Espargne-Bois C'Est a Dire, Nouvelle Et Parci-Devant Non Commune, ni mise en lumiere, invention de certains et divers fourneaux artificiels. par François Keslar ... Maintenant publiee en françois pour le bien ... de tous ceux qui usent de ceste langue

Oppenheim: Par Iean Theodore dé Bry marchant libraire & bourgeois d'Oppenheim qui est sur le Rhin, 1619. Small quarto (19.5 x 14 cm.), [7], 8-72 pages, five plates engraved on copper, one folding. ~ FIRST FRENCH LANGUAGE EDITION and FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. The first book on individual heating using stoves. A rare work on improvements in fireplaces and stoves, featuring five plates of ornate examples. It was published by the copper engraver and publisher Jean Theodore de Bry (1561-1623), born in Strasbourg, who settled in Oppenheim in 1609. The text was published by the same publisher the previous year in German as part of a larger work by the author and titled Holzsparkunst. Franz Keslar or Kessler (circa 1580 - circa 1630) a painter from Frankfurt, describes several models of heating previously unrecorded in France. Keslar's innovation was a response to the dwindling supply of wood for heating and cooking throughout the Continent, promoting a transition from the use of hearths to the more efficient and controllable stove. Thus the title Espargne-Bois [Wood Saver]. "The model advocated by Keslar was a wood-burning furnace such as is still used today, several tiers high, and 'magnificently decorated, probably to make up for the loss of decoration due to the disappearance of the fireplace... Keslar expresses satisfaction given him by his device: 'When in winter, I often return home feeling cold, I like to warm myself bedside my furnace (rather than before an open fireplace where one is often almost roasted in front while freezing behind)...[with a glowing and agreeable heat'" (Roche, A History of Everyday Things, the Birth of Consumption in France, 1600-1800, page 128). The attractive engravings depict the various types of stoves, two of which are richly decorated individual heaters, in the manner of Alsatian kachelofen [plaid stoves]. ~ A bit of edgewear, and some darkening to text block leaves throughout; plates less toned. In later, quarter brown calf with author's name in gilt to spine; tan paper covered-boards rubbed and abraded at corners. Rare. [OCLC locates six copies (just two in the US); Roche, page 128].