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172
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Kircher, Athanasius. - Ars magna lucis et umbrae in decem li…
See original version (French)
172
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Kircher, Athanasius. - Ars magna lucis et umbrae in decem li…
See original version (French)
Estimate €1,500 - €1,800
Voluntary lot
Description
Kircher, Athanasius. - Ars magna lucis et umbrae in decem libros digesta. Rome, Hermann Scheus, 1646. 1 vol. in-folio bound in brown basane, filleted in cold, spine ribbed. - Basane completely worn, the first plate almost completely detached, corners pierced, headpieces missing, leather gap at the spine, folding plate XX torn and plate XXV trimmed a little short at the gutter, nevertheless quite complete with all the required plates. - 20 ff. n. ch. signed †-†††††4, 935-[15] pp. signed A-Dddddd4. Numerous woodcuts in the text, 41 copper plates hors texte, numbered from I to XXXIV, two plates (VII and XXIV) numbered twice, two unnumbered double-sided plates, placed between pages 252/253 and 402/403 and the frontispiece signed Petrus Miotte. Printed ex-dono pasted to first flyleaf: The gift of Mr Thomas Heathley, Citizen and Iron-Monger of London to the Mathematical School in Christ's Hospital, anno dom. 1700". - The first edition of the major work by the great Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, Le grand art de la lumière et des ombres deals with eclipses, comets and astrological influences, as well as phosphorescence, colour, optics, anamorphoses, chronometry and sundials. The use of the telescope enabled Kircher to depict the planet Saturn with its rings for the first time (p. 17). The magic lantern (plate XXXIII) was another of Kircher's discoveries. The work was a great success and was republished in Amsterdam in 1671.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Ref. : E0636 - 12
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