first edition
1670 · Regio Calabria
by BORELLI, Giovanni Alfonso
(4) ff., 566 pp., (3) ff. Bound in contemporary vellum. Excellent. Very rare first edition of this important work on mechanics by Borelli and the first treatise on capillarity. It contains the important investigations from which the author formulated the law that the height of the ascent of liquids in capillary tubes is inversely proportional to their diameters. His investigations also led him to the conclusion that the phenomenon of capillarity is independent of the pressure of air. The work is said to have caused the quarrel between the author and Prince Leopold of Tuscany, who wished to incorporate it in the Saggi of the Accademia del Cimento, (truncated)