NEUMANN, Caspar.

The Chemical Works...Abridged and Methodized. With Large Additions, containing the Latest Discoveries and Improvements made in Chemistry and the Arts depending thereon, by William Lewis…

8 p.l., 586, [38] pp. 4to, cont. calf (upper joint cracked at head, minor foxing at beginning & end), red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: W. Johnston, Keith, & E. Dilly, 1759.

First edition in English, with considerable additions based on his own experiments by the translator William Lewis, author of the Commercium Philosophico-Technicum (London: 1763-65). Neumann (1683–1737), contributed significantly to the establishment of Stahlian chemistry in Germany and its dissemination throughout Europe. “He distinguished clearly between pure and applied chemistry and insisted that the chemical approach to nature was vastly superior to the mechanical philosophy.”–D.S.B., X, p. 26.

“The text is divided into three approximately equal parts covering the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. One of the best textbooks of the period, it contains (according to Cole) ‘the first exposition of Stahl’s phlogiston theory in English.’ A bibliography of Neumann’s publications appears in the preface.”–Neville, II, p. 222.

A very good copy. Bookplate of William Downes on front paste-down.

❧ Cole 973. Partington II, pp. 702–706.

Price: $1,500.00

Item ID: 2232