Mendeleev, Dmitri Ivanovich | First edition of Osnovy khimii [Principles of Chemistry], with two early versions of the periodic table, St. Petersburg, 1869–1871

Mendeleev, Dmitri Ivanovich

Osnovy khimii [Principles of Chemistry, in Russian & Cyrillic]. St. Petersburg: Tipografija tovarishchestva “Obshchestvannaja Polza” [Printing House of the Association “Public Benefit”], 1869–1871

5 parts in 2 volumes, bound as issued in 4 volumes, 8vo (172 x 105 mm). Half-titles and title-pages in volumes 1 and 3, continuous pagination and signatures in volumes 1 & 2 and 3 & 4, numerous wood-engraved text illustrations, letterpress text tables, folding table at beginning of volume 3; some light staining on title and first few leaves in volume I, ink stamp effaced from title in volume 3. Publisher's printed green wrappers; neatly rebacked, some wear and soiling to covers of volume 1, ink stamp effaced from front wrapper of volume 3. Green cloth folding-case, black morocco label.

First edition of Mendeleev’s Principles of Chemistry, containing the first report of his discovery of the periodic law. The periodic table, caption-titled “Opyt sistemy elementov, osnovannoj na ix atomnom vese I khimischekom skhodstve” (“Attempt at a System of the Elements Based on their Atomic Weights and Chemical Affinities”), is printed in the first volume, on the verso of the last page of Mendeleev's preface, dated from St. Petersburg, March 1869.

This appearance of the periodic table was printed from the same setting of type as two or more single-sheet printings (150 copies captioned in Russian, another 50 in French) which Mendeleev apparently circulated among his colleagues in Russia and throughout Europe beginning in late February 1869. The same setting of type was also used for the printing of the periodic table that accompanied his article “Sootnoshenie svoystv s atomnym vesom elementov” (“Relation of the Properties to the Atomic Weights of the Elements”) in the Zhurnal of the Russian Chemical Society (Vol. 1, issue 2/3; St. Petersburg, April 1869), which is traditionally said to be the first printing of the periodic table. However, the full sequence of these various printings from a single setting of type has not been established. The setting is most easily recognized by a wrong-font error in the fifth column, line 11, where the atomic weight of antimony (Sb=122) is printed with a wrong-font numeral 1 having a long and steep serif at the top.

This first table includes approximate atomic weights coupled with question marks to represent elements that had not yet been discovered but which Mendeleev suspected existed, According to Michael Gordin, “In order to transform this image into a modern periodic system, it must first be rotated clockwise 90°, reflected, and the halogens (the row beginning with F = 19) need to be placed at the opposite extreme from the alkali metals (the row beginning with Li = 7).”

The folding table, which appears here at the beginning of volume 3 (i.e., at the beginning of the second volume in the more common two-volume issue), published in 1871, is an improved and expanded version that appears in the preface to the first volume (published in 1869). The caption-title reads "Estestvennaia sistema elementov" D. Mendelieeva" ("D. Medeleev's Basic Table of Elements").

“Mendeleev's work toward the Osnovy khimii thus led him to the periodic law, which he formulated in March 1869: ‘Elements placed according to the value of their atomic weights present a clear periodicity of properties.’ The work of the Karlsruhe congress had contributed to its discovery; clearly, it would have been impossible to find any relationship between the elements using the old atomic weights. … The necessity to establish correct atomic weights was indeed what first led Mendeleev to investigate the connections among the elements; from this investigation he proceeded inductively to the periodic law, upon which he was then able to construct a system of elements. He used deduction, however, to predict consequences from his still incomplete discovery, moving from the general to the particular to test the validity of the law. … He thus correctly determined the place of beryllium in his system of elements. … He discovered gaps at three points—between hydrogen and lithium, between fluorine and sodium, and between chlorine and potassium—and predicted that these lacunae would be filled by then-unknown elements having atomic weights of approximately 2, 20, and 36—that is, by helium, neon, and argon” (B. M. Kedrov, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography).

“The periodic table of chemical elements may be the most widely recognized talisman of modern science” (Gordin). Rare, particularly in this format. We have not been able to trace another set of the four-volume issue of the first edition.

REFERENCES

See Michael D. Gordin, A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table (New York: Basic Books, 2004). Cf. Dibner, Heralds of Science 48 (citing only the German translation, 1891); Grolier/Horblit 74 (the Journal appearance)

PROVENANCE

Contemporary signature in cursive Cyrillic on title-page of first volume, possibly Vasily Dokuchaev (1846–1903), Russian geologist and soil scientist — Sotheby’s New York, 13 December 2002, lot 127 (undesignated consignor)