Title within architectural woodcut border & many woodcuts in the text (many highlighted in red). Printed in black letter. [208] pp. Small 4to, modern calf (title with a few minor stains). London: “Prynted in Southwarke in Saynt Thomas Hospitall, by me James Nicolson,” [1537].

First edition of the first English work on surveying in the modern sense: the measuring and plotting of land. In the 16th century, “surveying” could also mean giving instructions to land stewards and overseers of the manor; John Fitzherbert wrote the first book on that subject in 1523. Our book is very rare and is a fine copy.

Benese (d. 1547), Augustinian canon and surveyor to Henry VIII, noted that sellers tended to overestimate the size of the land they were selling and buyers underestimated. He set out to devise geometric rules for the accurate measuring of land to be sold. More

40 leaves (the final blank). Small folio (332 x 210 mm.), orig. paste-paper boards (spine & extremities somewhat worn), uncut. [Clausthal?: ca. 1815].

A fine and legible manuscript instructional manual on techniques and problems of mine surveying. The text is divided into five chapters: “Von der Vorbereitung zum Markscheiden” (“On preparations for measuring the area in which mining may be carried out”), “Von Bennenung der Gänge und Klüfte” (“On the naming of seams and fissures”), “Vom Observiren” (“On Observations”), “Vom Vermaß oder Verbestimmung eines Grubenfelds” (“On measuring and defining a mining claim”), and “Von Wasserfällen, Wasserleitungen und Tiefbau” (“On waterfalls, water conduits and underground mining”)... More

One large & finely engraved folding plate & numerous woodcut diagrams in the text. 4 p.l., 40, 49-72 pp. (but quite complete). Small 4to, modern vellum-backed boards (minor browning). Amsterdam: W. Jansz, 1616.

First edition in German, originally published in Dutch in 1612; both editions are very rare. WorldCat lists no copy of either edition in North America.

In this work, Dou (1572-1635), land surveyor and gauger of wine for the city of Leiden, describes an instrument that is a derivative of the astrolabe. It is known as the “Holland Circle” or vollkreisgerätes, a circular surveying instrument with a compass in the center, two fixed... More

One folding engraved plate. [6] pp. Small 4to, attractive modern marbled boards, leather lettering-piece on spine. Augsburg: D. Francken, 1610.

First edition and very rare. Faulhaber (1580-1635), a teacher of mathematics at Ulm and a friend of Kepler, made his most lasting accomplishments in the dissemination and explanation of the logarithmic method of calculation. One of Faulhaber’s school’s most famous pupils was Descartes, who studied there in 1620 (see William R. Shea’s The Magic of Numbers and Motion. The Scientific Career of René Descartes, pp. 102-07).

This is Faulhaber’s second book and caused him considerable problems with the city’s municipal council, as it was published without the permission of the office responsible for supervision of the schools. This book describes a surveying instrument invented by Daniel Speckle in the Netherlands. The fine plate depicts the semicircular instrument, which is divided into 220 parts. More

Each title within the same architectural woodcut border, two folding woodcut plates in the second part (the 2nd plate is numbered p. 33), & numerous woodcuts in the text of geometrical & surveying problems. 8 p.l., 88 pp.; 2 p.l., 33 pp. Two parts in two vols. Small 4to, modern vellum-backed paste-paper boards. Nuremberg: S. Halbmayer, colophon dated “1626.”

First edition, and complete with both parts, of this posthumously published work. Galgemair (1564-1619), who had been a student of both Apian and Mästlin at Tübingen, wrote a series of books on scientific instruments.

The first part of this book describes the precursor to the sector and proportional compass that is today known as the reduction compass; a full-page woodcut of the instrument appears on A2r. There are 100 examples of the uses of the instrument, most with illustrations. The first examples provide geometric solutions to problems of a more abstract nature, while the latter address practical problems, such as how much gold foil a goldsmith needs to cover a round roof at the top of a tower, heights and distances of buildings, etc. The uses for the architect and cartographer are obvious. More

Engraved frontis. port. of Leybourn and numerous woodcut diagrams & tables in the text. Title printed in red & black. 6 p.l., 84, 177-279 pp. Small folio, cont. sheep (some wear & rubbing, a few unimportant stains). London: R. & W. Leybourn for E. Brewster & G. Sawbridge, 1653.

First edition under this title. “Of all the seventeenth-century writers on surveying, William Leybourn probably exerted a greater influence on the practicing surveyor than any other, with the possible exception of John Love. Leybourn’s first contribution to surveying was a short pamphlet, Pantometria or the Whole Art of Surveying, published in London in 1650 and written under the... More