CAUS, Salomon de. Les Raisons des Forces Mouvante avec diverses machines, tant utilles que plaisantes. Frankfurt: Jan Norton, 1615.
Lot 70

CAUS, Salomon de. Les Raisons des Forces Mouvante avec diverses machines, tant utilles que plaisantes. Frankfurt: Jan Norton, 1615.

Closed12 June 2013

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GBP 6,250

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CAUS, Salomon de. Les Raisons des Forces Mouvante avec diverses machines, tant utilles que plaisantes. Frankfurt: Jan Norton, 1615.

3 parts in one volume, 2° (372 x 252mm). Engraved title to parts I and II, numerous woodcut illustrations and diagrams, 2 full-page and one double-page, 60 engraved illustrations, all but 6 full-page, including 2 engraved sheets of music, woodcut initials and headpieces, later plate of Savery's Engine tipped in. A number of leaves corrected with printer's overslips as issued. (Some browning and staining.) Contemporary limp vellum, gilt title on spine (somewhat bowed, some staining and scuffing). Provenance: Rappaport (bookseller's ticket; Rome).

FIRST EDITION of this famous work in the history of the invention of the steam engine. The first book deals with moving forces, the second with grottos and fountains for palaces and gardens, and the third with the construction of organs. In the present copy plate 22 in part I is mounted on an additional impression of plate 23 and plate 41 in part I is printed upside down. Brunet I, 1691 ('peu commune en France'); Graesse II, p. 90.