Milestones of Science Books

TRABER, Zacharias.

Nervus opticus sive tractatus theoricus, in tres libros opticam, catoptricam, dioptricam distributus : In quibus radiorum a lumine, vel objecto per medium diaphanum processus, natura, proprietates, & effectus, selectis & rarioribus experientijs, figuris, demonstrationibusque exhibentur.

Vienna: Johann Christoph Cosmerovius, 1675.

1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #003462

Folio (293 x 198 mm). [24], 225 [1] pp. Engraved additional title by Sadler, letterpress title, 35 engraved plates on 33 sheets (3 folding, of which one, facing p. 114, double-sided with 3 plates numbered Tab X-XII), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, bound without final blank Ff2. Signatures: a-c⁴ A-Ee⁴ Ff² (-Ff2). Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges, spine hand-lettered, original endpapers (spine vellum partly chipped off, minor worming to inner hinges, spine ends scuffed, extremities rubbed, vellum soiled and spotted). Text and plates generally quite crisp and clean with only very minor browning, some light foxing of a few pages. Provenance: from a German private collection, erased old ownership inscription on letterpress title. An exceptionally well preserved copy internally. ----

VD 17 32:701326B (1 of 2 variants); NLM/Krivatsy 11945; Sommervogel VIII, p.198; Wellcome V, p.292; Becker, Collection of ophtalmology, 378. RARE FIRST EDITION, this copy in the variant with the dedication to György Szelepcsényi, Bishop of Esztergom. Treated in three books are optics, catoptrics and dioptrics, further the manufacture of optical devices with corresponding illustrations. Published in the same year that Isaac Newton was making his great advances in the study of light, this encyclopedic and lavishly illustrated book is a classic on optics, combining both physical and physiological optics. The anatomy and physiology of the eye and the physical properties of light are extensively treated. There is a great deal of historical information about the development of the optical science from Aristotle to the work of his contemporaries such as Kepler, Kircher, Aguilon and Scheiner. (see Becker). There are quite a number of 17th century books in which the theory of the Camera Obscura is explained (Kircher, Schott a.o.), but Traber's work arguably explains this invention best and illustrates it with some striking plates. Scheiner's apparatus for the observation of sun-rays and several types of the Camera Obscura are illustrated on the finely engraved plates. Zacharias Traber (1611-1679) was an Austrian Jesuit who taught mathematics in Vienna. - Visit our website to see more images!

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