Details
PALISSY, Bernard de (ca. 1510-ca. 1590). Discours admirables, de la nature des eaux et fontaines, tant naturelles qu'artificielles, des metaux, des sels & salines, des pierres, des terres, du feu & des emaux. Paris: Martin le Jeune, 1580.
8o (159 x 106mm). Roman and italic types, woodcut ornaments and capitals. Modern dark blue levant morocco, gilt-ruled covers, gilt spine, edges gilt, by Cuzin.
FIRST EDITION. Palissy, a potter and ceramic artisan, became famous for constructing elaborate "rustic" enamelled earthenware and was appointed (as announced on the titlepage) "inventeur des rustiques figulines du roy." Although he had no formal education, he began lecturing in 1575 on natural history, and "there is little doubt that Palissy was probably one of the first men in France to teach natural sciences from facts, specimens and demonstrations rather than hypotheses" (D.S.B.). The Discours, in the form of a dialogue between "Thorique" and Pratique," is probably based upon these lectures and covers a wide range of subjects including agriculture, alchemy, botany, ceramics, engineering, geology, hydrology, medicine, metallurgy, meteorology, physics, toxicology and zoology. His sections on hydrology and paleaontology are of special interest, for "he was one of the few men of his century to have a correct notion of the origins of rivers and streams" (D.S.B.). An early advocate of the infiltration theory, he described artesian wells and recommended forestation to prevent soil erosion. Through Cardano's De subtilitate Palissy was familiar with Leonardo da Vinci's writings on paleontology in the notebooks; he noted the similarity of fossils to living species and was "one of the first to hold a reasonably correct view of the process of petrification" (D.S.B.). In his eighth section, Palissy investigated the hardness and properties of gems and precious stones. VERY RARE. Not in Adams or BM/STC Italian; Duveen p.446 ("A book of great importance in the history of chemistry and science generally ... Extremely rare"); Rudbeck pp.41-42; Thorndike V, pp.596-599; Norman 1629.
8o (159 x 106mm). Roman and italic types, woodcut ornaments and capitals. Modern dark blue levant morocco, gilt-ruled covers, gilt spine, edges gilt, by Cuzin.
FIRST EDITION. Palissy, a potter and ceramic artisan, became famous for constructing elaborate "rustic" enamelled earthenware and was appointed (as announced on the titlepage) "inventeur des rustiques figulines du roy." Although he had no formal education, he began lecturing in 1575 on natural history, and "there is little doubt that Palissy was probably one of the first men in France to teach natural sciences from facts, specimens and demonstrations rather than hypotheses" (D.S.B.). The Discours, in the form of a dialogue between "Thorique" and Pratique," is probably based upon these lectures and covers a wide range of subjects including agriculture, alchemy, botany, ceramics, engineering, geology, hydrology, medicine, metallurgy, meteorology, physics, toxicology and zoology. His sections on hydrology and paleaontology are of special interest, for "he was one of the few men of his century to have a correct notion of the origins of rivers and streams" (D.S.B.). An early advocate of the infiltration theory, he described artesian wells and recommended forestation to prevent soil erosion. Through Cardano's De subtilitate Palissy was familiar with Leonardo da Vinci's writings on paleontology in the notebooks; he noted the similarity of fossils to living species and was "one of the first to hold a reasonably correct view of the process of petrification" (D.S.B.). In his eighth section, Palissy investigated the hardness and properties of gems and precious stones. VERY RARE. Not in Adams or BM/STC Italian; Duveen p.446 ("A book of great importance in the history of chemistry and science generally ... Extremely rare"); Rudbeck pp.41-42; Thorndike V, pp.596-599; Norman 1629.