Technica Curiosa, sive Mirabilia Artis

Author: Schott, Caspar

Publisher: Endter, Johann Andreas

Published: Würzburg

Publishing year: 1687

Schott, Gaspar (1608-1666). "Technica curiosa, sive mirabilia artis, libris 12 comprehensa; Quibus varia Experimenta, variaque Technasmata Pneumatica, Hydraulica, Hydrotechnica, Mechanica, Graphica, Cyclometrica, Chronometrica, Automatica, Cabalistica ... disceptationique proponuntur ... Cum figuris aeri incisis". Würzburg: J. J. Hertz for W. M. Endter, 1687. Smaller 4to (21:17 cm). Two parts in one volume. Engraved title, (38), 1044, (16) pp. including engraved full-page coat of arms (engraved J. f. Fleischberger) on page (8) at the beginnig of the book,  57 engraved plates (numbered  I.-XXXVIII. - there are two plates with number XVI - and I.-XIX. - paltes XVII and XVIII on one engravng - a total of 14 of them folded). Orig. full-parchment binding from the time with handwritten title on the spine.

 A famous encyclopaedia of technical knowledge, especially important for the description of Otto von Guericke's fundamentally important experiments with the vacuum pump and the famous Magdeburg hemispheres (Guericke presented his experiment with two hemispheres from which he pumped air and showed that air has a weight which it pushes on the earth's surface at the Reichstag in Regensburg in 1654 before Emperor Ferdinand III. This vacuum experiment proved the existence of the Earth's atmosphere), illustrated with a folded engraving. The first book with 29 chapters, "Mirabilia Magdeburgica", is entirely devoted to describing Guericke's experiments. In the following chapters (among others): Robert Boyle's experiment with the air pump; Toricelli's experiments with the mercury vacuum; hydropneumatic experiments; mechanical miracles; secret writing; problems of cyclometry; the treatise "Mirabilia chronometrica" on gears; perpetual motion etc. The book also contains one of the first descriptions of the diving bell. This work, thanks to the section on cabalistic writing and astrology, interestingly links the new scientific knowledge of the time with ancient legends. - The title-page with engraved portrait on the verso and pp. 925-928 with engravings XX and XXI are missing. Some plates wrinkled and soiled at the margis, a tear in the folding of one plate repaired. - Binding somewhat soiled. - Gaspar Schott (German: Kaspar or Caspar Schott; Latin: Gaspar Schottus; 1608 in Königshofen - 1666 in Würzburg) was a German Jesuit and scientist, specializing in the fields of physics, mathematics and natural philosophy.

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Tags: Gaspar Schott, Caspar Schott, Technica Curiosa, sive Mirabilia Artis, Hertz, Endter, Würzburg,1687, van Guericke, vacuum