Presentation Copy with an Unrecorded Plate
ALDINI, Giovanni Essai théorique et expérimental sur le Galvanisme, avec une série d'expériences... Paris, Fournier fils, 1804
2 parts in one vol, 4to (305 x 225 mm), pp [viii including initial blank] x 380 [2, blank] [381-] 398 [2, blank] with 11 engraved folding plates; a few spots here and there, some gatherings unopened, a very fresh copy, uncut in half vellum with original wrappers laid down. £4850
First edition, presentation copy, with an unrecorded plate, of Aldini's most famous work. Aldini, the nephew of Galvani and his principal protagonist, sought to demonstrate the independent nature of 'Galvanic' electricity in animal bodies as distinct from electricity in inorganic nature. The discovery of the Voltaic pile in 1800 settled this controversy in Volta's favour. This work is devoted to the effects of electricity on animal bodies. The plates illustrate the 'Galvanic' effect on decapitated human bodies, heads, and animals. It also contains the first description of magnetising steel needles through the use of electric currents.
This copy contains an additional, unrecorded plate, a version of the first plate in the work, engraved in outline only without crosshatching and without plate number.
Provenance: presentation inscription by Aldini on the verso of initial blank 'Au Celebre Chimiste Dandolo Membre de l'Institut National de la Rep. Italienne Hommage d'estime, et d'amitié de l'Auteur'. Vincenzo Dandolo (1758-1819), 'son of a pharmacist, involved in production of chemicals in Venice, took an active part in the events leading to the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797. Under Napoleon [he] was the governor of Dalmatia for five years. A wealthy man, he retired to his estates at Varese near Como. [He] wrote on agricultural-economic topics as well as translating the works of Lavoisier, Berthollet, Guyton de Morveau, Chaptal and Fourcroy' (Cole p. 131). He was the author of Fondamenti della scienza chimico-fisica, 1795, an important introduction to the principles of the 'new' chemical system of Lavoisier et al.
Fulton and Stanton 27; Bakken p 124; Ronalds p. 7; Wheeler Gift 660
£4850
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