Item #003678 De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus. Nicolaus STENO, Nils STENSEN.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.

De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.

Florence: Typographia sub signo Stellae, 1669.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003678

4to (198 x 154 mm). [2], 78, [2] pp. Title printed in red and black and with engraved vignette; folding plate with engraved diagram and folding explanatory letterpress, final errata leaf, woodcut initial, head- and tailpieces. Bound in 20th century blindstamped calf, spine with 5 raised bands and some gilt tooling, new endpapers (minor rubbing of extremities). Very little age toning and faint small dampstain to top blank margin of first 4 ff., but in all very crisp and clean throughout. Provenance: bookplate to front pastedown monogrammed "KEH". ----

FIRST EDITION of this "Early foundation work in geology, with introduction of observational methods and statements on the sedimentary origin of rock and the effects of faulting and erosion" (Horblit).
"Nicolaus Steno (Niels Stensen), the Danish geologist and anatomist, travelled extensively in Europe before settling in Florence as physician to the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. [...] The ancient belief that fossils are merely imitative forms of natural organisms produced by a 'plastic force' in the earth had first been challenged by Leonardo da Vinci, who declared that fossil shells are in fact remains of organisms that once lived. Fracastoro had similar ideas and Agricola did work on the same lines. But the greatest advance in this field is due to Steno. In 'A Dissertation concerning a Solid Body' he described the composition of the earth's crust in Tuscany and a famous diagram in his book shows six successive types of stratification: the first attempt ever made to represent geological sections. This was a sequence which he believed would be found all over the world. He explained the true origin of fossils found in the earth as being remains of once living things and he discriminated between the volcanic, chemical and mechanical modes of the origin of the rocks. He was the first clearly to recognize that the strata of the earth's crust contain the records of a chronological sequence of events from which the history of the earth can be reconstructed. He attempted to find the principles of stratigraphy. Seeing that most strata had not remained in their horizontal position, he attributed their disturbance and tilting to the collapse of cavernous spaces below them and to volcanic action. He deduced that these changes in the original position of the strata are the real causes of the unevenness of the earth's surface. This was in direct contradiction to the accepted belief that mountains had existed ever since the beginning of things or had simply grown. He also recognized that some mountains had been shaped by denudation and explained how one of the effects of the dislocation of the strata was the opening of fissures through which water could escape, the origin of springs. Like those of other investigators before him, Steno's conclusions were sometimes stultified by the theological conviction that the earth could not be more than six thousand years old and that the fossils had been chiefly deposited during or since the deluge. As Steno turned towards religion, such theological concepts prevented him from further developing his theory, which might have led to charges of heresy, and he virtually abandoned scientific studies in later life. In spite of such limitations his book marks a great advance in geology and it cleared the path for the modem sciences of palaeontology and geology as they were gradually established by Leibniz, Lamarck and particularly by James Hutton. [...] The De Solido was intended only as an introduction to a larger work; but this was never written" (PMM).
References: PMM, Printing and the Mind of Man, 151; Horblit 96; Sparrow 185; Dibner 90; Norman 2013. - Visit our website to see more images!

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