Not a gnome in sight with these gnomonical works

If someone offered you a rare collection of Gnomonical works by The Vicar of the Convent of Saint Francesco at Turin, you would be forgiven for thinking it may contain illustrations of small bearded creatures holding fishing rods.

But in fact gnomology is the study of sundials, and specifically the angle of the shadows cast by the vertical rod. (You see – you can learn something from this blog).

What is particularly lovely with these works, apart from their scarcity, are the cut-out diagrams laid onto the illustrations to demonstrate angles.

As well as helping you to work out the angles of the sun (and so work out the time) one of the cut out additions helps you to look at the zodiac and work out the astronomical signs.

Here are the details of the two works:

CANTONE, GIROLAMO. Nuovo, e facil modo di fare horologi solari, orizontali, e verticali a tutte l’eleuationi di polo. Turin: per l’herede del Colonna a spese di Gio. Battista Vernoni, 1688.
[BOUND WITH:]
CANTONE, GIROLAMO. Modo di fare horologi portatili a sole, luna, e stelle sopra colonelle, croci, medaglie, e scatolini. Turin: Giuseppe Vernoni, per gli heredi di Carlo Gianelli, 1682.

4to (282 x 231 mm), modern leather over wood boards, red morocco labels with titles at spine, pp. 32 for first volume, pp. 40 (lacking title page and dedication to reader, provided in facsimile), for second volume. Text in Italian.

FIRST WORK: WOODCUT DIAGRAMS, THE TWO DIAGRAMS ON A14R AND A15V EACH WITH AN APPLIED GEOMETRICAL SECTION IN A CONTEMPORARY HAND.

SECOND WORK: WOODCUT DIAGRAM, SEVERAL FULL-PAGE, ONE WITH THREE VOLVELLES, SOLAR TABLES.

Rare manuals to study, design and realize sundials, and portable dials, to be used with sun, moon and stars.

These works were not only meant to be a theoretical treatise, but also act as practical manuals. In the introduction of the first work, Cantone lists all the tools needed to realise the objects he described in the manuals.

The first opera, the 1688 Nuovo e facil modo di far horologi solari, is a rare gnomonical work by the vicar of the convent of S. Francesco at Turin CANTONE. The title page states that it is the ‘seconda impresione’, second edition, the first being the Nuouo, e facil modo di fare col quadrante geometrico horologi solari, orizontali, e verticali a tutte l’elevationi di polo printed in 1670 which, though titled slightly differently, contains exactly the same number of pages.

Twelve years after the first edition, in the 1682 Cantone published the prosecution of the Horologi, solari, the Modo di fare horologi portatili, an earlier summation of the author’s knowledge on the specific subject of portable dials.
When he published the second edition of Horologi in 1688 the idea was to add to the opera the second edition of Modo di fare horologi portatili, but this second edition, for unknown reason, was never printed.

To have a complete set of Cantone’s works, an unknown owner decided to bound together in the present copy the second edition (1688) of Nuovo, e facil modo di fare horologi with the first edition (1682, the second never been printed) of Modo di fare horologi portatili
Both works are very scarce. Worldcat records only 6 copies of the first work and 9 copies of the second.
SBN/It records two variant collations of the 1682 publication, A and B. The present copy corresponds with A. No auction sale of either work is recorded in RBH or ABPC.

CONDITION: Title to first work lightly soiled and repaired at margins, both works repaired at lower corners, second work lacks p1 and A1 title provided in facsimile, several leaves with repaired holes.

PROVENANCE: applied geometrical section in a contemporary hand to two diagrams.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vol 1: Houzeau and Lancaster 11519 and 11533; Riccardi I, 228,1 not in BL. Vol II: Houzeau & Lancaster 11333 and 11542; Riccardi I, 228,2; Turner (ed.) Ritmi del cielo e misura del tiempo 93. KVK: no copy in Germany or Switzerland; COPAC: NL Scotland (1670 & 1688 ed.); Oxford (1670; 1682 ed.).

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A complete edition of Basters early use of a microscope – showing illustrations of over 400 plants and insects.

Jacob Baster – Natuurkundige uitspanningen,behelzende eene beschrijving,van meer dan vier hondert planten en insekten, keurig naar het leven afgebeeld – Natuurkundige uitspanningen, behelzende eenige waarnemingen, over sommige zee-planten enzee-insecten benevens derzelver zaadhuisjes en eijernesten – Vernieuwde Hollandsche uitgave – Utrecht – O.J. van Paddenburg & O.J. van Dijk, 1817 – Two volumes in one binding – 169 (4) (1); 167(4) (1) pp. – Nice, new parchment binding – 24 x 19 cm.

Job Baster was an 18th century physician and nature scientist from Zierikzee. He was one of the first Dutch nature researchers that, using a microscope, accurately researched the flora and fauna (mainly the invertebrate animals) of the Oosterschelde. His scientific findings are described in this two volume book, consisting of six pieces. Job Baster was also the first who introduced the goldfish in The Netherlands, which was a unicum in the 18th century. ‘Natuurkundige uitspanningen’ has been the hand guide of choice among biologists for 150 years.

From heaven to hell with Mescalin – Huxley’s Doors of Perception

One of my favourite parts of the film The Doors starring Val Kilmer, was when Morrison came up with the name for the band, dancing around and quoting from Huxley’s book.

