attr. Locatelli - Fenicio a Fille – Dell’Unisono, Del Sogno, Dell’Elettricismo e della Generazione - 1766

Fenicio [attributed to Luigi Antonio Locatelli] – Dell’Unisono / Del Sogno / Dell’Elettricismo e della Generazione – 1766

Description

Rare eighteenth-century Italian work combining acoustics, the theory of dreams, experimental electricity and theories of animal generation.

FENICIO A FILLE. Dell’Unisono. Sermone. Del Sogno. Capitoli. Dell’Elettricismo e della Generazione. Dialogo.
Lucca, Giovanni Riccomini, 1766.

First and apparently sole edition.

A remarkable Enlightenment-era publication consisting of three related works, progressively moving from natural philosophy and acoustics to the physiology of dreams and finally to experimental electricity and generation.

The volume comprises:

I. Dell’Unisono. Sermone — 32 pp.
A poetic-scientific discourse on sound, harmony, vibration and acoustic phenomena, with annotations attributed to “Baconio Crinuto”. The text discusses strings, oscillations, fundamental tones and the perception of sound.

II. Del Sogno. Capitoli — 55 pp. + [1] blank.
A philosophical and physiological investigation of dreams, memory, imagination, sleep and sensory perception. The author explicitly asks how dreams originate and why they produce such unusual effects, discussing the transition between light and deep sleep and the relationship between dream experience, reality and illusion.

III. Dell’Elettricismo e della Generazione. Dialogo — 107 pp. + final unnumbered matter.
The longest and scientifically most significant part of the volume. Written as a dialogue between Fenicio and Fille, it discusses eighteenth-century theories and experiments concerning electricity and attempts to connect electrical phenomena with animal generation.

The text explicitly discusses amber and electrical attraction, Newtonian attraction, electrical matter or fluid, conductors, insulation, electrical globes and tubes, electrostatic machines, sparks, atmospheric electricity and experimental apparatus.

Particularly striking are passages describing the transmission of “virtù elettrica” through conductors and experiments employing rotating glass globes. The work subsequently turns to generation and embryology, proposing a relationship between the “fluido elettrico”, the organs of generation and the ovum — an unusual example of eighteenth-century attempts to apply the new science of electricity to biological processes.

The book therefore occupies an interesting position at the intersection of early electrical science, natural philosophy, acoustics, physiology and theories of reproduction.

Rarity and bibliographical importance

The same 1766 edition was catalogued by the renowned antiquarian booksellers Maggs Bros. Ltd. as:

“Extremely rare; one of only five copies known.”

Maggs described it as the sole edition and offered a copy at £3,000. This is cited as a bibliographical/market reference and not as an auction result.

The work Dell’Elettricismo e della Generazione was also specifically discussed by historian of science and neurophysiologist Marco Piccolino in Sapere (August 2012), where this little-known eighteenth-century work and its theories concerning electricity and generation were examined.

An additional bibliographical point of considerable interest is that another copy of this same 1766 edition belonged to Voltaire and is preserved in his historical library at the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg (Bibliothèque de Voltaire, shelfmark 9-105, BV 1332). This reference concerns another copy of the edition and does not constitute Voltaire provenance for the present copy.

Authorship

The work is signed “Fenicio”. The name has been associated with the pseudonym Sabinto Fenicio, used by the Bolognese writer and ecclesiastic Luigi Antonio Locatelli (1711–1780). As the attribution of the present work is not completely established, the author is conservatively described here as Fenicio [attributed to Luigi Antonio Locatelli].

Collation

32; 55, [1]; 107, [3] pp.

The present copy has been checked against its internal sequence. Del Sogno ends at p. 55, followed by the blank leaf/page; Dell’Elettricismo e della Generazione has its own title page and pagination and ends at p. 107 with “FINE”. The final unnumbered matter includes the Errata/Correzioni, separately covering All’Unisono, Al Sogno and All’Elettricismo.

Binding and condition

Attractive old half-leather binding with polychrome marbled-paper boards; smooth spine richly decorated with gilt floral tools and gilt rules, with red morocco lettering-piece reading “SERMON / DEL / SOGNO”.

Old ownership label/inscription “Antonio della Staffa” on the general title page.

The volume shows normal signs of age: scattered foxing and spotting, occasional staining and age-toning, together with wear to the binding. The text remains generally clean and clearly printed, with generous margins. Please refer carefully to the photographs, which form an integral part of the description.

A scarce and highly unusual document of eighteenth-century Italian scientific culture, particularly attractive for collections devoted to the history of electricity, experimental physics, natural philosophy, acoustics, dreams and early theories of generation.

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Fenicio [attribuido a Luigi Antonio Locatelli] – Dell’Unisono / Del Sogno / Dell’Elettricismo e della Generazione – 1766

Description in French and German and Dutch follow, each reproducing and translating the same content:

Rare ouvrage scientifique et philosophique italien du XVIIIe siècle réunissant acoustique, théorie du rêve, electricity, et théories de la génération animale.

…(French content continues similarly)

Seltenes italienisches Werk des 18. Jahrhunderts über Akustik, Traumtheorie, experimentelle Elektrizität und Zeugungslehre.

…(German content continues similarly)

Zeldzaam Italiaans achttiende-eeuws werk waarin akoestiek, droomtheorie, experimentele elektriciteit en theorieën over voortplanting worden gecombineerd.

…(Dutch content continues similarly)

(Note: The translation preserves the meaning and tone of the original English sections and converts the parallel translations into English where needed.)