Le Ve'ritable Art de Naviguer par Le Quartier de Reduction, avec lequel on peut reduire les Courses des Vaisseaux en mer ; & enrichi de plusieures raretes qui n'ont pas encore ete decourvertes .... Revu, corrige & augmente. DERNIERE EDITION
Havre de Grace: Chez P. J. D. G. Faure, Imprimeur de la Marine & de la Ville, Grande Rue S. Michel 1768. [2], [1]-61, 66-67, 64-65, 62-63, 68-69, 74-75, 72-73, 70-71, 76-172 pages. 8vo, full sheet imposition. Apparently complete but with signature E printed incorrectly. We think the outer form was correct, but the inner form containing pages 2, 15, 14, 3, 6, 11, 10 and 7 was rotated 180 degrees in the press so that page 6 and page 2 were "swapped", pages 11 and 15 swapped, pages 10 and 14 swapped, and pages 7 and 3 swapped. This results in the pages and signature E being out of order (the first four leaves have signatures E, E[4] ,E[3], E[2]). 8vo (5 x 7 3/4 inches). Leaf with signature C[3] printed off-center with some minor loss to page numbers and running titles. Full vellum. Remnants of two small paper labels on spine. Inked notations on title page (attempting to cross out previous notation). San Francisco bookstore (NEWBEGIN'S) ticket on rear pastedown. Very Good. Vellum. [27940]
The title, loosely translated is "The True Art of Sailing with the Reduction Quadrant [ Sinical Quadrant ], with which one can reduce the Vessel Races at sea; & enriched with several rarities that have not yet been discovered .... Reviewed, corrected & increased. LATEST EDITION"
Margaret E. Schotte in her "Sailing School Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800" (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) discusses nautical manuals and methods in depth. She notes "As the French Gentleman innovator Guillaume Blondel, sieur de Saint-Aubin, declared in no uncertain terms in his 1673 Tresor de la Navigation, 'At the present, one is not a good Pilot if one does not work with Sines, and with Logarithms.'' He viewed this as 'the current Method, and the most correct [juste].' (Despite Blondel's commitment to numbers, his first book [ offered here in a later edition ] about 'The True Art of Navigating with the Sinical Quadrant.' enjoyed far more success. That text [first published in 1671] - which made it possible to avoid trigonometry completely - was republished at least fourteen times over the following century.)" The popularity of these works was brought on at least in part by the fact that "many readers, and not just mariners, found these tables [ of logarithms] daunting ... and were thus inspired to find instrumental workarounds ... including graphical quadrants ... as in Blondel's 'pioneering work on the sinical quadrant' [offered here in a later edition]." (pp 64-5, 89, 210).
For as many editions as this work went through, and the obvious utility of it, there are very few copies that seemed to have been gathered by institutions. Most are listed in OCLC with only a single copy (with the more common 'naviger' instead of the 'naviguer' on this copy). This edition found in a single copy in OCLC at the New York Public Library.
Price: $150.00