Palissy, Bernard de | The first collected edition of Palissy's works, with a presentation inscription from the editor, Faujas de Saint Fond

Bernard de Palissy

Ouevres… Revues sur les Exemplaires de la Bibliothèque du Roi, avec des notes. Edited by Faujas de Saint Fond and Nicholas Gobet. Paris: Ruault, 1777

4to (273 x 210 mm; uncut and partially unopened). Woodcut printer’s device, head- and tail-pieces; without the dedication to and portrait of Benjamin Franklin (as usual), with occasional foxing, dampstaining, and light toning, with the first bifolium (title and half-title) separating at fold from the bottom but holding soundly on the sewing, marginal worming affecting gatherings 2X to 3D, rear free endpaper annotated in pencil with loss at lower corner. Bound in contemporary marbled paper boards; light rubbing, a few spots of wear along edges and spine ends, fading to the spine, dampstaining to the front cover, front joint starting, front hinge cracked, the marbled paper and front pastedown lifting from the board at the front corner.

First collected edition, second state, presentation inscription from Faujas de Saint Fond inscribed, “Donné par faujas de st. fond / a son ami [obliterated].” The book contains chapters on a broad range of scientific subjects, including geology, hydrology, paleontology, alchemy, and medicine, as well as a chapter on ceramics, a design for an ideal garden (a “Jardin Delectable,” to be decorated with his sculptural earthenware and with biblical quotations), and a descriptive catalogue of specimens in his natural history cabinet. However, the collection also contains some incorrectly attributed works.

Palissy’s scientific writings are particularly notable because, despite his having no formal training, his deductions were based on empirical evidence and experimentation, rather than on theory or conjecture. Through observation, he was able to correctly infer that rivers and streams were fed by rainwater alone, and he had a reasonably accurate understanding of the process of petrification. “While there is some question concerning his originality… there is little doubt that Palissy was probably one of the first men in France to teach natural sciences from facts, specimens, and demonstrations rather than hypotheses.” (Bernard Palissy, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography).

Presentation copy from the book’s principal editor Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, himself a scientist and geologist. The edition was intended to be dedicated to the newly arrived United States ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin, but the dedication leaf and accompanying portrait were suppressed before publication and are only found in a handful of copies (The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine, Vol. II, 1991, n° 1630).

REFERENCES

Norman, II, 1630; Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. X, pp. 280-281)

PROVENANCE

Presentation copy from Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond to an unknown recipient — Herbert Reichner Haskell — F. Norman (bookplate; Christie’s, Part I, 18 March 1998, lot 145)