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96 - KIRCHER (Athanasius). Ars magna sciendi, in XII libros diges…
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Estimate €600 - €800
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KIRCHER (Athanasius). Ars magna sciendi, in XII libros digesta. Amsterdam, Jan Jansson van Waesberge, 1669. 2 volumes in one folio, marbled basane, spine decorated, red edges (18th century binding). First edition of Kircher's major work on combinatorial analysis, inspired by the work of Raymond Lulle. A universal scholar of the Baroque period, the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) developed systematic methods for generating and counting all the combinations of a finite set of objects in his Ars magna sciendi sive Combinatoria. It contains what may be the first known representations of a complete bipartite graph. "The Ars magna sciendi represents the 17th-century search for a universal language that would allow scientists and philosophers to describe and circumscribe all knowledge into a unified system" (Merrill). The illustrations consist of two allegorical title-frontispieces, a portrait of Emperor Leopold I, to whom the work is dedicated, an out-of-text figure for the Arbor philosophica universæ cognitionis typus, 5 folding tables and numerous diagrams and figures in the text, including two volvelles on p. 13 and p. 173. The loose parts of the second volvelle, unmounted, are printed on an out-of-text plate. From the library of the Episcopal Seminary of Alba, in Piedmont, with stamps to the title and traces of a call number label to the tail. Interior browned with heavy freckling, as always; one volvelle incomplete of its movable parts, p. 13; frontispiece partially disbound; small epidermis on boards, tiny small tear to a headpiece. Merrill, n°22 - Caillet, n°5771 - Dorbon, n°2380 - Brunet, III, 666.
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
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Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
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