Beschreibung:

ACCADEMIA DEL CIMENTO. Saggi di naturali esperienzi fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento . Edited by Lorenzo Magalloti. Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini, 1667. 2 o (414 x 272 mm). Half-title, title printed in red and black with engraved device of the Academy, errata leaf before index, licence with register at end, last leaf blank, engraved portrait of Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany by Lotaringus after Franois Spierre, 75 full-page engravings of experimental apparatus printed from 30 copperplates, engraved by Modiana possibly after drawings by Stefano della Bella engraved head- and tail-piece vignettes by V. Spada, large historiated woodcut initials. The arrangement of the head- and tailpieces differs in this copy from that in the ordinary paper copy (see lot 236). (Outer margins of first and last 2 leaves discolored from acidic glue used for pastedowns, dedication leaves browned, Ll1.4 foxed, 2 or 3 very minor short marginal tears.) Contemporary Italian red morocco, covers tooled in gold to a center- and corner-piece fan design, spine richly tooled in seven compartments, gilt edges (slight wear to extremities). Provenance : 18th-century manuscript shelfmark A.330 on upper cover; 18th- or 19th century shelfmarks (F.IV.1 and 190) on front endpapers. MAGNIFICENT LARGE-PAPER COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, second issue, with the title reset and dated 1667, of the only publication by the first scientific academy. Surviving correspondence of Magalotti indicates a press-run of 800 copies, of which 25 on carta detta de' frati (friar's paper), 50 on royal paper and 725 on ordinary paper. A large paper copy of the first issue in a nearly identical binding was sold at Sotheby's, London, on 27 September 1988 (lot 152); presumably these two copies were among several whose bindings were commissioned by one of the Accademia's patrons for presentation. Dibner, Heralds of Science 82; Middleton 1; NLM/Krivatsy 25; Riccardi I(2), 407; Norman 486.