[HANZELET, Jean Appier or H. van ETTEN].

Het eerste(-derde) deel van de Mathematische Vermaecklyckheden. Te samen ghevoeght van verscheyden ghenuchlijcke ende boertige werck-stucken ... Getranslateert uyt het Fransch in Nederduytsche tale: ende verrijckt, vermeerdert, ende verbetert ... door Wynant van Westen.Arnhem, Jacob van Biesen, 1644. 8vo. 3 parts in 1 volume, each with its own title-page and index. With 64 woodcut illustrations and tables and 1 decorative woodcut initial. Contemporary overlapping vellum.

(16), 257, (13), (1 blank); 61, (5); (1), 42 (1 blank) pp. Bierens de Haan 5302; OCLC (7 Copies), STCN (6 copies); Albrecht Heeffer, 'Récréations Mathématiques (1624) a study on its authorship, sources and influence' (http://sarton.ugent.be/index.php?id=42&type=file); cf. De Backer & Sommervogel II, cols. 1756-1760 (French eds. & 1 English ed.); not in Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica; for Van Westen, see also: NNBW III 408.Third Dutch edition of an extensively illustrated seventeenth-century collection of entertaining tricks, problems, riddles and puzzles based on various braches of mathematics, but also covering a wide variety of subjects, such as card tricks, calendrical calculations, constructing balance scales, clocks, sun dials, levers and pullies,astronomy, magnetism, surveying, military mechanics, fireworks, conjuging tricks and much more. First published in French at Pont-à-Mousson (Lorraine) in 1624 as Récréations mathematiques, it was translated into Dutch in 1636 based on the 1627 Lyon edition. The 1641 edition added the second and third parts, as in French editions of 1628 and later. It was the first book of recreational mathematics, at the crossroads between the old traditions of practical mercantile arithmetic and 'natural magic' (trickery making use of natural phenomena such as magnetism) and the new popular traditions of recreational mathematics and popular science. Heeffer claims the book influenced seventeenth-century natural philosophers and holds a key position in the development of modern popular entertainments based on practical mathematics and physics. The dedication of the first edition is signed H. van Etten, a relative of the dedicatee, and the book has often been attributed (with little grounds) to his Jesuit teacher Jean Leurechon, but Heefer argues for an attribution to Hanzelet (1596-1647), who engraved the plates for the first edition and was known as an artillery and fireworks master. The continuations of the titles of parts two and three vary slightly from that of part one.With a lengthy and interesting early owner's inscription in French, struck through but mostly still readable. In very good condition, with only a few minor stains. The binding also very good, with only some small gaps along the board edges. A pivotal book in the development of new attitudes toward mathematics and science and a fascinating guide to recreational mathematics for today's reader.

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• продавец: Asher Rare Books (Since 1830) (NETHERLANDS)