Oeuvres de Bernard Palissy. 1777
PALISSY, Bernard. Oeuvres de Bernard Palissy revues sur les exemplaires de la Bibliothèque du Roi ; avec des notes par M. Faujas de Saint Fond, et des additions par M. Gobet.
Paris, Ruault, 1777.
1200 €
4to (25.3x20cm), 4 (half title and title page),ix-lxxvi, 734 pages. binding: Contemporary full mottled calf, triple gilt fillet on covers, spine gilt in six compartments, title in gilt on lettering-piece, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. Last table leaf re-margined. Caps and corners worn.
First edition of the complete works of Bernard Palissy. As always without the portrait and the dedicatory epistle to Franklin, which were deleted by the editor prior to publication.
It contains the texts on alchemy, but also on agriculture, geology, botany, ceramics, embalming, engineering, hydrology , medicine, metallurgy, meteorology, mineralogy, paleontology, philosophy, physics, toxicology and zoology.
Palissy, first became famous through his technique for making a rustic enameled earthenware, a skill which gained him the appointment of inventeur des rustiques figurines du roy. Palissy was probably one of the first men in France to teach natural sciences from facts, specimens and demonstrations rather than hypotheses. (DSB).
references: Caillet [III, 8265], Brunet [IV, 320].
