ZAHN, Johannes. Oculus artificialis teledioptricus sive telescopum.
Nuremberg, Johann Christoph Lochner, 1702
Rare second, enlarged edition of the first work entirely devoted to the history of the telescope. Richly illustrated. Norman: “Zahn's treatise contains the first complete history of early microscopes. The work is particularly valuable for its illustrations of both simple and compound microscopes of the period, including the type of compound instrument used by Robert Hooke.”
The work is divided into three main parts: the first is devoted to astronomy in general, providing a historical overview of color perception, the different qualities of convex and concave lenses, their refraction, and their quality; the second part deals with the production and use of lenses and optical instruments; the third part contains the results of his research and their various applications.
The first chapter is preceded by a bibliography of the authors cited (Leeuwenhoek, Maignan, Galileo, Hevelius, Kepler, Camerarius, Hooke, and others).
Richly illustrated, the work covers all aspects of optics from its origins to the end of the 17th century.
The large folded plates show magnificent examples of their use, such as Kircher's solar chart and Cherubini's lunar chart, with their observational history included in the text (e.g., Kepler, Galileo, Hevelius), as well as two great cyclic systems, the "Panscopium" and the "Chronoscopium." The engraved and woodcut illustrations in the text superbly demonstrate the construction and application of the instruments, their lenses, and other components: they depict experiments, lenses and their refractions, magic lanterns, telescopes, perspective instruments, etc.
This copy contains an additional folded engraved plate, with a complex family tree: at the bottom center is the elaborate coat of arms of the Greiffenklau family, an ancient German nobility.
Johann Zahn (1631–1707) was a canon of the Premonstratensian monastery of Oberzell (Bavaria) and taught mathematics at the University of Würzburg. A leading expert in optics and astronomy, he substantially improved the erecting telescope developed in 1676 by Johann Sturm, equipping it with an achromatic eyepiece using doublets of convex and concave lenses. He concentrated the light by painting the walls of the reflecting chamber black, a technique now considered the first step towards the photographic camera.
Blake 498; Roller-G. II, 602; Poggendorff II, 1390; Duncan 15151; Berge, Thomas Vroom 396; vgl. Becker Coll. 424.
Vedi Garrison-Morton, 263 e Norman 2278 (for the first edition of 1685/86).
In-folio. 325 x 210 mm. Contemporary pigskin binding with blind tooling on wooden boards, remnants of 2 clasps. Allegorical frontispiece engraved on copper, 20 unnumbered leaves, including the red and black title page and the engraved portrait, 797 pages, 8 unnumbered leaves. Numerous illustrations on the text of various sizes, copper-engraved and woodcut. 7 copper-engraved plates outside the text, on a double-page spread or folded, 12 full-page copperplates in the text, 10 full-page woodcuts in the text, 7 typographic plates outside the text on a double-page spread.
Bookplate "Bibliotheca Opticoria by David L. DiLaura" glued to the inside cover; old ownership inscription on the title page and on leaf 5N4v.
Slight traces of wear on the binding, small repairs on the verso edge of the frontispiece, paper defect in the margin of page 99 with loss of some letters, some browning, and a few small stains, otherwise generally good.
In total: Frontispiece, Portrait, 7 plates in the text on a double page or folded, all copperplate engravings. Additionally, 7 typographical plates folded outside the text, numerous engraved and woodcut illustrations in the text, some full-page.