MARIOTTE, [Edmé].

Oeuvres… Comprenant tous les Traitez de cet auteur, tant ceux qui avoient déja paru séparément, que ceux qui n’avaoient pas encore été publiez; imprimées sur les exemplaires les plus exacts & les plus complets; revuës & corrigées de nouveau.

A Leide [Leiden]: Chez Pierre Vander Aa… .1717

2 volumes, 4to: pp. (xii), 320; 2 leaves, pp. (321)–566, 1 leaf, pp. 603–701, (35), and 26 folding engraved plates (including no. IV*). Titles printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 2 engravings in the text. Paper rather browned but still fresh. Contemporary English speckled calf, black spines richly gilt in compartments, red morocco labels, a lovely copy. Signature of William Hillary M.D. dated 1723 on front free endpapers, and his armorial bookplate dated 1743 on the pastedowns.

FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, containing all of Mariotte’s published works. Among the most important works in these volumes are his treatise on percussion, the nature of air (“Mariotte’s Law”), radiant heat, colours, hydromechanics (“Marriote’s flask”), vegetation, and his observations on vision. They also contain his previously unpublished Traité du mouvement des pendules, which Huygens possessed in manuscript and gave to the University of Leyden. The introduction contains valuable information on the bibliography of Mariotte, who is credited with introducing experimental physics into France. The first owner of this copy, William Hillary (1697–1763), probably bought it new in Leiden, where he obtained his MD in 1722. He practised in Ripon until 1734 when he moved to Bath, where he had his bookplate engraved. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 217–218.

£2,400.00

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.