First edition of the most comprehensive and complete work on electricity of the time, focusing primarily on atmospheric electricity. It was written by the ingenious Italian physicist and astronomer Giambatista Beccaria (1716-1781), who was professor of physics at the university of Turin from 1748, a chair he occupied with distinction for over twenty years. Beccaria was an advocate of modern English physics and the theories of Benjamin Franklin, as opposed to the Cartesian physics taught at Turin up till then. He was the first to record the phenomena of thunderstorms and the first to show the passage of an electric spark through water.
The present work, praised by Franklin, "presents the elements of the new theory clearly and logically; illustrates them with variations of Franklins experiments, to which Beccaria primarily added observations of the different appearances of discharges from positively and negatively electrified points; modifies secondary aspects of the theory and applies it to new territory; and seeks to explain meteorological and geophysical phenomena as manifestations of natural electricity. The book also contains a long letter to the abbé J. A. Nollet, who had raised objections against Franklins system" (DSB). 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.
The edges and corners of the boards are lightly scuffed, the spine is lightly rubbed. The work is lightly browned throughout. Otherwise in good condition. Honeyman I, 250; Mottelay pp. 206-8; Parkinson, Breakthroughs, p. 173; Poggendorff I, 124; Wellcome II, 124; Wheeler Gift 375; cf. DSB I, pp. 546-548; not in Riccardi.