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Details
OTTO VON GUERICKE (1602-86)
Experimenta nova (ut vocantur) magdeburgica de vacuo spatio. Amsterdam: Jan Janszsoon van Waesbergen, 1672. 2° (309 x 192mm). Woodcut title-vignette. Engraved additional title, portrait, 2 folding plates and 20 illustrations, 7 full-page, letterpress tables in the text, woodcut initials. Errata leaf. (Variable light browning, a few leaves lightly marked, light dampstaining affecting the margins and side-notes of a few leaves, small tear on Q3.) Contemporary calf, the spine gilt in compartments and lettered in one (a little rubbed causing minor losses at edges, neatly rebacked).
FIRST EDITION. DUPUY'S COPY OF 'A BOOK OF PRIME IMPORTANCE IN ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY, AIR-PRESSURE AND THE VACUUM PUMP' (Dibner 55). Experimenta nova is best known for the descriptions of Guericke's work on vacuums, using the air-pump that he had invented; the most dramatic experiment is that described on p.104, the famous 'Magdeburg experiment' (first performed in Regensburg in 1654) in which Guericke harnessed two teams of eight horses to opposite sides of two joined hemispheres from which the air had been evacuated, and showed that the sphere could not be pulled apart until air had been re-introduced into it. Another experiment detailed the sparks of static electricity created when a rotating sulphur sphere was rubbed; although von Guericke did not recognize it as such, he had in effect created a machine capable of generating electricity.
This copy is notable for its provenance: Dupuy trained as a lawyer, and successively held the positions of King's counsellor, advocate general in the grand conseil and maître des requêtes. In 1725 he was appointed intendant of the French colony of Nouvelle-france (later part of Canada), and he took up the position in 1726. Despite his undoubted abilities, Dupuy was recalled to France in 1728, because of his turbulent relationship and frequent disputes with Charles de Beauharnois de La Boische, the governor of Nouvelle-france. In parallel with an administrative and legal career, Dupuy pursued his scientific studies, particularly in the field of hydraulics; these areas were well-represented in his library of more than 1,000 volumes, and von Guericke's work would have been an essential reference for these researches. On his return to France, Dupuy dedicated himself to scientific pursuits, and designed a number of pumps which attracted informed attention for their ingenuity; the citation for one which was included in the 'Machines et inventions approuvées par l'Académie' in 1740 reads: 'Une pompe de seu Mr. du Puys, Maître des Requêtes. On a trouvé par l'expérience, que son produit étoit du moins aussi grand que celui d'aucune autre pompe qui eût été vue par l'Académie, qu'elle étoit estimable par son simplicité & par l'avantage de pouvoir être aisément transportée par-tout à peu de frais, n'étant que de bois, qu'enfin elle étoit très bonne' (Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciènces MDCCXL (Amsterdam: 1745), p.151). Dupuy died at the Chateau de Cercé in 1738, where he had been invited in order to devise a scheme to pump out the waters filling the mines at Pontpéan. Dibner Heralds (1980) 55 and [55]; Grolier Science 44; Norman 952; Sparrow Milestones of Science 90; Waller 11354.
Experimenta nova (ut vocantur) magdeburgica de vacuo spatio. Amsterdam: Jan Janszsoon van Waesbergen, 1672. 2° (309 x 192mm). Woodcut title-vignette. Engraved additional title, portrait, 2 folding plates and 20 illustrations, 7 full-page, letterpress tables in the text, woodcut initials. Errata leaf. (Variable light browning, a few leaves lightly marked, light dampstaining affecting the margins and side-notes of a few leaves, small tear on Q3.) Contemporary calf, the spine gilt in compartments and lettered in one (a little rubbed causing minor losses at edges, neatly rebacked).
FIRST EDITION. DUPUY'S COPY OF 'A BOOK OF PRIME IMPORTANCE IN ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY, AIR-PRESSURE AND THE VACUUM PUMP' (Dibner 55). Experimenta nova is best known for the descriptions of Guericke's work on vacuums, using the air-pump that he had invented; the most dramatic experiment is that described on p.104, the famous 'Magdeburg experiment' (first performed in Regensburg in 1654) in which Guericke harnessed two teams of eight horses to opposite sides of two joined hemispheres from which the air had been evacuated, and showed that the sphere could not be pulled apart until air had been re-introduced into it. Another experiment detailed the sparks of static electricity created when a rotating sulphur sphere was rubbed; although von Guericke did not recognize it as such, he had in effect created a machine capable of generating electricity.
This copy is notable for its provenance: Dupuy trained as a lawyer, and successively held the positions of King's counsellor, advocate general in the grand conseil and maître des requêtes. In 1725 he was appointed intendant of the French colony of Nouvelle-france (later part of Canada), and he took up the position in 1726. Despite his undoubted abilities, Dupuy was recalled to France in 1728, because of his turbulent relationship and frequent disputes with Charles de Beauharnois de La Boische, the governor of Nouvelle-france. In parallel with an administrative and legal career, Dupuy pursued his scientific studies, particularly in the field of hydraulics; these areas were well-represented in his library of more than 1,000 volumes, and von Guericke's work would have been an essential reference for these researches. On his return to France, Dupuy dedicated himself to scientific pursuits, and designed a number of pumps which attracted informed attention for their ingenuity; the citation for one which was included in the 'Machines et inventions approuvées par l'Académie' in 1740 reads: 'Une pompe de seu Mr. du Puys, Maître des Requêtes. On a trouvé par l'expérience, que son produit étoit du moins aussi grand que celui d'aucune autre pompe qui eût été vue par l'Académie, qu'elle étoit estimable par son simplicité & par l'avantage de pouvoir être aisément transportée par-tout à peu de frais, n'étant que de bois, qu'enfin elle étoit très bonne' (Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciènces MDCCXL (Amsterdam: 1745), p.151). Dupuy died at the Chateau de Cercé in 1738, where he had been invited in order to devise a scheme to pump out the waters filling the mines at Pontpéan. Dibner Heralds (1980) 55 and [55]; Grolier Science 44; Norman 952; Sparrow Milestones of Science 90; Waller 11354.
Provenance
Claude-Thomas Dupuy (1678-1738, inkstamps on title and A1r).
John Eliot Hodgkin F.S.A. (d.1912, antiquarian, collector and author, bookplate). sale; Sotheby's, 14 May 1914, lot 652 (to Maggs).
Gustavus Wynne Cook (bookplates).
Franklin Institute Library, Philadelphia (bookplate and booklabel recording Gustavus Wynne Cook's gift), sale; Sotheby's, New York, 2 November 1977, lot 128.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 27 September 1988, lot 194 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. Y-35).
John Eliot Hodgkin F.S.A. (d.1912, antiquarian, collector and author, bookplate). sale; Sotheby's, 14 May 1914, lot 652 (to Maggs).
Gustavus Wynne Cook (bookplates).
Franklin Institute Library, Philadelphia (bookplate and booklabel recording Gustavus Wynne Cook's gift), sale; Sotheby's, New York, 2 November 1977, lot 128.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 27 September 1988, lot 194 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. Y-35).
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