{"product_id":"sguario-dissertazione-sopra-le-1738","title":"Dissertazione sopra le aurore boreali","description":"\u003cp\u003e1738 First Edition\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 4to. Pp. [1] f.e., 119, [1]; [1] folding illustration; [1] table; II plates.\u003cbr\u003e\nVenezia (Venice)\u003cbr\u003e\nPietro Bassaglia\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVellum binding, soiled and stained; red offset stain to the back cover. Spine rubbed, showing an earlier vellum binding beneath, indicating that the volume has been rebound at an early date. Water stain at the front and rear endpapers; early restoration to the front one. Very well-executed and marginal restorations to the title page (visible only against a light source). Bottom margin slightly chipped at the central gatherings; small and very well-executed restorations. Despite this, overall internally handsome. Very good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe rare appearance of the northern lights (aurora borealis) over Venice on the night of 16 December 1737 provided Eusebio Sguario with the occasion for this learned dissertation on natural philosophy. At a latitude where such displays were highly unusual, the phenomenon caused widespread alarm among the city's inhabitants, and Sguario sought to replace fear with reason through a systematic explanation grounded in mechanics, optics, astronomy, and observation, offering a revealing example of Enlightenment science and an early Italian contribution to Newtonian physics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe work opens with the author's candid address to the reader, in which Sguario states that his theory is presented as probable and likely, rather than demonstrated, and that he was only at the beginning of his fifth lustrum (so about twenty-five years of age), and the treatise was completed in approximately thirty days.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe book is illustrated with a particularly striking large folding engraved plate depicting the aurora over Venice, showing rays and luminous columns rising above the horizon; curiously, the references to the \"second\" and \"third\" hours of the night follow the Venetian system of timekeeping, counting the hours from nightfall rather than from midnight. It is complete with 2 tables of geometrical demonstrations supporting the author's optical theory.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe dissertation begins with a survey of the history and geography of the aurora, collecting reports from across Europe, including the observations at Brévillepont in 1726 and 1731 and the Venetian display of 1737. Sguario reviews the regions in which the phenomenon might be observed and reproduces, with corrections, the engraved \"Tavola delle Aurore Boreali del Sig. de Mairan\".\u003cbr\u003e\nRejecting both the ancient and contemporary theory that the aurora resulted from combustible vapors or subterranean fires, Sguario proposes a distinctly Newtonian explanation, attributing the phenomenon to the reflection and refraction of sunlight in a lofty atmospheric cloud identified with the zodiacal light, or solar atmosphere. His argument draws upon planetary attraction, cometary atmospheres, the mechanics of rarefied matter, and the geometry of parabolic and hyperbolic motion, illustrated by detailed mathematical diagrams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAuroras are rare enough on their own. At this latitude, over Venice, they're improbable to the point of disbelief. Yet it happened, and this book, with its almost supernatural black-and-white engraving of luminous rays dancing above the lagoon, tries to bring us there. Sguario was all science and optics, but can you imagine the magic?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Fenice Antiquaria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49385894478059,"sku":"171-1738--1800.00-650.00-2026","price":2756.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0766\/2000\/5611\/files\/00171_IMG_0437.jpg?v=1788993006","url":"https:\/\/fenicebooks.com\/en-ap\/products\/sguario-dissertazione-sopra-le-1738","provider":"La Fenice Antiquaria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}