ACCADEMIA DEL CIMENTO. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Accademia del Cimento . Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini, 1666. First edition, first issue, of the only publication by the earliest scientific society. Although short-lived, the Accademia del Cimento was highly active in the ten years from 1657 to 1667 and was vastly influential through its experiments and discoveries. The Saggi contains a description of the first true thermometer and first true hygrometer, describes an improved barometer, and also gives the results of classic experiments on air pressure, sound velocity, radiant heat, phosphorescence, and the expansion of water on freezing. The academy was so exclusive that it consisted of only 10 members, among them Galileo's pupil Vincenzo Viviani, Giovanni Borelli, Francesco Redi and Niels Stensen. The delicate glass tubes, pendulums, thermometers and other measuring devices which are so finely depicted in Modiana's plates were provided by Prince Leopold, himself an amateur scientist, who guided the academy's experimental agenda. Dibner Heralds 82; Norman 486: ‘a very beautiful and expensively produced work’. Folio (345 x 240mm). Half-title, title printed in red and black with engraved alchemical device of the Academy, engraved portrait of Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany by Lotaringus after François Spierre 4pp. dedication from the 1667 second issue inserted, 75 full-page illustrations of experimental apparatus, engraved head- and tailpieces, large woodcut historiated initials (lacking the blank, some browning to the dedication leaves and a few others, small wormholes, marginal wormtracks restored throughout, c.20 leaves faintly waterstained at fore-edge). 20th-century binding using old vellum.
ACCADEMIA DEL CIMENTO. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Accademia del Cimento . Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini, 1666. First edition, first issue, of the only publication by the earliest scientific society. Although short-lived, the Accademia del Cimento was highly active in the ten years from 1657 to 1667 and was vastly influential through its experiments and discoveries. The Saggi contains a description of the first true thermometer and first true hygrometer, describes an improved barometer, and also gives the results of classic experiments on air pressure, sound velocity, radiant heat, phosphorescence, and the expansion of water on freezing. The academy was so exclusive that it consisted of only 10 members, among them Galileo's pupil Vincenzo Viviani, Giovanni Borelli, Francesco Redi and Niels Stensen. The delicate glass tubes, pendulums, thermometers and other measuring devices which are so finely depicted in Modiana's plates were provided by Prince Leopold, himself an amateur scientist, who guided the academy's experimental agenda. Dibner Heralds 82; Norman 486: ‘a very beautiful and expensively produced work’. Folio (345 x 240mm). Half-title, title printed in red and black with engraved alchemical device of the Academy, engraved portrait of Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany by Lotaringus after François Spierre 4pp. dedication from the 1667 second issue inserted, 75 full-page illustrations of experimental apparatus, engraved head- and tailpieces, large woodcut historiated initials (lacking the blank, some browning to the dedication leaves and a few others, small wormholes, marginal wormtracks restored throughout, c.20 leaves faintly waterstained at fore-edge). 20th-century binding using old vellum.
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