Kircher, Athanasius | First edition of Kircher’s celebrated treatise on light and shadow

Kircher, Athanasius

Ars magna lucis et umbrae. Rome: Ludovico Grignani for Hermann Scheus, 1646

Folio (307 x 202 mm). 36 engraved plates, some of which folding, numerous woodcut diagrams in text; lacking frontispiece, areas of dampstaining, marginal tears, spotting. Contemporary vellum; worn with loss to head and foot of spine.

First edition of Kircher’s celebrated treatise on light and shadow, dedicated to Ferdinand IV, the earliest European work to describe the illumination and projection of images. The title itself, as Kircher notes, plays on this analogy: “magna” referring both to magnitude and to the vis magnetica, making the work “The Magnetic Art of Light and Shadow.” The Ars magna contains the first printed illustration of Saturn and anticipates the later description of the magic lantern included in the Amsterdam edition of 1671.

REFERENCES

Norman 1216

PROVENANCE

Early owners (manuscript annotations to margins)