细节
KIRCHER, Athanasius (1602-1680). Mundus Subterraneus, in XII libros digestos. Amsterdam: J. Jansson and E. Weyerstaat, 1665.
2 parts in 1 volume, 2° (375 x 230mm.). 2 engraved titles, letterpress title to volume I with engraved vignette, engraved portraits of Pope Alexander VII and the author, 19 plates and maps including 9 double-page and 3 folding, 1 small engraving tipped in (II, p. 384), 7 double-page or folding inserted letterpress tables, 3 volvelles with movable parts (I, p. 132, 154, 156), woodcut pasted in (as usual, II, p. 31), and numerous engraved and woodcut illustrations throughout. (Slight stain to outer margin of a few pages, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary mottled sheep, spine blind-stamped in seven compartments (joints cracked, extremities worn). Provenance: Ferdinand, Baron de Plettenberg (signatures); Nordkirchen (Counts of Arenberg) library (bookplate and signatures).
FIRST EDITION of the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher's monumental book on the subterranean or 'hidden' world. Its value was immediately recognised: a review in the Journal des Savants of 1679 commented that "it would take a whole journal to indicate everything remarkable in this work". Based on his experiences of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1637 and an earthquake in Calabria in 1638, Kircher believed that the subterranean world was composed of two interlocking systems of fire and water: the two double-page plates illustrating this theory are amongst the most famous in the book. Nissen ZBI 2196; Caillet 5783; Sabin 37967; Ferguson I 467.
2 parts in 1 volume, 2° (375 x 230mm.). 2 engraved titles, letterpress title to volume I with engraved vignette, engraved portraits of Pope Alexander VII and the author, 19 plates and maps including 9 double-page and 3 folding, 1 small engraving tipped in (II, p. 384), 7 double-page or folding inserted letterpress tables, 3 volvelles with movable parts (I, p. 132, 154, 156), woodcut pasted in (as usual, II, p. 31), and numerous engraved and woodcut illustrations throughout. (Slight stain to outer margin of a few pages, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary mottled sheep, spine blind-stamped in seven compartments (joints cracked, extremities worn). Provenance: Ferdinand, Baron de Plettenberg (signatures); Nordkirchen (Counts of Arenberg) library (bookplate and signatures).
FIRST EDITION of the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher's monumental book on the subterranean or 'hidden' world. Its value was immediately recognised: a review in the Journal des Savants of 1679 commented that "it would take a whole journal to indicate everything remarkable in this work". Based on his experiences of the eruption of Vesuvius in 1637 and an earthquake in Calabria in 1638, Kircher believed that the subterranean world was composed of two interlocking systems of fire and water: the two double-page plates illustrating this theory are amongst the most famous in the book. Nissen ZBI 2196; Caillet 5783; Sabin 37967; Ferguson I 467.