Author: HORST, Tileman van der and Jacob POLLEY.
Title: Theatrum machinarum universale; of keurige verzameling van verscheide grote en zeer fraaie waterwerken, schutsluizen, waterkeringen, ophaal- en draaibruggen. Amsterdam, Petrus Schenk [II] & son (vol. II: Petrus Schenk [III]), 1757-1774. Imperial folio (50 x 34 cm). With a double-page engraved dedication plate and 41 double-page and 7 larger folding engraved illustration plates. Red half sheepskin (ca. 1800).
Description: [3], [1 blank], 14; [1], [1 blank], 9 pp. + plates.Second edition of both volumes of a remarkably detailed set of scale construction drawings (plans, sections, elevations, perspective views, etc., including many detail drawings of individual parts) of 18th-century Dutch waterworks, with the accompanying letterpress descriptions and notes. It includes locks, sluices, bridges, pumps, pile drivers, an ice-breaker, an elaborate water-bailing mill and more. Most of the plates measure about 45 x 54 cm, with the folding ones about 52 x 76 cm. At least most of the plates depict existing works, and the text occasionally gives some historical information. The drawings are so detailed and give such a clear picture of how the mechanisms functioned that one could use them to reconstruct the works shown.A fine copy, nearly untrimmed, with only some false folds in the half-title and an occasional minor defect in the paper. Plate 23 in volume 1 has no number, but it may have been trimmed off at the head. The inside front hinge has partly separated from the book-block, but the binding is otherwise good. A fine copy of a magnificent display of Dutch hydraulic engineering.l Bierens de Haan [3818.5] & [4839.5] (vol. II only, with later ed. of vol. I); STCN (2 & 4 copies of the 2 volumes); not in Berlin Kat.; Roberts & Trent, Bibl. Mechanica.

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