Kircher (Athanasius) Ars Magna Sciendi, 2 parts in 1, first edition, engraved pictorial title to each part (first soiled), letterpress title with woodcut printer's device, engraved portrait of Emperor Leopold, engraved plate 'Arbor Philosophica Universae cognitionis Typus', 4 folding and/or double-page letterpress tables on 5 sheets, engraved diagrams in text, 2 with with volvelles on B3r and Y3r, numerous woodcut illustrations, decorative initials and large tail-pieces, a little spotted and lightly browned, contemporary mottled calf, rubbed, spine ends and corners worn, lacking label, covers detached, folio, Amsterdam, Johannes Jansson van Waesberghe and the widow of Elizeus Weyerstraet, 1669.

⁂ One of the most influential works by the well-known German Jesuit, who was an eclectic scholar, inventor, collector, and founder of the Museum Kircherianum in the Roman College. In this monumental work Kircher builds an exhaustive scientific system based on logical combinations and symbolic logic formulae capable of expressing each truth; it thus represents one of the most celebrated seventeenth century attempts at creating a universal language for scientists and philosophers to describe and circumscribe all knowledge into a unified system.