A French antique dealer specialized in rare books has a copy of the
famous book by Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis (published in
Roma, Italy, in 1650). Several pages and 4 engravings are related to
mechanical music (carillon, cylinder, hydraulic organ with automatas).
This book consists in 2 large volumes with text (Latin !) and
many engravings.
Vol. I : 690 p + index (ca v20 p) et errata
Vol. II: 462 p + index et errata
The binding needs to be restored, and a missing engraving (second
frontispiece, just before the title page) and 2 missing folios in Vol. 1
(pages 647-648 and 653-654) will be replaced by facsimiles.
The price asked by this dealer is 4,000 dollars (24,000 French francs).
The very rare copies which have been for sale these last years went
usually at a price double of this one. The reason for this reduced
price are the restored binding, and the engraving and pages replaced
by facsimiles.
If you are interested, please contact me by e-mail, and I shall
transmit to the dealer.
Best regards,
Philippe Rouille (Paris, France)
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/
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