The quotation The Doors of Perception was from William Blake – the famous English poet, visionary and possibly slightly insane author, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Here it was re-used by Huxley to describe a Mescalin fuelled trip he undertook in 1953.

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern

Huxley believed that the brain is a reducing valve that restricts consciousness and hoping mescaline might help access a greater degree of awareness (an idea he later included in the book). As a result, he volunteered to be an experimental subject for Humphrey Osmond, an English psychiatrist who was researching the effects of Mescalin.

Here we offer a very early American Edition in a nice dust wrapper. (the book is dated 1954 – the same year as the first issue – but doesn’t have the edition statement to the printing information page).

So what did he think of his experiment?  Well he was keen, and found the experience opened his eyes to beauty and colour in a way he had not previously experienced. He was later to describe much of his trip in Buddhist terms. However, he also felt that he had touched the edge of madness, and felt that some of the experiences threatened to overwhelm him His conclusion was that although less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, great care should be taken in using Mescalin. So as Gerry Springer would say – Look after yourselves

A sci-fi anagram that foresaw photography & TV

I suspect that this beautiful book, Giphantie by Charles-François Tiphaigne de La Roche, was not really printed in Babylonia. (partly as the city was destroyed in 619BC).  There is much that is mysterious about this work. The title is a made up name, but is an anagram of the author’s name (Tiphaigne) – a little hint that this anonymous work was his. In true Science Fiction style, “The truth is out there”

Within the story, are several “futuristic” inventions, which did not exist when the book was printed in 1760, but which we are now very familiar with. For example – have a look at this description of an invention:

“You know, that rays of light reflected from different bodies form pictures, paint the image reflected on all polished surfaces, for example, on the retina of the eye, on water, and on glass…coat a piece of canvas with this matter, and place it in front of the object to be taken. The first effect of this cloth is similar to that of a mirror, but by means of its viscous nature the prepared canvas…retains a facsimile of the image…The canvas is then removed and deposited in a dark place. An hour later the impression is dry, and you have a picture”

Almost a perfect description of photography, even to the point of it having a negative. Although the Camera Obscura had been in existence for centuries, it was only in 1822 that the first permanent image was obtained through a device (by fellow Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce).

This copy is a beautifully preserved copy of the First Edition. Written, naturally, in French, it was in two parts (here bound as a complete whole) and is in lovely condition.

Tiphaigne, who had studied medicine, and who worked as a physician as well as an author, also gave descriptions of inventions which would describe Television and Radio, as well as synthetic food.

A prophet – or a scientist with a good eye for future trends?  You decide

 

And Stretch, and one and two and breathe…

Perhaps it is just me, but these skeletons remind me of an exercise class I once went to. Despite this, though, this is a lovely set of French books on the Natural History of Health and Disease.

It deals with both the plant and animal world (with a perhaps understandable bias towards human kind). With an engraved front illustration, and 19 lovely colour chromo-lithographs, this fascinating set illustrates health and illness in many of is forms.

 

Reach for the stars (and the comets)

Eighteenth century Dutch may not be something you can easily read – but I bet you can recognise the illustrations in this work as being lovely examples of early astronomical engravings.

Each is hand coloured – all ten of them, and they show Comets and Stars as a familiar, yet mysterious object to be admired from earth

 

Neither male, nor female, but both – early work on Hermaphrodites

Long before the modern acceptance of a middle way of gender and sexuality, and long before Darwin and his followers offered a framework for how intersex organisms could come into being, the French author Jean Riolan wrote Discours sur les Hermaphrodits in 1614

This manuscript, written in 1714, gives the whole of this work (101) in neat handwriting, and also has a neat pencil drawing of hermaphrodite genitalia. There are also the three engravings that were later to appear in the relevant entry in the Diderot/d’Alembert Encyclopedia (1777)

https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels/14760221-after-jean-riolan-manuscript-copy-of-discours-sur-les-hermaphrodits-1714

Never Judge a Book by its Cover – Now a Face on the Other Hand!

Everyone knows that if someone has a face that resembles that of a goat, then they are connected to the Devil himself.  What that is just me who knows this?

Well in the Eighteenth Century – the “Science” of physiognomy was very popular – with experts finding the “criminal classes” from the shape of their heads. This grew to a height in the late Nineteenth Century, where the measurements of skulls were taken very seriously – and was part of the Eugenics movement.

Fortunately, although this method of judging has been discredited these days, but the old books on it still make fascinating reading.

Such as this 4 volume work by Lavater – who produced many illustrations “proving” his theory.  For far more information about this book, visit our auction.

 

What are you looking at ugly?

This chap is not the prettiest fish in the sea – but he is beautifully printed and hand coloured. Even more stunning when you think that the illustrations were finished in 1840 by the leading French natural history artists.

Produced by Cuvier, and published by Fortin Masson – this set contains 3 (of 5) volumes in their original soft cover and slipcases. A beautiful work.

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A Dream of a Letter

Have you ever dreamt of owning a letter signed by somebody really famous?  In the world of psychology and psychiatry, there are really two greats – Freud and Jung.

This week in our Curio & Ephemera auction, we are lucky enough to be offering a letter signed by Jung.

It is a response to a gentleman who sent him his dissertation on Jungian philosophy – and included in the auction is an original copy of the dissertation, and a contemporary review of it.