Beschreibung:

SCHEUCHZER, Johann Jakob (1672-1733). Physica Sacra , in Latin. Augsburg and Ulm: [Christian Ulrich Wagner,] 1731-1732-1733-1735. 4 volumes, 2° (391 x 238mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece, 2 portraits (one a mezzotint) and 758 (?of 762) engraved plates (5 of which folding), plate LXVI with partial hand-colouring of rainbows. (Possibly lacking plates XXXVIII, XXXIX, CCCXL and CCCCXLVI, vol. I with light marginal worming to frontispiece, portrait, title and preface, title with very small old paper repair to verso, very light occasional browning mainly to text leaves and a few plates towards end of each volume, last two plates at end of vol. III loose, more persistent browning to text leaves of vol. IV.) 19th-century russia, flat gilt spines, mottled edges, (extremities rubbed, joints more heavily with lower covers of vols III and IV detached, head- and tailcaps worn with tailcap to vol. IV chipped, spines faded, corners bumped). Provenance : Thomas Foreman Gape (bookplate).
SCHEUCHZER, Johann Jakob (1672-1733). Physica Sacra , in Latin. Augsburg and Ulm: [Christian Ulrich Wagner,] 1731-1732-1733-1735. 4 volumes, 2° (391 x 238mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece, 2 portraits (one a mezzotint) and 758 (?of 762) engraved plates (5 of which folding), plate LXVI with partial hand-colouring of rainbows. (Possibly lacking plates XXXVIII, XXXIX, CCCXL and CCCCXLVI, vol. I with light marginal worming to frontispiece, portrait, title and preface, title with very small old paper repair to verso, very light occasional browning mainly to text leaves and a few plates towards end of each volume, last two plates at end of vol. III loose, more persistent browning to text leaves of vol. IV.) 19th-century russia, flat gilt spines, mottled edges, (extremities rubbed, joints more heavily with lower covers of vols III and IV detached, head- and tailcaps worn with tailcap to vol. IV chipped, spines faded, corners bumped). Provenance : Thomas Foreman Gape (bookplate). 'In Scheuchzer's gigantic work, Physica sacra , the Baroque attains, philosophically as well as artistically, its high point and its conclusion' (Faber du Faur, German Baroque Literature , p. 472). Scheuchzer, a doctor and natural scientist from Zurich, planned the Physica sacra as an explanation of and a commentary on the Bible on natural-scientific grounds. He himself oversaw the illustrations which were largely based on his own natural history cabinet or on other famous European cabinets of rare specimens. He entrusted the central designs to Johann Melchior Füssli and the elaborate borders to Johann Daniel Preissler and they were engraved by highly skilled engravers including Georg Daniel Heumann and Johann August Corvinus As none of the bibliographies agree on a collation, this set is sold not subject to return. The last three copies sold at auction had 760 plates only; Graese VI, 300 (750 plates); Faber du Faur 1855 (759 plates); Nissen ZBI 3660 (762 plates); Steiger 127, 132, 140 and 151 (753 plates). (4)