15th Mar, 2019 10:30 GMT/BST

Books, Maps & Ephemera

 
Lot 45
 

45

Schickard, Wilhelm Horologium Hebr�um bound with Rota Hebr�a. Typis...

Schickard, Wilhelm
Horologium Hebr�um bound with Rota Hebr�a. Typis Thom� Paine: Venit apud Philemonem Stephanum, & Christophorum Meredith sub leone aureo, in D. Pauli Cemiterio, 1639. 8vo, full early calf, speckled edges; pp. [15], 139, [140], [1], [1-2], 3-14, [2 (Typographus Lectori, recto blank)] (Rota Hebraea with separate title but signatures continue); one double-page plate, decorative page-heads, floriated and inhabited intials; in Latin and Hebrew with music and tables to text.
Wilhelm Schickard was a German astronomer, mathematician and Professor of Hebrew at the University of T�bingen. As part of his teaching he sought simple methods to learn the language. He created the Rota Hebr�a, showing conjugation through two disks. For the study of the language he created the Horologium Hebr�um, the Hebrew clock. This was a textbook in 24 sections which could be learnt in an hour, allowing the learning of the language in a day ("quomodo sancta lingua spacio xxiv. horarum"). The work was incredibly popular, owing to its brevity, and went through many editions. Newton is known to have owned a copy as part of his study of Hebrew.
Schickard was a gifted mechanic as well as a polymath. Before his death of the plague at 43 he developed a theory of the moon's orbit, wrote in support of provincial mapping and probably built the first mechanised calculator, two decades before Pascal's more successful effort.

Sold for £190
Estimated at £80 - £100


 

. Binding rubbed and scratched with some loss, but still tight, some foxing, dusty marking and marginal toning but still a very good copy.

 


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Auction: Books, Maps & Ephemera, 15th Mar, 2019

Books, Maps & Ephemera

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