NICÉRON (Jean-François) and Marin MERSENNE. La Perspective c - Lot 99

NICÉRON (Jean-François) and Marin MERSENNE. La Perspective curieuse du Reverend P. Niceron [...]. Avec L'Optique et la catoptrique du R. P. Mersenne. A Paris, chez Jean Du Puis, 1663. In-folio, (4 of which the 2 versos are blank) pp. ; (8)-191-(1) pp. ; (12)-134-(2 blank) pp. ; speckled brown calf, spine ribbed, cloisonné and fleuronné with garnet-red title-piece, speckled edges ; worn binding with one headband restored, jaws split, marginal spotting and a few spots, angular tear to one leaf, engraved title mounted on tab (early 18th century binding). Père Nicéron's Perspective Curieuse was originally published in Paris in 1638 by Pierre Billaine, illustrated with a suite of 25 copper-engraved scientific plates. An expanded Latin edition, based in particular on the work of Daniele Barbaro, was published posthumously in 1646 by François Langlois under the title Thaumaturgus opticus, this time with 42 scientific plates. The mathematician and physicist Gilles Personne de Roberval produced a new French edition, printed in 1652 (but with the privilege of November 1651) for the Parisian publisher Madeleine de Colemont, widow of François Langlois, with a suite of scientific plates, this time increased to 50 scientific plates (those of 1638 and the others inserted in a recast numbering), and he completed the volume by enclosing the original edition of Père Mersenne's L'Optique et la catoptrique. The present volume is the re-issue by Jean Du Puis in Paris, in 1663, of the 1652 edition with renewed general title (the specific title of Père Mersenne's treatise has been retained). - NICERON (Jean-François). La Perspective curieuse. Illustrated with 52 copper-engraved plates hors texte, including a portrait-frontispice by Michel Lasne, a title-frontispice by Pierre Daret, and 50 scientific plates numbered 1 to 50; with 7 wood-engraved geometric diagrams in the text. A LARGE, PRACTICAL TREATISE ON OPTICAL ILLUSION. Jean-François Nicéron has written this curious Perspective in four "books": in the first, he defines the scope and nature of the problems presented by optics, sets out the fundamental theorems needed to understand the subject, and proposes a general method of collineation inspired largely by Leon Battista Alberti and Albrecht Dürer. In the second book, he deals with the corrective representation of perspective on curved or irregular surfaces. In the third, devoted to catoptrics, he explains the principles of corrective anamorphosis of figures seen by reflection in plane, cylindrical or conical mirrors. Finally, in the last book, devoted to dioptrics, he describes a device that uses refraction through a polyhedral lens to recompose a given figure. Nicéron is one of the first to mention the law of refraction posited by René Descartes in 1637. THE MATHEMATICIAN AND PHYSICIAN JEAN-FRANÇOIS NICERON (1613-1646) was a pupil of Père Mersenne at the Collège de Nevers in Paris. After joining the Minimes, he became professor of mathematics in the convent of his order in Rome, and was entrusted with various inspection missions. He acted as a link between French and Italian mathematicians and physicists, informing one of the discoveries of the other, and was part of a group conducting experiments suggested by Galileo's work. His major contributions to the sciences include perspective and geometrical optics. In frail health, he died prematurely at the age of 33. - MERSENNE (Marin). Optics and catoptrics. POSTHUMOUS ORIGINAL EDITION, SECOND ISSUE. Illustrated with 30 woodcuts: geometric diagrams and anatomical representations. THE MERSENNE FATHER'S ULTIMATE CONTRIBUTION TO THIS SCIENTIFIC FIELD, including experimental studies on visual acuity and binocular vision, as well as a critical reflection on current hypotheses on the nature of light. ONE OF THE FATHERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SCIENCE, FATHER MARIN MERSENNE (1588-1648) was admitted to the Minimes in 1611 and spent almost thirty years of his life at the Annonciade convent in Paris. There, he devoted himself to scholarly studies, with the aim of using objective science to support religion and a certain conception of man in the face of atheists, deists and occultists, but also to defend the idea of rational truth in the face of skeptics. In this respect, his early publications attracted the attention of Pierre Gassendi, of whom he became a close friend. From 1623 onwards, he developed a network of correspondents throughout Europe, and regularly welcomed eminent figures from the worlds of science and literature, such as...