GILBERT WILLIAM.

"De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno magnete tellure; Physiologia nova, plurimis & argumentiis, & experimentis demonstrata."

      Londra, Pietro Short, 1600. "In-folio; 8 cc., 240 pp, una tavola ripiegata fuori testo dopo la p. 201; bella legatura italiana coeva in tutta pergamena morbida. Lievi macchioline, ma ottimo esemplare genuino. Ex libris alla prima carta." "Prima edizione del primo e più importante trattato scientifico inglese basato sul metodo della ricerca sperimentale. Opera che fonda la scienza del magnetismo e dell'elettricità. Gilbert usa in questo libro per la prima volta i termini ""elettricità"", ""forza elettrica"" ed ""attrazione elettrica"". Nota e documentata è l'influenza di questo libro sul pensiero di Keplero, Bacone, Boyle, Newton e Galileo. Il primo libro ""deals with the history of magnetism from the earliest legends about the lodestone to the facts and theories known to Gilbert's contemporaries... In the last chapter of book I, Gilbert introduced his new basic idea which was to explain all terrestrial magnetic phenomena: his postulate that the earth is a giant lodestone and thus had magnetic properties... The remaining five books of the De magnete are concerned with the five magnetic movements: coition, direction, variation, declination and revolution. Before he began his discussion of coition, however, Gilbert carefully distinguished the attraction due to the amber effect from that caused by the lodestone. This section, chapter 2 of book II, established the study of the amber effect as a discipline separate from that of magnetic phenomena, introduced the vocabulary of electrics, and is the basis for Gilbert's place in the history of electricity."" DSB V p. 397." Dibner 54. Horblit 41. PMM 107. Wheeler Gift 72.