A highly desirable group of four early volumes from one of the great scientific journals of the nineteenth century, containing important papers in chemistry, optics, electricity, and natural philosophy.

Bibliographic Details

Author: Michael Faraday, Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Augustin-Jean Fresnel, André-Marie Ampère, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, Sir Humphry Davy, and William Hyde Wollaston (et. al)
Title: Annales de Chimie et de Physique
Place of Publication: Paris
Publisher: Chez Crochard
Date: 1818–1821
Pagination: Volumes 9, 10, 16, and 17 from the second series; each volume approximately 448 pages
Illustrations: Fold-out engraved plates to each volume (Vol. 10 with two plates), together with two fold-out tables and woodcuts in the text
Binding: Contemporary marbled boards with vellum spines and green gilt-lettered title labels
Size: 8vo (21 × 13.5 cm)

Condition

Very Good to Good condition overall. Bindings rubbed but sound. Light chipping to some title labels. Several gatherings unopened. Moderate foxing to select leaves, notably around twelve leaves in Vol. 9. Occasional minor damp marks, including to one plate in Vol. 9. A few plates with light edge creases. Contents generally clean and legible throughout. Collated and complete.

Description

A substantial and increasingly scarce group of four early volumes from the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, one of the most important scientific journals of the modern era. Founded in 1789 and associated in its early history with Lavoisier, the journal became a central vehicle for the publication of major discoveries in chemistry, physics, mineralogy, optics, and natural philosophy throughout the nineteenth century.

These volumes belong to the second series, issued in the years immediately following the Napoleonic period, when scientific exchange between Britain and the Continent resumed with renewed energy. As such, they preserve a particularly vivid cross-section of early nineteenth-century European science, bringing together papers by some of the century’s most consequential experimental thinkers.

The set includes important contributions by Michael Faraday, Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Augustin-Jean Fresnel, André-Marie Ampère, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, Sir Humphry Davy, and William Hyde Wollaston, among others. Collectively, these volumes illuminate a period in which chemistry and physics were rapidly transforming from descriptive disciplines into mathematically and experimentally grounded sciences.

Notable Contributions

These volumes include a number of especially notable scientific papers and communications:

Michael Faraday: “Observations sur le passage des gaz à travers les lames” (Vol. 10, p.369)

Jöns Jakob Berzelius: “De l'emploi du chalumeau dans les analyses chimiques…” with 4 plates (Vol. 17, p.442); “Mémoire sur la phosphorescence des lampyres” (Vol. 16, p.151)

Augustin-Jean Fresnel: “Note sur les teintes… dans les lames cristallisées” (Vol. 16, p.103); “Note sur la coloration des lames cristallisées” (Vol. 16, p.153)

André-Marie Ampère: comments on Biot’s report at the Académie des Sciences (Vol. 16, p.220)

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac: letter on wind and lightning (Vol. 10, p.52)

Sir Humphry Davy: “Rapport sur les papyrus trouvés à Herculanum” (Vol. 10, p.414)

William Hyde Wollaston: “Sur la respiration des plantes” (Vol. 9, p.64)

Notes

These four volumes contain over one hundred distinct scientific contributions and offer a rich primary-source snapshot of European science during a formative and transitional period. They are especially strong in optics, physical chemistry, electrical science, and analytical mineralogy.

They will appeal not only to collectors of early scientific books and journals, but also to historians of science seeking original printed sources for the development of post-Enlightenment experimental thought.

A handsome and increasingly difficult-to-assemble group from one of the foundational journals in the history of modern science.