Lot 192: Filippo Buonanni (1638-1723) MUSAEUM KIRCHERIANUM. 1709

BUONANNI, Filippo (1638-1723). Musaeum Kircherianum. Rome: Georgio Placo, 1709. First edition of this important and richly illustrated catalogue of items in the collection of Athanasius Kircher, from the library of Sir Andrew Fountaine. ‘Kircher, like his contemporary Henry Ashmole, was a collector of curiosities. He was in an excellent situation, at the hub of the Jesuit order, to gather relics, specimens, manuscripts, and any oddities or rarities his fellow Jesuits brought back to Rome from all parts of the world’ (Merrill, p.xxvii). Fountaine was Vice-Chamberlain to Princess (and later Queen) Caroline and succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as Master of the Mint, as well as a serious connoisseur and bibliophile in the circles of the Earl of Pembroke, and the Duke of Devonshire. Caillet 5784; Nissen ZBI 2198; Wellcome II, 271. Folio (369 x 233mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece and 172 engraved plates, of which 2 folding (title lightly creased, light marginal soiling and staining affecting only a few text leaves, pl. LXV with tiny marginal chip at head, a couple of plates with very light even browning). Contemporary English mottled calf, spine in 7 compartments with raised bands, red morocco gilt lettering-piece in second, the others richly gilt-tooled with the Fountaine elephant crest, red edges (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: Sir Andrew Fountaine (1670-1753, sale, Christie's 27 Nov. 1996, lot 309).