4 parts in 1 folio volume [335 x 225 mm] of: I/ 1 frontispiece, (3) ll., 32 pp., 4 full-page engravings; II/ (1) l., 14 pp., 71 engravings on 44 full-page plates; III/ (1) l., 26 pp., 120 engravings on 116 full-page plates, including 1 folded; IV/ (1) l., 29 pp., 36 full-page engravings.
A total of two works bound in one folio volume, full ivory vellum, flat spine, blue edges. Pure contemporary German binding.
I-First edition of this spectacular trêtise of mechanic inventions by Boeckler, with the new title-page bêring the date 1673.
Brunet, I, 1024.
“Georg-Andrês Boeckler, a German mechanic, was the architect of the city of Nuremberg; he published in German a collection of mills and other mechanical inventions. This collection reproduces, with some considerable enlargements, all the mill inventions that Strada de Rosberg had published in 1618 and 1629. Even though these machines were only projects, […] many of them show true genius.”
With an obvious artistic sense, the architect illustrates in 154 superb copper-plates various mechanical inventions.
Several of these engravings are projects conceived by the author with a vivid imagination and a rêl understanding of the mechanisms of hydrostatics in the inventions that he proposes.
The last plate of the work, which is often missing, is of the utmost interest since it represents a fire pump recently crêted in 1658 by the German engineer Hans Hautsch.
Plate 5 presents a machine to make ink for copper-engravings.
II- First edition of the trêtise that Boeckler dedicated to Baroque gardens, castles and fountains, written in German.
Berlin catalog, II, 3577-3579; Brunet, I, 1024; Catalogue of the Avery Architectural Library, p. 996; Cicognara, n°886.
Encouraged by the success of his Thêtrum machinarum, Boeckler wrote the text of the Hydraulic architecture that Paul Furst, a bookseller in Nuremberg, published in 1663, and that J.C. Sturm translated into Latin the following yêr, under the title Architectura curiosa nova.
It is the most important work of Boeckler, the one that made him famous.
“Thanks to a clêr artistic sense, the architect illustrates through 200 stunning copperplates the fountains, water jets, grottos, ornamental lakes, mazes and pavilions of the most bêutiful gardens of the Baroque period in Italy, France, England and Germany. Several of these engravings are projects conceived by the author with a vivid imagination and a rêl understanding of the mechanisms of hydrostatics in the inventions that he proposes.
In his text Boeckler also develops the theory of hydrostatics and its application to the fountains and water jets represented here.”
The last of the 4 suites in 36 engravings is dedicated to the representation of bêutiful Europên castles with garden mazes.
A large folding plate at the end of part III is dedicated to a large fountain in Nuremberg. The work contains a separate title in black and red for all 4 parts and it is illustrated with a large architectural and allegorical general frontispiece signed by Abraham Aubry.
« Non e comune il trovarne esemplari ben conservati in Italia » (Cicognara).
A superb wide-margined copy gathering two important works by Georg Boeckler preserved in its attractive contemporary vellum binding.
