Traité élémentaire de Chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d'après les découvertes modernes de LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent - 1789

Paris: Chez Cuchet, 1789. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Two parts in two volumes. Paris: Chez Cuchet, 1789. 8vo (205 x 124 mm). xliv, 322; viii, 323-653, [3] pp., including half title to each part, woodcut vignette to titles, woodcut head- and tailpieces, 2 folding letterpress tables in volume I, 3-pages errata and 13 folding engraved plates bound at end of volume II. Contemporary half calf, gilt-decorated spine with gilt-lettered morocco labels, vellum corners and dark-green pastepaper-coated boards (slight rubbing to spine ends and hinges), sprinkled edges. Content very crisp and clean with only very little even browning (the two folding tables and p.160 a bit stronger), minor occasional spotting of plates, errata corrected in text in ink, first title-leaf with loss of a few mm of lower corner, tiny burnhole in p.357/8 and 391/2. A near fine copy with ample margins. ----

Dibner 43; Grolier/Horblit 64; PMM 238; Wellcome III, p. 460; Norman 1295; Duveen 340. - FIRST EDITION, second issue. Lavoisier's Traite "...was a decisive move in the final overthrow of alchemy and the phlogiston theory introduced by Stahl a century earlier. By the use of the balance of weight determination at every chemical change and the building of a rational system of elements, Lavoisier laid the foundation of modern chemistry" (Dibner). The illustrations for this edition were conceived and executed by Lavoisier's wife, a skilled painter and engraver who had studied under Louis David, and who collaborated with her husband in his scientific experiments and researches. The second issue contains tables and various approvals of the work not included in the single-volume first or trial issue, of which only two copies are known. - Visit our website to see more images!