MACQUER, [Pierre Joseph].
Dictionnaire de Chymie, contenant la théorie et la pratique de cette science, son application à la physique, à l’histoire naturelle, à la médecine, & aux arts dépendans de la chymie. Seconde édition, revue & considérablement augmentée.
A Paris: Chez P. Fr. Didot jeune,… [i.e. 1778?].1777
3 volumes, small 8vo, pp. xxxii, 747; 1 leaf, pp. (3)–660; 1 leaf, pp. (3)–510, (2) blank. Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt in compartments, brown and green morocco labels, marbled endpapers, speckled edges. Some wear to ends of spines and corners, fore-edge of upper cover of vol. 3 worn, otherwise a good set.
A pirated reprint of the authorised second edition of 1778, which was expanded to nearly twice the size of the first edition with an up-to-date account of chemistry and much new material. 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 867. DSB, VIII, pp. 618–624. Duveen p. 377. See Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1766. Neville pp. 113–114: “Published without the index and the account of the order in which the articles should be read but with Didot’s imprint on the title pages. The date is clearly incorrect, for the text is copied from the Didot octavo and carries a reference to Macquer’s observation of 17 March 1778…”
£800.00
In stock
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