Johann Matthias Beyer: Theatrum machinarum molarium
General subject of the book:
The exterior is brown and leathery and of high quality. It feels wooden and rough, probably because of its age. The side section is designed by vertical sticked out contours in a regular distance between them. The whole side part is decorated by a golden pattern. The title “Mühlen Baukunst” is positioned on the upper part between two of those sticked out contours. The pages have a yellow tan and are dappled, they are stiff and they feel granular. In the main part the pages are two-sided printed, then they always let a side out before the following, printed one comes again. The book is corseted.
Organisation of the book:
Theatrum machniarum molarium contains various chapters about the theme architecture of mills. The main part only includes 124 pages in 25 chapters. After the title page Johann Matthiuas Beyer first speaks to the german empire and generally to the readers. In this part he justifies his work by explaining what it should be useful for. In the following section, the preliminary part, he starts to define mills. For example he differs between actual and unactual mills and so on. Then, in the subindex we find the reference to special terms. Afterward he explains to the reader what Theatrum machniarum molarium actually intends to teach. Beyer talks about realising and evaluating the mills, about trusting in the use of mills. A small part of a few pages of where he got all the informations from follows (reference list). He also includes a big part of “mill rights”. There he deals with questions like the prohibition of building a mill, the rights of rebuilding a mill or of already exisiting mills. This part contains 206 pages in 15 chapters. I see it as the second main part of the work of Johann Matthias Beyer.
Total number of pages and total number of illustrations:
main part: 124 pages in 25 chapters, one illustration at the beginning
The rest of the book contains many illustrations and more than 500 pages.
Size of the book:
Name of the book size: Folio fo./f°
outside height of Folio in centimeters: from 30 centimeters
