pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

113
KRONLAND, Johann Marcus Marci von (1595–1667)
Thaumantias: liber de arcu coelesti deque colorum
apparentium natura, ortu, et causis. In quo pellucidi optica fontes.
Prague: [colophon:] typis Academicis, 1648.
4to: A–2M4 (–2M4, presumed blank), 139 leaves, pp. [8] 268 [2].
Engraved title on A1r, engraved portrait on A4v and 44 engraved text
illustrations, the Wrst of chemical apparatus (p. 49), the rest diagramatic.
183 x 140mm. Titlepage browned and stained; some minor stains and
foxing to the text.
Binding: Early nineteenth­century half calf over blue boards.
Rebacked, corners worn.
Provenance: John Stuart, Wrst Marquess of Bute (1744–1814), without
the usual bookplate but with a note in Walter Pagel’s hand ‘from the
Marquess of Bute Sale, Sotheby’s 1961 (July) No. 340’.
First (only) edition.
An important forerunner of Newton, Kronland discovered the decomposition
of white light by refraction using a prism.
‘In his optical experiments, designed to explain the phenomenon of the
rainbow, Marci placed himself in the line of such Bohemian and Moravian
investigators as Kepler, Christophe Scheiner, Balthasar Konrád, and Melchior
Hanel. In his experiments on the decomposition of white light, for which
he employed prisms, Marci described the spectral colors and recorded that
each color corresponded to a speciWc refraction angle. He also stated that
the color of a ray is constant when it is again refracted through another
prism (Thaumantias... pp. 99–100). He did not mention the reconstitution
of the spectrum into white light (a result that is Wrst to be found in the work
of Newton), although he did study the “mixture” of colored rays.’ (Luboš
Novy, DSB 9:97a.)
114
KRONLAND, Johann Marcus Marci von (1595–1667)
Pan en panton [Greek], seu, Philosophia vetus restituta.
Prague: Typis Academicis, 1662.
4to: * – 4
** , 2
*** , A–4D4 , 306 leaves, pp. [28] 580 [4].
3 plates: engraved titlepage, portrait and 1 plate of diagrams.
191 x 151mm. Some gatherings browned but a Wne fresh copy.
Binding: Contemporary vellum boards, green page edges.
Provenance: Inscription on title ‘Ex libris Adami Rudolph Francisci
Franck 1670’. Walter Pagel’s note on the pastedown, ‘P. 352 Harvey’s
visit to Marci at Prague in 1636’.
First edition. A second edition was published at Frankfurt in 1676.
Krivatsy 7425; OCLC 46084529.