{"id":16057,"date":"2021-12-01T01:53:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T01:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=16057"},"modified":"2022-12-31T00:54:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T00:54:43","slug":"the-curious-printing-history-of-la-science-de-larpenteur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/the-curious-printing-history-of-la-science-de-larpenteur\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Printing History of ‘La Science de l’Arpenteur’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Research Group Speaks
\nEpisode 5
\n<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

The Curious, Possibly Unique, Printing History
\nof Editions (1766\u20131813)
\nof La Science de l’Arpenteur<\/em>
\nby Dupain de Montesson<\/h1>\n

Ronald K. Smeltzer<\/em><\/h1>\n
\n
\"\"

Dupain de Montesson, Le spectacle de la campagne and La science de l’arpenteur (1777), First Title-page, Vignette. Ronald K. Smeltzer Collection. Photograph Ronald K. Smeltzer, reproduced by permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

[Posted on 1 December 2021, with updates<\/em>]<\/p>\n

For Episode 5 in our series (23 January 2022), Ronald K. Smeltzer (Ronald K. Smeltzer, Ph.D.<\/a>) examines a telling case of multiple editions, issued with variations in printing methods, of an eighteenth-century treatise in French on methods of surveying<\/a>.\u00a0 The technique of surveying has a long and venerable tradition, with a varied series of books on the subject from late-antiquity<\/a> onward.<\/p>\n

The Plan<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Direct, detailed examination of the editions, all in octavo format, of La science de l’arpenteur<\/em> by Louis Charles Dupain de Montesson reveals multiple changes and adaptations that illuminate its extraordinary printing history.\u00a0 Early editions were printed all engraved including signatures of the leaves.\u00a0 Some of the later changes to the text and to the book design were a direct result of the French Revolution.\u00a0 Assembling examples of all the known editions has taken twenty years.\u00a0 The process attests to the value of direct inspection.\u00a0 This presentation describes the results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Ronald K. Smeltzer, Ph.D.<\/h3>\n

In his own words, the speaker<\/p>\n

had a technical career, now long past, in the electronics (semiconductor) industry.\u00a0 His continuing bibliographical research projects focus on the history of publishing and on methods of illustration in the sciences.\u00a0 He has presented and published papers on a variety of bibliographical subjects and in the history of science.<\/p>\n

His research has resulted in two exhibitions and their printed publications for The Grolier Club<\/a>.\u00a0 The more recent focused on the contributions of women in the sciences.<\/p>\n