LE GALLOIS. Conversations de l'académie de Monsieur l'abbé B - Lot 47

LE GALLOIS. Conversations de l'académie de Monsieur l'abbé Bourdelot, contenant diverses recherches, observations, expériences, & raisonnemens de Physique, Médecine, chymie, & Mathématique. Et le parallèle de la Physique d'Aristote, & de celle de Mons. Des Cartes. Paris, Thomas Moette, 1675. In-12, new edition. Bound in full posterior green morocco, boards with triple gilt filleting, spine decorated with 5 nerves, double gilt filleting on the edges, all edges gilt, signed S. David. Monogram stamp on title page repeated on a few text leaves. Enriched copy with a handwritten note at the end of the preface and six and a half handwritten pages bound at the end of the volumes, attributed to Telliamed. His handwritten name appears in a cartouche on the verso of the last leaf "Telliamed / De Maillet / consul au Caire". Two signed handwritten notes on the upper endpapers confirm this attribution. French Consul in Egypt and Inspector of the French Establishments in the Levant, Benoit de Maillet was the author, under the pseudonym Telliamed, of a theory on the history of the Earth, a manuscript of which circulated in the early 18th century. Breaking with the myth of the Flood, the author asserted that the Earth was several million years old, and explained its relief by successive variations in sea level. His writings are said to have inspired Lamarck and Darwin. The notes in our copy concern the means of fixing memory (end of preface) and anecdotes and curiosities, notably on Physics and the asbestos stone. (spine and boards sunned, some soiling to handwritten leaves).