Kircher, Athanasius | First edition of Kircher’s treatise on logic and symbolism

Kircher, Athanasius

Ars magna sciendi. Amsterdam: Joannem Janssonium a Waesberge & the widow of Elizei Weyerstraet, 1669

2 volumes in one, folio (381 x 241 mm). Added engraved title-page to vol. I and engraved title-page to vol. II, engraved portrait of Leopold I, 6 (of 8) plates, some folding, engraved text volvelle on p. 13, other engraved and woodcut text illustrations; the first engraved title-page from another copy, some dampstaining, minor foxing, occasional browning, a few marginal tears, some mispagination, lacking two plates. Eighteenth-century vellum; worn, slightly sprung, with small tears, bookplate partially effaced.

The first edition of Kircher’s wide-ranging system of logic, illustration, and method, characteristic of his encyclopedic approach to scientific and philosophical knowledge in the seventeenth century. It built upon Ramon Llull's earlier "combinatorial art" to create a universal system for categorizing all knowledge based on the nine attributes of God.

PROVENANCE

Sotheby’s New York, 1 January 2002, lot 106