Lot Content
.jpg?w=1)
Details
KIRCHER, Athanasius. Musurgia universalis sive ars magna. Rome: Heirs of Francesco Corbelletti, 1650.
2 volumes bound in one, 2o (319 x 207 mm). Engraved title, engraved portrait of Archduke Leopold William of Austria, 21 engraved plates, 4 folding, woodcut illustrations and diagrams, some full-page, and two additional engraved portraits of Kircher (one plate trimmed, vol. I Aa1 and vol. II Qq4 and a few other leaves with minor marginal tears, affecting a few letters, occasional light marginal dampstaining). Contemporary vellum (worn).
FIRST EDITION of Kircher's encyclopedia of music. He was assisted in its compilation by A.M. Abbatini and J. Viva. The first volume deals with the theory and history of music, the second with the practical side of music-making including not only conventional instruments but also water-organs, a speaking tube for conversing over long distances and a mechanical device for composing music. Kircher was the first to ascertain in this work the transmission of sound in solid bodies. Brunet III:668; Caillet 5785; Sommervogel IV, p. 1051.
2 volumes bound in one, 2o (319 x 207 mm). Engraved title, engraved portrait of Archduke Leopold William of Austria, 21 engraved plates, 4 folding, woodcut illustrations and diagrams, some full-page, and two additional engraved portraits of Kircher (one plate trimmed, vol. I Aa1 and vol. II Qq4 and a few other leaves with minor marginal tears, affecting a few letters, occasional light marginal dampstaining). Contemporary vellum (worn).
FIRST EDITION of Kircher's encyclopedia of music. He was assisted in its compilation by A.M. Abbatini and J. Viva. The first volume deals with the theory and history of music, the second with the practical side of music-making including not only conventional instruments but also water-organs, a speaking tube for conversing over long distances and a mechanical device for composing music. Kircher was the first to ascertain in this work the transmission of sound in solid bodies. Brunet III:668; Caillet 5785; Sommervogel IV, p. 1051.
