PLUMIER (Charles). L'Art de tourner, ou de faire en perfection toutes sortes d'ouvrages au tour dans lequel […] Ouvrage tres curieux, et tres necessaire à ceux qui s'exercent au Tour. Composé en François & en Latin en faveur des Etrangers, & enrichi de prés de quatre-vingt Planches.
Lyon: Chez Jean Certe, 1701.

Quarto (355 × 250 mm). (14) ff., 187 pp., (1) f.
Contemporary green-tinted parchment, raised bands, red morocco lettering piece with gilt title, red edges.

First edition. Extremely rare.
The first treatise entirely devoted to ornamental turning in wood and ivory.

Printed in parallel French and Latin texts in two columns, “for the benefit of foreigners”, and illustrated with an engraved title and 80 full-page plates (one folding) depicting turning tools and finished works. This is the foundational book of artistic and ornamental turning, documenting both the technical processes and the repertoire of forms at the very moment when the lathe becomes a refined scientific and artistic instrument.

Charles Plumier (1646–1704), royal botanist, mathematician and mechanician, is chiefly remembered for his Description des plantes de l’Amérique (1693). This treatise reveals another, more technical side of his genius and stands as one of the great monuments of early modern applied science and decorative arts.

Half-title pasted onto a leaf, restoration to the first page and page 181, some losses and restorations to a number of plates, overall evenly browned with some scattered spotting. A good, honest copy in its attractive contemporary green parchment binding.