Presentation Copy
BORELLI, Giovanni Alfonso De vi percussionis. Bologna, Giacopo Monte, 1667 1667
4to (212 x 156 mm), pp [xii] 300; 30 [2], with five folding engraved plates; the plates a little frayed on margins, a fine copy in early Italian vellum, spine lettered in gilt, presentation inscription in ink 'Vincentio de Ambra ab Authore donatus' at foot of title, in a morocco-backed box. £9500
First edition, presentation copy of the first work on the laws of percussion, and also discussing falling bodies, gravity, and pendulum motion. This work contains important material from Galileo's and Torricelli's lectures published for the first time.
The De vi percussionis is 'the first work on the laws of percussion, which undoubtedly influenced John Wallis, who in 1668 published his discovery of the laws governing the percussion of non-elastic bodies, and Christiaan Huygens, who deals with the percussion of elastic bodies in his treatise "De motu corporum ex percussione," published in 1669' (Sotheran).
'In this, Borelli's first book on mechanics, he quotes Galileo's youthful work on percussion, the fourth Dialogo, and lectures by Torricelli. As well as a detailed discussion of impact, the book deals with the dynamics of falling bodies, vibration, gravity, fluid mechanics, magnetism, and pendular motion' (Roberts and Trent).
Chapter XXV deals with the attractive force of the magnet.
Carli and Favaro 303; Cinti 147; Riccardi I (1) 159; Roberts and Trent pp. 41-2; Sotheran 474; this edition not in Overmier and Senior
£9500
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