From the first organized scientific academy

MAGALOTTI, Lorenzo (editor), ACADEMIA DEL CIMENTO.

Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Accademia del Cimento sotto la protezione del Ser. Principe Leopoldo di Toscana.

Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini, 1666.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Item #001662

Folio (370x250mm), [18], i-cclxix, [17] pp. Half-title, title printed in red and black with engraved alchemical device of the Academy, engraved portrait of Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany by Lotaringus after François Spierre, 75 full-page illustrations of experimental apparatus printed from 30 plates, engraved by Modiana possibly after Stefano della Bella, 30 engraved head- and tailpieces by V. Spada, large woodcut historiated initials, errata leaf and index. Preface and privilege each dated 1667. Very minor spotting, short marginal tears and old repair to gutter of half-title, dedicatory epistle lightly browned, very light marginal dampstain to final leaves. All leaves uncut. Bound in contemporary carta rustica, title in manuscript to spine (spine rubbed with small repair). Provenance: inscription to front pastedown. A fine, unsophisticated copy. ---

Dibner 82; Norman 485; Carli-Favaro 73 (305); Cinti 286 (146); Riccardi II 407. - FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, A VERY GOOD UNSOPHISTICATED COPY, COMPLETE WITH THE RARE PORTRAIT. "The Accademia del Cimento, active from 1657 to 1667, was the first organized scientific academy; the Saggi, a very beautiful and expensively produced work, was its only publication. Established under the patronage of the Grand Dukes Ferdinand I and Leopold of Tuscany, the Accademia was devoted to empirical observation and experimentation, and particularly to the development of the scientific ideas of Galileo. The ten members of the Accademia included some of the most illustrious scientists then in Italy: Vincenzo Viviani, the pupil of Galileo and Torricelli, Giovanni Borelli; Francesco Redi, and Niels Stensen [Steno]; Lorenzo Magalotti, who prepared the Saggi, served as secretary. The members were presided over by Duke Leopold, a talented amateur who devised some of the Accademia's most ingenious instruments and methods, and who provided it with the first well-equipped physical sciences laboratory in Europe. In spite of the short time of its existence, [the Accademia] achieved remarkable results, and exerted an enormous influence on the development of experimental physics all over Europe ... [The Saggi] contains the description of the first true thermometer (as opposed to Galileo's thermo-baroscope), which had its tube for the first time sealed and a graduated scale attached to it ... It describes the first true hygrometer, and an improved barometer, giving also classical experiments on air pressure, experiments on the velocity of sound, radiant heat, phosphorescence, and the first experiments showing the expansion of water in freezing. Of great importance were the experiments on the compressibility of water, discovering at the same time the porosity of silver, and the pendulum experiments, when the deviation of the pendulum from its true plane of oscillation was first discovered, which was afterwards used by Foucault to prove the earth's rotation' (Zeitlinger). "There are two issues of the first edition of the Saggi: the first with the imprint dated 1666, and the second dated a year later; a four-page dedication, addressed to Duke Ferdinand II, was added to the second issue. The portrait of Duke Leopold was added to only part of the edition, and is often lacking" (Norman Catalogue). In this copy, the portrait is likely from a large paper copy as it was trimmed to fit the size of the uncut pages.

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