Details
LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent. Traité élémentaire de chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d'après les découvertes modernes. Paris: [Chardon for] Cuchet, 1789.
2 volumes, 8o (195 x 120 mm). Half-titles, 2-page errata at end, 2 letterpress folding tables in vol. I, 13 finely engraved folding plates by and after the author's wife, Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier, woodcut head- and tailpieces by Papillon, inserted portrait of Lavoisier in vol. I. (Some pale browning.) Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt (vol. II rebacked preserving original spine, few other repairs); in 2 red quarter morocco slipcases.
FIRST EDITION, second issue, of THE "CULMINATION OF LAVOISIER'S ACHIEVEMENT" (DSB). The Traité de chimie swept away the last remants of alchemy, did away with the phlogiston theory that had hindered the progress of chemistry in the 18th-century and laid the foundation for modern chemistry. "Neither a general reference work nor a technical monograph, this small work was a succinct exposition of Lavoisier's discoveries (and those of his disciples) and an introduction to the new way of approching chemistry" (DSB). In it Lavoisier set forth his major contributions to chemistry: He established the concept of the conservation of matter, by proving that compound bodies represent the combined weight of the simple substances of which they are composed. He summarized and refined the work begun in his Méthode de nomenclature chimique (1787), reforming chemical nomenclature, introducing the modern definition of elements and compounds, and reducing his earlier list of 55 elements to 33, which are all still recognized today. Finally, he showed combustion and rusting to be the result of chemical combinations with oxygen, in the process overthrowing the phlogiston theory. His extensive use of the chemical balance furthermore established the necessity of accurate measurements for chemical researches.
The illustrations for this edition were conceived and executed by Lavoisier's wife, a skilled painter and engraver who had studied under Louis David, and who collaborated with her husband in his scientific experiments and researches. The second issue contains tables and several extracts from the registers of the Acadimie des Sciences and other learned societies, not included in the single-volume first or trial issue, of which only two copies are known. Dibner Heralds of Science 43; Duveen and Klickstein 154; Grolier/Horblit 64; Norman 1295; PMM 238; Wellcome III, p.460. (2)
2 volumes, 8o (195 x 120 mm). Half-titles, 2-page errata at end, 2 letterpress folding tables in vol. I, 13 finely engraved folding plates by and after the author's wife, Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier, woodcut head- and tailpieces by Papillon, inserted portrait of Lavoisier in vol. I. (Some pale browning.) Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt (vol. II rebacked preserving original spine, few other repairs); in 2 red quarter morocco slipcases.
FIRST EDITION, second issue, of THE "CULMINATION OF LAVOISIER'S ACHIEVEMENT" (DSB). The Traité de chimie swept away the last remants of alchemy, did away with the phlogiston theory that had hindered the progress of chemistry in the 18th-century and laid the foundation for modern chemistry. "Neither a general reference work nor a technical monograph, this small work was a succinct exposition of Lavoisier's discoveries (and those of his disciples) and an introduction to the new way of approching chemistry" (DSB). In it Lavoisier set forth his major contributions to chemistry: He established the concept of the conservation of matter, by proving that compound bodies represent the combined weight of the simple substances of which they are composed. He summarized and refined the work begun in his Méthode de nomenclature chimique (1787), reforming chemical nomenclature, introducing the modern definition of elements and compounds, and reducing his earlier list of 55 elements to 33, which are all still recognized today. Finally, he showed combustion and rusting to be the result of chemical combinations with oxygen, in the process overthrowing the phlogiston theory. His extensive use of the chemical balance furthermore established the necessity of accurate measurements for chemical researches.
The illustrations for this edition were conceived and executed by Lavoisier's wife, a skilled painter and engraver who had studied under Louis David, and who collaborated with her husband in his scientific experiments and researches. The second issue contains tables and several extracts from the registers of the Acadimie des Sciences and other learned societies, not included in the single-volume first or trial issue, of which only two copies are known. Dibner Heralds of Science 43; Duveen and Klickstein 154; Grolier/Horblit 64; Norman 1295; PMM 238; Wellcome III, p.460. (2)