Noah's Ark by Athanasius Kircher

• In-fo lio, brown calf, cold fillets, armorial super-libris (Edward Byde), decorated smooth spine, red morocco title label, (14)- 240- (14)- (2) pp. Intaglio portrait by Decker of the dedicatee of the work, Charles II of Austria, 3 large maps including the world before the flood (America is represented in an extension close to the coasts of Portugal and Great Britain, with the location of Atlantis), 13 double plates, 5 single plates, 3 vignettes and numerous figures engraved on wood in the text of curious animals and birds, embarked on Noah's ark. Restored hinges, faded spine, minor wear and friction, bumped corners. Rare foxing (like all copies, some almost completely yellowed). Very good copy of great interior freshness. (ref. 51959)

First edition of the last work, one of the rarest (Dorbon), by the German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602 – 1680), worthy and last heir of the universal spirits of the Renaissance. Astronomer, physicist, geologist, archaeologist, theologian, ancestor of Egyptology and volcanology, inventor of the microscope or the magic lantern,… he was in a way the Leonardo da Vinci of the Baroque era. Here he undertakes to establish the historical reality of the flood, reconciling the biblical story with advances in natural sciences. He draws maps of the pre- and post-diluvian world and, with mathematical precision, the interior architectural plan of the ark. According to him, only the main species had been able to find refuge in Noah's ark, the others would therefore have been generated from the first, under the influence of the stars, the imagination of the mothers and the influence of the climate.