Vassalli Eandi - Lettere Fisico-Meteorologiche - 1789

Rare first edition of this important scientific work by Vassalli Eandi (1761-1825), who was professor of physics at the University of Turin and at that time was concentrating his studies on the nascent animal electricity (galvanism) and the electricity of the air. The volume collects the dense exchange of letters with three among the brightest minds of the European scientific Enlightenment in the field of Earth and atmospheric sciences.

The work fits into the lively late-18th-century debate on consolidating meteorology as a quantitative science, based on the use of precision instruments (such as barometers, thermometers and hygrometers) and on the analysis of atmospheric electrical phenomena. In the epistolary exchange, Vassalli responds to the questions and theories of the three scientists, discussing the origin of meteorological phenomena, variations in atmospheric pressure, and the effects of electricity on the climate and on living organisms. Cf. Poggendorf, II, 1179.

Letters physico-meteorological of the most celebrated physicists Senebier, De Saussure, and Toaldo with the replies of Anton-Maria Vassalli..., Turin, Royal Printing Office, 1789.

PP.: 223, (I). COMPLETE.

Genuine copy still in barb with leaves in overall very good condition. Light damp stain at the upper margin of some sheets.

Original contemporary publisher's sewn binding decorated by print, very well preserved. White flyleaves.