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Tag Archives: Robert Boyle

Book of the Week — Anatomy of Plants with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants and Several Other Lectures…

02 Monday Apr 2018

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Carl Linnaeus, Charles II, Christopher Wren, flowers, fruits, leaves, London, Marcello Malpighi, microscope, microscopy, Nehemiah Grew, physiology, plant anatomy, plant morphology, Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Royal Society, seeds, vegetables


“At a Meeting of the Council of the Royal Society, Fe. 22. 1681/2 Dr. Grew having read several Lectures of the Anatomy of Plants, some whereof have been already printed at divers times, and some are not printed; with several other Lectures of their Colours, Odours Tasts, and Salts, as also of the Solution of Salts in Water; and of Mixture; all of them to the satisfaction of the said Society; It is therefore Ordered, that He be desired, to casue the to printed [sic] together in one Volume.” — Chr. Wren P.R.S.

Anatomy of Plants: With an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants and Several Other…
Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712)
London: Printed by W. Rawlins, for the author, 1682
First edition
QK41 G82

Rare Books was recently graced with a visit from a member of the Royal Society and two other guests, all three royalty in the world of science. This visit and the accompanying bright blue spring skies brought to mind flowers, vegetable gardens, herb gardens and this book. The great Sir Christopher Wren, founder and then-president of the Royal Society, “Ordered” Nehemiah Grew to publish the work presented here.

Nehemiah Grew was a physician, but made his reputation in the fields of plant morphology and anatomy. At the Royal Society, he met Robert Hooke, who was progressing in his studies in the field of microscopy. At the same time that Marcello Malpighi presented papers to the Society, Grew presented his The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun (1672). Both men reported on the cellular construction of the woody parts of plants, the beginning of a hypothesis of a cellular theory of plant life. Grew’s work led him to the announcement  that there were two sexes in plants.

This book is based on three earlier publications, “The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun (1672),” “An Idea of Phytological History Propounded (1673),” and “The Comparative Anatomy of Trunks (1675)”, together with a fourth unpublished book, “The Anatomy of Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds,” dedicated to Robert Boyle, and six discourses that had been delivered before the Royal Society.

In Grew’s dedicatory epistle to King Charles II, he wrote, “Your Majesty will here see, That there are those things within a Plant, little less admirable, than within an Animal. That a Plant, as well as an Animal, is composed of several Organical Parts; some whereof may be called its Bowels. That every Plant hath Bowels of divers kinds, conteining divers kinds of Liguors. That even a Plant lives partly upon Aer; for the reception whereof, it hath those Parts which are answerable to Lungs. So that A Plant is, as it were, an Animal in Quires; as an Animal is a Plant, or rather several Plants bound up into Volume.”

Nehemiah Grew’s work turned the anatomy and physiology of plants into a new science. This is the first book in which Robert Hooke’s newly invented microscope is demonstrated for the examination plants.

Grew began his studies with naked-eye observations and then continued with observations seen at the higher magnifications made possible with Hooke’s microscope.

“…all the Observations conteined in the First Book, except one or two, were made with the Naked Eye. The the end, I might first give a proof, How far it was possible for us to go, without the help of Glasses: which many Ingenious Men want; and more, the patience to manage them. For the Truth of these Observations, Seignior Malpighi, having procured my Book to be translated into Latin for his private us, speaks his own sense, in some of his Letters to Mr. Oldenburge, printed at the end of his Anatomy of Plants…Having thus begun with the bare Eye; I next proceeded to the use of the Microscope. And the Observations thereby made, first on Roots, and afterwards on Trunks and Branches, together with the figures…”

Through these observations he was able to describe the structure of stems and roots by the combined use of transverse, radial, and tangential longitudinal sections.

“In the Plates, for the clearer conception of the Part described, I have represented it, generally, as entire, as its being magnified to some good degree, would bear…Yet have I not every where magnify’d the Part to the same degree; but more or less, as was necessary to represent what is spoken of it. And very highly, only in some few Examples, as in Tab. 40. which may suffice to illustrate the rest. Some of the Plates, especially those which I did not draw to the Engravers hand, are a little hard and stiff: but they are all well enough done, to represent what they intend.”

Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus dedicated a genus of trees to Grew in appreciation of his work. Few important advances on the ideas of Grew would be made for nearly another one hundred years.

Illustrated with eighty-three engraved plates, some double-page, showing microscopic sections of plant structures.

 

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Book of the Week — De Magnete magneticisqve corporibvs et de magna magnete tellure; Physiologia noua, plurimus & orgumentis, & …

20 Tuesday Feb 2018

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Cambridge, De magnete, Earl of Leicester, earth, electricity, England, Francis Bacon, Galileo, geographic poles, Greeks, iron, Isaac Newton, James I, Johannes Kepler, lodestone, London, Lord Burghley, magnet, magnetic lodestone, magnetic poles, magnetism, mariners, navigational tools, P. Short, physician, Queen Elizabeth I, Robert Boyle, Robert Dudley, Royal College of Physicians, Royal Physician, science, William Cecil, William Gilbert, woodcuts


“Non ex libris solum, sed ex rebus ipsis scientiam quaeritis.”

