Wynant van Westen Mathematische vermaecklyckheden. Te samen ghevoeght van verscheyden ghenuchlijcke ende boertige werck-stucken . Getranslateert uyt het Fransch in Nederduytsche tale: ende verrijckt, vermeerdert, ende verbetert . door Wynant van Westen, Michiel de Groot Amsterdam 1673 – Rare and complete book on the application of mathematics.A fun book for mathematicians physicists. Contents 3 parts in 1 vol. (XVI), 229, (11), 55, (5), 34, (2) pp. Vellum. With 60 woodcuts. ; Albrecht Heeffer, ‘Récréations Mathématiques (1624) a study on its authorship, sources and influence’ Third Dutch edition of an extensively illustrated seventeenth-century collection of entertaining tricks, problems, riddles and puzzles based on various branches of mathematics, but also covering a wide variety of subjects, such as card tricks, calendar calculations, constructing balance scales, clocks, sun dials, levers and pullies, astronomy, magnetism, surveying, military mechanics, fireworks, conjuring tricks and much more. First published in French at Pont-à-Mousson (Lorraine) in 1624 as Récréations mathematiques, it was translated into Dutch in 1636 based on the 1627 Lyon edition. The 1641 edition added the second and third parts, as in French editions of 1628 and later. It was the first book of recreational mathematics, at the crossroads between the old traditions of practical mercantile arithmetic and ‘natural magic’ (trickery making use of natural phenomena such as magnetism) and the new popular traditions of recreational mathematics and popular science. Heeffer claims the book influenced seventeenth-century natural philosophers and holds a key position in the development of modern popular entertainments based on practical mathematics and physics. The dedication of the first edition is signed H. van Etten, a relative of the dedication, and the book has often been attributed (with little grounds) to his Jesuit teacher Jean Leurechon, but Heefer returned for an attribution to Hanzelet (1596-1647), who engraved the plates for the first edition and was known as an artillery and fireworks master. The continuations of the titles of parts two and three vary slightly from that of part one. Contemporary vellum binding, front internal vellum. Bookblock sound and clean. No tears. Overall, a very good example of this important and rare book. A pivotal book in the development of new attitudes toward mathematics and science and a fascinating guide to recreational mathematics for today’s reader.Cf. Waller 1750/2 and Bierens de Haan 5302. – Collection of popular problems in mathematics and scientific ioco-seria; the third part deals with pyrotechnics. The work is based on Leurechon’s “Recréations mathématiques”