XIMINES, Leonardo.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Piano di operazioni idrauliche per ottenere la massima depressione del Lago di Sesto, o sia di Bientina. First edition of this detailed proposal to drain Lake Sesto, a persistent source of malaria and flooding for nearby Lucca. Drainage was attempted repeatedly from the 16th century until its final reclamation in the 19th. Although Ximenes's canals were built, their backflow at times worsened the flooding."Ximenes proposed to drain the lake by cutting a new channel, named the new Ozerri Canal. The plates illustrate a detailed profile of the new canal, improvements at the outlet to the sea, and a culvert to pass the new channel under an existing riverbed. Comments on the plan by Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich and by the astronomer and engineer Eustachio Zanotti are appended, along with Ximenes's response to both. A handsome engraved title page shows two fishermen carrying their boat and nets away from a field being plowed. This and the engineer plates are engraved by B. Nerici based on designs by Michele X. Flosi, F. A. Lecchi, L. Andreetti and Rocco Francesconi" (Andrew, p. 271).

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