Property from the Collection of
The Late ROBERT H. POWER
BESSARD, TOUSSAINT DE. Dialogue de la Longitude: Est-Ouest... Qui est la premiere partie du Miroir du Monde, Contenant tous les moyens, que l'on pourroit avoir tenus, en la Navigation, iusqu'à maintena[n]t... Rouen: Robert Mallard 1576. 4to, 218 x 155 mm. (8 7/8 x 6 1/8 in.), modern roan, original front flyleaf preserved, dampstaining to lower margins. Second edition. Collation: *4 2*4 A-O4. 64 ll., pp. [16], 112, [2]. Woodcut polar map of the Northern Hemisphere on title, full-page woodcut author portrait (fol. *2r), full-page woodcut coat-of-arms on *3v, 19 text woodcuts, three showing the author's inventions (the "canometre" and the "micrometre"), the remainder being astronomical diagrams and windroses, letterpress astronomical tables, woodcut initials. Cf. Brunet I, 837 and Polak, Bibliographie maritime française (both citing the 1574 edition only). Provenance: Contemporary French ownership inscription on front flyleaf.
Details
BESSARD, TOUSSAINT DE. Dialogue de la Longitude: Est-Ouest... Qui est la premiere partie du Miroir du Monde, Contenant tous les moyens, que l'on pourroit avoir tenus, en la Navigation, iusqu'à maintena[n]t... Rouen: Robert Mallard 1576. 4to, 218 x 155 mm. (8 7/8 x 6 1/8 in.), modern roan, original front flyleaf preserved, dampstaining to lower margins. Second edition. Collation: *4 2*4 A-O4. 64 ll., pp. [16], 112, [2]. Woodcut polar map of the Northern Hemisphere on title, full-page woodcut author portrait (fol. *2r), full-page woodcut coat-of-arms on *3v, 19 text woodcuts, three showing the author's inventions (the "canometre" and the "micrometre"), the remainder being astronomical diagrams and windroses, letterpress astronomical tables, woodcut initials. Cf. Brunet I, 837 and Polak, Bibliographie maritime française (both citing the 1574 edition only). Provenance: Contemporary French ownership inscription on front flyleaf.
RARE: possibly the only known copy of this edition, unrecorded in the standard bibliographies. The first edition was printed in Rouen by Martin Le Megissier in 1574 and is also extremely rare. The work is a simplified instructional treatise on navigation and is arranged in the form of a dialogue between "Geo-graphie" and Hydro-graphie", the "two daughters of Cosmography"; topics include an explanation of the windrose, a description of the compass and its uses, a proposal for finding the meridian by daylight or starlight using a simple observational device called a "canometre", the proper use of marine charts, and a description of the author's second invention, the "micrometre", a magnetic device for determining longitude at sea.
[With:]
DOU, JAN PIETERSZOON and JOHAN SEMS. Practijck des Lantmetens. Leerende alle rechte ende cromfijdige Landen, Bosschen, Boomgaerden, ende ander velden meten. (Part 2: Van het gebruyck der Geometrijsche instrumenten). Leiden: Jan Bouvensz 1600. 4to, 196 x 151 mm. (7 3/8 x 5 15/16 in.), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin, edges blue-stained, spine rubbed. 2 parts in one, both titles with engraved vignette of surveyors at work, large folding engraved plate of a quadrant in part 1, part 2 with 7 engraved plates, all but 1 folding, lettered A-F and H (the title vignette is lettered G), depicting landscapes with surveying measurements, numerous woodcut text diagrams, tables. Provenance: "ex libris Petrij Payngij[?]", contemporary signature on title -- Later note in German on front flyleaf.
Extremely rare manual of surveying. The only copy to appear at auction in the past 50 or more years was the C. E. Kenney copy in 1968, which lacked quire G. The present copy appears to be complete. (2)
RARE: possibly the only known copy of this edition, unrecorded in the standard bibliographies. The first edition was printed in Rouen by Martin Le Megissier in 1574 and is also extremely rare. The work is a simplified instructional treatise on navigation and is arranged in the form of a dialogue between "Geo-graphie" and Hydro-graphie", the "two daughters of Cosmography"; topics include an explanation of the windrose, a description of the compass and its uses, a proposal for finding the meridian by daylight or starlight using a simple observational device called a "canometre", the proper use of marine charts, and a description of the author's second invention, the "micrometre", a magnetic device for determining longitude at sea.
[With:]
DOU, JAN PIETERSZOON and JOHAN SEMS. Practijck des Lantmetens. Leerende alle rechte ende cromfijdige Landen, Bosschen, Boomgaerden, ende ander velden meten. (Part 2: Van het gebruyck der Geometrijsche instrumenten). Leiden: Jan Bouvensz 1600. 4to, 196 x 151 mm. (7 3/8 x 5 15/16 in.), contemporary blind-stamped pigskin, edges blue-stained, spine rubbed. 2 parts in one, both titles with engraved vignette of surveyors at work, large folding engraved plate of a quadrant in part 1, part 2 with 7 engraved plates, all but 1 folding, lettered A-F and H (the title vignette is lettered G), depicting landscapes with surveying measurements, numerous woodcut text diagrams, tables. Provenance: "ex libris Petrij Payngij[?]", contemporary signature on title -- Later note in German on front flyleaf.
Extremely rare manual of surveying. The only copy to appear at auction in the past 50 or more years was the C. E. Kenney copy in 1968, which lacked quire G. The present copy appears to be complete. (2)