BORELLI, Giovanni Alfonso Historia et meteorologia incendii Aetnaei anni 1669... Responsio ad censuras Rev. P. Honorati Fabri contra librum Auctoris De Vi percussionis. Reggio di Calabria, Domenico Ferro, 1670
4to (213 x 157 mm), pp [xii] 162 [2 errata and blank], with 9 woodcut illustrations in text and folding engraved plate depicting the eruption of Etna; a fine, crisp copy in contemporary vellum, an old cipher seal on title, verso of plate and text leaf. £3250
First edition of Borelli's account of the eruption of Etna, one of the earliest scientific treatments of volcanology; there is also an appendix defending his De vi percussionis from the criticisms of Honoré Fabri. 'In 1669 there occurred a major eruption of Etna and Borelli took the occasion to observe it closely, making notes on the topography of the mountain, the locations of the flows, and the nature of the various materials ejected, and offering some reasoned speculations of the sources of the heat powering the display' (DSB).
Borelli (1608-1679) was primarily a mathematician, and one of the most distinguished pupils of Galileo.
Riccardi 159; NUC: MiU DWB NN PPAN TxU WU OkU NIC
£3250
This item is listed on Bibliopoly by W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books; click here for further details.