JF Ptak Science Books // Blog Bookstore

Great and Fantastic Images from Kircher's "Mundus Subterreneus..." 1678

 

I'm offering for sale some engravings from Athanasius Kircher's Mundus subterraneus... (1678) which, in spite of its title, explores/classifies/theorizes on the grand scheme of all creation, hardly limited to just the world going on underground.  Kircher (who has appeared on this blog numerous times, simply enter his name in the Google search box at left and you'll find many entries) approaches the nature of terrestrial heat, volcanoes, the origins of lakes and rivers, optics, fossils/agates (in "de lapide philosopherum"), distillation, alchemy, ocean currents, insects, plant life, and so on, a real summa cum laude  tour de force, Kircher being the Renaissance man's Renaissance man.

All images are printed on 14 3/4 x 8 7/8" sheets (375x220mm) and have been removed from a defeated and dead copy of the book, the full title of which is Athanasii Kircheri ... Mundus subterraneus, in XII libros digestus: quo divinum subterrestris mundi opificium, mira ergasteriorum naturae in eo distributio ... universae denique naturae maiestatis & divitiae summa rerum varietate exponuntur ...   This copy (lacking the title page and much else) I believe was printed in Amsterdam in 1668 (I believe--the other somewhat later editions to 1678 that I have checked all seem to have added material and different and later pagination, leading me to believe that this is an earlier edition.) The pagination ran 346+487pp, being two volumes printed as one.

• Please keep in mind that the scans leave off the top 1.5" or so of each image as well as the bottom half-inch--the paper was simply too long for the scanner bed. The pages are complete (in real life).

And so the list (of 18), thus far:

Gallus...serpentina cauda conspicuus...In the chapter, "de Animalibus Subterraneis", p 97.

Image 6 1/2 x 5 inches, 160x120mm.  $300 (There is some chipping at the top of the sheet, though it does not extend into the sub-head.)  

(Underground animals) Draco Helveticus bipes et alatus.

Image 3 1/4 x 7 1/2", 80x185mm.  $375

On the other side of the page: Hic Dracunuculus...

Image 4x6", 115x160mm. 

An Attempt at Organizing Fingerprint Collections (1937)

I wanted to load and launch this yes-this-exists (YTE!) notice of this probably not-found-elsewhere work into the internet spheres for the slight chance of someone finding it existence interesting. 

William W. Hill and Alfred Coe, "Finger Print Classification. International Laboratories of Forensic Research (Budd Lake, NJ, PO Box 302). 11x8.5",  (i), 32pp, 9 plates (of close-up fingerprint drawings). Bound in a three-ring binder. The binder is in fair condition, with the spine backstrip broken at the hinge, though it still works as a binder. The text is dusted but crisp.  Good condition, though probably a little better.   $250

This work states that it is based upon the Henry System¹ of fingerprint classification, which buy this point had been around for more than 50 years. It seems that the addition to the field that this work attempts to make is reordering the way in which fingerprint data is stored. The Henry System evidently used a cabinet drawer divided into 32x32 sections--here the sections are 12x12, though there are subdivisions of type patterns that seem to make the organization more extensive along with an additional numerical system (with arithmetical rules and functions) that I haven't devoted any time to understanding. 

This work is unknown to WorldCat/OCLC, and is not  findable via standard means online. For one reason or another, this work received little or no circulation.  

Notes:

1. The Henry Classification System is a long-standing method (begun ca. 1877) by which fingerprints are sorted by physiological characteristics for one-to-many searching. Developed by Hem Chandra Bose, Azizul Haque and Sir Edward Henry in the late 19th century for criminal investigations in British India, it was the basis of modern-day AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) classification methods up until the 1990s. 

Datavisualization: a Tree of Insurance

The Results of the Workmen's Insurance of the German Empire Memorial. Compiled for the Paris International Exposition.  Printed in Berlin, A. Asher, 1900.  237x168mm, 19pp.  Original wrappers. Good condition, from the Library of Congress Pamphlets Collection.  Six copies located in WorldCat/OCLC. $95

The subject matter isn't so spectacular, even considering the history of medicine aspects--the data visualization on the rear cover, though, is quite a nice piece of information art:  

Beautiful Lines: Depicting the Climate, 1851 (With a fantastic Wind Rose)

This beautiful network of lines tells the early story of weather in cartographic form. They appear on Karte der Isothermen, Isoklinen, Isogonen und Isodynamen mit der Magnetischen Meridianen, and was published in the atlas volume¹ to accompany the best-selling encyclopedic presentation of the natural history knowledge of the world to that time, Baron Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos, which was published over a period of several from 1845-1862. The map demonstrates and visualizes climatic information showing isothermes, isoclines, isogones and isodynamics, with the magnetic meridian.

