‎NOLLET, Abb Jean-Antoine (1700-1770).‎
‎Essai sur L'lectricit des Corps. Par M. labb Nollet, de lAcadmie royale des sciences, de la Socit royale de Londres, de lInstitut de Bologne, matre de physique de M. le Dauphin & professeur Royal de Physique exprimentale. Troisime dition [vignet].‎

‎Paris, chez H. L. Gurin & L. F. Delatour, 1754. xxiv (faux-titre, titre, ptre, prface et avis au relieur), 273, [iii, privilge] pp. 12mo (9,5 x 16.5 cm.). Finely bound in contemporary chestnut marbled calf, spine with 5 raised band, in compartment richly gilt tooled with ornamentaL & floral decorations, gilt lettered on red morocco label, gilt ruler along the edges of sides, edges red. - [Reliure de lpoque en basane marbre de couleur fauve dos nerfs orn de caissons et de fleurons dors, pice de titre en maroquin grenat, filet dencadrement froid sur les plats, tranches rouges]. With an engraved frontispiece by R. Brunet after N. le Sueur and 4 folded engraved plates in very sharp impression. ‎

Reference : 2418

‎ Last edition of this classic work on electricity, this 1754 imprint is particularly rare. A very fine and attractive copy from a precious provenance; the library of Marie-Caroline de Bourbon Sicile, duchesse de Berry (1798-1870) with her bookplate from the Chteau de Rosny, La solitude . Cat. Wheeler Gift 329a. " Nollet immediately became the chief of the European electricians, but by 1752 he was under attack by Franklinists led by Buffon: he replied in 'Lettres sur l'clectricit (1753 ) , capitalizing on Franklin's occasional obscurities and imprecisions, and his argument stimulated the evolution of classical electrostatics. Another achievement was the discovery and clear explanation of osmotic pressure (1848) " (DSB).‎