Author: HULSIUS, Levinus.
Title: Tractatus primus instrumentorum mechanicorum ...Frankfurt am Main, Wolfgang Richter for the author, 1605. With:(2) IDEM. Tractatus secundus. Instrumentorum mechanicorum. Quo dilucide exponitur usus baculi...Frankfurt am Main, Wolfgang Richter for the author, 1605.(3) IDEM. Tractatus tertius. Instrumentorum mechanicorum. Quo traditur descriptio atque usus circine proportionalis Iusti Burgi ...Frankfurt am Main, Wolfgang Richter for the author, 1605.3 works in 1 volume. Small 4to. Ad 1: with a large engraving on the title-page, 14 engraved plates (including 2 folding), 40 numbered illustrations in the text (35 woodcuts and 5 engravings). Further with 2 woodcut decorated initials, 2 woodcut head-pieces, and 1 large woodcut tail-piece. Ad 2: with a large engraving on the title-page, 8 illustrations in text (7 woodcuts and 1 engraving). Further with 1 woodcut decorated initial and 1 woodcut head-piece. Ad 3: with a large engraving on the title-page. Further with 2 woodcut decorated initials and 2 woodcut head-pieces. Contemporary limp vellum with 2 sets of leather closing ties.
Description: [1], [1 blank], [6], 121, [1], [2 blank]; "16" [= 17], [3 blank]; 29, [1 blank] pp.Extremely rare collection of three treatises in Latin by Levinus Hulsius (1550-1606) dealing with instruments for surveying (ad 1), canons (ad 2) and Jost Bürgi's compass of proportion (ad 3). Some copies are reported to have 15 more plates at the end of part 3, which are not present in this copy. The treatises were originally published in German in 1603. It was supposed to be a series of 15 parts, giving an overview of the then known scientific instruments. Only the present three parts and a fourth part titled ''Vierdter Tractat'' were published, but the fourth part was never translated into Latin. Hulsius, who came from Gent, published many works spanning a wide range of subjects like navigation, maritime history, astronomy, travels, and linguistics. He also traded in scientific instruments.The Tractatus Primus deals, along with other surveying instruments, with the traditional geometrical quadrant, and the folding plates illustrating its use, seek to place surveying within the general context of waging war. Ad 3: Jost Bürgi (1558-1632) developed the proportional compass, calling it ''Proportional Circkel'', a forerunner of the Galilean compass, one of the first mathematical calculating instruments. In time, it became part of the standard equipment of geometers and remains in use until the present day. The compass consists of two arms with points at the end. The arms are slotted at part of their lenght and graduated with a scale. By means of a clamp sliding along this graduation, it was possible to adjust the ratio of the distance between the two pairs of points. The compass allowed volumes of solids to be calculated and surfaces of given shape to be multiplied or reduced, pi to be approximated, shapes to be transformed into other shapes of equal surface area, and spheres and the regular 5 solids to be transformed. A German edition appeared at Frankfurt am Main in 1603, Beschreibung und Unterricht des Jost Bürgi Proportional Circkel.With some (crossed out) manuscript inscriptions on the front pastedown and the recto of the first free flyleaf. The vellum is dust soiles, the book block is nearly detached from the binding, browned throughout with some occasional larger stains and a light water stain in the head margin. Otherwise in good condition.l ADB XIII, 335; BL STC German H1849; Libri rari 142; VD17 39:121618V (1 copy); Zinner 393.

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