Particulars: 10.25x12.754", hand colored. Nice copy of a lovely map. This has a small circular rubber stamp of the former owner, a NYC library. $100

[This is a detail of the Northern Hemisphere section of the double-hemisphere map, which is reproduced below.]

At bottom there is also a beautiful 32-point wind rose:

And this, the full version of the map:

And the detail of the Southern Hemisphere:

Notes:

1.  The atlas was by T. Bromme, Atlas zu Alex. V. Humboldt's Kosmos in zweiundvierzig Tafeln mit erlauterndem Texte. Herausgegeben von Traugott Bromme. Stuttgart. Verlag von Krais & Hoffman. (with second title page) Atlas zur Physik der Welt in ... Bromme, 1851. 

Particulars: 10.25x12.754", hand colored. Nice copy of a lovely map. This has a small circular rubber stamp of the former owner, a NYC library. $100

[This is a detail of the Northern Hemisphere section of the double-hemisphere map, which is reproduced below.]

At bottom there is also a beautiful 32-point wind rose:

And this, the full version of the map:

And the detail of the Southern Hemisphere:

Notes:

1.  The atlas was by T. Bromme, Atlas zu Alex. V. Humboldt's Kosmos in zweiundvierzig Tafeln mit erlauterndem Texte. Herausgegeben von Traugott Bromme. Stuttgart. Verlag von Krais & Hoffman. (with second title page) Atlas zur Physik der Welt in ... Bromme, 1851. 

Ultra-detailed Map of Explorations, 1851

Die Ozeanischen Entdeckungen und die um die Kunde des Erdballs Verdienten Forscher und Reisenden vom Jahre 840-1850.  10.25x12.75", original hand coloring. THe margin at bottom is trimmed a little closer,and the paper is somewhat dried out, and (lastly) there is a small circular library stamp in the lower right corner. A GOOD copy of a wonderful map. Source: T. Bromme, Atlas zu Alex. V. Humboldt's Kosmos in zweiundvierzig Tafeln mit erlauterndem Texte. Herausgegeben von Traugott Bromme. Stuttgart. Verlag von Krais & Hoffman. (with second title page) Atlas zur Physik der Welt in ... Bromme, 1851.  $100

This small detail (measuring about 1/3" square) is from a fine, detailed, and oddly beautiful map (itself only about 12x9") which was published in the atlas volume¹ to accompany the best-selling encyclopedic presentation of the natural history knowledge of the world to that time, Baron Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos, which was published over a period of several from 1845-1862.  

The map is titled Die Ozeanischen Entdeckungen und die  um die Kunde des erdballs verdienten  Forscher  und Reisenden vom Jahre 840-1850, and depicts voyages of discovery for a milennium, 850-1850. It is a terrifically-detailed map, even among highly-detailed maps. (This detail is taken froma 1x2" section seen here:)

And the full map:

Notes:

1.  The atlas was by T. Bromme, Atlas zu Alex. V. Humboldt's Kosmos in zweiundvierzig Tafeln mit erlauterndem Texte. Herausgegeben von Traugott Bromme. Stuttgart. Verlag von Krais & Hoffman. (with second title page) Atlas zur Physik der Welt in ... Bromme, 1851. 

Details in Terrestrial/Celestial Globes, ca. 1725

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

{Please not--although the image is the one offered for sale here it is not framed--this is the suggestion of how the engraving would look in a simple black frame. 

• Map Terrestre / Map Celestre. This is a dual globe map showing a hemisphere of the Earth in the terrestrial globe and part of the northern sky in the celestial globe. It is a design that I see has been borrowed a number of times in the 18th century--this engraving was printed and hand colored probably around 1725. 
• Image 20x27 cm on 22x30.5cm sheet. 
• Central fold. There's a little bit of an inky smudge (as you can see in the image) left there by the colorist some 300 years ago. 
• Very good condition.  $200

The main object in this engraving--the presentation of two globes, one terrestrial and one celestial--is perhaps less interesting than secondary figures accompanying it.  The two small insets of solar and lunar eclipses are instructive and pretty, while the compass rose is full and surprisingly stubby, making that example fairly uncommon--and much more attractive when isolated and cleaned up a bit.  So too for the rudimentary but elegant comparison of the sizes of the planets compared to the Sun that surrounds the celestial globe--again, isolated and defined, the image is striking. 

