GILBERT, William.

Tractatus sive Physiologia Nova De Magnete, Magnetisque corporibus et magno magnete Tellure Xex Libris comprehensus...Omnia nunc diligenter recognita & emendatius quam ante in lucem edita, aucta & figuris illustrata operâ & studio Wolfgangi Lochmans.

Engraved title, 12 engraved plates (two folding), & woodcut illus. in the text. 10 p.l., 115, (1) blank, 116–232 pp., 17 leaves. 4to, modern mottled calf (original paper flaw in Q3 affecting two words of a side note, pale dampstain in upper corner throughout, wormhole in upper margin of last 40 leaves and plates), single gilt fillet round sides, spine richly gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Stettin: Typis Götzianis Sumptibus Authoris, 1628. Second edition (the first published on the Continent) of the first work of experimental physics published in England. “Gilbert, physician to Elizabeth I, gathered all known opinions relating to the magnet and put them to the test of experiment, thereby being the first to initiate the experimental method of science. He treated the attractive power of magnets, their orientation to the earth’s poles, variation and declination, use in navigation and proposed that the earth itself was a large magnet…Book II is devoted exclusively to electrical phenomena, the first ever published” (Dibner). For a full appreciation of Gilbert and this extraordinary book, see Stephen Pumfrey, Latitude & the Magnetic Earth (2002). This copy belonged to Henry Oldenburg (ca. 1619–77), founding member and secretary of the Royal Society, and founder of the Philosophical Transactions. As Oldenburg did not leave his home town of Bremen until 1641, he may have acquired this book while still there. Oldenburg’s signature is found on the lower margin of the engraved title. This issue was published at the expense of the author. Another issue exists with the imprint “Typis Götzianis Sumptibus Joh: Hallervordii.” Both issues are considerably rarer than the first edition. This copy has 10 preliminary leaves and the final errata leaf; some copies (e.g. the Norman copy) have only 8 preliminary leaves and no errata leaf. A fine copy. ❧ Norman catalogue 906 (Hallervord issue). See PMM 107, Dibner 54, Horblit 41, etc., for the first edition of 1600.

• USD 9,500.00 > otras divisas
• nº de pedido: HillBibl-1882

• librero: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (USA)