Dédicace

SAGGI DI NATURALI ESPERIENZE

1714 · ST20995 — Naples: Bernardo-Michele Raillard 1714. 343 x 223 mm. 13 1/2 x 8 3/4". 6 p.l. CCLXIX 15 pp. <br/> IMPOSING CONTEMPORARY BROWN MOROCCO EXUBERANTLY GILT covers with painted and gilt frames of floral rolls central panel with elaborate volute cornerpieces large central lozenge formed by myriad leafy gilt vines enclosing a coat of arms containing a three-turreted castle topped by a crown held up by two putti raised bands spine compartments framed by floral roll painted and gilt daisy centerpiece tulip cornerpieces all edges gilt. The Academy's engraved device on title page and 75 ENGRAVED PLATES of scientific instruments and experiments. DSB 9:3; Dibner Herald of Science 82 first edition. Joints with modern wear one short crack at top of rear joint head of spine a bit wormed corners and extremities somewhat rubbed gilt a bit rubbed in spots difficult to tell if some of the decoration is dark because painted or is now missing gilt a couple of leaves slightly browned in the text bed occasional minor foxing more pronounced on a couple of quires other trivial imperfections but an excellent copy--quite clean and fresh internally--in a solid binding still bright with gilt.<br/> <br/> Given its binding and provenance this is a uniquely desirable copy of a significant scientific work: our stately Neapolitan edition of the "Essays on Natural Experiments" is offered here in very animated morocco bearing the arms of the man who paid for its printing and to whom the book is dedicated. That remarkable patron Caesare Michelangelo d'Avalos Marquis of Pescara and Vasto prince of Isernia and Francavilla 1667-1729 was a true Renaissance man who took Machiavelli's "The Prince" as inspiration. He was both a wily political conspirator and a generous patron of the arts and sciences. His palace at Vasto was renowned for the beauty of its furnishings for its splendid art gallery and for its impressive library overseen by the humanist scholar Alessandro Berti. The present volume was a worthy addition to that library with its glowing dedication and its regal binding extravagantly gilt but so tastefully composed that it never crosses the line into ostentatious. <br /> First printed in 1666 "Essays" was produced by the Accademia del Cimento the most significant expression of post-Galilean scientific progress in Italy. Founded in 1657 as the first organization formed for the sole purpose of making scientific experiments the Accademia occupies a singular position in the history of the development of science. Prince Leopold of Tuscany the last exceptional member of the Medici family and his brother Ferdinand who followed the Medici family tradition of patronizing the arts and sciences provided the support free-thinking direction and financial patronage for the Academy. A well-equipped laboratory and an apparently inexhaustible supply of apparatus and materials helped to make the work of the 10 scientists associated with the Academy more sustained and broader in scope than anything that had come before it. W. E. K. Middleton "The Experimenters" According to Thorndike among many other subjects the experiments described here "were concerned with air pressure and freezing; or they aimed to prove that water was incapable of compression and that there was no such thing as lightness or positive levity. Some experiments were magnetic and others electric the latter being chiefly performed with amber. Other subjects investigated were the change of colors in fluids the motion of sound and projectiles." Although no author is given by name the title page of the 1666 first edition indicated that this account was written by the secretary to the academy Lorenzo Magalotti 1637-1712. A pupil of Viviani and a friend of Boyle Magalotti was celebrated for his highly finished colorful almost dramatic descriptions of experiments. DSB notes "He has the distinction . . . of having written the best scientific prose in Italian after that of Galileo.". Bernardo-Michele Raillard unknown