ROYAL SOCIETY Phil. Transactions 3 July 1665

November 23, 2021

Rare Books, Documents, Photos, and Artwork

Lot 14

ROYAL SOCIETY Phil. Transactions 3 July 1665

Estimate: $250 - $300

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Description

ROYAL SOCIETY of London (publishers) [Early single issue from the Philosophical Transactions] Number 5 Monday July 3, 1665.

Offered for sale by Adam Langlands of 'Shadowrock Rare Books' - for more information please contact him via email at adamlanglands@gmail.com

Royal Society. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS

Number 5 Monday July 3, 1665. Single issue: pages 79 - 91 [16 ] pages, 1 folding engraved plate with 4 figures on it, the first few pages are detached with a small tear on the left had side of the page which runs through the whole issue but does not affect the legibility, a good copy.

The contents include: “An account of how Adits and Mines are wrought at Liege without Air-shafts, communicated by Sir Robert Moray. A way to break easily and speedily the hardest Rocks; imparted by the same Person … A Relation of the designed Progress to be made in the Breeding of Silkworms, and the Making of Silk, in France…”

Sir Robert MORAY FRS (1608 or 1609 – 4 July 1673) was a Scottish soldier, statesman, diplomat, judge, spy, and natural philosopher. He was well known to Charles I and Charles II, and to the French cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin. He attended the meeting of the 1660 committee of 12 on 28 November 1660 that led to the formation of the Royal Society, and was influential in gaining its Royal Charter and formulating its statutes and regulations. Moray was the first President of the society which holds its Annual General Meeting on Saint Andrew's Day (30 November) the Patron Saint of Scotland in apparent acknowledgement of Moray's importance in the formation of the society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moray

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in1665, making it the first journal in the world exclusively devoted to science, and therefore also the world's longest-running scientific journal. It became an official society publication in 1752. The use of the word philosophical in the title refers to natural philosophy, which was the equivalent of what would now be generally called science.

The first issue, published in London on 6 March 1665, was edited and published by the Society's first secretary, Henry Oldenburg, four-and-a-half years after the Royal Society was founded. The full title of the journal, as given by Oldenburg, was Philosophical Transactions, Giving some Account of the present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious in many considerable parts of the World. The society's council minutes dated 1 March 1664 (in the Old Style calendar; equivalent to 11 March 1665 in the modern New Style calendar) ordered that "the Philosophical Transactions, to be composed by Mr Oldenburg, be printed the first Monday of every month, if he have sufficient matter for it, and that that tract be licensed by the Council of this Society, being first revised by some Members of the same". Oldenburg published the journal at his own personal expense and seems to have entered into an agreement with the society's council allowing him to keep any resulting profits. He was to be disappointed, however, since the journal performed poorly from a financial point of view during his lifetime, just about covering the rent on his house in Piccadilly. Oldenburg put out 136 issues of the Transactions before his death in 1677.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Society

London, The Royal Society, 1665

Size: 8vo (8 5/8 x 6 1/4in; 220 x160mm)

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