R.P. FAMIANI STRADAE ROMANI E SOCIETATE JESU ELOQUENTIA BIPARTITA. PARS PRIOR. PROLUSIONES ACADEMICAS SIVE PROLIXIORES EXHIBET. . . . PARS ALTERA PARADIGMATA ELOQUENTIAE, EX HISTORIA BELGICA

Oxoniæ: typis Guil. Hall, impensis Rich. Davis, 1662. Full Leather. Good binding. . . . . Pars prior prolusiones academicas, sive prolixiores exhibet orationes, ad facultatem oratoriam, poëticam, historicamque spectantes: altera paradigmata eloquentiæ brevioris proponit, usui futura imitaturis ad dicendam breviter quacunque de re sententiam, non solum rhetorices studiosis sed & principibus, belli ducibus, legatis atque consiliariis in consessu magnatum apte, breviter & nervose efferendi. Excerpta ex decade prima & secunda historiæ de bello belgico ejusdem auctoris. 4.75" x 3". 12mo. [36], 564 pp. Collates complete against Madan: A6, B-Bb12, Cc6. "Paradigma eloquentiae, ex historia belgica:" has separate dated title page, with imprint "typis W. Hall", on leaf X12r. Bound in 18th century speckled calf with gold border around the perimeter of the covers. Chipping at the head of the spine with some loss; leather separated at the front joint, but board remains solid. Strada is perhaps most known for his "De Bello Belgico decades duae, 1555-1590," but Prolusiones Academicas (first separately published in 1617) is a notable work by the Roman Jesuit. Madan identifies contents of note, including "a sort of anticipation of the telegraph and telephone." Of this, Addison, in the Spectator (No. 241), recounts Strada's idea: "Strada, in one of his prolusions, gives an account of a chimerical correspondence between two friend by the help of a certain loadstone, which had such virtue in it, that if it touched two several needles when one of the needles so touched began to move, the other, though at never so great a distance, moved at the same time. . . ." He continues with the details at some length (quoted in William Tegg's, "Posts & Telegraphs, Past and Present," p.147-8). Tegg concludes, "If the science of electricity had been a little better known to Strada, he could scarcely have failed to have given the world the advantage of a telegraphic communication two centuries ago" (p.148-9). Of additional note, a petition of the Societas Typographorum addressed to poets and amateur printers who were thought to be undermining the professional printers. Text in Latin. ESTC R21930; Madan III, 2615.