Machines et inventions approuvées par l'Académie Royale des Sciences depuis son établissement jusqu'à présent
This is a French compendium of machines and inventions approved by the Académie Royale des Sciences, published in 1732 by the Académie des Sciences in Paris and held in the Cicognara collection of architecture at Heidelberg University Library. The record lists it under architecture, bridges, fountains and gardens, so its plates were likely meant for engineers, craftsmen and builders. The four pictures are not machines but ornamental cartouches and decorative headpieces in woodcut style, with scrolling acanthus leaves, swags, tassels, shell motifs and symmetrical framing. A designer could take their symmetrical scroll compositions and dense black-and-white line work as models for title panels, borders and ornamental dividers.
