Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’ Accademia del Cimento - photo 1
Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’ Accademia del Cimento - photo 2
Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’ Accademia del Cimento - photo 3

Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’ Accademia del Cimento

Lot 56
27.01.2023 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 887829
Lot 56 | Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’ Accademia del Cimento
Estimate value
$ 4 500 – 6 000
[MAGALOTTI, Lorenzo (1637–1712)] ACCADEMIA DEL CIMENTO. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell’ Accademia del Cimento sotto la protezione del serenissimo principe Leopoldo di Toscana e descritte dal segretario di essa Accademia. Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini, 1666.

First edition, first issue, of one of the classics of experimental science, giving a detailed description of the Torricellian experiments and many others, and important as "the first report from what we would now call a research laboratory" (Middleton).

The Accademia was founded in 1657, five years before the Royal Society of London, by Galileo’s most famous pupils, Evangelista Torricelli and Vincenzo Viviani, under the patronage of Ferdinand II de Medici and his brother Prince Leopold, specifically to extend the work of Galileo by making scientific experiments which would demonstrate the folly of continued opposition to the new science. The main experimenters were Borelli, Redi, and Viviani, but other early members included Steno and Cassini. "They worked together at experimentation of all sorts and eschewed speculative thinking. Together they worked out new research methods, invented new instruments, and devised better standards of measurement ... Many regard this collaborative work as the beginning of modern physics" (Leonard Bruno, The Tradition of Science). The text, which has been much admired for its style, was written over a period of several years by the poet Count Lorenzo Magalotti, secretary to the society. Experiments were conducted on air pressure, the speed of sound, radiant heat, phosphorescence, magnetism, amber and other electric bodies, the compressibility of water and its expansion on freezing, and the discovery of the plane of oscillation of a pendulum. The plates were engraved by Modiana, possibly after drawings by Stefano della Bella. Among the instruments illustrated are the Florentine thermometer and an improved barometer. The Accademia’s scientific apparatus is still preserved in the science museum of Florence.

Printing began in 1664, but was not completed until October 1667, although a few copies, like the present one, have a title page dated 1666. Copies of the book were not sold through the bookshops, but only sent out as gifts to friends and colleagues of the patrons. 800 copies were printed but Middleton believes the numbers of distributed copies were far fewer, as the printers spoiled many copies. Middleton 1; Dibner 82; Riccardi II 407; Norman 485. See W. E. Knowles Middleton, The Experimenters: A Study of the Accademia del Cimento, 1971.

Folio (343 x 225 mm). Half-title, engraved portrait of Ferdinand II by Franciscus Spierre, title in red and black with engraved device, 75 full-page engraved plates, and numerous head and tailpieces, many containing illustrations of apparatus, errata (the two dedication leaves browned, repair to margin of tail-piece at end of introduction). Eighteenth-century Italian cat’s-paw mottled sheep binding, spine with gilt floral tools and red morocco label, green silk page marker (a touch rubbed at extremities, a few scratches). Provenance: Jacobi Cerruti (19th-century ex-libris on front pastedown).
Place of origin:Italy
Auction house category:Medicine & science, Books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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13.01.2023 – 27.01.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
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