Auction 487/round/2 BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS
Sep 22, 2020 (your local time)
Italy
 Via Pontaccio 12, 20121 Milano

Auction 487

22 September 2020

II session - 3.30 pm, from lot 135 to lot 270

Venue: Via Pontaccio 12, Milano

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LOT 174:

MARSILI, Luigi Ferdinando (1658-1730) - Histoire physique de la mer. Amsterdam: a spese della compagnia, 1725. ...

Start price:
900
Estimated price:
€1,000 - €1,500
Auction house commission: 25% More details
tags:

MARSILI, Luigi Ferdinando (1658-1730) - Histoire physique de la mer. Amsterdam: a spese della compagnia, 1725. First edition of the first modern treatise on oceanography in its first full edition, by the acknowledged "father of oceanography" and founder the Instituto delle scienze e dell'arte in Bologna. In this beautifully printed and illustrated book, Marsigli "treated problems which until then had been veiled by error and legend. Marsigli examined every aspect of the subject: the morphology of the basin and relationships between the lands and above water; the water's properties (colour, temperature, salinity) and its motion (waves, currents, tides); the biology of the sea, which foretold the advent of maritime biology. Among the plants he numbered animals like corals, which before his time had been regarded as inorganic matter. Finally Marsigli was the precursor of the systematic oceanographic exploration that was to begin half a century later with the famous voyage of the Endeavour" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography IX, p 135). Folio (371 x 237mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece illustrating Neptune by Matthys Pool, title in red and black with engraved printer's device, 52 plates of which 40 numbered and bound at end, the other within the text and mostly double-page and folding, woodcut initials and headpieces (removed stamp on title, occasional light browning and scattered spotting). Contemporary speckled calf, gilt spine (rebacked and recornered preserving part of old spine). Provenance: few early annotations.