Sinclair, George
Natural Philosophy improved by New Experiments
Estimate: £300 - £500
Auction: 19 September 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
Touching the Mercurial Weather-Glass, the Hygroscope, Eclipsis, Conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. By New Experiments, touching the Pressure of Fluids, the Diving-Bell, and all the Curiosities thereof. Edinburgh: Gideon Schaw, 1683. 4to (18.2 x 13cm), contemporary panelled calf, rebacked and recornered, pi1 A-B2 2[par.]4 3[par.]2 A-2R4, [2] 8 [12] 319 pp., 7 engraved numbered plates (1-6 folding), 2P4 blank except for transverse section-title ‘Sinclair on the Hydrostaticks’, retaining the engraved additional title-page and preliminary signatures 2[par.] and 3[par.] from the 1672 edition, bookplate (Walter Seton of Abercorn), 18th/19th century annotations to foot and verso of title-page, folding plates trimmed to platemark along fore edges, plate 7 slightly soiled, 2L2-2M1 with shallow loss to foot of gutter not affecting text [Ferguson, Bibliographical Notes on the Witchcraft Literature of Scotland, 15 n.]
Provenance
The Library of a Scottish Gentleman
Footnote
First edition, second issue, originally published in 1672 under the title Hydrostaticks, uncommon. The work has been described as ‘a gallimaufry of practical and theoretical physics, drawing on [the author's] experiences with the diving bell and barometer’ (ODNB). Notable contents include an account of Otto von Guericke's invention of the vacuum pump ('A Curious Experiment made lately in Germany, for shewing the wonderful force of the Air', pp. 230-3), and an extensive description of the 'Devil of Glenluce' poltergeist incident (pp. 238-47), anticipating Sinclair's 1685 work Satan's Invisible World Discover'd.
