Sale 2501 - Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books, March 7, 2019

239 241 c   SCHOTT, GASPAR; and KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS, S. J. Joco-seriorum naturae et artis, sive magiae naturalis, Centuriae Tres: das ist, Drey-Hundert Nütz- und Lustige Sätze Allerhand Merck-würdiger Stücke [etc.]. 22 engraved plates. [8], 330 [i. e., 328], [8] pages, including engraved additional title. 4to, 202x161 mm, modern vellum-backed marbled boards; text evenly browned, occasional marginal foxing and minor stains on plates. Bamberg: Johann Martin Schönwetter, 1677 [600/900] first edition in german of a 1662 Latin collection of practical and recreational scientific tricks and experiments, miscellaneous curiosities, and medical remedies; second issue, with title dated 1677 instead of 1672. A section on venisection on pages 26-28 includes a discussion of contemporary reactions to Harvey’s account of the circulation. Pages 278-330 contain a German version of Athanasius Kircher’s 1661 Diatribe de prodigiosis crucibus, an attempt “to explain the uncanny appearance of crosses on clothing and other objects following an eruption of Vesuvius” (Merrill). Dunnhaupt, Schott 13.II.2; Merrill 16 (original edition of Kircher). 242 c   SMITH, ROBERT. Cours Complet d’Optique. French translation and additions by Esprit Pezenas, S. J. 73 folding engraved plates. [6], [iii]-xxviii, 472; [2], 536, [2] pages, including errata leaf at end. 2 volumes. 4to, 255x209 mm, contemporary mottled calf gilt, spine ends chipped, joints partly cracked, cords intact, cover edges and corners worn through; scattered minor foxing, occasional light offsetting from plates. Avignon & Paris, 1767 [400/600] first edition of one of two French translations published the same year of Smith’s 1738 Complete System of Opticks, “the standard eighteenth century text on the physics of light, grinding and polishing lenses, the construction of optical instruments, and the history of telescopic discoveries” (Becker). This version contains supplementary matter by the translator, a noted Jesuit mathematician and astronomer (1692-1776). “Pezenas played a major role in the diffusion in France of important works by English scientists, especially in mathematics and optics” (DSB). Babson 161; Becker 345 (both citing the original edition); DSB XII, 477-78, and X, 571-72. 241