POWER, Henry (1623-1668)
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S| Auctioneer | CHRISTIE'S |
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| Lieu de l'événement | Royaume-Uni, London |
| Commission | see on Website% |
ID 1514445
Lot 181 | POWER, Henry (1623-1668)
Valeur estimée
3000GBP £ 3 000 – 4 000
Experimental philosophy, in three books: containing new experiments microscopical, mercurial, magnetical. London: printed by T. Roycroft, for John Martin and James Allestry, 1664.
First edition of one of the first English texts devoted to microscopy, predating Robert Hooke’s Micrographia by a year. It is both an exploration and a celebration of the ‘minute Bodies and smallest sort of Creatures’ – the flea, the bee, a louse, the seeds of strawberries, etc – whose beauties had previously been overlooked before the advent of microscopic lenses: ‘Ruder heads stand amazed at those prodigious and Colossean pieces of Nature, as Whales, Elephants, and Dromedaries; but in these narrow Engines there is more curious Mathematicks, and the Architecture of these little Fabricks more neatly set forth the wisdom of their Maker’.
The work consists of four parts: the first of which focuses on microscopical experiments, offering detailed descriptions of minute bodies and supporting the atomical or corpuscularian hypothesis—the idea that matter consists of tiny particles. The second book turns to mercurial experiments, inspired by Torricelli’s work on air pressure and vacuums. Here, Power explores phenomena related to what would later become Boyle’s Law, including the relationship between air pressure and volume, and debates surrounding spontaneous generation and the nature of vacuums. The third book examines magnetical experiments, while the fourth is devoted to coal mines, focusing on the quality of air underground and its dangers.
Quarto (194 x 149mm). Typographic head and tailpieces, woodcut initials, illustrations in the text, one folding engraved plate, errata leaf (lacking the imprimatur a1, some spotting, plate with minor tear repaired on verso). Modern library cloth. Provenance: Royal Society of Medicine (ink stamps [Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society] and inscription on title ‘MD S’ dated 1812).
| Lieu d'origine: | Europe du Nord, Europe, Royaume-Uni |
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| Catégorie maison de vente aux enchères: | Médecine et sciences, Livres et manuscrits, Livres imprimés |
| Lieu d'origine: | Europe du Nord, Europe, Royaume-Uni |
|---|---|
| Catégorie maison de vente aux enchères: | Médecine et sciences, Livres et manuscrits, Livres imprimés |
| Adresse de l'enchère |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London Royaume-Uni | |
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| Téléphone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
| Commission | see on Website | |
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