Gvilielmi gilberti colcestrensis, medici londinensis, de magnete magneticisqve corporibvs, et de magno magnete tellure; phsiologia noua, plurimis & argumentis, & experimentis demonstrata
William Gilbert (1540-1603)
Londini: excvdebat P. Short, 1600
First edition
QC751 G44 1600

This the only published work of William Gilbert, an attorney’s son who studied at Cambridge before practising as a physician in London, where he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1573 and its president in 1600. Through his contacts at court, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; and William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Gilbert was made Royal Physician to Queen Elizabeth I in 1601, an appointment renewed by James I on his accession in 1603. Swank surroundings, but Gilbert earned his reputation from the publication of this book after eighteen years of dedicated labor.

In the six books of De magnete, William Gilbert discussed the history of magnetism. Although the magnetic lodestone had been used by the ancient Greeks, Gilbert argued that the Earth was a natural magnet, and the Earth’s magnetic poles are relatively near the geographic poles. As a result of this argument, mariners were better able to use the lodestone as an effective navigational tool. Considered the first great scientific book published in England, its importance is due to Gilbert’s reliance on experimental methods of research, a crucial development in the field of science.

While Gilbert was chiefly concerned with the properties of magnetism, he also wrote about the attractive effect of electricity. Because of this discussion he is considered the founder of electrical science. The English term “electricity” was not coined until 1646, but, in this book, Gibert wrote “Electrica, qua attrahunt eadem ratione ut electrum.” Gilbert’s experiments proved that the earth’s core is iron, and that the earth rotates daily — some twenty years before Galileo described the same.

De magnete describes Gilbert’s invention of the “Versorium,” the first instrument designed for the study of electric phenomena.

Johannes Kepler, Frances Bacon, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, and Galileo were all greatly influenced by this book.

The text is filled with eighty-eighty woodcuts, four of which are full-page, a folding plate, and decorative initials and head- and tail-pieces. Rare Books copy lacks folding plate.

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Book of the Week — Lectures of Experimental Philosophy

12 Monday Feb 2018

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air, B. Creake, barometers, Bible in Jermyn-Street, Cambridge, England, English, France, heat, Herman Boerhaave, hydrometers, Isaac Newton, J. Sackfield, John Keill, John Theophilus Desaguliers, Lamb without Temple-Bar, Latin, Lincolns-Inn-Square, London, mechanics, optics, Paul Dawson, Robert Boyle, Royal Society, s'Gravesande, Sir Richard Steel, St. James's, thermometers, W. Mears


“And that we may not be decieved by false Notions which we have embraced without Examining, or that we have received upon the Authority of others; we ought to call in Question all such things as have an Appearance of Falshood, that by a new Examen we may be led to the Truth.”

Lectures of Experimental Philosophy…
John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683-1744)
London: Printed for W. Mears at the Lamb without Temple-Bar; B. Creake, at the Bible in Jermyn-Street, St. James’s; and J. Sackfield in Lincolns-Inn-Square, MDCCXIX (1719)

J. T. Desaguliers’ writings on mechanics were published as a set of lectures in 1717 in an 80-page tract of brief abstracts. This work, Lectures of Experimental Philosophy, edited by Desaguliers’ student, Paul Dawson, is believed to be spurious, published without consent of the author. Dawson, in his dedication, states that he had the author’s acknowledgement.


“I therefore humbly Present to You the following treatise, containing the several Philosophical Experiments in his publick Lectures, which I have carefully collected, and that Gentleman approved of.”

Desaguliers disavowed this, although he wrote in his Preface, or Advertisement to the Reader, that “he looked over the whole book and corrected every error.”


“Mr. Dawson (a young Man whom Sir Richard Steel had put under my Care) took a Copy of the Lectures above-mentioned, that they might be of Service to him when he went thro’ my Courses, and they were afterwards sold and published without my Knowledge. But as the Booksellers have made me Satisfaction, and purchased the Copy of me, I have looked over the whole Book, and corrected every Error therein…”

In any event, in this work Desaguliers tells the reader “How to make a heavy Body seem to rise it self,” “How to Condense the AIR, so that you may put what Quantity you please into a Vessel,” gives a “description of the Air-Pump Mr. Boyle made use of,” describes different types of barometers, thermometers, and hydrometers; and offers an essay on Isaac Newton’s “Colours.”

Desaguliers was born in France and raised in England. He studied at Oxford under John Keill, spending a good deal of his time reading Newton’s Principia. He attended a course of lectures given by s’Gravesande on mechanical consequences of the laws of motion as Newton defined them. In 1720, Desaguliers translated s’Gravesande’s work on Newton from Latin into English. As one of the foremost researchers in the Royal Society, he repeated several of Newton’s experiments on heat, optics and mechanics. Some of his results were made use of by Newton in the third edition of Principia. Desaguliers was an ardent supporter of Newton.

This is a reissue of A System of Experimental Philosophy, London, 1719.

The title-page is new, a preface by the author is added, an errata leaf and an advertisement leaf advertising the English translation of a work of Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) have been prefixed to the original title page.

