Reviews

Mark Andrews states in his introduction to the first of these volumes that “Book collecting is not about accumulating. It is about creating something new by bringing together previously dispersed books. Often, it is not until those books start to come together that the new entity reveals itself; that is exactly the situation for this collection of Italian books related to rivers and hydraulics.” Through the writing and production of these wonderful books Mr. Andrews has definitively created a new way of appreciating and explaining rare books and manuscripts in the history of science and technology.

These two large quarto volumes are without doubt the most beautiful illustrated bibliographical works ever published on rare books in the history of science and technology. They are published in the style and format of artistic catalogues raisonnés. In addition to a profusion of exquisite color plates, emphasizing and portraying the full range of graphic detail of every book or manuscript they describe, they contain authoritative bibliographical information and scholarly annotations. And, as if all these features were insufficient, both volumes also include some large fold-out color plates. For both volumes Mr. Andrews also went to the trouble of providing explanatory maps, and definitions of technical terms for those without an engineering background.

Nothing published previously on classic works concerning the history of science or technology compares favorably to these two volumes in terms of book design and production, and the way this is successfully integrated with bibliographical and historical scholarship. The only other work that approaches anywhere near them in quality and presentation was Alchemy and the Occult: A Catalogue of books and Manuscripts from the Collection of Paul and Mary Mellon Given to Yale University (4 vols, 1968-1977). However, the subject matter of that library is limited from the graphics point of view.

Prior to Mr. Andrews’s volumes (I hesitate to call them anything as modest as “catalogues”) emphasis in describing rare books in the history of science was always more on content rather than visual impact. Most typically a single illustration in a bibliographical catalogue had to suffice as a representative of a book that might contain 50 or more spectacular plates. Considering the amazing attention to visual as well as bibliographic detail devoted to each rare volume described and illustrated in each of the two books, perhaps it should not be surprising that the first volume of 419 large quarto pages covers only 308 printed books and maps, 23 bound manuscripts, and 36 manuscript drawings and maps. The second volume of essentially the equal size concerns itself with even fewer works—only 46 of the most famous engineering books. I should emphasize that the books described and illustrated are worth the attention they are given in these volumes, since they represent the greatest classics in their fields. One favorite of mine is the Andrews copy of the 1472 Valturio, De re militari, the first book on engineering or technology, followed in the Andrews library by a beautiful 1580 manuscript copy of the same text.

Rather than present a long list of the many highlights described and illustrated so magnificently in these two volumes, I would like to point out that in fifty years of reading and consulting virtually every bibliography and reference work ever published in the history of science and technology, and writing a few myself, I had never imagined bibliographical works as wonderful in all respects as these two volumes.

Credit for the spectacular design of these new publications goes to Lara Minja of Lime Design (Victoria). The amazing photographs, including artistic presentation of individual volumes or groups of rare books that are works of art in themselves, are credited to Gary William Ogle (Toronto). The Science and Engineering of Water was printed by Friesens, one of the finest of commercial book printers in Canada. The superb color printing of The Science and Engineering of Materials was executed by Type A Printers. The colophon of both volumes explains that these two volumes describe engineering treasures from the larger Andrews Collection of Civil Engineering. Having set such exquisite artistic and bibliographical standards in these first two performances, we may only hope for encores from Mr. Andrews.