[Very rare treatise on the art of surveying] Preuve der landt-meters

behelsende in't cort de Thiende-Rekheninghe, de principaelste ende noodigste Grond-Regelen der Geometrie, met Exempels bevestight, een manier van deelen tot noch toe by gheene Autheurs soo claer gheleert (...); ten meerderen deele ghetrocken uyt de Schriften van sekeren Eerw. Pater Joannes Baptista Doemen (...) door deszelfs discipel nu gesworen Landt-Meter, Meester [in special diamond shape:] Martinus van Dycke, Bruges, P. vande Cappelle, 1714, 2 volumes in one binding, (10),160; 41,(1) p., (paging here and there erroneous), with folding letterpress table, 36 folding engraved plates and one openworked and movable, folding plate in pen and ink, contemporary calf.

Here and there waterstained (incl. plates); endpapers renewed, spine damaged and back board rubbed. Plate Z1 in pen and ink [see explanation below]. With the ex libris of the well-known bibliographer Prof. Dr. W.L. Braekman on the inside of the front board. The very rare original edition of this mathematical treatise, with all plates but Z1 as per the binder's index. Although we were unable to verify this (no copies with plates have been digitised online), we suppose that plate Z1 was finished in pen with all copies, due to the layering of the plate and a description on page 60: "Op de Plaet Z, staat een dobbele Figuur expres ghemaeck en uyt-ghevonden door den Autheur, om dat d'Explicatie deser, van andere Autheurs seer swaer en moeyelick is om te konnen begrijpen en demonstreeren." Moreover, all engraved plates have left a vague imprint on the facing spine of the preceding plate; the plate preceding plate Z1 only has a vague imprint in relief due to the layering of Z1. Both copies (1x edition ca. 1800) in the library of Ghent contain no plates nor binder's index on the reverse of the laudatory poem; two copies in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Delft) do not mention any plates. This raises the suspicion that copies without plates were also published. A lovely quality of this edition consists of the wordplays: the name of the author on the title page (in special diamond shape) and on the poem, which uses each letter of Van Dycke's full name as the first letter of a verse (see images)).