Mar 07, 2019 - Sale 2501

Sale 2501 - Lot 139

Price Realized: $ 2,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS, S.J. Ars magna sciendi. Engraved text diagrams, with small plates of double volvelle for dial on page 13 and quadruple volvelle for dial on page 173 bound in; 5 folding letterpress tables; lacks the portrait of the dedicatee, Emperor Leopold I, and plate depicting philosophical tree. [16], 482, [10] pages, including 2 engraved allegorical additional titles. bound with his: Latium; id est, Nova & parallela Latii tum veteris tum novi descriptio. 26 (of 27) engraved plates and maps, including 14 double-page; 19 text engravings; lacks the portrait of the dedicatee, Pope Clement X. [16] (of [22]), 263, [8] pages, including etched engraved title by Romeyn de Hooghe; lacks last 3 preliminary leaves ("Totius Plani Villae Adrianaeae descriptio generalis" etc.). Together, 2 volumes in one. Folio, 361x246 mm, modern vellum boards with old blind-tooled pigskin covers and most of backstrip laid down; toning and scattered foxing in Ars magna sciendi, bottom of additional and letterpress titles torn and restored affecting image and imprint, occasional heavy foxing of text in Latium, dampstaining on first few preliminaries and few text leaves toward end, some single-page plates toned, single-page plate facing page 168 reinforced along edges. Amsterdam: Joannes Janssonius à Waesberge and widow [heirs] of Elizeus Weyerstraet, 1669; 1671

Additional Details

first editions. "Ars magna sciendi is Kircher's elaboration and adaptation of the 'Combinatoric Art' of the Ramon Lull, the thirteenth-century Majorcan philosopher. Kircher attempts nothing less than the categorization of all knowledge under the nine ideal attributes or dignities of God . . . Latium is a compilation of his topographical impressions of Rome and its environs" (Merrill). Dünnhaupt, Kircher 23-24; Merrill 22-23.