Organum Mathematicum Libris IX. Explicatum (The Organum Mathimaticum Explained in Nine Books).

SCHOTT [also SHOTT or SCHOTTO], Gaspar.

Published by Herbipoli, [Würzburg], 1668

About this Item

The Earliest Full Description of a "Computing Machine"Two Volumes, Quarto, First Edition. [BECAUSE OF ABE SIZE LIMITATIONS,OUR COMPLETE COLLATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THIS BOOK COULD NOT BE PRINTED HERE. PLEASE EMAIL FOR A COPY OF THAT VERY COMPLETE AND EXHAUSTIVE DESCRIPTION OF THESE TWO LOVELY VOLUMES.]With innumerable printed illustrations and tables throughout the text.The Organum Mathematicum was an information device or teaching machine invented by the Jesuit polymath and scholar, Athanasius Kircher, in the middle of the 17th century. The first published description of the Organum Mathematicum came in this book by Gaspar Schott, who was Kircher's pupil. The book includes excerpts from Kircher's original manual. There are no surviving Organums which closely resemble the device illustrated in Schott's book, but there are three known devices, likely of Jesuit manufacture, which contain essentially the same content.The Organum device - containing approximately twenty-four rods - is described in Schott's book by their functions, separated into nine main "books". Contemporary green boards with handwritten spine labels for the author title and for old library classification. Minor professional repairs have been done to the edges and tips of the bindings. From the private library of Michel'angelo Lambertini (small label on the inside front cover of both volumes). With an occasional older faint library stamp in blue ink (an oval 1¼" wide). The covers are worn (see photo) and the pages are lightly browned throughout, but overall this is a lovely copy of this early seminal work on building a "knowledge machine." ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

Seller Inventory # 1246

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Organum Mathematicum Libris IX. Explicatum (The Organum Mathimaticum Explained in Nine Books).
• Publisher: Herbipoli, [Würzburg]
• Publication Date: 1668
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: FIRST EDITION.
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science & Technology