12mo. viii, 428pp. With four engraved folding plates. Original publisher's two-tone paper boards, printed paper lettering-piece to spine.Lightly rubbed and marked, spine dulled. Scattered spotting.

A manual on bookbinding by French chemist, physicist, and inventor Louis-Sébastien Lenormand (1757-1837), whose pioneering experiments allowed him to make the first witnessed descent using a parachute - a term which he also coined. Later in life, Lenormand would become involved in publishing, releasing manuals on foodstuffs, as well as twenty volumes of Le Dictionnaire technologique (The Technologic Dictionary).