Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books

The First Extended Geological Investigation of South America, 1804

JF Ptak Science Books

"Geognostische Skizze von Südamerika. Mit erläuternden Bemerkungen des Herausgebers (Gilbert). (+) Notizen von seinen Reisen in der Kordillere der Anden und von seinen physikalischen Beobachtungen in Quito und Mexico."

Published in Halle, Rengerschen Buchhandlung, in the Annalen der Physik ("Annalen der Physik. Herausgegeben von Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert")  I/16, 1804, Band. 16, Viertes Stück.  Humboldt's papers appear on  pp. 394-449 and pp. 450-493. We offer the entire volume (of 507pp) with the original wrappers bound in for all four numbers (including rear wrappers), which is quite unusual for this journal.

Condition:  Ex-libris Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung, then Wright Patterson Field Library (USAF), then Library of Congress.  Library markings:  small gilt-stamped "Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung", page edges stamped "Wright Field LIbrary/Dayton, Ohio" on top and bottom. Contents quite nice.  $650.00

This is one of the earliest scientific surveys of this region, and von Humboldt dedicated years of his life to investigating not only the geology and geography of South and Central America, but the historical and political aspects as well.

"Humboldt gave a major impetus to the study of the Americas...His geographical monographs on Cuba and Mexico represent the first treatments of geography in terms of science, politics, and economics."(DSB VI, p. 551).

Found in Stone: Geometry and Alphabets

ITEM:  original sheet from Athanasius Kircher's Mundus Subterranius, 1664.  14 x 10 inches.  Fine condition. $175.00

ref:  JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1353

I wrote about Athanasius Kircher's Mundus Subterreaneus (1664) a few days ago (in "Birds With Stone Wings", here and elsewhere), particularly staying within the first section of the eight book of Mundus, De Lapidibus, in which he investigated stones, gems, fossils and then "found figures" in agates. 

Kircher did not belive that finding these symbols in stone were a direct consequences of any supreme anything, recognizing that they were formed and collected by chance. He did formulate some interesting and early and sometimes-correct observations on the evolution of languages, but was entirely constrained by the authentic history as presented in the early books of the Bible.  While recognizing that languages of a certain region are or could be relational, and that the Romance languages were a corruption of Latin and that there was a  Semitic and Graeco-Latin connection, they were all necessarily descendants of Hebrew, which was the language given by the creator to man, mystical symbols handed down from Heaven to Adam.  And so it goes.

And in detail:

And then of course the stone-found geometrical figures:

  These engravings of the originals in Kircher's cabinets of curiosities did take some sharp-eyed sleuthing and gathering. 

Birds with Stone Wings: Athanasius Kircher, 1664

ITEM:  Original engraving from Athanaseus Kircher Mundus Subterreaneus....1664.  14x10".  Very good condition.  $150.

ref:  JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1347

The great semi-mystifying polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) lived for a long time and filled his life with ideas and words,  producing dozens of books during his time on Earth, some of which were never published even though written, some manuscripts lost forever. His was a massive output of extraordinary breadth.  He wasted little time what I can see, writing on a spectacular range of subjects, enlightening people, confusing people, generating great theories and some bad ideas. 

The image below comes from his Mundus Subterraenus ("Athanasii Kircheri Mundus subterraneus in XII libros digestus... "), published in 1664, and which was concerned mainly with geology and the theory of the Earth.  Kircher a product of the great Jesuit institution, the Collegio Romano, postulated the structure of the interior of the Earth, the origin of heat, the source of the tides, the composition of light, mechanics, the structure of music, linguistics, astronomy, and of course the existence of the Virgin Mary in amber.  There was also a fair amount of work on one of his side interests that populated a number of his works, alchemy and the search for the organization of materials.

But what I am looking at today with Kircher is the Mary-in-Amber part, his investigations (and theorizing, and documentation) on naturally-appearing, organic objects found in inorganic material--rocks and minerals--like these birds:

Which is a detail from  

The engraving, entitled Figure Volucrum, quas Natura in lapidibus depinxit, ex variis Museia decerpt et aliunde transmissa (or "Figures of winged creatures, painted by nature on stones, taken from various museums, and otherwise transmitted.") shows Kircher's collection of anthropomorphically based inorganic items.  It is a remarkable exercise to try and place yourself within the context of the scientific world of Kircher's time, 350 years ago, and try to explain these naturally-occurring phenomena, without even the benefits of the conception of long geologic time, or of expanded time in general. 

The descriptive text (at the bottom of the engraving) from Kircher on these objects is translated, as follows:

1.  The first figure represents a head of a Stork, together with some, but I do not know what, quadruped. At the top is something like a human face. Extracted from Aldobrandinot (see PI. XXIII. Fig. 1).
2.  Shows various forms and parts of animals, winged creatures as well as quadrupeds, although very imperfect, the cause of which we give in the physical examinations (see PI. XXIII. Fig. 2).
3.  Represents the figures of two birds expressed by nature on marble in the church of St. George's, at Venice, referred to by Ambrosinua (see Vol. VII. PI. II. Figs. 3, 4).
4.  Shows the head of an Owl, surrounded by rudiments of other birds (see PI. XXIV. Fig. 2).
5.  Represents the figure of a Wagtail, or as others prefer, of a Peacock (PI. XXIV. Fig. 3).
6.  Shows the figure of a monstrous bird (Vol. VII. PI. II. Fig. 4).
7.  The figure of a Merle (Vol. VII. PI. II. Fig. 5).

A closer look at the image: