[BINET (Étienne). Essay des merveilles de nature, et des plus nobles artifices. Rouen, Charles Osmont, 1644. In-8, limp vellum, later title page (contemporary binding). A very interesting popular encyclopaedia compiled by the Jesuit polygrapher Étienne Binet (1569-1639) and published from 1621 in Rouen under the assumed name of René François, the king's preacher. The chapters deal with hunting, architecture, shipping, goldsmithing, metallurgy, duelling and firearms, printing, heraldry, medicine, dyeing, gardening, music, eloquence and more. This reprint of the ninth edition is illustrated with a number of woodcut figures in the text. From the libraries of Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), Bishop of Salisbury, with bookplate; Lord Cowper, with bookplate at Panshanger Park; and Marc Lowe, with dry stamp. Browning to margins of a few leaves. Thiébaud, 94.