Science & Technology / Optics & Perspective

ADAMS, George. Verhandeling over het zien, verklaarende kortlijk den aart van het zien, en het zamenstel van het oog; ten dienste van menschen, wier oogen zwak of ongesteld zijn; stellende hen in staat om een juist denkbeeld van de waare gesteldheid van hun gezicht te maaken, geevende de behoedmiddelen daar voor op, beneevens zekere regelen, om te weeten of men eenen bril noodig hebbe, en hoe dien als dan te kiezen, zonder dat hij het gezicht benadeele. Uit het Engelsch vertaald, en met aanmerkingen verrijkt door H. Aeneae.
Amsterdam, H. Gartman, W. Vermandel, J.W. Smit, 1792. 8vo. Large folding engraved plate with 8 images concerning optics such as cross-sections of the human eye, camera obscura, spectacles etc. Contemporary stiff sprinkled wrappers. [8], 174, [2] pp. Full description

ALBERTI, Leon Battista. Della pittura e della statua.
Milan, Societa Tipografica de' Classici Italiani (monogram of Giusti, Feriario & Co), 1804. 4to. With an engraved portrait of the author and 6 engraved plates (including 4 folding). Early 19th-century half sheepskin parchment, Stormont on shell marbled sides, title lettered in ink on the spine, yellow edges. XVII, 136 pp. Full description

ALBRECHT, Andreas. Instrument zur Architectur damit die fünff Seülen auch aller sorten Stück und Morsser, sowol allerley Bilder und dergleichen Sachen, leicht und recht proportionirt zuu ergrössern oder zuu erkleinern seindt, erfunden.
Nürnberg, (colophon:) printed by Ludwig Lochner, 1622. 4to. With an engraved title-page, showing all components of the newly invented instrument designed to help draftsmen enlarge or reduce drawings, and 9 numbered figures on 5 plates: 4 plates showing the instrument and its use and 1 large folding plate (32.5 x 30.5 cm) with model drawings of the five orders of architectural columns. Further with a woodcut headpiece, 3 woodcut decorated gothic initials (3 series), a woodcut headpiece and a headpiece built up of cast fleurons. Set in fraktur types. Modern nonpareil marbled boards, red morrocco spine-label, by Ateliers Laurenchet (stamp on paste-down) in Paris, established by Henri Laurenchet in 1947. [16] pp. Full description

APIANUS (APIAN), Petrus and Gemma FRISIUS. Cosmographia.
Antwerp, Jan Verwithagen (colophon: printed by Verwithagen), 1574. 4to. With a large woodcut on the title-page (with a terrestrial globe and other instruments); 4 printed paper volvelles with moving parts and a woodcut sun dial with a string attached to its centre; a folding woodcut cordiform mappa mundi (block size 19×27.5 cm) with letterpress text in the margins; well over 100 further woodcut illustrations, diagrams, maps, etc., in the text. Recased in 17th-century(?) limp sheepskin parchment. [2], 64, [2] ll. plus folding woodcut. Full description

[ASTRONOMY - APIAN and others]. S.D.V.B (compiler). Een nieu constich boeck inde geometrie en de astronomiae, voor desen noyt in druck gheweest, ende is in ses stucken afghedeylt ...
(Colophon:) Rees, Abraham Wijlicx, 1608. Folio (30 x 19.5 cm). With a half-page woodcut illustration and some decorations built up from typographic ornaments on the title-page, 74 woodcuts of various sizes in text, many (near) full- and half-page, with some woodcut decorated initials (various series), a headpiece built up from typographic ornaments and an ornamental woodcut tailpiece. Contemporary vellum, sewn on four supports laced through the joints. 111, [1] pp. Full description

BACON, Roger. Perspectiva. In qua, quae ab aliis fuse traduntur, succincte, nervose & ita pertractantur, ut omnium intellectui facile pateant. Nunc primum in lucem edita. Opera & studio Joannis Combachii.
Frankfurt, Wolffgang Richter for Antonius Hummius, 1614. 4to. With 8 full-page woodcuts printed on both sides of four leaves inserted as plates, and numerous woodcut figures and illustrations in text, several full-page. Modern plain paper boards. [8], 189[=205], [1 blank] pp. Full description

BRETEZ, Louis. La perspective pratique de l'architecture. Contenant par leçons une manière nouvelle, courte et aisée pour représenter en perspective les ordonnances d'architecture & les places fortifiées.
Paris, Charles Antoine Jombert, 1751. Folio. With an engraved frontispiece, and 59 full page engraved plates (52 numbered, 5 unnumbered, 2 with text). Contemporary gold tooled mottled brown calf, red edges, marbled end papers. [2] ll. + 60 plates. Full description

CAUS (CAULS), Salomon de. La perspective avec la raison, des ombres et miroirs.
London, John Norton [printed partly by Jan Mommaert the elder in Brussels and partly by Richard Field in London], 1612. Royal folio (52 x 28.5 cm). With an engraved title page and 80 etched and engraved illustrations: 64 on otherwise blank pages, mostly on integral leaves (2 across double-pages, further mostly full-page), and 16 on the text pages (from small to half-page). Contemporary dark brown calf. Rebacked, restored and with new endpapers. engraved title + [5], 49, [16] ll. including engravings. Full description

COURTONNE, Jean. Traité de la perspective pratique, avec des remarques sur l'architecture, suivies de quelques edifices considerables mis en perspective, & de l'invention de l'auteur. Ouvrage très-utile aux amateurs de l'architecture & de la peinture.
Paris, Jacques Vincent, 1725. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With 33 engraved plates (32 folding, 1 double-page), an engraved frontispiece, numerous decorated woodcut initials, and head- and tailpieces (both woodcut and built up from typographical ornaments). Contemporary gold and blind tooled mottled brown calf. [2 blank], [14], 116, [2] pp. Full description

COUSIN, Jean. La vraye science de la pourtraicture descrite et demontrée ... Representant par une facile instruction plusieurs plans & figures de toutes les parties separées du corps humain: ensemble les figures entieres, tant d'hommes que femmes & de petits enfans, veuës de front, de fil, & de dos, avec les proportions, mesures & dimensions dícelles: et certaines regles pour racourcir par art toutes lesdites figures.
Paris, Guillaume Le Bé III, 1676. Oblong 4to. With a woodcut border on half-title and 36 full-page woodcut illustrations. Later limp vellum. 40 ll. Full description