Schediasma de curiosis hujus seculi inventis, quorum accuratiori cultui facem praetulit antiquitas

by Georg Pasch | excerpts from Galileo Galilei and Francesco Lana de Terzi

Kiel: Johann Sebastian Riechel, 1695

[16], 144, 155-354, 335-342 p.  |  8vo  |  )(^8 A-Y^8  |  161 x 95 mm

First edition of the philosopher’s probing history of human ingenuity, organized chiefly by the fields of philosophy, medicine, science (physicus), mathematics, and technology (mechanicus). A second edition followed in 1700. Opening with an account of ancient inventions, the work is sweeping in breadth. “The first mortals,” for example, “by thinking through purposeful work, gave succor to the necessity of life first, for which man introduced agriculture and shepherding” (p. 4). But he more deeply investigates innovations of his own age. He credits Francis Bacon with ushering in the present enlightened era of science (p. 7), followed by a complimentary twenty-page chapter on Descartes.  ¶  From here, the author works through all of history. He begins with Socrates (inventor of philosophy) and Pythagoras (inventor of music). He discusses the juridical accomplishments of Hugo Grotius and John Selden. He covers some he believed were decidedly devoid of original thought. Niccolò Machiavelli, for example, “produced nothing new” (p. 58). He likewise disapproves of Thomas Hobbes, who brings him to Samuel de Sorbiere and Pierre Gassendi. Hippocrates and Galen receive credit for their medical work, as do more recent medical innovators across Europe, Gabriel Harvey among them. He doesn’t shy away from the occult, devoting a substantial section to Rosicrucianism, Paracelsus, and related topics, with a bit on the philosopher’s stone for good measure (p. 131-132). In his discussion of the Copernican solar system (p. 163-172), he cites work as recent as 1689 and recognizes Tycho Brahe (p. 169-172). He covers the invention of the telescope, with a nod to Galileo (p. 173-174), who reprises elsewhere, not least with a three-page excerpt from his Sidereus Nuncius on stars and galaxies (p. 181-183: “Infra stellas magnitudinis…nos praeter asellos,” D5r-D6v in the 1610 edition). He treats the invention of the microscope (p. 176) and Giambattista della Porta’s camera obscura (p. 179). We learn about the thermometer (p. 109-112) and aeronautics, the latter including a whopping nineteen-page excerpt from Francesco Lana de Terzi’s Prodromo (p. 213-231, translated into Latin). Mechanical inventions touch on Johann Becher’s perpetual motion machine, with a three-page excerpt from Cornelis Drebbel proving his priority in this particular endeavor (p. 286-290).  ¶  The book closes with a section on the invention of printing (p. 330-353), which appears to address nearly every reported origin story. One, for example, credits it as a Jewish invention, tied to the carving of letters on the original tablets bearing the Ten Commandments (p. 330). He recognizes claims that China was printing long before Europe (p. 331-332). He acknowledges false Dutch claims to Laurens Coster’s priority (p. 333-334) before moving on to Fust and Gutenberg (p. 334-348).  ¶  The author’s liberal interest in human achievement found similar expression in his wandering lifestyle. He studied and taught at multiple German universities, joining the philosophy faculty at Wittenberg in 1686. “Then he started upon a learned tour to the different Universities, in order to make the acquaintance of the scholars of his time, and to study theology and other subjects. He travelled through Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Denmark, Holland and Belgium, France and England, visiting Oxford and Cambridge” (Ferguson). Sounds to us an enviable life.

PROVENANCE:  Carefully penciled inscription of D.E. Kiene(?) on title page, dated 1907 (or possibly 1944). Another early signature inked on title page.

CONDITION:  Modern green boards sprinkled black; edges sprinkled red. Title vignette; head- and tail-pieces.  ¶  Mild foxing; small dampstain in the upper margin, not touching any text; there’s little by way of inner margin, some text starting to disappear in the gutter, though all content remains accessible and legible.

REFERENCES:  VD17 12:130450Y  ¶  John Ferguson, “Bibliographical Notes on Histories of Inventions and Books of Secrets: Part V,” Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, New Series 1.4 (1890), p. 425

Item #273