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Science & Technology / Optics & Perspective

A classic in perspectival literature

POZZO, Andrea. Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum ... | Prospettiva de pittori et architetti ...
Rome, Antonio de Rossi (part 1) and Johannis Jacobi Komarek Bohemi (part 2), 1702 (part 1) and 1700 (part 2). 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. Part 1 with a large woodcut vignette on both title-pages (one in Latin and one in Italian), an engraved architectural frontispiece dated 1693 (behind the title-pages of part 1), a full-page engraved plate with drawing instruments before the preface, and 102 numbered engraved plates with perspectival and architectural plans and illustrations, including a large folding view of Pozzo's "trompe-l'oeil" fresco on the ceiling of the St. Ignazio church in Rome. Part 2 with a large woodcut vignette on both title-pages (one in Latin and one in Italian), an engraved architectural frontispiece by Teodoro Ver Cruys (behind the title-pages of part 2), an introductory allegorical plate, and 118 numbered engraved plates with perspectival and architectural plans and illustrations, and a full-page engraved plate on fresco painting to the added treatise at the end. Contemporary gold-tooled sprinkled (mottled?) calf, sewn on 6 supports with corresponding raised bands on the spine, with a red morocco title-label lettered in gold in the second compartment, the other compartments with detailed gold-tooled decorations. The boards show a double fillet frame in an ornamental frame with ornamental cornerpieces on the outer corners, all within a double fillet frame, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, red sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. Full description
€ 14,500
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Extensively illustrated manuscript course of practical geometry with more than 350 figures, including perspective, projections, architecture, cartography & sundials

PRÉVOST, M. Cours de géométrie pratique professé par M. Prevost et suivi par C.F. Frenet. Comprenant 1o. La géométrie élémentaire avec ses applications au toisé, au cubage, géodésie, etc. 2o. La géométrie descriptive avec ses applications à la perspective, à la coupe des pierres etc.
[Lyon?, ca. 1825?]. Oblong folio (35 x 45 cm). With a flourished calligraphic title page signed "[Charles] Esclozas scripsit", and 140 leaves with more than 350 figures in black ink and sometimes pencil, red ink or coloured washes (blue, yellow, red, green and grey), illustrating plain and solid geometry, projections, perspective, architecture, bridges, cartography, globes, sundials, etc., and with text and illustrations in black thick-thin borders. Contemporary green half morocco, spine richly gold-tooled. [1], [1 blank], [97], [1 blank] pp. plus 140 illustration ll. partly numbered in 13 series. Full description
€ 25,000
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Influential book on optics by a noted protégé and collegue of Peter Ramus,
based on the work of Ibn al-Haytham (AlHazen)

RISNER, Friedrich. Opticae libri quatuor ex voto Petri Rami novissimo Fridericum Risnerum per ejusdem in mathematicis adjutorem olim conscripti, ...
Kassel, Wilhelm Wessel (sold by Johann Berner in Frankfurt), 1615. 4to. With numerous optical, astronomical and mathematical woodcut diagrams in text, woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and initials, and headpieces built up from cast fleurons. 18th-century tan calf, gold-tooled double fillets, re-backed in sheepskin. [20], 259, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 19,500
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First edition of an Italian work on physics in the wake of Galileo's trial

ROSSETTI, Donato. Antignome fisico-matematiche con il nuovo orbe, e sistema terrestre.
Livorno, Giovanni Vincenzo Bonfigli, 1667. 4to. With 66 woodcut diagrams and other illustrations in text. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment, with 2 fastenings made from loops of braided cord on the front cover but only traces of thongs on the back. XII, 179, [1] pp. Full description
€ 7,500
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Robert Smith's influential theories on light and optics together in the first edition of an illustrated textbook for university students

[SMITH, Robert and others]. The elementary parts of Dr. Smith's compleat system of opticks, selected and arranged for the use of students at the universities: to which are added in the form of notes some explanatory propositions from other authors.
Cambridge, printed by J. Archdeacon, 1778. Large 4to (27 x 20.5 cm). With 17 numbered, folding engraved plates. Contemporary gold-tooled brown sprinkled calf, gold-tooled red morocco spine label, gold-tooled board edges. VI, [9], [1 blank], 119, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
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An early mention of Australia and a window into early 17th-century Spanish daily life

SUAREZ DE FIGUEROA, Christobal (Thomaso GARZONI). Plaza universal de todas ciencias, y artes, parte traduzida de Toscano, y parte compuesta por el doctor Christoval Suearez de Figueroa.
Perpignan, Luis Roure, 1630 (colophon: 1629). 4to. With title printed in woodcut border with large woodcut coat of arms; interesting woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces. Contemporary mottled calf. [8], 379, [1 blank] ll. Full description
€ 6,500
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Rare, richly illustrated 17th-century guide to chiromancy: the practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm (palm reading)

[TAISNIER, Jean (?)]. La science curieuse, ou traité de la chyromance, récueilly des plus graves autheurs que ont traité de cette matiere, & plus exactement recherché qu'il n'a esté cy-devant par aucun autre.
Paris, Francois Clousier, 1665. 4to (21.5 x 16.5 cm). Illustrated with 90 engraved plates (9 showing 1 full-page hand each, 1 table and 80 showing 16 smaller hands each, with the relevant lines for reading palms). With 1 woodcut decorated initial, and several woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary mottled calf, sewn on 5 supports, gold-tooled board edges, gold-tooled spine with the title lettered in gold. [1], [1 blank], [6], 212 pp. Full description
€ 2,950
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Linear perspective for aspiring artists, posthumously published

THIBAULT, Jean Thomas. Application de la perspective linéaire aux arts du dessin, ouvrage posthume, mis au jour par Chapuis.
Paris, Paul Renouard for Mesdames Thibault, Jules Renouard, Bance ainé & Carilian Goeury, 1827. Folio. With a full page engraved portrait, an engraved frontispiece (bound after p. 168), and 53 full page, numbered, engraved plates. 19th-century gold- and blind tooled brown half calf. XV, [1 blank], 168 pp. Full description
€ 950
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One of the earliest instructions on the use of glasses for all sorts of viewing at all distances

THOMIN, Marc Mitouflet. Traité d'optique mechanique, dans lequel on donne les règles & les proportions qu'il faut observer pour faire toutes sortes de lunettes d'approche, microscopes simples & composés, & autres ouvrages qui dépendent de l'art. Avec une instruction sur l'usage des lunettes ou conserves pour toutes sortes de vûes.
Paris, Jean Baptiste Coignard, Antoine Boudet, 1749. 8vo. With an engraved vignette on the title page, 4 folding engraved plates showing perspectival and optical diagrams and illustrations of perspectival and optical instruments, incl. a camera obscura. Further with woodcut decorated initials, head- and tailpieces. Modern half marbled calf. XII, 372, [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
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Gaspard Monge's descriptive geometry for artists

VALLÉE, Louis Léger. Traité de la géométrie descriptive.
Paris, Mme Ve Courcier, 1819. 2 volumes (a text and an atlas volume). Large 4to. With a lithographed portrait of Gaspard Monge in the text volume, an engraved title to the atlas volume, and 60 engraved plates (3 double-page, 57 full-page) with illustrations of perspectival projections by Ambroise Tardieu after designs by the author. Contemporary gold-tooled quarter green morocco. XX, 355, [1 blank]; 8 pp. + 60 engraved plates. Full description
€ 2,250
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