SCHOTT (Gaspar). *Technica curiosa, sive mirabilia artis*, i - Lot 162

SCHOTT (Gaspar). *Technica curiosa, sive mirabilia artis*, in 12 books. Nuremberg: Heirs of Endter & Wolfgang, Jobus Hertz, 1664. 2 parts in a sturdy quarto volume, grained calfskin, decorated spine, edges speckled with red (contemporary binding). First edition of this very rare book on technical machines. The illustrations include an allegorical frontispiece, a portrait engraved by Fleischberger of the Archbishop and Elector of Mainz, to whom the work is dedicated, and 61 full-page or fold-out plates. Gaspard Schott (1608–1666), a German physicist and Jesuit priest, explains in twelve books various machines in existence at the time (fountains, water wheels, etc.), and discusses various experiments in pneumatics, hydraulics, mechanics, cryptography, chronometry, and optics; it includes references to Torricelli’s tube (the barometer), the squaring of the circle, and the aerostatic experiments of Robert Boyle and Otto von Guericke. The last book is devoted to Kabbalah (Mirabilia cabalistica): its origins, its spread, the theories of the leading Kabbalists, etc. (Caillet, no. 10009; Dorbon, no. 4444 for the 1687 edition.) A very fine copy. A tear without loss at the fold of two fold-out plates; the upper corner of folio N2 is cut off, resulting in the loss of some words; on some plates, the numbering letter is occasionally damaged or even cut off. Browning in several quires, inherent to the paper of the period.

Estimate:£1,714.76

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