Opera mechanica, geometrica, astronomica et miscellanea

Decorative horizontal printer's ornament consisting of repeating floral/scroll patterns.

Decorative drop cap 'I' featuring floral scrollwork.I have always been convinced that those who collect the scattered writings of learned men perform a great service to literature: and by placing lesser works, which might otherwise perish, into a larger volume, they provide a sort of gift to posterity.

For this reason, when the booksellers of this city, Jansonius van der Aa, declared to me their intention to publish the work of Huygens on the Horologium Oscillatorium Oscillatory Clock, which was once published in Paris, and asked what I thought of this, I advised them not only to persevere in their plan, but to add all the lesser works of the same author that had been published previously.