Athanasius Kircher (1602 - 1680)
Lot 181: KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS.
Sotheby's
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Description
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Mundus subterraneus, in XII libros digestus... Editio tertia. Amsterdam: Joannes Janssonius à Waesberge & filios, 1678
2 volumes in one, folio (378 x 245mm.), 2 engraved title-pages, printed title with engraved vignette in vol. 1, 19 engraved plates and maps (most double-page or folding), numerous engraved or woodcut illustrations in text, 5 tables (3 double-page), contemporary Dutch vellum, without the engraved portraits of Kircher and Pope Alexander VII and slips with engraved volvelles at pp. 165 & 167 of vol. 1, first double-page table loose, some light spotting, binding somewhat soiled, lacking 2 pairs of ties
Literature
cf. Merrill 17 (first edition); Sommervogel iv 1060-63; Caillet 5738; Ferguson i 467
Notes
The third edition of Kircher's description of the contents of the subterranean earth, which was first printed in 1665. His observations, based on his witnessing eruptions of Aetna and Stromboli during a visit to Sicily in 1637-38, are of both a scientific and fantastical nature. They include speculations on a vast underground network of springs and reservoirs, for which volcanoes act as safety valves, inhabited by fanciful subterranean monsters. He also discusses subjects such as the transmutations of metals, weathering, fossils, metallurgy and mining, pyrotechnic arts, poisons, hydraulics, distillation and meteorology.
Witchcraft and the Occult: Selected Books from the Collection of the late Robert Lenkiewicz
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London, United Kingdom