Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 30

POLENI, GIOVANNI. 1683-1761.
Miscellanea, hoc est I. Differtatio de barometris, & thermometris, II. Machinae Arithmeticae, ejusque usus descriptio, III. De Sectionibus conicis parallelorum in horologiis solaribus tractatus. Venice: Alvise Pavani, 1709.

5 November 2020, 10:00 PST
Los Angeles

Sold for US$2,550 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

POLENI, GIOVANNI. 1683-1761.

Miscellanea, hoc est I. Differtatio de barometris, & thermometris, II. Machinae Arithmeticae, ejusque usus descriptio, III. De Sectionibus conicis parallelorum in horologiis solaribus tractatus. Venice: Alvise Pavani, 1709.
4to (217 x 155 mm). Engraved allegorical vignette to title of reason taming the savage beast, 9 engraved folding plates. Modern boards, custom cloth clamshell case.
Provenance: Erwin Tomash (bookplate); The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing, Sotheby's September 18-19, 2018; the Computer History Collection of Serge Roubé.

FIRST EDITION. Poleni discusses barometers, thermometers and sundials, but, most interestingly, the mechanical pinwheel calculator that he had built. It is one of the first printed descriptions of such a device.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]

ARCHITECTURE - STUART (JAMES) AND NICHOLAS REVETT The Antiquities of Athens, 4 vol. bound in 2, 1825-1830

ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]

ARMENIAN - HISTORY, THEOLOGY AND PRINTING. Group of books/a map in Armenian, c.1825-1901 (12)

MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]

BANK NOTES - MANUFACTURING BRADBURY (HENRY) On the Security and Manufacture of Bank Notes, FIRST EDITION, Bradbury and Evans, 1856