Anatomia physico-hydrostatica fontium ac fluminum, libris VI. Explicata, & Figuris aeri incitis exornata […].

8vo (173x101mm.). Engraved title, [20], 433, [15] pp., XIII engraved plates, and [1] geographical folding plate. Collation: )?( 8 ✝✝² A-Ee⁸. Old stamp on the title page. Many woodcut initials, head-, and tail-pieces. Engraved title with marginal tear and partly detached, lower margin of a few plates cut off not affecting the engraving, marginal tear to the l. Bb5 with some loss of text, slightly uniformly browned, some foxing and staining. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt title and ornaments on the spine (worn and rubbed), red sprinkled edges.

One of the two variant issues of the first edition. Gaspar Schott was a German Jesuit and scientist, specializing in the fields of physics, mathematics and natural philosophy. He taught mathematics and physics at Mainz and Würzburg. During the last years of his life, he decided to publish the material he had collected on scientific subjects both from his own researches and those of others. He produced in eight years (1658-1666) eleven books. The Anatomia physico-hydrostatica is on the “origin of springs. His own opinion, when finally expressed, amounted to saying that everyone was right: some springs are due to precipitation, some to underground condensation, and some connected directly to the sea” (DSB). The section on the discovery of the source of the Nile contains material related to the discovery of the “true source of the Nile” (1618 by Pierre Pays).

De Backer/Sommervogel, VII, col. 910, no. 10; Brunet, V, 219; Gay, Afrique, 2326; Honeyman, 2815; Poggendorf, II, 838; VD17, 12:643646A.

[12858]