Chymie expérimentale et raisonnée.

Paris, P. Franç. Didot le jeune, 1773.. FIRST EDITION. 3 volumes. 8°, contemporary French mottled calf with gilt fillets on covers, smooth spines richly gilt, each with 2 red leather lettering pieces (some wear to extremities). Engraved author portrait in volume I. Different engraved allegorical vignette on each title page. Dampstains in first half of volume III, with rubbing affecting 2 letters on the half-title and 1 on the title. Overall very good. Stamp on each half-title of José Luis de Saldanha Oliveira e Sousa; the extensive annotations in volume I (in Portuguese) are probably his. clx, 482 pp.; (2 ll.), 671 pp; (2 ll.), 702 pp.; portrait and total of 12 folding plates. *** FIRST EDITION of this comprehensive laboratory manual, chemistry text, and handbook for mining and refining metals, one of the greatest general chemistry texts of the eighteenth century. Following a lengthy exposition of the apparatus and instruments necessary for a well-equipped laboratory, Baumé proceeds to elaborate basic chemical principles through experiment and observation. Volume I contains experiments with various acids and alkalis; volume II those involving sal ammoniac, borax, arsenic, cobalt, nickel, antimony, zinc, bismuth, mercury, lead, iron, and copper; and volume III those for silver, gold, and platinum, with further observations on mining and refining ores. The plates depict various chemical and refining apparatus.Baumé, a French chemist and pharmacist, is best known for the invention of the hydrometer. He also improved technical processes such as bleaching silk, dyeing, gilding, and purifying saltpeter. Chymie expérimentale appeared in a second edition in 1775, and was translated into Italian in 1781.Volume I includes an author's portrait as frontispiece (facing left, unsigned). In the engraved vignette on the title page, a woman rests her hand on a chemical apparatus as two putti peer through a telescope. On the volume II title page, a woman rests her hand on a complex piece of equipment (for applying heat?) as she reads a book that is supported by two putti. On the volume III title page (by a different artist or engraver, or both), a woman reclines against a lion; the second of the two putti accompanying her pushes a wheelbarrow.Provenance: José Luis de Saldanha Oliveira e Sousa (b. 1839), chemist and mineralogist, wrote on subjects as varied as agriculture, finance, and engravings, and amassed an important library. This stamp bears also the name of his wife, Barbara Maria Tavares de Proença, whom he married in 1873. Oliveira e Sousa was the son of the third Conde de Rio Maior, João de Saldanha Oliveira Juzarte Figueira, and brother of the fourth Conde and first Marquês de Rio Maior.*** Duveen p. 53. Ferguson I, 83-4. Bolton p. 287. Dictionary of Scientific Biography I, 527.