BOYLE, Robert (1627-1691). The Aerial Noticula; or, Some new phenomena and a process of a factitious self-shining substance, London: by Tho. Snowden, to be sold by Nath. Ranew, 1680, small 8°, FIRST EDITION (title perforated and stamped on verso, also dampstained, detached and frayed at margins, preliminaries and some other leaves detached and dampstained, lacking final blank, H8; New Experiments and Observations made upon the Icy Nocticula ... to which is annexed a chymical paradox, London: by R.E. for B. Tooke, 1681/2, small 8°, FIRST EDITION (virtually disbound, lacking blank A1, two leaves, K5 and K8, cleanly torn, some soiling of final leaves), 2 works in one volume, contemporary calf (spine broken, stitching perished). [Fulton 138 & 139; Duveen p. 96 (I); Honeyman 476 (I); Wing B3925 & B3995] Provenance: JCL

Details

BOYLE, Robert (1627-1691). The Aerial Noticula; or, Some new phenomena and a process of a factitious self-shining substance, London: by Tho. Snowden, to be sold by Nath. Ranew, 1680, small 8°, FIRST EDITION (title perforated and stamped on verso, also dampstained, detached and frayed at margins, preliminaries and some other leaves detached and dampstained, lacking final blank, H8; New Experiments and Observations made upon the Icy Nocticula ... to which is annexed a chymical paradox, London: by R.E. for B. Tooke, 1681/2, small 8°, FIRST EDITION (virtually disbound, lacking blank A1, two leaves, K5 and K8, cleanly torn, some soiling of final leaves), 2 works in one volume, contemporary calf (spine broken, stitching perished). [Fulton 138 & 139; Duveen p. 96 (I); Honeyman 476 (I); Wing B3925 & B3995] Provenance: JCL

Lot Essay

Two tracts dealing with the phenomenon of spontaneous luminescence and phosphorence. Having witnessed the wandering showman, J.D. Krafft, demonstrate his kalte Feuer to Charles II, Boyle "was led to isolate phosphorus which had been independently isolated by the German chemist K. Brand (or Brandt) in 1667. Boyle then published his two celebrated tracts, the first on Aerial Noticula as he called it -- the 'stuff' that gives fireflies their glow -- and Icy Noticula, which he believed to be phosphorus itself" (Fulton).

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