Explication des modèles des machines et forces mouvantes. Que l'on expose à Paris, dans la ruë de la Harpe, vis-à-vis Saint Cosme. [Bound with: Jouvin, Jacques: Solution et esclaircissement de quelques propositions de mathématiques.]

[Picot, Jean-Baptiste]; [Jouvin, Jacques]

Edité par [Imprimé chez C. Guillery, Avec Permission], A Paris, 1683

A propos de cet article

First editions. In contemporary leather, spine with raised bands, gilt compartment and title vignette. Gilt turn-inns, tinted edges, marbled endpapers. 4to. [8] 48 pp., 12 engraved plates. A groundbreaking 1683 catalogue documenting the first public exhibition of engineering models-an early triumph of applied science and mechanistic display under Louis XIV. Rare and historically significant catalogue documenting one of the earliest known public exhibition of mechanical models in Europe. Held in Paris in 1683 under the patronage of Jean-Jules-Armand Colbert, Marquis de Blainville, the exhibition promoted the physical demonstration of engineering principles through functional scale models. Intended to encourage inventors to present their innovations experimentally rather than rely on drawings or text alone, the event exemplified the Colbertian ideal of useful knowledge in service of the state. The Explication is the earliest known printed catalogue of an engineering exhibition and a landmark in the history of technical display and mechanistic science. The exhibition featured twenty-one models, twelve of which were described and illustrated in this catalogue. These included devices for water-lifting, timber cutting, cannon boring, and various forms of civil and military machinery. Some were adaptations of well-known designs by 16th- and 17th-century engineers such as Besson, Ramelli, Böckler, and Salomon de Caus; others were recent inventions by contemporary artisans. The models were built in diverse workshops, often to working scale, and were exhibited to the public in a specially arranged venue on the Rue de la Harpe in Paris, opposite the church of Saint Cosme. Copies of the catalogue were distributed not only in France but also in Britain and Germany. Although the catalogue is formally anonymous, its authorship was convincingly attributed to Jean-Baptiste Picot by scholar Gérard Dumas in his detailed study. Picot was a quartermaster under Louis XIV and closely associated with Colbert de Blainville, who oversaw the event as Superintendent of the King's Buildings. Picot's authorship is further supported by internal references to the initials "M.L.C.D.O.," which Dumas interprets as "Monsieur le Chevalier D'Ormes," a title known to be used by Picot. The catalogue shares both stylistic and technical similarities with Picot's earlier treatise on hydraulic machinery, L'expérience justifiée d'une machine pour élever l'eau. (Paris, 1681), reinforcing the attribution. By the late seventeenth century, the use of working models as tools for experimentation, communication, and persuasion had become increasingly widespread. This exhibition stands as the earliest documented instances in which such models were presented to the public in a coordinated display-marking a transitional moment in the history of applied science, where invention began to intersect visibly with public spectacle, state ambition, and printed dissemination. An important artefact of early modern engineering culture and scientific communication. Rare. RBH lists the sale of only three other copies besides the present one. According to WorldCat, institutional holdings remain scarce. Only three copies are located outside Europe, all in the United States: at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the Smithsonian Libraries. Reference: Dumas, G. (1967). Une des premières expositions publiques de modèles de machines et son catalogue (Paris, 1683). Revue d'histoire des sciences, 20(2), 133-152. [Bound before:] [Jouvin, Jacques] Solution et esclaircissement de quelques propositions de mathématiques, entr'autres de la duplication du cube, & de la quadrature du cercle. A Paris: chez Jacques Langlois, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roy, dans la grande Sale du Palais, à la Reyne de Paix. M. DC. LVIII [1658]. [8] 76 [4] pp. (last 3 blank) p. With numerous woodcut geometrical diagrams in text, most full-page, one folded. Device on title page, and woodcut tail pieces. A rare and richly ill.

N° de réf. du vendeur 3539

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Explication des modèles des machines et forces mouvantes. Que l'on expose à Paris, dans la ruë de la Harpe, vis-à-vis Saint Cosme. [Bound with: Jouvin, Jacques: Solution et esclaircissement de quelques propositions de mathématiques.]
• Éditeur: [Imprimé chez C. Guillery, Avec Permission], A Paris
• Date de parution: 1683
• Reliure: Couverture rigide
• Édition: First editions.
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Science
  • Mathematics
  • First edition