Esperienze fisico-meccaniche sopra varj soggetti contenenti un racconto di diversi stupendi fenomeni intorno la luce e l'elettricità producibile dallo strofinamento de' corpi. Con molte altre notabili apparenze non mai prima osservate. Colle spiegazioni di tutte le macchine. Opera di F. Hauksbee della Società Regia tradotta dall'idioma inglese

“ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EARLY WORKS ON ELECTRICITY” (DUVEEN)

4to (237x171 mm). [16], 162, [2] pp. and 8 engraved plates, 1 unnumbered placed between pp. 52/53 and 7 at the end numbered in roman numerals, of which 3 are folding. Woodcut decorative initials, head- and tail-pieces. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt spine with lettering piece, sprinkled edges (worn and rubbed). Light marginal stain at the beginning and at the end of the volume, first plate browned, all in all a good copy.

FIRST ITALIAN EDITION, the second of this work after the original English edition of 1709. This was the first translation of it to appear as the French version was published only in 1754. This Italian edition was “the version chiefly read in France [and] used by the pioneer electrician, C. F. de Cisternay Dufay” (DSB, VI, p. 175).

“Hauksbee's important experiments on electroluminescence, static electricity, and capillarity, described in the present work, mark the beginning of sustained experimentation in the field of electricity. He was the first to demonstrate the optical effects produced by the passage of electricity through rarified air. His demonstration of the efficacy of glass in producing frictional electricity opened the way from the work of Gray, Dufay and Franklin, and his discoveries in capillarity (he was the first adequately to explore the subject) influenced Laplace nearly one hundred years later. Hauksbee performed many of his experiments at the suggestion of Isaac Newton, from whom Hauksbee learned the theoretical import of some of his discoveries; in turn, Hauksbee's results influenced Newton's revisions and additions in the new editions of his Principia and Optiks” (Norman, 1020).

Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\PUVE\004383; Duveen (I), pp. 281-282; Mottelay, pp. 149-150; Dibner, pp. 16-19.

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