ROMÉ DE LISLE (Jean-Baptiste Louis). Essai de Cristallograph - Lot 266

ROMÉ DE LISLE (Jean-Baptiste Louis). Essai de Cristallographie, ou Description des Figures géométriques, propres à différens Corps du Regne minéral, connus vulgairement sous le nom de cristaux, avec figures et développements. An important treatise in the history of science, Romé de L'Isle established the principles of crystallography and paved the way for subsequent discoveries in solid state chemistry and physics. Paris, Didot jeune and Knapen & Delaguette, 1772. Volume in-8 (200 x 130 mm), full contemporary marbled and glazed havana calf, spine ribbed and decorated with a mosaic piece and caissons trimmed with gilt fleurons. [v], viii-xxxii, 427, [3] pages, two tables and 10 plates. Spine a little faded, head cap worn, one corner dull. Some light foxing. Very rare first edition. Copy complete with two folding tables and 10 engraved plates. Founding work of modern crystallography, establishing for the first time the law of constancy of angles between crystal faces (the basis of crystal science). It identifies 110 crystalline forms, classifies minerals according to their geometric shape, and introduces key concepts such as truncation and macle. This treatise, hailed by Linné and Haüy, surpassed all previous works in its quantitative and systematic approach, laying the foundations for scientific mineralogy. A pleasant copy, despite minor binding defects.