JOBLOT, Louis.
Descriptions et Usages de plusieurs nouveaux Microscopes, tant simples que composez; avec de nouvelles observations faites sur une multitude innombrable d’insectes, & d’autres animaux de diverses especes, qui naissent dans des liqueurs préparées, & dans celles qui ne le sont point.
Paris: Chez Jacques Collombat… 1718
2 parts in 1 volume, 4to, pp. (xii), 78; 96, (5), and 34 engraved plates (numbered 1–22 and 1–12) of microscopes and microscopic objects. Woodcut and engraved headpieces, the first page of text is engraved. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label, marbled endpapers. Tip of one lower corner worn, but a fine copy.
FIRST EDITION. The first treatise on protozoa, and the book which established Joblot as the first French microscopist. This is also the first French book on microscopy. It is divided into two parts. The first part describes and illustrates several microscopes and their construction, introducing some improvements, such as stops (diaphragms) in compound microscopes to correct for chromatic aberration. The second part discusses Joblot's microscopical observations concerning mostly protozoa. Leeuwenhoek had observed protozoa previously, but Joblot’s is the earliest treatise on them. In it he described and illustrated a large number of new types. Joblot was apparently the first to carry out experiments on heated infusions to see whether they were capable of producing animalculae, and thus anticipated the work of Spallanzani and Pasteur. Bulloch, History of bacteriology, pp. 29–30 and 70–71: “…exceedingly scarce”. Cole, History of protozoology, p. 15. Clay & Court, History of the microscope, pp. 57–61. This first edition is rare; the book is rather better known by the second edition which appeared as late as 1754. This is a particularly good copy.
£4,200.00
In stock
Unsure of some of these terms? Click here to download a copy of Carter & Barker, ABC for Book Collectors (2006), which has full explanations.