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Ridley (Mark) : A Short Treatise of Magneticall Bodies and Motions

Nicholas Okes, London, 1613

19th century ½ morocco with marble boards, flat spine, edges tinted red, endpapers marbled. , Lacks volvelle on T1; a4 supplied in facsimile (table); without the errata on X3r found in the second issue published in the same year (not in first issue); cropping to upper edge with some trimming to headlines. Otherwise, the book is generally a very good and fresh copy. Text and plates are clean and crisp., small 4to, P. 2 ff., Aa, 157 pp., [1] pp., 2 ff. Mispaginations on pp. 69, 119, and 139, printed as 96, 116, and 319 (respectively), text unaffected., With engraved frontispiece portrait (trimmed and mounted), engraved title, 21 engraved vignette diagrams and illustrations (including one with two maps showing New England, Virginia and Terra Australis), woodcut device, headpieces, initials, and tailpiece. Leaf a4 supplied in facsimile (table).

One of the most important works on magnetism from the renaissance. In this scarce work Ridley “presented directions for a series of experiments on the lodestone, magnet and terella which could be carried out by anyone interested in the subject. He added engravings and descriptions of his improvised instruments for determining the variation, and for making use of the inclinatory needle for finding position at sea.� Taylor, Mathematical Practitioners , 1954.
“He claims acquaintance with William Gilbert [q.v.], whom he commends as the greatest discoverer in magnetical science. After twenty-four chapters on the properties and description of the magnet, he discusses the variation of the compass and methods of estimating it in eight chapters, the inclinatory needle in eight others, and concludes with a chapter on finding the longitude, and one ‘of the Magneticall globe of the earth by the needle.’ He writes in a clear, scientific style, and in his preface gives a succinct account of the history of the subject.� (National Biography).
Includes hard case with felt interior for preservation.
, Honeyman VI, 2649; Sabin 71297; Taylor, 126; Gascoigne 1776; NB XVI:1172.

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