Experimenta Nova. by GUERICKE, Otto Von (1602-1686) - 1672

Amsterdam,: Apud Joannem Janssonium a Waesberge, 1672., 1672. Large 4to. (320 x 208 mm). COLLATION: *4, **4, A-Z4, Aa-Hh4, [errata 1] PAGINATION: [xvi], 244, [6] pp. INCLUDES THE RARE ERRATA LEAF. With engraved frontispiece-title in the earliest state (without the names of Aristotle and Archimedes on the plinths above their heads), engraved portrait of the author, 2 double-page folding engraved plates, and 21 engraved plates in the text (XX plates are numbered, note that plate XVIII occur three times as called for, and plates XIX & XX are part of the same plate, and one plate (p.24) is unnumbered), index; portrait slightly browned. BOUND IN CONTEMPORARY GILT-STAMPED FRENCH CALF OVER BOARDS WITH ARMORIAL CREST of CHARLES DE SAINTE-MAURE, first Duke of Montausier; joints cracked, corners showing, spine ends worn. An attractive, clean copy, completely unrestored. FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSICS OF SCIENCE, BOUND IN ORIGINAL FULL FRENCH CALF WITH ARMORIAL CREST. FROM THE LIBRARY OF CHARLES DE SAINTE-MAURE, WITH HIS ARMORIAL BEARING. "Describes the invention of the air pump and the famous experiment with the Magdeburg hemispheres, in which two teams of eight horses were employed in an attempt to pull apart two copper hemispheres from which the air had been withdrawn. Guericke also describes the invention of the first electrical machine, which generated the first visible and audible electric charges" – Honeyman. / "In 1650 Guericke constructed the first air pump, which he used to create a vacuum in various containers. He showed that sound would not travel in a vacuum, and furthermore that a vacuum would not support combustion or animal life. In 1654 Guericke gave an impressive demonstration in front of the emperor Ferdinand III, of the force of atmospheric pressure. Two identical copper hemispheres 12 feet (3.66 m) in diameter were joined together. When the air was pumped out, 16 horses could not pull them apart although when the air reentered the hemispheres they fell apart by themselves. He also showed that 20 men could not hold a piston in a cylinder once the air had been evacuated from one end of it. In 1663 he built the first electrical friction machine by rotating a sulfur globe against a cloth. The results of these and other experiments were published in his Experimental nova Magdeburgica de vacuo spatio (1672; New Magdeburg Experiments Concerning Empty Space)" – John Daintith, Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. / "Guericke's invention of the air pump grew out of his interest in the nature of space, particularly in Descartes's belief in the equivalence of space and matter and denial of the possibility of vacuum. Guericke suspected otherwise, and, after several false starts, managed to construct a hollow apparatus from which he evacuated the air with a suction pump, thus disproving Descartes's claim and resolving the old controversy between the vacuists and plenists. His discovery of the elasticity of air was the most important result of Guericke's experiments as it led him to investigate the decease of air density with height, to study the variations of air pressure corresponding to changes in weather (from which he was able to make barometric weather forecasts) and to experiment further with the phenomena connected with vacuums, especially the work capacity of air. The famous Magdeburg experiment of 1657, in which two eight-horse teams tried unsuccessfully to pull apart two copper hemispheres from which the air had been exhausted, is illustrated . . . " – Norman. / "Very great advances in our knowledge of physical and chemical states are due to the air-pump. This instrument was invented in 1656 by Otto Von Guericke . . . , burgomaster of Magdeburg in Prussia. With it he gave a convincing demonstration of the force of atmospheric pressure by the ‘Magdeburg hemispheres' which, though easily separable under normal conditions, could not be separated by two teams of eight horses each when he had drawn out the air with his air-pump." – Singer, p. 270. / The magnificent large folding engraved plate depicting Guericke's great public experiment, with the sixteen horses and two hemispheres, is one of the most celebrated and reproduced images in all of science. PROVENANCE: Charles de Sainte Maure (1610-1690) 1st Duke de Montausier, and his wife Julie, the binding showing his cypher with coat-of-arms. According to Sauze, the library apparently contained as many as 1,365 books, "probably dispersed". Charles de Sainte Maure was successively adviser to King Louis XIII, captain, knight of the king's orders, governor of the city of Saint-Jean d'Angely, ambassador to Rome, lieutenant general of upper and lower Poitou, governor of the duchy of Châtellerault, Saintonge , of Angoumois (for more than 10 years) and of Lorraine, minister of state and superintendent of the household of the queen. See: British Library, [book] MANFREDI, Girolamo di, [Libro intitulato il Perche, tradotto di Latino in Italiano, dell'eccellente Medico . . . H. de'Manfredi. . . . Opera . . . di nuovo ristampata, etc.] [[Another edition.] Il novo lume dell'arte overo Il Perche?, opera copiosa di varie cognitioni cioe? osservation per la sanita?. Qualita? de cibi, etc.] (Padova, 1668.) [shelf mark: C47b1]. Exactly the same binding as this Guericke. See [2]: [1] Le Petit, Nicolas (1696-1782). La vie de Monsieur le duc de Montausier: pair de France, gouverneur de monseigneur Louis dauphin, bisayeul du roi a present regnant. Paris, 1729. [2] Sauze de Lhoumeau, Charles (1864-1942), La Bibliothèque de Charles de Sainte-Maure duc de Montausier, Niort, 1893. Mathieu Pellard made an estimation of Charles de Sainte Maure's library in 1671 (before the Guericke was published). FULL TITLE: Ottonis De Guericke Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica De Vacuo Spatio: Primum a R.P. Gaspare Schotto, e Societate Jesu, & Herbipolitanae Academiae Matheseos Professore. Quibus accesserunt simul certa quaedam De Aeris Pondere circa Terram; de Virtutibus Mundanis, & Systemate Mundi Planetario; sicut & de Stellis Fixis, ac Spatio illo Immenso, quod tam intra quam extra eas funditur. REFERENCES: Dibner, Heralds of Science 55; Evans, Exhibition of First Editions of Epochal Achievements in the History of Science, (1934); Grolier-Horblit 44; Heilbron, J. L., Electricity in the 17th & 18th Centuries, pp. 214-218; Honeyman-Sotheby IV, 1565; Krivatsy, NLM-Krivatsy 5074; Neville, Roy G., Historical Chemical Library, p. 556 (stating that copies with both the engraved title & engraved portrait, are rare); Norman 952; Partington, II, 514; Singer, Charles, A Short History of Scientific Ideas to 1900, p. 270; Sparrow, Milestones of Science 90; Wellcome III, p.175; Wheeler Gift 170. See: Daintith, John, Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists, third edition, (2009), p. 313; Parkinson, Breakthroughs, pp. 112-3.