DELLA STORIA NATURALE DELLE GEMME BY GIACINTO GIMMA 1730 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS

[GIMMA, Giacinto]. Della storia naturale delle gemme, delle pietre, e di tutti i minerali, ovvero, Della fisica sotterranea di d. Giacinto Gimma ... : in cui delle gemme, e delle pietra stesse si spiegano la nobiltà, i nomi, i colori, le spezie, i luoghi, la figura, la generazione, la grandezza, la durezza, la madrice, l'uso, le virtù, le favole ... : si dà ancora la cognizione de' metalli, delle terre, de' sali, de' solfi, de' bitumi ... di quelche si tratta nella storia de' fossili, che dalle pietre si formano ... : oltre alcuni trattati valevoli a dilucidare la storia tutta della minerale, ed altri, che della vegetevole, e di quella degli animali, sono proprj. In Napoli: Nella stamperia di Gennaro Muzio, erede di Michele-Luigi, a spese dello stesso Muzio, e di Felice Mosca, MDCCXXX. [1730].

First edition; in two volumes; leather-bound; hardcovers; quartos (24cm x 17.5cm); pp. [50], 551; [6], 603; Italian text in double columns; bound in contemporary full vellum, smooth spines gilt with leather title-plates; initial and terminal blanks plus half-titles present; pictorial frontispiece to each volume engraved by Antonio Baldi; illustration in the text at p.336 of vol.1; head- and tail-pieces; decorative capitals; tables and indexes. Condition: GOOD. Bindings tight and secure, the covers moderately marked. Contents complete with general toning, browning and with some spotting, this is heavier in parts. A few leaves creased, some torn to margin. Ink annotation to title pages. Worming to the first few leaves of volume one and to the last few leaves of volume two - this is to the outer margins. Remains of bookplate to front pastedowns and with a few of old biblioteca stamps throughout. Scarce.

Notes: First and only edition of a very rare and very sought-after work. This elaborate encyclopaedic conception is a summation of the best mineralogical and geological knowledge of the time, and reveals the deep admiration for the author's philosophical philosophy. Gimma also deals with crystallography, palaeontology, volcanology, chemistry and botany: it uses chemistry for the study of rocks, fossils and minerals in search of the morphogenetic principle that presides over the organization of living beings, finally to build a unitary system. Among the topics discussed in the author's various "excursus", we find magic lantern, magnet, tobacco, smells, marbles, mosaics, philosophers stone, oil, meteorites, etc. [Adams, Geol. Sciences, p. 5; H. Emanuel, Diamonds and precious stones, London, 1867, p. 272 .; Pretti, in DBI, 54, Rome, 2000, pp. 768-774; Sinkankas 2396].