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GALVANI, Luigi.
De Viribus Electricitatis In Motu Musculari
Commentarius cum Joannis Aldini dissertatione et notis. Accesserunt Epistolae ad animalis electricitatis theoriam pertinentes.
Publisher: Modena, Apud Societatem Typographicum, 1792
Stock code: 36204
Price: £9,500 Currency Conversion
First separate edition, first issue with caption "E" in fig. 22 uncorrected, printed in black. Galvani's theory of "animal electricity" demonstrated the main phenomenon of galvanism: "the production of electric current from the contact of two different metals in a moist environment" (DSB). Galvani, however, did not interpret his experiments in this way, but instead saw them as confirmation of the eighteenth-century theory that animals contain in their muscles and nerves a fluid similar to electricity. His theory was first published in 1791, in volume 7 of De Bononiensi scientiarum et artium instituto atque academia. This separate edition was edited by Giovanni Aldini, Galvani's nephew, who included his own theory of animal electricity in his preface. The plates are found printed in either sanguine or black, with most of the plates in sanguine in their first, uncorrected state, leading Fulton and Stanton to claim priority for the sanguine issue. However, the present copy is one of a few to contain the plates in their first, uncorrected state and in black.
Quarto (277 × 192 mm). Early nineteenth-century calf-backed boards. Housed in a green flat back cloth solander box made by The Chelsea Bindery. 3 folding engraved plates. Manuscript index at the end. Extremities rubbed, title-page and a few other pages lightly spotted, K1 on a guard, a good firm copy.
