Rare first and only edition of the plate book published as the illustrative companion to Hendrik Stevins (1614-1668) Wisconstich filosofisch bedryf (1667). The work contains 29 double-page engraved plates illustrating a wide range of mechanical and hydraulic devices, including gear mechanisms, water-works, sluices, Archimedean screws, and other technical constructions connected with early modern hydraulic engineering and mechanics.
The present work belongs to the final stage of Hendrik Stevins efforts to disseminate this material. Instead of embedding illustrations within the text, he published a separate Plaetboeck containing the engraved figures intended to accompany the treatise. Many of these plates illustrate technical concepts derived from Simon Stevins manuscripts, including treatises on gears, water-mills, and hydraulic engineering. The diagrams show mechanisms for improved mill gearing, hydraulic installations, and other mechanical constructions central to Dutch water management. Such innovations, including improved gear systems for windmills, aimed at increasing the efficiency of pumping water from the polders.
With the large armorial bookplate from "De la bibliothèque de Gustave Charles Antoine Marie van Havre" mounted on the front pastedown. Gustave Charles Antoine Marie, ridder van Havre (1817-1892) was a Belgian politician for the Liberal Party. Van Havre was also an important bibliophile, he served as president of the Society of Bibliophiles of Antwerp and as a member of the board of the Plantin-Moretus Museum. He also owned an extensive library which was dispersed on the market after his death, part of it was acquired by the Dutch collector Six van Vromade (1872-1936). The bookplate is signed by the French painter, engraver and lithographer Alexandre Désiré Collette (1814-1876). Plate 25 verso is a bit folded. Otherwise in very good condition. Bibl. Belg. S 153; Bierens de Haan 4546; Dijksterhuis, Simon Stevin, XVI p. 62; WorldCat 906429974; not in Roberts & Trent; Rouse; Hoogendoorn.