MACQUER, Pierre Joseph.
Dictionnaire de Chymie, contenant la théorie & la pratique de cette science, son application à la physique, à l’histoire naturelle, à la médecine à l’economie animale; avec l’explication détaillée de la vertu & de la maniere d’agir des médicamens chymiques. Et les principes fondamentaux des arts, manufactures & métiers dépendans de la chymie.
A Paris: Chez Lacombe,… .1766
2 volumes, small 8vo, pp. xxiv, 616; 1 leaf, pp. (3)–688. Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt in compartments with two red morocco labels, marbled endpapers, red edges (a few wormholes or short wormtracks in spines and lower covers, top of spine of vol. 2 chipped). A few gatherings printed on different paper and lightly browned, but a good set.
Second (first pirated) edition of the first modern chemical dictionary. Although technical dictionaries had appeared earlier, this was the first attempt to cover the whole field of chemistry, pure and applied, in an encyclopaedic manner. The 26-page introduction traces the progress of chemistry from its origins to the time of Stahl and Boerhaave. The book was an immediate success and it was several times reprinted and translated; it produced many imitators. There are substantial entries for glass and wine. Cole 864. DSB, VIII, pp. 618–624. Partington III, pp. 80–90. Neville pp. 112–113. This rare pirated edition appeared in the same year as the first; Cole examined 11 copies dated 1766 but none was of this edition. See Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1766.
£900.00
In stock
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