CHARLES HENRY FRANÇOIS DESMARTINS

L’expérience de l’architecture militaire, où l’on apprendra à fonds la méthode de faire travailler dans les places…. Paris, Maurice Villery, 1685


§ 12mo; 14 double-page engraved plates. Contemporary calf, gilt spine. Fine copy.

First edition.. Almost nothing is known about the author but his position of commissaire ordinaire des guerres (military personnel and officials responsible for military administration, accounting, stewardship and logistics) and, surprisingly, as inventor of games (war games, naturally). It is thanks to this activity and the discovery of a previous unknown set of card that it is possible to gather few more information about Desmartins: “Charles François Henry Desmartins is not the most famous inventor of 17th century games. ... In fact, we do not know the date of his birth, nor the date of his death. In February 1673, he received a thirty-year privilege for the manufacture and sale of a game ... He was then qualified as “commissaire ordinaire des guerres” [ordinary commissioner of wars Ref: Jordan n. 877; Thierry Depaulis and Maxime Préaud Découverte d’une rareté de la carte à jouer du XVIIe siècle français In: Nouvelles de l’estampe 254 (2016) pp. 18-36