Haüy, René Just | A seminal work on crystallography, the Traité de Minéralogie

Haüy, René Just

Traité de minéralogie. Paris: L'Imprimerie de Delance pour Le Conseil des Mines, [et se vend] Chez Louis, Libraire, 1801

5 volumes, including atlas, 8vo (text: 200 x 115 mm; atlas: 236 x 308 mm). Half titles and errata slips in each text volume, signed by the publisher beneath the "Extrait du Décret concernant les Contrefacteurs" on the verso of the half-title in volume one; the atlas with 86 engraved plates by Cloquet and Maleuvre; occasional pale spotting, a few plates in the atlas volume with a stain at top edge largely outside of the platemark, plates 26 and 49 are loose. Text volumes bound in contemporary tree calf, gilt ruled, and the atlas in pink paste paper boards, all volumes uniformly rebacked in stained calf, with gilt-lettered green leather labels, and gilt ornaments, modern binder’s label of C.A. Carpenter Jr. on the rear pastedown in vol. I; the text volumes’ boards lightly scuffed and rubbed, with wear at edges, the atlas volume’s boards lightly faded, a few pale stains, a bump in the upper board, and some wear along the edges.

First edition of René Just Haüy’s seminal work. Haüy, often called the father of modern crystallography, made his initial discovery in 1779 by accident when he fractured a calcite crystal and studied the fragments. He correctly determined that the fractures were an expression of the crystal’s internal structure. This, in turn, led him to evolve his theory of the law of decrement, which regulates the growth of crystals. Haüy’s law “led his successors directly to the law of rational indices, which, together with the law of constancy of angles, is fundamental to modern crystallography” (René Just Haüy, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography).

In the first volume, he expands upon his 1784 treatise, Essai d’une théorie sur la structure des crystaux, appliquée à plusieurs genres de substances crisallisées, by working out the mathematical theory behind his law of decrement. The remaining volumes are devoted to his system of mineral classification and revision of the nomenclature of minerals. The atlas volume is filled with detailed line drawings of various types of crystals, illustrating Haüy’s theories.

REFERENCES

Hoover 391; Honeyman sale 4:1627; Ward & Carozzi 1022; Freilich sale, 232; not in Norman; Wilson, History of Mineral Collecting, pp. 53-56