PALISSY, Bernard

Le Moyen de devenir Riche, et la Maniere Veritable, par laquelle tous les hommes de la France pourront apprendre a multiplier & augmenter leurs thresors & possessions

      8 p.l., 255 pp.; 8 p.l., 526 pp. Thickish 8vo, 19th cent. calf-backed marbled boards. Paris: R. Fouet, 1636. First collected edition of Palissy's two major books: the La Recepte Veritable (1st ed.: 1563) and Discours Admirables (1st ed.: 1580); the first editions are very rare and our 1636 edition is extremely uncommon. This is a book full of interest. In Recepte Veritable, "Palissy discussed a wide variety of topics, including agriculture (for which he proposed better methods for farming and for the use of fertilizers), geology (in which he touched upon the origin of salts, springs, precious stones, and rock formations), mines, and forestry. He also suggested plans for an ideal garden, to be decorated with his earthenware and with biblical quotations... "The second book, Discours admirables, probably incorporates Palissy's Paris lectures. It, like the earlier work, deals with an impressive array of subjects: agriculture, alchemy, botany, ceramics, embalming, engineering, geology, hydrology, medicine, metallurgy, meteorology, mineralogy, paleontology, philosophy, physics, toxicology, and zoology. The book is divided into several chapters, the first and longest of which is concerned with water. The others take up metals and their nature and generation; drugs; ice; different types of salts and their nature, effects, and methods of generation; characteristics of common and precious stones; clay and marl; and the potter's art... "Palissy's views on hydrology and paleontology, as expressed in the Discours, are of particular interest. He was one of the few men of his century to have a correct notion of the origins of rivers and streams, and he stated it forcefully, denying categorically that rivers can have any source other than rainfall... "Palissy discussed fossils extensively...Palissy was probably one of the first men in France to teach natural sciences from facts, specimens and demonstrations rather than hypotheses."-D.S.B., X, pp. 280-81. Fine copy. Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, pp. 90, 261, & 446-48. Duveen, p. 446-"A book of great importance in the history of chemistry and science generally"-(referring to the 1st ed. of the Discours). Geikie, The Founders of Geology, pp. 104 & 118. Partington, II, pp. 69-77. Zittel, pp. 18 & 132. .