London, Henry Hall for Richard Davis and B Took, 1680. 8vo - 7 Inches. Quite simply one of the most influential scientific books of the 17th century, and the greatest work of Anglo-Irish natural philosophy and aristocrat, Robert Boyle. Bound in original drak brown speckled calf with some refurbishment of the corners. Rebacked in style with raised bands and gilt spine titles on a red morocco spine label. Old staple holes to upper board from a chained library. Old ink note to flyleaf. Ink name of author to top of title page in an old hand. Sion College library stamp to title page verso with subsidiary ink stamps stating 'Sold by Order of the President and Governors 1938'. Internally very tidy, with some toning in places. Page 85 of second part has two rust spots obscuring a couple of letters, but otherwise this is a very presentable copy. Mino marginal strengthening of final blank. Overall a very good copy of this seminal science work, and very rare, even as a second edition. The first edition is virtually unobtainable and when it has appeared on the market tends to sell for six figure sums. (20), 440, (28), 268 pages. Collates complete. *8, **4, A4, B-R8, S4. 'The Sceptical Chymist is Boyle's most significant contribution to the advancement of human knowledge' writes Fulton. On the rarity of the first edition of the Sceptical Chymist he writes 'Of those now held permanently in great libraries we have knowledge of twenty-one and have recorded six more in the hand of individual collectors. In addition there were five copies known to be in private hands in 1937, but their present whereabouts have not been traced'. A few have come to light since, but the first and second editions remain scarce, and the work was not then republished until 1911. In the form of a dialogue, the Sceptical Chymist presented Boyle's hypothesis that matter consisted of atoms and clusters of atoms in motion and that every phenomenon was the result of collisions of particles in motion. He appealed to chemists to experiment and asserted that experiments denied the limiting of chemical elements to only the classic four: earth, fire, air, and water. He also pleaded that chemistry should cease to be subservient to medicine or to alchemy, and rise to the status of a science. Importantly, he advocated a rigorous approach to scientific experiment: he believed all theories must be proved experimentally before being regarded as true. For these reasons Robert Boyle has been called the founder of modern chemistry. The Sceptical Chymist is well written, enlivened with touches of humour, as when the alchemists are compared with "the Navigators of Solomon's Tarshish Fleet, who brought home not only Gold, and Silver, and Ivory, but Apes and Peacocks too", since their theories "either like Peacock's feathers make a great shew, but are neither solid nor useful; or else, like Apes, if they have some appearance of being rational, are blemish'd with some absurdity or other which makes them appear ridiculous." The chief value of The Sceptical Chymist, aside from its main message, was the wealth of chemical experiment that showed the chemist how to employ standard terms and nomenclature in chemical explanation and also presented new chemical fact. Wing B4022; Fulton 34; Madan 3261 and 3260.

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