Rare Books copy bound in contemporary Cambridge binding, rebacked. Text contains a few contemporary annotations and an ownership signature of James (?) Hardy on the paste-down.

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Book of the Week — An Essay Towards a Real Character…

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

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animals, Bishop of Chester, cryptography, engravings, Gellibrand, grammar, Great Fire of London, John Ray, John Wilkins, Joseph Moxon, language, Latin, letterforms, London, music, Oliver Cromwell, paneled calf, phonetics, plants, printing, Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Royal Society, space travel, symbols, theology, Trinity College, typography, University of Utah, vowels, William Harvey, William Lloyd

P101-W4-1668-pg311
“…Letters, the Invention of which was a thing of so great Art and exquisiteness, that…doth from hence inferr the divinity and spirituality of the humane soul, and that it must needs be of a farr more excellent and abstracted Essence that mere Matter or Body…” — John Wilkins

An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language
John Wilkins (1616-1672)
London: Printed for S. Gellibrand, 1668
First edition

John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, was the chief founder of the Royal Society and its first secretary. He was Master of Trinity College. Wilkins was acquainted with many of the great minds of his day: William Harvey, Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. He married the younger sister of Oliver Cromwell. In 1662, he lost all of his library and scientific instruments to the Great Fire of London. He was interested in just about everything — from theology to cryptography, music to space travel. He worked on creating an artificial universal language to replace Latin as a means of clearer communication between scholars and philosophers.

In this book Wilkins discussed the origin of language and letterforms, as well as a theory of grammar and phonetics. He classified words by their meanings and assigned each class a set of typographical characters, in an attempt to create a rationally ordered language and system of symbols.

P101-W4-1668-pg186

He divided the universe into forty classes, or categories, and subdivided these, and then subdivided these. To each class he assigned a monosyllable of two letters; to each subdivision he added a consonant; to each further subdivision, or species, he added a vowel. Each letter, or symbol, had meaning.

P101-W4-1668-Faces

John Ray drew up systematic tables of plants and animals for the book. An index was created by Dr. William Lloyd. Joseph Moxon (1627-1691) cut the typographical characters Wilkins proposed for his language. Moxon was the author of Mechanick Exercises, the first comprehensive manual of printing and letter-founding in any language.

The first issue of the first edition appeared without any of the engraved plates. This copy, apparently a second issue, contains all of the plates, although two folded leaves of tables and diagrams that are in other copies are missing. Bound with Wilkins’ An alphabetical dictionary, wherin all English Words According to their various significations, are either referred to their Places in the Philosophical Tables, Or explained by such words as are in those tables. The second work functions as an index to the first.

University of Utah copy bound in contemporary paneled calf with covers ruled in blind.

P101-W4-1668-NoahsArk

“From what hath been said it may appear, that the measure and capacity of the Ark, which some Atheistical irreligious men make use of, as an argument against the Scripture, ought rather to be esteemed a most rational confirmation of the truth and divine authority of it. Especially if it be well considered, that in those first and ruder ages of the World… men were less versed in Arts and Philosophy, and therefore probably more obnoxious to vulgar prejudices than now they are… — John Wilkins

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Book of the Week – OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS UPON SEVERAL SVBJECTS…

23 Monday Nov 2015

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Jonathan Swift, London, Robert Boyle, Samuel Butler



Occasional Reflections Upon Several Svbjects…
Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
London: Printed by W. Wilson for H. Herrington, 1665
First edition
PN6330 B65 1665

Occasional reflections was ridiculed by Jonathan Swift in A meditation upon a Broom-Stick and by Samuel Butler in An occasional reflection on Dr. Charleton’s Feeling a Dog’s Pulse at Gresham College. Robert Boyle, a founder of the Royal Society of London, identified “elements” and is considered the father of chemistry. He was interested in going beyond mere discourse about nature. Science could and would raise the levels of material existence. Let them laugh.

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Book of the Week – Micrographia Restaurata

10 Monday Jun 2013

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microscope, Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Samuel Pepys

Micrographia Restaurata, 1745, Cover
Micrographia Restaurata, 1745, Bug
Micrographia Restaurata, 1745, Eyes

Micrographia Restaurata
Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703)
London: Printed for and sold by J. Bowles, 1745
QH27 H8

Robert Hooke, a gifted student, became the research assistant to Robert Boyle, founding member of the Royal Society. He was appointed Curator of Experiments in 1662 and by 1663 was conducting microscope demonstrations for the Society. Within months, Hooke was invited to Whitehall, where he demonstrated some of his exciting findings to King Charles II.

By order of the King, his discoveries were then published as a commemorative book, Micrographia, in 1664.  Micrographia was an instant bestseller.  Samuel Pepys, who owned a microscope during his tenure at the Navy Office, wrote that he liked Micrographia better than any other book he had purchased, and that he sat up half the night reading it. Seventy years later, plates from the original edition were reprinted by Henry Baker, an amateur enthusiast of Hooke’s work. This new book, Micrographia Restaurata, was published in 1745 and again in 1780.

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