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Dutch scientific journal for craftsmen, with folding plates, 20 years before Diderot & d’Alambert

RANOUW, Willem van.
Kabinet der natuurlyke historien, wetenschappen, konsten en handwerken, geopent met de maanden January en February 1719. Verciert en opgeheldert met kopere plaaten.
Including: MEERSCH, Pieter van der. Register tot alle de deelen van het kabinet ... van W. v. Ranouw.
Amsterdam, Hendrik Strik; Zacharia Moelé and Johannes de Ruiter; Balthasar Lakeman, 1730; 1719-1727; 1732. 21 parts in 9 volumes. 8vo. With an identical engraved allegorical frontispiece in volumes 1-8, different woodcut vignettes on the title-pages and 49 numbered engraved maps and plates, all but one folding. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on the spines. [16], 176, [2], 552, [8]; [4], 564, [8]; [8], 562, [6]; 570, [6]; 570; [9]; [8], 176, [2], 191-380, [2], 563, [6]; [8], 183, [1], 1-192, 1-192, [8]; [16], 176, 1-191, [1], [20], 1-151, [1]; [12], 690 pp.
€ 3,950
Complete set of a rare and interesting 9-volume scientific periodical devoted to the latest developments in all sciences, including their practical applications in the various crafts and professions. It appeared in bimonthly parts that were combined in 8 volumes and an index, totalling 21 parts. The Dutch physician Willem van Ranouw (1670-1723) initiated the project to make a selection of the most interesting and important recent foreign scientific texts available for Dutch craftsmen, who would benefit from the practical application of new scientific discoveries. Ranouw translated these texts himself and sometimes added some of his own writing.
Several folding engraved plates illustrate all kinds of machines, crafts and natural history specimens. One folding plate depicts a workshop where gold wire is made (the only plate that is signed: Jan Wandelaar), multiple plates show mining technology. Other plates show sugar cane, several shells, plants and insects. A long part describes and illustrates the production of sugar. Some of the other subjects discussed include cacao, tea, quinine, indigo, astronomy, geology, amber, coral, minerals, horticulture and much more. The 4 folding maps show the Caucasus, the Baltic Sea, the Arabian Peninsula (including Bahrain) and the Holy Land.
The first volume of the present set is a curious edition, not listed in the STCN: the title-page calls it the "second edition", with imprint: Amsterdam, Balthasar Lakeman, 1730. The other eight volumes (2-9) are first editions.
Some repaired tears in plates and maps, a crack in the spine of volume 1 and volume 9 (index) rebacked. Otherwise in very good condition. Cobres, I, p. 30; Delprat, Ned. geneesk. tijdschriften, pp. 18-21; Encyclopedie Nederlandstalige tijdschriften (www.ent1815.nl); H. Beukers, "De tijdschriften van Willem van Ranouw", in: Nederlandsch tijdschrift voor geneeskunde 125 (1981), pp. 1613-1617; not in Blake; Nissen; Pritzel; for the author: C.W. Schoneveld, 't Word grooter plas: maar niet zo 't was: Nederlandse beschouwingen over vertalen 1670-1760, in: Vertaalhistorie, 3 (1992).
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Related Subjects:

Cartography & exploration  >  Atlases, Charts, Maps & Globes
Natural history  >  Botany (General) | Floras & Flowering Plants | Horticulture & Forestry | Insects & Spiders | Shells & other Invertebrates
Science & technology  >  Astronomy & Mathematics | Earth Sciences | Instruments & Microscopy | Mineralogy & Gems | Physics & Chemistry | Technology