methodist, Univ of Texas).