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SENGUERDIUS, Wolferdus (Senkward, Wolfgang 1646-1724). Philosophia naturalis, quatuor partibus Primarias corporum species, affectiones, differentias, productiones, mutationes, & interitus, exhibens. Editio secunda, priore auctior. Leiden, Daniel Gaesbeck, 1685. 

Bound together with his:

Inquisitiones experimentales, Quibus, Præter particularia nonnulla Phænomena, Atmosphærici aeris Natura explicatius traditur [...] adjectæ sunt Ephemerides, Nostri Aeris Conditionem, ejusque Vicissitudines, quæ singulis obtinuère diebus A Calendis Februariis, Anni 1697 ad finem sub-sequentis A. 1698 Exhibentes. Leiden, Cornelius Boutesteyn 1699. 2 parts in 4to (200 x 160 mm). [XXVI], 432, [32] pp. With additional engraved title, 5 folding plates, 67 text engravings, including a few repeats, and three woodcut diagrams. - Inquisitiones: [8], 3-158, [48] pp. (without blank A1). With 11 engravings in text (of which 9 are pasted in) and 2 folding plates. Contemporary blind-stamped vellum over boards. Later ms. label on spine.

A beautifully illustrated summary of 17th century experimental science, the third, enlarged edition. There were four editions issued between 1680 and 1687, the last two bearing the imprint editio secunda on the title. In the world of bibliography Senguerdius is still celebrated for his catalogue of the Library of Leiden University (1716).

"The instruction given in natural philosophy at the University of Leyden in the academic year 1679-80 is shown by a compendium based upon his lectures then which Wolferd Senguerd, Ordinary Professor of Philosophy in that institution, dedicated on August 1, 1680, to the curators of the same, and which was printed in 1681 ... He includes numerous experiments, with about fifty diagrams and pictures, chiefly astronomical and physical ... His teaching in some respects is reminiscent of Descartes, but especially avails itself of the notion of ferments of contemporary chemists and the subtle particles or corpuscules of contemporary physicists ... Light is explained, as by Descartes, in terms of round particles. The nature of colour exists in the disposition of the parts of bodies; black bodies are more porous and so reflect light less than white ones do" (Thorndike VII, pp. 690-91). Senguerdius extensively treats theories of fermentation, matter, astronomy (preferring Tycho Brahe to Copernicus), magnetism, optics, the vacuum, gravitation etc.

Bound at the end is the second edition of Senguerd's Inquisitiones experimentales, which is mainly concerned with the phenomenon of Air resp.? Vacuum and their action in the lung and respiration, cupping and combustion; the last chapter deals with the atmosphere, and contains, at the end, the earliest short series of instrumental observations of the weather in the Netherlands. 

The engravings, which are of excellent quality, depict various optical and mechanical experiments and observations, air-pumps, the solar system, a small vessel, models of corpuscules, etc. The engraved title and some of the illustrations are early works by Adriaan Schoonebeeck, a pupil of Romeyn de Hooghe. Unlike the majority of copies, the three engravings on pp. 327, 369, 385 are not pasted over; the illustration on page 369 is printed upside-down. 

All editions are rare. A lovely copy.

References: Bierens de Haan p. 250; Krivatsy 10901. 

PRICE:  4 500