PETRUCCI (Gioseffo) - KIRCHER (Athanasius). Prodomo apologetico alli studi Chircheriani. Opera di Gioseffo Petrucci romano, Nella quale con un' apparato di Saggi diversi, si dà prova dell' esquisito Studio ha tenuto il Celebratissimo Padre Atanadio Chircher... Amsterdam : Officine Janssonius Van Waesberge, 1677 . - In-4, 226 x 184: (8 ff.), 200 pp. 8 plates, 1 map. Half brown calf, smooth spine decorated (early 19th century binding). First edition dedicated to Giovanni Federigo de Waldstein. The great erudition and the number of subjects treated by the German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) caused him to be repeatedly attacked from the beginning of the 1670s, especially by skeptical Protestants. It was to respond and defend himself from these attacks that he had his disciple Gioseffo Petrucci publish this Prodromo apologetico alli studi Chircheriani in 1677. Attacking the "envious and strident ignorance of his unjust accusers", Petrucci paints a portrait of Kircher as he wanted to be remembered, namely a judicious experimenter who carefully weighed all the evidence before drawing conclusions. Emphasizing his master's skepticism about natural phenomena, Petrucci presents him as the logical heir to Galileo. Kircher's main works are included in this book, notably his China monumentis published in 1667 on China, Tibet and the Far East, his Oedipus aegyptiacus of 1652-1654 on philosophy and Egyptology, and his Mundus subterraneus of 1665 on geology. The illustration consists of a beautiful allegorical title-frontispiece representing Kircher's omniscience at the end of his life, 14 compositions in the text, of which 10 are engraved in intaglio and 4 are woodcuts, 5 full-page intaglio engravings, as well as 8 plates, 4 of which are folding, and a folding map of southern Africa. These engravings are repeats or re-uses of engravings appearing in Kircher's previously published works, notably the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the pyramids of Egypt, the astonishing representation of a bat with the head of a cat and the torso of a woman, etc. Spine redone, the original one (early 19th century) has been brought back. Skilful restoration to the first folding plate and to the map. Tear without missing at the plate facing page 119. The engraving on page 95 has been glued, and this from the beginning, covering another engraving, the same as the one on page 91, placed here by mistake.