De Cochlea Libri Quatuor

by Guidobaldo Monte, Marchese Del

$12,500 · Offered by Sophia Rare Books

First edition

Venice: Evangelisto Deuchino, 1615. First edition, the Macclesfield copy, of this very rare and important work of Renaissance engineering and mathematics, Guidobaldo’s analysis of the theory and operation of Archimedes’ most famous mechanical invention, the ‘cochlea’ or ‘Archimedean screw’. This is a device used for raising water consisting of a helical tube wound around the outside of a cylinder; when

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