THE FIRST CATALOGUE WITH METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS

(D'ALENCÉ (DALANCÉ), JOACHIM).

Traittez des Barométres, Thermométres, et Notiométres, et ou Hygrométres

Amsterdam, Henry Wetstein, 1688.

Small8vo. In contemporary full vellum with title in contemporary hand to spine. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Light wear to extremities, internally nice and clean. (10), 139, (5) pp. + frontispiece and 34 plates (wanting 1 plate).


First edition of this beautifully illustrated work, depicting the different instruments in baroque interiors and in pictorial landscapes, engraved by A. Schoonebeck.

"The earliest account dealing exclusively with the subject, and especially valuable as the first work laying down rules for the graduation of the thermometer." (Sotheran No. 929, note). - "His detailed description of the principal meteorological instruments of the period is enriched with several new ideas, such as the calibration of the thermometric scale on the basis of two points of change of state: the point at which water freezes and - a much more contestable point - that at which butter melts." (DSB). 

Wellcome II: p. 28.

Order-nr.: 60847

DKK 12.000,00