Item ID: 6868 Pantometrum Kircherianum, hoc est, Instrumentum Geometricum novum, à Celeberrimo Viro P. Athanasio Kirchero ante hac inventum, nunc decem Libris, universam paenè Practicam Geometriam complectentibus explicatum, perspicuisque demonstrationibus illustratum…. Gaspar SCHOTT.

Invented by Kircher

Pantometrum Kircherianum, hoc est, Instrumentum Geometricum novum, à Celeberrimo Viro P. Athanasio Kirchero ante hac inventum, nunc decem Libris, universam paenè Practicam Geometriam complectentibus explicatum, perspicuisque demonstrationibus illustratum…

Added engraved title (with the arms & port. of the dedicatee, Christian Ludwig I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin) & 32 engraved plates (one is folding). 12 p.l., 408, [20] pp. Small thick 4to, cont. vellum over boards (minor browning throughout). Würzburg: J.G. Schönwetter, 1660.

First edition of one of the most comprehensive works of the period dealing with all kinds of measuring operations, including surveying. Many of the instruments described were preserved in Kircher’s museum. This book, along with that of Claramontius, “contains the most important records of the leveling instruments of this period.”–Kiely, Surveying Instruments, p. 130–(& see pp. 130-33, 136, 137, 139, 233, 241, & 340).

Fine copy. Contemporary ownership inscription on title.

❧ Ashworth & Bradley, Jesuit Science in the Age of Galileo (Linda Hall Library), 31–”The ‘Pantometrum’ was a surveying device invented by Kircher and here described by Schott. It tilted in several planes to allow measuring the height of and distance to various objects.” D.S.B., XII, pp. 210-11.

Price: $7,000.00

Item ID: 6868

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