THE FIRST CATALOGUE OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS

(D'ALENCÉ (DALANCÉ), JOACHIM).

Traittez des Barométres, Thermométres, et Notiométres, et ou Hygrométres. Par Mr. D***.

Amsterdam, Henry Wetstein, 1688.

Small 8vo. Contemp. full calf. Rebacked to style with raised bands. Corners renewed. Some scratches to covers. Engraved frontispiece (Schoonebeck, del. et sculp.) (10),139,(5) pp. and 35 engraved plates. A faint dampstain in upper part of the first ab. 50 leaves and first 7 plates, otherwise quite clean and printed on thick paper.

First edition of this beautifully illustrated work, depicting the different instruments in baroque interieurs 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). - Unknown to Poggendorff. - Wellcome II: p. 28.

Order-nr.: 36158