Science & Technology / Optics & Perspective

PECKHAM, John and Georg HARTMANN. Perspectiva communis. Ideo sic dicta, quod contineat elementa tès optigès, omnibus philosophiae studiosis necessaria.
Nürnberg, Johan Petreius, 1542. Small 4to (18 x 15 cm). With 44 woodcut diagrams in text. Modern boards. [55] ll. Full description

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

[MANUSCRIPT]. 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

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

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

[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

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

[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

VALLEMONT, Pierre le Lorrain de. Eloge de Mr. Le Clerc, chevalier romain, dessinateur, et graveur ordinair du cabinet du roi: avec le catalogue de ses ouvrages; Et des réflexions sur quelques-uns des principaux.
Paris, Nicolas Caillou and Jean Musier, 1715. Small 8vo (ca. 16 x 10 cm). With an engraved frontispiece, an engraved headpiece, a woodcut headpiece, and two decorated woodcut initials.Contemporary gold-tooled mottled brown calf, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gold-tooled board edges, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. [8], 223, [4], [5 blank] pp. Full description

VERGNAUD, Armand Denis. Manuel de perspective, du dessinateur et du peintre, contenant les élémens de géométrie indispensables au tracé de la perspective, la perspective linéaire et aérienne, et l'étude du dessin et de la peinture spécialement appliquée au paysage.
Paris, Roret, 1825. 12mo. With 108 figures and illustrations on 8 folding engraved plates. Modern gold-tooled beige paper over boards, with a red morocco author and title label on the spine, lettered in gold, brown sprinkled edges. [4], 229, [1] pp. Full description