Milestones of Science Books

KIRCHER, Athanasius.

Primitiae gnomonicae catoptricae, hoc est horologiographiae novae specularis, in qua . . . demonstratur horologiorum per reflexi luminis radium construendorum methodus . .

Avignon: Jean Piot, 1635.

1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Very Good. Item #003013

4to (224 x 171 mm). [12], 228, [16] pp., including engraved additional title, woodcut initials and headpieces, several woodcut illustrations and diagrams in text (7 full page), index, errata and privilege leaf bound at end. Signatures: π⁶ A-2G⁴ 2H². Bound in 20th-century vellum, spine with gilt lettering piece, new endpapers (light rubbing to extremities). Text heavily browned throughout, some light spotting and faint dampstaining, a couple of early repairs to blank margins, title-page with few tiny holes and paper re-inforcement on verso, leaf D3 with old repair affecting 3 letters, leaf N1 with torn lower blank corner. Provenance: illegible early inked inscription "Biblio Col. Pan.(?)" to letterpress title; Giancarlo Beltrame Library. ----

Brunet III, 668. RARE FIRST EDITION of one of Kircher's earliest works which deals with the construction and operation of sundials by reflected light (gnomonicus catopticus). It is also an astronomical work treating with the motion of the sun and moon. The illustrations mainly show sundials and tables. The added engraved title-page has an alternate title: Horologium Aven : Astronomico Catoptricum... The work is dedicated to the city council of Avignon and to Claudius Sylvester, assessor of the city. Kircher's dedicatory epistle is dated from Avignon, 10 May 1633 and the preliminarypages include 4 poetic epigrams to the work. "Shortly after Kircher took up residence in Avignon in 1631, he began earnest research in, among other things, astronomy. He designed an observatory to study the progress of the sun and moon by reflecting their light with mirrors into the De La Motte tower of the Jesuit college. This book is the result of his observations and comprises a series of problems, corollaries, and theorems related to those observations." (B.L. Merrill, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), Jesuit Scholar: An Exhibition of His Works in the Harold B. Lee Library Collections at Brigham Young University, Martino Publ. 2003, p.3-4).

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