Historia Naturalis & Experimentis de Ventis &c by BACON, Francis - 1662

Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1662. 4th Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 4th Edition. Hardcover. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. 12mo (125 x 76 mm). [16], 232, [16] pp., including engraved title and index at end. Contemporary vellum, plain spine with later gilt-lettered morocco label (some soiling and spotting of vellum, corners bumped, new endpapers). Internally quite crisp and clean with only very little occasional spotting and faint dampstaining to few pages. Provenance: Nicholas Wall (small bookplate to rear pastedown). Very good and fresh copy. ---- Gibson 111; Willems 1277; Rahir 1314; DSB I, p.372. First and only Elzevier edition (4th edition overall). Contains a.o. the following chapters: Historia Naturalis & Experimentalis de Ventis; Historia Naturalis, et Experimentalis de Forma Calidi; De Motus Sive Virtutis Activae variis Speciebus; Historia vitae et mortis. Bacon's natural history of winds and a treatise on the aging process and death, forming the first 2 books of the third part of his Instauratio magna, his projected systematization of scientific knowledge. "Important as collecting all the facts and theories then known on the subject, and especially as the first to point out the deflexion of winds caused by the earth's rotation" (Sotheran, for 1st English ed.). The first edition of 1622 published under the title Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ad condendam Philosophiam is exceedingly rare with only two copies recorded at auction in 1946 (Sotheby's) and 2010 (Swann, incomplete). - Visit our website for additional images and information.