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First edition of the first work on electricity

BECCARIA, Giambatista.
Dell' Elettricismo Artificiale, e Naturale Libri Due.

With woodcut printer's device on title, various nice decorated initials, and head- and tailpieces.

With woodcut printer's device on title, various nice decorated initials, and head- and tailpieces.

With woodcut printer's device on title, various nice decorated initials, and head- and tailpieces.

With woodcut printer's device on title, various nice decorated initials, and head- and tailpieces.

With woodcut printer's device on title, various nice decorated initials, and head- and tailpieces.



Torino, Filippo Antonio Campana, 1753. 4to. Contemporary mottled calf, spine ribbed and gilt, with red title label. With woodcut printer's device on title, various nice decorated initials, and head- and tailpieces. (8), 245, (1) pp.

First edition of the first work on electricity by the ingenious Italian electrician and astronomer Giambatista Beccaria (1716-1781), from 1748 professor of physics at the university of Turin, a chair he occupied with distinction for over twenty years. Beccaria was an advocate of modern English physics, as opposed to the Cartesian physics taught at Turin up till then.
The present work, praised by Franklin, presents the elements of the new theory clearly and logically, illustrating them with variations of Franklin's experiments, to which Beccaria added observations on the different appearances of discharges from positively and negatively electrified points, and sought to explain meteorological and geophysical phenomena as manifestations of 'natural' electricity. The success of his work made Beccaria temporarily the leading champion of the new system. He was also an inspirational teacher with successful students and his literary influence on the early studies of Volta is significant.

Nice copy.- (Spine sl. rubbed).
Wheeler Gift 375; Honeyman I, 250; Mottelay pp. 206-8; Parkinson, Breakthroughs, p. 173; not in Riccardi.

Related Subjects: Meteorology  Physics 

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