220 - POLYBE and FOLARD, Jean-Charles. A Summary of M. de Folard’s Commentaries on Polybius’s History.

POLYBE and FOLARD, Jean-Charles. A Summary of M. de Folard’s Commentaries on Polybius’s History. Paris, Veuve Gandouin, Giffart, David, Jombert, and Durand, 1754. In-4 (25 x 19.5 cm), marbled calfskin, ribbed spine decorated with panels. Red edges. Contemporary binding. 3 vols.: x-(2)-xlviii-421-(3) pp. - 477 pp. - 384-(3) pp.; numerous plates. Bindings damaged. Slight water stains and wormholes in the margins of vol. 3. First edition, richly illustrated, of the abridgment of the famous commentaries by Chevalier de Folard, compiled by the Comte de Chabot. A military officer and strategist, Folard eventually rose to the rank of garrison commander and Mestre de camp; Folard’s project (he was nicknamed the “French Vegetius”) was to develop his ideas by commenting on the text of Polybius. The work contains the famous “Treatise on the Column”—a military formation of which Folard was the inventor—and the “Treatise on the Attack and Defense of Ancient Strongholds.”