Bidspirit auction | RIO (P. F. Manuel del).

RIO (P. F. Manuel del). ARTE de Reloxes de Ruedas para Torre, Sala, i Faltriquera, dividida en dos Tomos, e iluminada con trece Estampas finas. En Santiago. 1759. - RIO (P. F. Manuel del) ARTE de Reloxes de Ruedas para Torre, Sala, i Faltriquera, dividida en dos Tomos, e iluminada con trece Estampas finas . Lleva tambien las Repeticiones: Los diferentes Calculos de todas las Classes de Reloxes [...] Es obra deducida de la mucha practica que tuvo su autor [...] Predicador de Essenciones de la Regular Observancia de N. S. P. S. Francisco, i Reloxero. Dedicala a N. M. R. P. Lago. Tomo Primero, trata de Reloxes de Torre, i Sala. En Santiago: En la Imprenta de Ignacio Aguayo i Aldemunde, 1759. front., [46] ff., 359 pp., 10 gravs.: il.; 195 mm. First edition, incomplete copy with only Volume I. A fundamental work in the history of Spanish watchmaking, and the first technical treatise on the art of watchmaking written and published in Spain. Volume I deals with tower and grandfather clocks; Volume II, absent from this copy, deals with pocket watches and includes the famous chapter on automata clocks for churches – the first in Spanish technical literature to describe and instruct on their construction. The work, illustrated with thirteen intaglio plates, also includes calculation tables for all classes of clocks, a guide to faults and repairs for old clocks, and a dictionary of watchmaking terminology. Friar Manuel del Rio, a Franciscan of the Regular Observance, belonged to the community of Santiago de Compostela, where he is believed to have learned the watchmaker's trade in Oporto from master Tomás Luis de Sáa. The work was republished in Madrid in 1789 by his disciple Ramón Durán, and again in 1798. Incomplete copy, containing only Volume I. ⚑ Auto-translated via Google Translate