Musschenbroek - Experimentorum Naturalium - 1731

THE BIRTH OF THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD, BETWEEN GALILEO AND NEWTON
32 grand copper-plate engravings.
Magnificent first Latin edition of one of the foundational texts of modern experimental science. The volume gathers and makes accessible to the European scientific community the experiments of the Accademia del Cimento, the famous Florentine institution founded under the protection of Prince Leopoldo de’ Medici and considered the first academy devoted exclusively to experimental research. The work translates and expands the famous Saggi di naturali esperienze of 1667, adding commentary, observations, and new experiments by Pieter van Musschenbroek, one of the most important physicists of the eighteenth century. Thermometers, atmospheric pressure, vacuum, ice, optics, magnetism, and natural phenomena are studied with a method that anticipates modern science. The exemplar gains additional prestige from its provenance in the renowned South Library of the Earls of Macclesfield, one of the most important English aristocratic libraries ever dispersed on the antiquarian market.
MARKET VALUE
Complete copies of the first edition of 1731, preserved in their contemporary binding and complete with the 32 folded copper-plate engravings, are always sought after by both science-history collectors and academic institutions. In the international antiquarian market, complete copies typically fetch between €1,000 and €2,500, with higher results for copies from prestigious provenance. The presence of the Earls of Macclesfield’s ex libris constitutes a particularly appreciated added value for collectors of illustrious provenance.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION - COLLECTOR'S COPY
Red and black title page. XXXII folded copper-plate engravings outside the text and one folded table. Ex libris of the South Library of the Earls of Macclesfield. Contemporary full leather binding with a gilt-tooled spine and a titled centerpiece. Light abrasions and modest wear to the hinges and spine ends. Sporadic and very light offsetting. Genuine, complete, and well preserved exemplar.
[16], XLVIII, [12], 193, [1]; 192, [12] pp. + 32 FOLDED COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVINGS and a folded table. Total 474 pages including preliminaries.
In old books, with a multi-century history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description.
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Tentamina Experimentorum Naturalium captorum in Academia del Cimento sub auspiciis Serenissimi Principis Leopoldi Magni Etruriae Ducis et ab ejus Academiae Secretario conscriptorum: ex Italico in Latinum sermonem conversa. Quibus commentarios, nova experimenta, et orationem de methodo instituendi experimenta physica addidit Petrus van Musschenbroek.
Lugduni Batavorum (Leida), apud Johannem et Hermannum Verbeek, 1731.
Musschenbroek, Petrus van (1692–1761).

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Accademia del Cimento represents one of the most revolutionary moments in the history of European science. Founded in Florence in 1657 around Galileo Galilei’s pupils, it adopted the motto “Provando e riprovando” (Trying and testing), turning experimental observation into the primary instrument for examining nature. The Saggi di naturali esperienze published in 1667 constituted the first major collective account of experimental activity in modern history.

The Latin translation produced by Musschenbroek in 1731 was extraordinarily important because it disseminated these results throughout educated Europe, surpassing the linguistic limits of the Italian edition. The editor did not limit himself to the translation but enriched the text with commentaries, personal observations, and new experiments, making the work a bridge between Galilean physics and the Enlightenment physics of the eighteenth century. Among the topics addressed are the behavior of fluids, the compression of air, vacuum, temperature, freezing of water, the propagation of light, and numerous natural phenomena that formed the core of scientific research of the era.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Pieter van Musschenbroek was born in Leiden in 1692 and died in 1761. Professor of mathematics, natural philosophy, and medicine at the universities of Duisburg, Utrecht, and Leiden, he was among the most important experimental physicists of the eighteenth century. He is remembered especially for his studies of electricity that led to the invention of the famous Leyden Jar, fundamental in the development of modern electrical physics. His works helped spread the experimental method and the new scientific culture of the Enlightenment across Europe.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The work derives from the Saggi di naturali esperienze published in Florence in 1667 on behalf of the Accademia del Cimento. The 1731 Latin edition was printed in Leiden by Johannes and Hermann Verbeek and quickly became the standard reference edition for European scholars. The presence of numerous folded plates, necessary for understanding the scientific instruments and experimental apparatus, makes complete copies particularly difficult to locate. The Macclesfield provenance additionally testifies to the work’s entry into the most important British aristocratic libraries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / SBN: TSA02419688.
Museo Galileo, Catalogo storico, scheda bibliografica n. 317187.
HathiTrust Digital Library, Record n. 001986079.
Norman, Jeremy M., History of Science and Medicine, sez. Physics.
Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, storia della fisica sperimentale.
DSB – Dictionary of Scientific Biography, entry "Musschenbroek, Pieter van".
Accademia del Cimento, Saggi di naturali esperienze, Firenze, 1667.
Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. VIII.
Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries.
Biblioteca South Library of the Earls of Macclesfield, Sotheby’s dispersion catalogs."