Scientific instruments.- Alence (Joachim d') Traittez des barométres, thermométres, et notiométres, first edition, engraved additional pictorial title and 35 plates, printed title with woodcut ornament, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and decorative initials, occasional spotting and light staining, contemporary mottled calf, rebacked, [Wellcome II, 28], 12mo, Amsterdam, Henry Wetstein, 1688.

⁂ A rare complete copy. 'His detailed description of the principal meteorological instruments of the period is enriched with several new ideas such as the calibration of the thermometric scale on the basis of two points of change of state: the point at which water freezes and - a much more contestable point - that at which butter melts' (DSB).