NICHOLSON, William.

A Dictionary of Chemistry, exhibiting the present state of the theory and practice of that science, its application to natural philosophy, the processes of manufactures, metallurgy, and numerous other arts dependent on the properties and habitudes of bodies, in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms.

London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson,1795

2 volumes, 4to, pp. viii, 576; (ii), 577–1132, 4 engraved plates (2 of them double-page tables). Contemporary half diced russia, flat spines gilt with a coronet and the initial N in the lowest compartment, marbled sides and endpapers (short crack in foot of upper joint and tips of lower corners worn of vol. 1). Part of vol. 2 printed on different paper and slightly browned (as usual), dampstain at the bottom of the last 20 leaves and rear endpapers of vol. 1, but a nice set.

FIRST EDITION of Nicholson’s large dictionary of chemistry, “the first dictionary of chemistry by an Englishman, superseding the English translation of Macquer’s dictionary (London, 1771) by the Scot James Keir. Although preferring the antiphlogistic theory of Lavoisier, Nicholson also presents the phlogistic alternative. This work is important for containing one of the earliest English versions of the table of the new chemical nomenclature from the Méthode de nomenclature chimique (Paris, 1787) by Lavoisier et al.” (Neville). Cole 974. Neville II, p. 227. Duveen & Klickstein 137.

£1,800.00

In stock

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