[Rarebooks] FS: First major modern scientific treatise printed in England. 1600

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Gilbert, William. DE MAGNETE, MAGNETICISQUE CORPORIBUS, ET DE MAGNO MAGNETE 
TELLURE; Physilogia Nova, Plurimis & Argumentis, & Experimentis Demonstrata. 
London: Excudebat Petrus Short. 1600. First edition. Sm. folio (11-1/8” x 7-1/2”
). (16),240pp. Title with woodcut printer’s device on recto and Gilbert’s 
woodcut arms on verso. 88 woodcut diagrams and illustrations in text (4 
full-page). One folding woodcut plate (with an old water stain down one of the fold 
lines). Decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials. Cont. limp vellum 
with hand lettered spine and yapp edges. Housed in a brown cloth clamshell 
case. Front cover with the acronym “IGTCP” stamped in black at the top and the 
date “1604” at the bottom. Endpapers slightly later. Title lightly browned 
and with small university stamp to verso. Additional contemporary ink signature 
on title. Some early red ink underlinings and shoulder notes in Latin. 
Publisher’s corrections to misprints on pp. 11, 22, and 47, as usual. Minor 
dampstains to inner blank margins of first and last few leaves. Intermittent light 
foxing. Pinhole worming to front cover. Small sheet of paper bearing catalog 
description tipped onto inner rear cover. Overall, an excellent copy.     
$30,000.00 (trade discount allowed)
An influence on Bacon, Boyle, Newton, Kepler, and Galileo, Gilbert’s 
(1544-1603) DE MAGNETE is “a remarkable work in the history of scientific discovery. 
It cost the author 18 years of investigation and experiment. Large marginal 
asterisks mark what he considered great discoveries, and small asterisks minor 
ones. There are 21 of the former and 178 of the latter. Gilbert shows that a 
freely suspended magnet is controlled by the earth and not, as supposed, by 
extra-terrestrial influences. His magnetic theory enabled him to explain the 
behavior of the compass-needle, the dip-needle, the magnetic condition of vertical 
masses of iron, and the magnetic properties of heated iron bars when allowed to 
cool while lying in the magnetic meridian... Gilbert is chary of prose and 
wrathful in denunciation; he was a staunch Coperican, and warm friend of Kepler 
and Galileo.” (Wheeler Gift). “It is with Gilbert, who was physician to Queen 
Elizabeth I, that the modern development of electricity and magnetism really 
starts. His book “On the Magnet” was the first major English scientific 
treatise based on experimental methods of research... He coined the terms ‘
electricity,’ ‘electric force,’ and ‘electric attraction’... He contended that the 
earth was one great magnet.” (PRINTING AND THE MIND OF MAN 107). 
Grolier/Horblit 41. Houzeau & Lancaster 2870. Norman Library 905. Osler 675. STC 11883. 
Wheeler Gift 72. NLM/Durling 2099.

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