Lot 3664: Military tracts--Digges, Thomas ( c . 1543-1595) and Sir Dudley Digges (1582/3-1639). , Foure paradoxes, or politique discourses. 2 concerning militarie discipline, written long since by Thomas Digges Esquire. 2 of the worthinesse of warre and

Instructions for musters and armes , and the use thereof. London: Bonham Norton and John Bill, 1625 , [14pp.], illustration : woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut initial, [ apparently unrecorded , STC only records editions from 1623 and 1626; cf. Cockle 99, 1623 edition], lacking (?blank) A1 (also not present in STC collation of 1623 and 1626 editions), A4 chipped at edges with loss to a few letters, margins cropped with loss to headlines and printed marginalia The military discipline wherein is most martially shone the order of drilling for ye musket and pike... set forth in postures. London: for Roger Daniell, 1623 , ff. [17], illustration : engraved throughout, architectural title and 67 vignette engravings of fighting positions on 17 sheets, [STC 794.5, recording 3 copies; Cockle 97], lacking ff. [4] and [12], small marginal chips and tears, margins cropped with loss to final line of text on first 2 leaves, light staining, a few unobtrusive scribbles Davies, Edward. The art of war, and Englands traynings; plainely demonstrating the dutie of a private souldier. London: Edward Griffin, 1619 , [10], 121 (i.e. 221), [1]pp., illustration : woodcut initials and headpieces, some manuscript annotations, [STC 6326, recording 3 copies; Cockle 92], lacking folding leaf between V2 and 3, title-page torn (with some loss, repaired), final leaf stained with a couple of closed tears, some small tears with loss to margins, some marginal staining Markham, Gervase (?1568-1637). The souldiers grammar: containing, the high, necessarie, and most curious rules of the art militaire. London: for William Shefford, 1626 , [8], 64pp., illustration : woodcut device on title-page, woodcut initials and headpieces, some manuscript marginalia, [STC 17391; Cockle 109; Poynter 38.I], without part two, tear to I3 and I4 with loss (affecting a few words), some marginal staining, margins cropped with loss to manuscript marginalia 5 works in one volume, 4to (188 x 138mm.), binding ; contemporary blind-tooled calf, binding worn, upper hinge cracked

Andrew Owen, signature on A1 of first work; Lt. Genl. G. L. Parker, armorial bookplate

Both Thomas and Dudley Digges, father and son, managed to combine mathematical research and writing with careers in public service. Thomas was the son of the distinguished mathematician Leonard Digges. His first work on a military theme was Stratioticos (1579, see Macclesfield Science I-O, lot 1385 for the first edition and D-H, lot 634 for the 1590 edition), which combined tips as to how soldiers might employ mathematical theorems in practical military situations as well as Digges' vision of a model army. This slightly romanticised view was rudely altered by his own troubled experiences as muster master during an expedition to the Low Countries in 1585-86. The two "paradoxes" addressed by Digges pater in this posthumous publication involve the financing of an army and a contrast between ancient and modern means of military discipline. For further works by Thomas Digges see Macclesfield Science A-C, lots 211 and 250. The two series of plates that make up The military discipline depict the preferred methods of preparing a musket for firing and for wielding a pike. They are derived from those created for Wapen-handelinghe van roers, musquetten, en spiessen (1607) by Jacob de Gheyn (see lot 3534). The art of war is a considerably expanded version of Davies' Military directions, or The art of trayning which had appeared the previous year. According to Cockle, it contains the first use of the word "drilling" to mean the exercise of soldiers. The manuscript notes on p.201 are a 34-point list of instructions on the loading and firing of muskets and share some, although by no means all, stages with the list headed "The postures of the musket" on p.199. It would appear that the manuscript list is the owner's personal method, "slope your musket...drawe your mache...present, give fire..." and so on, which he found most expedient or had been drilled in. Markham's The souldiers grammar was one of the final works by this prolific author who penned tomes on subjects as diverse as horse-husbandry, household management and protestantism as well as his own poetry and drama. The second part (here lacking) was published in 1627 (STC 17391; Poynter 38.II). The manuscript annotations on pp. 56-57 detail the comparative pay of different ranks including a "comon soldier", a corporal and a colonel.