DALENCE Joachim Traittez des baromètres, thermomètres et notiomètres, ou hygromètres.

DSB, III, p. 534.

First edition.

Joachim Dalencé (or d’Alencé), who traveled in England and the Netherlands, was in contact with Huygens and Leibniz. According to the notice to readers, these measuring instruments “have become so common, that all the curious have them… we thought they would be well pleased to have a kind of history of them, in which they would find all the experiments that have been made up to now”. The 35 beautifully decorated baroque plates show devices invented by Dalencé and experiments carried out. 

“His detailed description of the principal meteorological instruments of the period is enriched with several new ideas, such as calibration of the thermometric scale on the basis of two points of change of state. The point at which water freezes and – a much more contestable point – that at which butter melts” (DSB).

A fine copy bearing the coat of arms of Nicolas-Joseph Foucault, Marquis de Magny (Olivier, 1852), with his bookplate. Intendant of the kingdom for 32 years, Nicolas Foucault left interesting memoirs on administrative and literary history from 1641 to 1718. He had a remarkable library.