BION, Nicolas. Traité de la construction et des principaux usages des instrumens de mathematique: avec les figures necessaires pour l’intelligence de ce Traité. Paris: Chez La Veuve de J. Boudot, J. Collombat, et J. Boudot fils. 1709.
8vo. Contemporary French sheep, gilt armorial supralibros to boards (see below), within double fillet border, spine with raised bands lettered and tooled in gilt (rebacked preserving the original compartments), edges gilt over marbling, marbled endpapers, blue silk place marker; pp. [8], 347, [5], with 28 engraved plates by Harmanus van Loon, engraved vignette by Nicolas Guerard to p. [3], woodcut initials, head, and tail pieces; extremities lightly worn, corners restored; some variable light toning, otherwise very good and clean; a few contemporary annotations in ink, contemporary correction to p. 377: “1725 e des suivantes. C’est à dire le 31 Marz et le 3 octob. L’etoile polaire at aussi le 1 Aóust, et le 14 Fevrier, la luire dela petite Ourse”.
First edition, a superb copy, of the “the most famous book devoted to instruments” (Knight), apparently from the library of a member of the French Royal Family.
French engineer Nicolas Bion (1652-1733) was a maker of globes, sundials, astrolabes, and other mathematical and astronomical instruments for the King of France. Although few of his instruments have survived, his Traité on mathematical instruments remains a significant legacy, offering “a fairly complete list of instruments normally constructed during the first quarter of the eighteenth century” (DSB II, 133).
Bion began his treatise with discussions and illustrations of elementary solid geometry (plates 1 and 2) and the fundamental tools used for geometrical drawing, which he produced himself, such as a goniometer bearing his signature (plate 3). Each instrument is examined in two sections: “Construction”, “Usage”, and “Example”. Among the numerous instruments covered are the sector (plate 6), portable sundials (plate 27), and water clocks (plate 28).
Provenance: Although we have not been able to definitively attribute the armorial supralibros, it appears to belong to a prince légitimé, a legitimised son of the King of France, or one of his descendants. Possible candidates include Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, Duc du Maine (1670-1736), and Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse (1678-1737), sons of Louis XIV and his official mistress, Madame de Montespan, who shared the same coat of arms. The shape of the shield is very similar to Olivier Pl. 2477, Fer n. 1, found on a book printed in 1741.
See Knight, History of Science 1660-1914, p. 202.
#2121534