Le mécanisme de la parole, suivi de la description d'une machine parlante et enrichie de XXVII planches.
Vienne, Bauer & se trouve chez J. V. Degen, 1791. *** First edition. "Mechanism of Human Speech with the Description of a Speaking Machine". Illustrated by a portrait and 26 plates. This book has been published in French and in German at the same time. The French version seems the rarest of two. Illustrated by a portrait and 26 engraved plates. Provenance : Giovanni Battista Costardi (signature). Director of the institute for deaf-mutes, in Milano, from 1847 to 1861. " While the Turk the Chess-player was constructed in six months since Kempelen promised it to Her Majesty Maria Theresa, the construction of the speaking machine demanded more than twenty years and still he could not consider it to be finished. This machine had to produce the letters and syllables, even the words and short sentences almost in every European language. Related to the work a treatise was published by J. V. Degen in Vienna in 1791 in German and French titled Le Méchanisme de la parole, suivi de la description d'une machine parlante (Mechanism of Human Speech with the Description of a Speaking Machine), which proves, that Kempelen's speaking machine was neither a mystification nor a mechanical toy, while the principle, which underlied a construction of a chess automaton still remained unknown. In any case the book Mechanism of Human Speech confirmed outstanding Kempelen's capacities to reason profoundly in abstract philosophical concepts and to affiliate them with exact technological and constructional thinking. (...) Nonetheless, the extensive treatise Mechanism of Human Speech by W. von Kempelen represents a unique work in the history of phonetics, which profoundly influenced later development of the science of sonic aspect of language and which thus deserves as great publicity as possible. (...) Kempelen's machine was not in fact a " speaking machine " in a real sense of the word, but a mechanism for production of speech sounds, words even sentences. An accurate hearing was needed to operate the machine, because vocals and many consonants had to be continually controlled. A degree of openess of a mouth cavity and the period of oscillations of a sound with consonants were not mechanically determined. (...) Kempelen's speaking machine may be interpreted as a cognitive model. Disregarding purely psychical components following parts (stages) may be identified in a communicative process: neurophysiological, organogenetical (articulative), auditorial (external, middle and internal ear) and again neurophysiological (competent sections of central nervous system) in perception. Kempelen's machine serves as a model for articulatory and partly acoustic stage, and his significance resides especially in this double modelling. A pure articulatory modelling would not possess a genuine scientific value, it would be simply only an imitation of observed articulatory processes. Acoustic modelling uncovered a relevance of properties of cavities and provided a scientific information on speech processes." (Slavomir Ondrejovic). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *** Edition originale, très rare. Le livre a été publié dans le même temps en français et en allemand. Illustré d'un portrait et de 26 planches hors-texte. Kempelen (1734-1804) établit la première monographie sur la synthèse du langage et décrit par le menu la première machine parlante basée sur une étude élaborée de la voix humaine. Cette version française semble beaucoup plus rare que celle en allemand. Provenances : - Giovanni Battista Costardi (signature). Directeur de l' Istituto Milanese di Stato per sordomuti de 1847 à 1861. Il est l'auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur les sourds-muets : ("Dissertazione didattico-scientifica sulle cause che ritardarono finora il progresso e perfezionamento dell'arte d'istruire i sordomuti, 1858"). Un cachet très pâle sur le titre. Bon exemplaire. *** In-8 de Portrait, XII, 464, (4) pp., 26 planches hors-texte. Demi-basane brune, dos à nerfs orné. (Reliure du début du XIXe.) - -. Item #15733
Price: 8,000.00 €