38 - CORMONTAIGNE, Louis de (1696–1752).

CORMONTAIGNE, Louis de (1696–1752). Manuscript, *Theory of Mining*, 1724–1740; 59 folio pages in 3 quires bound with a small blue ribbon, and 13 folio pages (Table), plus 29 plates (some fold-out). This Theory of Mining comprises 9 memoirs, accompanied by their pen-and-ink drawings (most of which are watercolored), which were included in the posthumous edition of the Memorial on the Attack of Fortifications (1803). A note on the drawings in the 9th Treatise states: “The 9 treatises enclosed herewith belong to Mr. le Cher de Perthuis.” 1st Treatise, September 8, 1724; a note specifies that “the theory contained on this page and the next is by Mr. de Vallière”; with 2 watercolor plates. 2nd Thesis, same date: “General Application of the Theory of Mining, for Undermining Covered Roads.” 3rd Memoir, dated November 1725, “Continuation of the Theory of Mining”; with 7 watercolor plates. 4th Memoir, December 10, 1725; with one watercolor plate. 5th Memoir, “On an arrangement of galleries and tunnels by means of which one can remove, all at once and as many times as desired, the same terrain or surface of a glacis,” dated late February 25, 1740, in Metz; with 4 fold-out watercolor plates. 6th Memoir; with 3 plates. 7th Memoir, “System of Mines Applicable to the Defense of Fortifications”; with 2 plates. 8th Memoir by M. de Rozieres, November 26, 1739; with 6 plates. 9th Memoir (4 folios), October 23, 1740, “On the Layout of Suitable Countermine Galleries in the Entrenched Counterguards of Landau”; with 4 watercolor plates, 2 of which are fold-out. This is followed by the “List of the names of the tools used to construct the countermine galleries of the double crown at Belle Croix in Metz.” Attached is a manuscript: “Excerpts from a Memoir by Mr. de Cormontaigne on the Attack and Defense of Fortifications” (2 folio pages), with 4 pen-and-ink plates.