Item #1793 Ein Wolgegr unstreichs Summari B, aller Sonnen Uhr auff acht oder vier eckete stecklin in B Cylinder und auff Guldne ring... zu machen. Georg VOGTHERR.
Ein Wolgegr unstreichs Summari B, aller Sonnen Uhr auff acht oder vier eckete stecklin in B Cylinder und auff Guldne ring... zu machen
Ein Wolgegr unstreichs Summari B, aller Sonnen Uhr auff acht oder vier eckete stecklin in B Cylinder und auff Guldne ring... zu machen
Ein Wolgegr unstreichs Summari B, aller Sonnen Uhr auff acht oder vier eckete stecklin in B Cylinder und auff Guldne ring... zu machen
Ein Wolgegr unstreichs Summari B, aller Sonnen Uhr auff acht oder vier eckete stecklin in B Cylinder und auff Guldne ring... zu machen
Rare Strasbourg Imprint
The Horblit Copy
Strassburg, Jacob Frch, 1544.

Ein Wolgegr unstreichs Summari B, aller Sonnen Uhr auff acht oder vier eckete stecklin in B Cylinder und auff Guldne ring... zu machen.

4to. [20 x 14.3 cm], (32) ff. with numerous woodcuts of instruments, several full-page. Bound in modern blind-ruled calf. Ex libris of Harrison D. Horblit on front pastedown. Some toning and uniform light browning, small waterstain in blank margin of a handful of leaves, a few diagrams labeled/corrected in an early hand. Generally very good.

Early edition of one of the rarest 16th-century German-language instrument books on the construction of sundials. First published in 1539 and reprinted the following year, this is probably the third edition. All are very rare. Strasbourg imprints on technology are highly unusual, and in Chrisman's analytic bibliography of Strasbourg books arranged by subject, this is the only title on the subject. 

The Summari Büchlin was published during a period when the citizens of Strasbourg were keenly interested in issues of timekeeping. The famous clock at the Strasbourg Cathedral, one of the earliest mechanical clocks in Europe, had ceased to work 150 years after its construction in 1352-4. Plans to renovate the mechanism were afoot and work would begin on a new clock for the cathedral in 1547. Vogtherr's topical work on timepieces proved so popular that it continued to be reprinted until 1582.

As the title states, this handbook explains not only how to construct various sundials, but also how to mount them?on columns, vertically on the wall, or as jewelry, including finger rings, bracelets or necklaces. It contains an 11-page table specifying the angle of the pole (latitudo regionis) for numerous cities and regions across Europe, suggesting that the book was intended for a cosmopolitan audience. It contains numerous woodcut diagrams, including a full-page image of a 'quadrans vetus,' an instrument with applications in surveying as well as telling the time.

The first edition of the Summari Büchlin was published by Heinrich Vogtherr, a member of the renowned Strasbourg family of artists, painters and printers. According to Zinner, Heinrich's brother Georg prepared the work for publication, and was presumably also its author. Not in NUC or British Museum. OCLC lists a copy at U. Michigan, attributed to Johann Dryander.



* Zinner 1862; Adams S-1428; M. V. Chrisman, Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, S11.8.1= p. 269, listing editions from 1539, 1540 and 1544, and under slightly different title, 1559; Le Roux, Histoire de l?Imprimerie alsacienne (1955), p. 285.

Price: $4,500.00

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