Beschreibung:

CHÉRUBIN D’ORLÉANS (1613-1697). La dioptrique oculaire, ou la theorique, la positive, et la mechanique, de l'oculaire dioptrique en toutes ses especes. Paris: Thomas Jolly & Simon Benard, 1671. First edition of this seventeenth-century work on optics. Chérubin d’Orléans was the inventor of opera glasses, and in his practical work on optics, he systematically describes the grinding of lenses and illustrates every aspect of a lens maker's workshop in detailed engraved plates (Duncan). According to Albert, La diotrique oculaire is “the most exhaustive treatise on lens making in the seventeenth century. It is a six-hundred folio page long, comprehensive, cogently-argued treatise on telescope making.” Chérubin d’Orléans includes detailed accounts of the effects that different lenses have on the eye and observations of the stars and the moon made through the telescopes of his own invention. D.M. Albert et al., Source Book of Ophthalmology (1995), 412; Duncan 2360; Krivatsy-NLM, 2427; Poggendorff I, 430; Wellcome II, 335. Folio (345 x 230mm). Engraved allegorical title page by Gerard Edelinck after Jean le Pautre; 57 engraved plates, of which 1 folded and 5 double-page; and two engraved illustrations in text (without the final blank leaf; several gatherings browned and spotted, including a few containing plates). Contemporary full parchment over boards, title in ink on spine (wear to parchment on corners of front and back boards and spine, with some losses). Provenance: Libreria Antiquaria Machiavelli (printed label) – “L P N” (bookplate).