 

The Beauty of Dirt

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

"All the roots hang down
Swing from town to town
They are marching around
Down under your boots
Below the gopher holes
Where they all unfold
There's a world going on underground
Underground"--Tom Waits ("Underground", with audio)

Dirt isn't just the stuff that one gets rid of, of course--it is the basis of all that we are. Varieties of dirt are the stuff of the connoisseur and the expert, and when laid out properly, and particularly in a scientific manner, dirt is exceptionally beautiful. For example, this exceptional and large illustration appears in the Atlas of American Agriculture, which was printed in a very unpretty/dustbowly year for soil, 1936.  (The image is clearer once you click in and expand.)

• "Color Principles of Representative Soils", from Atlas of American Agriculture, 1936. 20x27", printed in colors. Very vivid, and in fine condition. $85

 

The lithograph is also available for sale at the blog's bookstore, here. 

Paper Love--Moveable Paper Prints: the Protos Automobile, 1925

JF Ptak Science Books

The moveable book (flapbook) has long been interesting to me--unfortunate though that in my own fields they weren't used very often. There are some very notable exceptions--early geometries would occasionally be published with many of the geometric illustrations made to pull out a little with the tug of a string to show you the construction in 3-D. Then of course there are the paper dissection manikins, where you can find nearly-life-sized paper anatomies with hundreds of movable/liftable flaps, and smaller examples of the body and specific organs that can be simple or not simple whatsoever.  These were time-intensive efforts, and in their own way they provided a sort of pre-MRI MRI by revealing the various layers of 3-D objects with 2-D tools--and they're beautiful and captivating objects.

 

[These images are more clear once they are clicked and expanded.]

• This plate appears in Der Maschinenbau. Modelle.Zeichenerklärungen zu den Modellen des Werkes, by R. Georg, printed by Heinrich Killinger in Nordhausen in 1925.  The major detraction here is an old 5-inch tear that has been repaired verso with acid-free tape, otherwise in nice condition.  8.5 x 12.5", with 7 moving flaps.  $100

The full image, unmoved:

Small, Compact, Unusual Comparative Heights of Mountains Map

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post--revisited and expanded

[Small detail from the quantitative display, below; measures 2x2 3/4".]

Generally the dozens of maps/charts showing the comparative heights of mountains and lengths of rivers maps that have come through the store part of this blog have been somewhat large--or at least larger than the present example, which may be about the smallest (at about 11x8") detailed representative of this genre that I have seen. 

• "Tableu de la Hauteur des Pricnipales Montagenes du Globe" was published in Guillemin's Atlas universel de Geographie Ancienne et Moderne, and published by Langlume in 1845.  It is also at the beginning of the more-modern heyday for publishing maps and charts such as these.  (The practice began modestly at the end of the 18th century, came into a high tide in the 1850's/1860's or so, and then pretty much disappeared by the 1880's.)  This image has a few problems--there are some early pen smudges, as well as an old tear (of about three inches) that was repaired verso quite some time ago.  The margins are tight but they are all there--the image just wouldn't fit quite 100% on the scanner.  All this said, it does diminish from the value; on the other hand, this is early and uncommon.  All with that in mind: $150.

 There's a lot of comparatively-displayed information presented on 88 square inches, including the lengths of 30 rivers and the heights of about 500 mountain peaks distributed over Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.  And for as much imagery and data there is on this sheet, the whole is very nicely designed, a real success in the display of quantitative data.  

When the Barbarians Were Big

JF Ptak Science Books 

It is interesting to look at the Roman Empire from "The Other Side", seeing the world (extending from Ireland to the Caspian) of the surrounding and numerous Barbarians. This map was printed in 1808 and identifies the peoples at all points of the compass outside of the Empire:  Huns, Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Vandals, Swedes, French, Anglo-Saxons, Sarrasins, Germans, Avars, Bulgarians, Danish, Hungarians, and others, all outlined in 14 columns beneath the central map.  This is a finely-designed, accurate, and attractive way of displaying a lot of data in a relatively small (27x21") space. 

[Note: the image below is very expandable and readable when enlarged.]

And a detail:

The map appeared in A. Le Sage (Comte de La-Casas) Atlas historique chronologique et géographique ou Tableau général de l histoire universelle présentant un moyen sûr et facile de classer avec fruit tout ce qui s est passé depuis la création jusqu à Jésus Christ espace de 4004 ans....   The sheet measures  27x21" or 68x53cm.  The coloring (except for the odd darkish green) is fairly subtle but evident and useful in distinguishing the blocks of data at an easy glance.  Printed on heavy paper. Very good condition.  $125