Antonio Vallisneri, 1726

VALLISNERI, Antonio (1661-1730). Lezione Accademica intorno l’origine delle fontane. Venice: Pietro Poletti, 1726.

Second edition (first 1715), substantially augmented, of Vallisneri’s work on the origin of springs: a classic of geological literature. It contains his demonstration that groundwater percolates down and then runs across impervious strata until there is a break, when the water emerges as springs and rivers. The plate illustrating geological sections of mountains is one of the first of its kind. The first edition appeared as the second part of his Opere diverse published in 1715, and comprised only 87 pages, compared to the over 400 pages here. This edition also contains as an appendix, being a dissertation on spontaneous generation and embryology, occupying the second part of forty pages. Ward and Carozzi, Geology Emerging 2217.

Quarto (230 x 161mm). 2 engraved plates, one with an author portrait; the other, of geological sections, is folding (marginal stain). Contemporary Italian vellum, spine lettered in manuscript (endpapers dampstained, a very few pages affected).