GILBERT, William (1544-1603). De magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure; Physiologia nova, plurimis & argumentis, & experimentis demonstrata . London: Peter Short, 1600. First edition of the first great scientific book printed in England. ‘Gilbert coined the terms "electricity", "electric force" and "electric attraction" and may rightly be considered the founder of electrical science' (PMM). Further, he ‘provided the only fully developed theory dealing with all five of the then known magnetic movements and the first comprehensive discussion of magnetism since the thirteenth-century Letter on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus’ (DSB). De magnete exemplifies pre-Baconian experimental philosophy by supporting new theories with empirically-derived experimental evidence, and these experiments were described in sufficient detail for the reader to recreate them. Gilbert also described his scientific instruments in great detail, including new ones such as the ‘versorium’: the first instrument to be used for the study of electric phenomena. Gilbert observed that the earth was a gigantic magnet and provided a physical basis for the Copernican theory. His work was cited by Digby, Boyle, Kepler and Huygens, and Galileo drew on Gilbertian magnetism to support his belief in a Copernican heliocentric cosmology in his Dialogo . Grolier Science 41; Norman 905; PMM 107; Wheeler Gift 72. Folio (285 x 187mm). Woodcut title device and large woodcut arms on verso, one folding plate, 87 woodcuts in text of which 4 full-page, decorative woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces (minor repairs in first free endpaper and blank space in title, final leaf strengthened in gutter, some spotting and waterstaining). Contemporary vellum, upper cover with ‘I G T C P’ and ‘1604’ stamped in black, manuscript title on spine (rear endpapers renewed, lacking ties, some worming in upper cover). Provenance : Saint Mathias Hospital, Wroclaw (suggested by a 1709 gift inscription) — contemporary underling and annotations — University Library of Vratislavia (Breslau) (early 19th-century circular stamp, library description laid on rear pastedown).
GILBERT, William (1544-1603). De magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure; Physiologia nova, plurimis & argumentis, & experimentis demonstrata . London: Peter Short, 1600. First edition of the first great scientific book printed in England. ‘Gilbert coined the terms "electricity", "electric force" and "electric attraction" and may rightly be considered the founder of electrical science' (PMM). Further, he ‘provided the only fully developed theory dealing with all five of the then known magnetic movements and the first comprehensive discussion of magnetism since the thirteenth-century Letter on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus’ (DSB). De magnete exemplifies pre-Baconian experimental philosophy by supporting new theories with empirically-derived experimental evidence, and these experiments were described in sufficient detail for the reader to recreate them. Gilbert also described his scientific instruments in great detail, including new ones such as the ‘versorium’: the first instrument to be used for the study of electric phenomena. Gilbert observed that the earth was a gigantic magnet and provided a physical basis for the Copernican theory. His work was cited by Digby, Boyle, Kepler and Huygens, and Galileo drew on Gilbertian magnetism to support his belief in a Copernican heliocentric cosmology in his Dialogo . Grolier Science 41; Norman 905; PMM 107; Wheeler Gift 72. Folio (285 x 187mm). Woodcut title device and large woodcut arms on verso, one folding plate, 87 woodcuts in text of which 4 full-page, decorative woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces (minor repairs in first free endpaper and blank space in title, final leaf strengthened in gutter, some spotting and waterstaining). Contemporary vellum, upper cover with ‘I G T C P’ and ‘1604’ stamped in black, manuscript title on spine (rear endpapers renewed, lacking ties, some worming in upper cover). Provenance : Saint Mathias Hospital, Wroclaw (suggested by a 1709 gift inscription) — contemporary underling and annotations — University Library of Vratislavia (Breslau) (early 19th-century circular stamp, library description laid on rear pastedown).
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