Beschreibung:

Le diverse et artificiose machine Agostino Ramelli 1588 RAMELLI, Agostino (c.1531-1608). Le diverse et artificiose machine ... nelle quali si contengono uarij et artificiosi mouimenti, degni di grandissima speculatione, per cauarne beneficio in ogni sorte d'operatione. Composte in lingua italiana et francese. Paris: by the author, 1588. First edition of one of the greatest illustrated books of the 16th century and a landmark of book design. "Ramelli’s book on machinery, one of the most elegantly produced of all technological treatises, emphasized and explored the unlimited possibilities of machines […] The plates in Ramelli’s treatise are artistically as well as technologically superb, the bilingual text beautifully printed, and both plates and text surrounded by handsome borders of typographic ornaments" (Norman). This work is a very fine example of the exquisite craftsmanship of late 16th-century French printers and artists, and had a major influence on later mechanical engineering. Notably, included here is the earliest European design for a book wheel. Modeled after a water wheel, the device allows for convenient use of multiple large volumes and is considered one of the first "information retrieval" machines. Mortimer French 452; Norman 1777; Dibner Heralds 173. Folio (325 x 214mm). Engraved title within architectural frame by Leonard Gaultier; each leaf of text printed within a border of typographical fleurons; engraved portrait of Ramelli by Gaultier on title-page verso; 194 engravings, 20 of which full-sheet, numbered I-CXCV with CXLVIII and CXLIX combined on a single engraving and three signed with the cipher JG (A5 faintly waterstained in margin, R1 restored in margin at bottom corner, occasional browning and light spotting, browning heavier in margins of quires T and V, a few discreet paper infills to last leaf in blank margin and printed area). 18th-century red morocco, with later attribution on the flyleaf to Derome, gilt triple fillet, spine gilt, all edges gilt (a few minor marks and abrasions, extremities very lightly rubbed). Provenance: Paul Girardot de Préfond (1722-c.1785, French bibliophile; label on pastedown; this copy possibly no.485 in his sale in 1757) – "Dan[iel] Brent 1790" (according to a later pencil inscription, this was the successful shipbuilder, 1764-1834; inscription) – Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune (bookplate).