VAUBAN (Sébastien Le Prestre de). De l'attaque et de la deffense des places. S.l.n.d. Eighteenth-century manuscript. Small in-4, 236 pp, [2]-37 pp and 32 plates, fawn basane, spine decorated, red edges (Binding of the period). Precious manuscript copy of this famous treatise on fortification. This famous treatise on bastioned fortifications has enjoyed considerable renown right up to the present day, due to its contribution to the art of warfare and urban heritage. It was written by Vauban (1633-1707) at the request of Louis XIV for the instruction of the Duke of Burgundy, his grandson, and presented to the King in 1704, but was not printed until thirty years after the Marshal's death, in 1737. It is an extension of the Mémoire pour servir d'instruction à la conduite des sièges that Louvois had commissioned from him around 1670. In his treatise, Vauban drew on all the experience he had gained during his participation in numerous sieges. The treatise L'Attaque des places contains 25 chapters. The second part contains the treatise La Défense des places, which was attributed to Vauban at the time, but was written by the military engineer Guillaume de Lafon de Boisguérin, seigneur des Houlières (1621-1694). The work is illustrated with 32 handwritten plates on the art of fortifications and mines, executed in pen and watercolour, captioned and all signed Dortoman. They can be attributed to the revolutionary officer Jean-Jacques Dortoman (1738-1794), brigadier general in the Army of Italy in 1793, who was guillotined by order of the Revolutionary Court after the failure of the attack on the Authion. Epidermized binding, missing headpieces and corners, upper hinge cracked, foxing, some plates slightly browned.