Minéralogie des Volcans, ou Description De toutes les Substances produites ou rejetées par les Feux souterrains…
41077
Paris, Cuchet, 1784
8° (198x120 mm). 18, 511, [1] pp. Head- and tailpieces. Three folding engraved plates, the first signed by Sellier, and showing basalt rocks. Contemporary mottled calf; spine with raised bands, tooled and lettered gilt. Marbled pastedowns and endpapers. Red edges. A very fine copy, wide-margined. Abraded a paper booklabel from the front pastedown.
The first edition of one of the most significant textbooks of volcanology, a concise but detailed description of the key features of the numerous volcanic products, including several varieties of basalt. The French geologist, who was attached to the royal museum in Paris and 1793 became professor of geology in Paris, was owner of a fine cabinet of volcanic minerals and rocks, collected during his extensive travels.
Furchheim, p. 54; E. Vaccari, “Volcanic Travels” and the Development of Volcanology in 18th Century Europe, “Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences”, 59 (2008), Suppl. i, pp. 37-50.
€ 1.250
