§
ALENCE, Joachim d’ (1640–1707).
Triatté de l’aimant. Divisé en deux parties. La prémiére contient
les expériences; & la seconde les raisons que l’on en peut rendre.
Amsterdam: chez Henry Wetstein, 1687.
Collation: 12mo:
*10
A–F12
G2,
84 leaves, pp. [20] 140 [8]. Engraved title on *1.
Plates: 33
Plates: the first signed ‘A. Schoonebeek fec’, numbered 1-3 4/5 7/8 10/11
15/16 20/21 26/27/28 A B/C D–N (bound throughout the text).
Condition: 159
x 90mm. Paper flaw in B2 touching the text but without loss.
Binding: Eighteenth
century green morocco, gilt spine with red lettering piece, marbled endpapers.
Provenance: Duc
de Lavallière, catalogue 1783, lot 1495, 13F.
References: Brunet
5, 918, citing this copy; Wheeler Gift 200; Hofer Baroque book illustration
142.
Price: £2,000
First edition.
¶ A
fine copy of a beautifully illustrated treatise on the magnet and its uses,
dealing with the invention of the compass, magnetic mountains in America,
declination, and the orientation of the compass-needle in a magnetic field. The
plates are etchings by Adriaan Schoonebeek (1658–1705), the pupil of Romeyn de
Hooghe and a prolific book-illustrator. They recall Sébastien Le Clerc’s Pratique
de la geometrie (Paris 1669), where geometrical diagrams float above
fanciful landscapes. In d’Alencé’s plates, however, though most of the
landscapes and rustic scenes seem unrelated to the scientific content, one or
two provide a commentary, like fig. 18, illustrated by Hofer. This shows a
violent explosion with bodies flying in all directions, which Hofer suggests
illustrates the magnet’s potential.
