Kircher, Athanasius | Second, revised edition of Kircher’s celebrated catalogue of the Roman College museum

Kircher, Athanasius

Romani Collegii Societatis Jesu Musaeum celeberrimum, cujus magnam antiquitatis, statuarum, imaginum, picturarumque partem. Amsterdam: ex officina Janssonio-Waesbergiana, 1678

Tall folio (378 x 248 mm). Engraved frontispiece, engraved portrait of Kircher, 17 engraved plates (several folding), several engraved text illustrations, numerous woodcut diagrams and figures; very minor splitting on a few plate folds, two marginal repairs, occasional slight spotting, faint dampstaining to several leaves. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt; rubbed, spine chipped, joints starting, portion of foot of spine near detached.

Second edition, substantially revised and expanded from the 1678 Rome issue, and richly illustrated. One of Kircher’s most important works, the Musaeum celeberrimum describes the celebrated cabinet of curiosities at the Collegio Romano, presenting antiquities, statuary, paintings, scientific instruments, fossils, natural specimens, mechanical devices, and ethnographic objects assembled under Jesuit patronage. Kircher’s cataloguing of the museum is characterized by an extraordinary blend of antiquarian scholarship, scientific fascination, and imagination.

REFERENCES

Rossetti 5891

PROVENANCE

John R. and Glover E. Ruckstell (armorial bookplate) — Sotheby’s New York, 1 January 2002, lot 110