BRONGNIART, Alexandre.

Paris: Chez Deterville... .1807

2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xii, 564; 2 leaves, pp. 443, (1), 16 folding plates on 15 sheets (plates IX and X are on one sheet). Half-titles. Contemporary half calf, spines gilt with red and green morocco labels. Tiny piece chipped from head of spine of volume 2, but a fine set.

FIRST EDITION of the author’s first book. This work was “commissioned as a text-book for [Brongniart’s] and Haüy’s courses at the Faculté des Sciences and the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle. He adopted a simple scheme of classification based mainly on physical properties, but he also made extensive use of Haüy’s crystallographic work... He emphasized the importance of studying the modes of occurrence of minerals as well as their properties, but firmly avoided any discussion of their origins as being too speculative” (DSB).

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