Il microscopio reso necessario.

Venice: n.p., 1749. Very Good. 18cm; 62, [2 blank] pages. Woodcut vignette on title page. In plain pastepaper wraps, titled in manuscript on lower wrap. Untrimmed, wide-margined copy, bright and fresh. Light waterstain affects lower marginal corner of three leaves.

The microscope of the title is more or less metaphorical. In the introductory remarks, the author claims to be an man of advanced age and poor eyesight. The microscope, he says, is an extraordinary instrument that permits him to see Truth even in the smallest things, with pupils as lively as in youth. The text has much less to do with scientific instruments than it does with social criticism, calling out popular vanities and hypocrisy. The optic is trained on society, not on fruit flies. 18th-century café reading. Extremely rare.