Observations sur l'histoire naturelle, sur la physique et sur la peinture. Avec des planches imprimées en couleur. Cet ouvrage renferme les secrets des arts, les nouvelles découvertes, & les disputes des philosophes & des artistes modernes. Année 1752. Vol. 1 (Part I) only de GAUTIER D'AGOTY, Jacques Fabien - 1752

Paris: Chez Delaguette, 1752. 1st Edition. No Binding. Very Good. 1st Edition. No Binding. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. 4to (258 x 204 mm), 64 pp., 1 (of 3) engraved colored plate (lacking the plates to p.18 and 64) and 2 folding diagrams, title printed in red and black, woodcut headpieces. Disbound. Text and plates crisp and clean with only very minor marginal dust-soiling, marginal paper flaw to blank fore-edge of leaf A4. ----

Nissen ZBI 1487; Anatomie de la Couleur 107; Brunet II:1597; Choulant-Frank, p. 273; Cohen-De Ricci, p. 427; Franklin, Early Colour Printing pp. 50-51. FIRST EDITION. The first volume, first part of this early and extremely rare journal of science and art--certainly the first periodical with plates printed in color. The volume contains one of Gautier's most dramatic images, a human foetus in a glass realized in starling shades of green and blue; a folding plate that illustrates the spectrum, and Gautier's own color theory. The text contains articles on color printing, anatomy, the nature of space, a review of paintings exhibited at the Louvre (August 1751), and Gautier's objections to Newton's theory of color. When Goethe attacked Newton's color theory he found Gautier's arguments supportive of his own criticism, and discussed them sympathetically.