Recherches sur les Volcans eteints du vivarais et du Velay; Avec un Discours sur les Volcans brülans, des Memoires analytiques sur les Schorls, la zeolite, le Basalte, la Pouzzolane, les Laves & le differentes Substances qui s'y trouvent engagees, &c

Grenoble / Paris: Cuchet / Nyon, Nee & Masquelier, 1778. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Large Folio. Large folio (432 x 290 mm). [8], xviii, [2], 460 pp., including 2 engraved vignettes, woodcut initials, approbation leaf, general index, and 20 engraved plates (one double-page). Near contemporary calf, plain spine richly tooled in gilt and with gilt-lettered label, margins and edges of boards tooled in gilt, marbled endpapers, red-sprinkled edges (boards and extremities rubbed and scratched, lower board edges and corners worn). Text and plates generally crisp and clean, just some minor finger soiling, insignificant dampstain at lower margin of a few leaves leaves, very light uneven browning, plate 13 slightly brown-stained from formerly inlaid paper slip. Provenance: collectors stamp of unknown origin on title-page. A fine, wide-margined copy with the plates in strong impressions. ----

En Français dans le Texte 169; DSB IV, p.548; Brunet II, 1192; Hoover Coll. 294; Ward & Carozzi 779; Ebert 7369; Wellcome III, 12. - FIRST FOLIO EDITION of probably the most attractive work published on vulcanology. The volcanoes of central France had previously been studied by others but basalt was thought to be produced by the crystallization of water. This work, and that of Desmarest published in 1764, proved that it was formed through volcanic action.
"Meanwhile, Faujas had been exploring the hilly districts of Vivarais and Velay in the east-central France and found that the basalt there was also volcanic ... he embodied them in 1778 in a great folio work on the ancient volcanoes of Vivarais and Velay (accounts of other researches were included). The work established once and for all that basalt, a rock important scientifically because of its distinctive characteristics, its widespread occurrence, and the manner of its association with other kinds of rocks, was the product of volcanic action" (D.S.B. IV, p. 548).
"Mais il fut le premier à mener dans cette province une enquête systématique, le premier à constituer une riche collection des différentes variétés de basalte, le premier à publier le résultat de ses investigations dans un ouvrage in-folio, superbement illustré de vingt grandes planches gravées par les meilleurs artistes du moment" (En Français dans le Texte 169). Visit our website to see more images!