After Napoleon, Prussia set about measuring itself: every field, forest, mine, and frontier, triangle by triangle. This is the handbook for the men who did the measuring. Friedrich Wilhelm Netto, retired lieutenant and doctor of philosophy, taught military surveying at the Royal General War School in Berlin, the academy then under the direction of Carl von Clausewitz, and his two volumes carry the whole art: the instruments, the field work, the trigonometry, and at the end a worked example of laying out and computing an entire triangulation net. The title page names the intended readers plainly: officers, forest officials, miners, and field-surveyors.
The plates are the pleasure of the copy: ten of them, all folding. Netto drew and engraved them himself; the corner of each carries "Netto del. et sc.," the engraver's Latin for "Netto drew it and Netto cut it." The first plate is a museum of the surveyor's kit: measuring chains, ranging rods with their flags, the plumb-lines, the beam compasses and dividers at full size, the plane table on its tripod. Then come the working plates: triangulation nets thrown over little engraved landscapes, a garden plot, a hillside, a stream to be crossed by triangle, gridded squares for map-transfer, and hundreds of numbered geometrical figures in a fine copperplate hand. Anyone who has ever liked a diagram will like these.
The set is in its original dress: smooth spines of black leather, ruled and tooled in gilt with blind-stamped cartouches, over boards covered in marbled paper, the edges of both text blocks stained yellow. Each volume has its blank at front and rear; the first volume closes with a leaf of errata. The paper is clean and strong, the folding plates fresh and supple.
Provenance: None recorded.
Handbuch der gesammten Vermessungskunde. Berlin, 1820–1825. Two volumes, complete, with 10 folding copperplates drawn and engraved by the author. For officers, foresters, miners, and field-surveyors, as the title page says.
NETTO, Friedrich Wilhelm. Handbuch der gesammten Vermessungskunde, die neuesten Erfindungen und Entdeckungen in derselben zugleich enthaltend; oder vollständige Anleitung zur Meßkunst, für Offiziere, Forstbediente, Bergleute und Feldmesser. Two volumes. Berlin: Carl Friedrich Amelang, 1820–1825.
Physical Description: 8vo, 2 volumes. Vol. I (1820): 486 pp., 1 leaf of errata. Vol. II (1825): 710 pp.; its title announcing, besides the plates, a worked specimen of the arrangement and computation of a trigonometric triangle-net. 10 folding engraved plates in the two volumes, drawn and engraved by the author ("Netto del. et sc."). Front and terminal blank in each volume.
Binding: Contemporary black half leather, smooth spines ruled and tooled in gilt with blind-stamped cartouches, marbled paper sides, edges stained yellow. Spine ends and corners worn, with fraying to the marbled paper at extremities; adhesive residue of a removed label to the front board of vol. I.
Condition: Paper clean and strong; the folding plates fresh, with sound folds. A good working set.
After Napoleon, Prussia set about measuring itself: every field, forest, mine, and frontier, triangle by triangle. This is the handbook for the men who did the measuring. Friedrich Wilhelm Netto, retired lieutenant and doctor of philosophy, taught military surveying at the Royal General War School in Berlin, the academy then under the direction of Carl von Clausewitz, and his two volumes carry the whole art: the instruments, the field work, the trigonometry, and at the end a worked example of laying out and computing an entire triangulation net. The title page names the intended readers plainly: officers, forest officials, miners, and field-surveyors.
The plates are the pleasure of the copy: ten of them, all folding. Netto drew and engraved them himself; the corner of each carries "Netto del. et sc.," the engraver's Latin for "Netto drew it and Netto cut it." The first plate is a museum of the surveyor's kit: measuring chains, ranging rods with their flags, the plumb-lines, the beam compasses and dividers at full size, the plane table on its tripod. Then come the working plates: triangulation nets thrown over little engraved landscapes, a garden plot, a hillside, a stream to be crossed by triangle, gridded squares for map-transfer, and hundreds of numbered geometrical figures in a fine copperplate hand. Anyone who has ever liked a diagram will like these.
The set is in its original dress: smooth spines of black leather, ruled and tooled in gilt with blind-stamped cartouches, over boards covered in marbled paper, the edges of both text blocks stained yellow. Each volume has its blank at front and rear; the first volume closes with a leaf of errata. The paper is clean and strong, the folding plates fresh and supple.
Provenance: None recorded.
Handbuch der gesammten Vermessungskunde. Berlin, 1820–1825. Two volumes, complete, with 10 folding copperplates drawn and engraved by the author. For officers, foresters, miners, and field-surveyors, as the title page says.
NETTO, Friedrich Wilhelm. Handbuch der gesammten Vermessungskunde, die neuesten Erfindungen und Entdeckungen in derselben zugleich enthaltend; oder vollständige Anleitung zur Meßkunst, für Offiziere, Forstbediente, Bergleute und Feldmesser. Two volumes. Berlin: Carl Friedrich Amelang, 1820–1825.
Physical Description: 8vo, 2 volumes. Vol. I (1820): 486 pp., 1 leaf of errata. Vol. II (1825): 710 pp.; its title announcing, besides the plates, a worked specimen of the arrangement and computation of a trigonometric triangle-net. 10 folding engraved plates in the two volumes, drawn and engraved by the author ("Netto del. et sc."). Front and terminal blank in each volume.
Binding: Contemporary black half leather, smooth spines ruled and tooled in gilt with blind-stamped cartouches, marbled paper sides, edges stained yellow. Spine ends and corners worn, with fraying to the marbled paper at extremities; adhesive residue of a removed label to the front board of vol. I.
Condition: Paper clean and strong; the folding plates fresh, with sound folds. A good working set.
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