HORST, TILEMAN VAN DER (AND JACOB POLLEY). - 18TH CENTURY BIBLE ON DUTCH CANAL AND DAM CONSTRUCTION.

Theatrum Machinarum universale; of Keurige Verzameling van verscheide grote en zeer fraaie Waterwerken, Schutsluizen, Waterkeringen, Ophaal- en Draaibruggen. met hare Gronden, Opstallen en Doorgesnedens; Als: de grote Sluys te Muyden.... etc. etc. I-II. (II. Deel door Jacob Polley en in't Koper gebragt, door Jan Schenk).

Amsterdam, Petrus Schenk, 1757-74.

Large folio. (55 x 34,5 cm.). A large uncut copy in contemp. marbled boards, spine gone and later backed with buckram, original corners in leather a bit bumped. Stamps on foot of first title-page. Halftitel, title-pages in red/black with engraved vignettes. (2),2 engraved leafs with dedications, 14;(2),8 pp. and 25 + 24 large double-page or triple-page folded engraved plates + 6 additional plates (only sometimes present). With a total of 55 plates. On thick, heavy paper, wide-margined and internally fine and clean.

Second edition. "Tileman van der Horst and Jan Schenk produced the Theatrum Machinarium Univesale, one of the most celebrated works on the construction of all those elements so necessary to keeping life dry in Amsterdam (the place of the book’s publication). It was perhaps the most important work then produced on dikes, sluices, dams, weirs, canals and swing-bridges, the very elements of existence in Holland. Jan Schenck was the engraver of this work, which may also be the most accurate and the most sumptuously illustrated book of its type in Holland in the 18th century - the technical aspects of the rendering was just superb." - Brunet V,1082 - Graesse VII, 258.

Order-nr.: 51848