Beschreibung:

GILBERT, William (1544-1603). De magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure; Physiologia nova, plurimis & argumentis, & experimentis demonstrata . London: Peter Short, 1600.
GILBERT, William (1544-1603). De magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure; Physiologia nova, plurimis & argumentis, & experimentis demonstrata . London: Peter Short, 1600. 2° (298 x 195mm). Woodcut title device and large woodcut arms on verso, one double-page plate, 87 woodcuts in text of which 4 full-page, decorative woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces. (Top margin of title, first few leaves and verso of final leaf soiled, marginal clean tear on title, few occasional scattered spots.) Contemporary limp vellum, gilt borders and centrepiece on covers, gilt spine with manuscript title (front cover and spine almost detached but still holding, upper front joint split, some soiling and staining). Provenance : Thomas Langton (c.1561-1605; inscription on title recording the gift from the author) — Sir Thomas Sebright (4th or 5th Baronet, 1692-1736 or 1723-1761; armorial bookplate) — purchased by the Royal Institution on 20 April 1807 for 2s 6d. FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, OF THE FIRST GREAT SCIENTIFIC BOOK PRINTED IN ENGLAND. ‘Gilbert coined the terms "electricity", "electric force" and "electric attraction" and may rightly be considered the founder of electrical science' (PMM); further, he ‘provided the only fully developed theory dealing with all five of the then known magnetic movements and the first comprehensive discussion of magnetism since the thirteenth-century Letter on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus’ (DSB). De magnete exemplifies pre-Baconian experimental philosophy by supporting new theories with empirically-derived experimental evidence, and these experiments were described in sufficient detail for the reader to recreate them. Gilbert also described his scientific instruments in great detail, including new ones such as the ‘versorium’: the first instrument to be used for the study of electric phenomena. Gilbert observed that the earth was a gigantic magnet and provided a physical basis for the Copernican theory. His work was cited by Digby, Boyle, Kepler and Huygens, and Galileo drew on Gilbertian magnetism to support his belief in a Copernican heliocentric cosmology in his Dialogo . Dibner Heralds 54; Grolier Science 41; Norman 905; PMM 107; Wellcome 2830.