ROBERT BOYLE and JOHN LOCKE

General History of the Air 1692

Edited by John Locke

BOYLE,Robert and LOCKE,John
The General History of the Air, Designed and Begun by the Honble Robert Boyle Esq.
London, Awnsham and John Churchill 1692

Quarto, fine contemporary panelled calf, five raised bands, morocco label lettered gilt, pp.xii, 259, [1] adverts, woodcut diagram in the margins of pp.133, 135, inscribed in ink on inner blank Ex Libris Ricardi Moore. Paid for this Vol: 2sh – London, a few leaves lightly browned, a fine copy.
SOLD

Wing, B3981. Fulton, Boyle 194. Christophersen, John Locke, p.13. Harrison & Laslett, Library of John Locke, 460.
Provenance:
Richard Moore [1716-1771] of Barne House, Clonmel, Ireland, High Sheriff of Tipperary, M.P. for Kells 1757-1768

FIRST EDITION by the founder of modern chemical science and published posthumously the year after Boyle’s death. He was a close friend of John Locke. John Locke, who was one of Boyle’s literary executors, arranged for the publication and saw the book through the press. It contains some of John Locke’s weather records and the ‘Advertsisement to the Reader’ on pp.iii-v is by Locke. During his stay in Oxford Locke had kept a journal of the air from June 24th 1666 to June 30th 1683. This journal was transmitted to Boyle and was included in the General History and is found on pp.104-132 A Register kept by Mr Locke in Oxford as well as London between December 1669 to June 1665. It is a Baconian style natural history, a collection of observations and testimonies on the nature of the air. It reflects Boyle’s interest in the relation between the air and epidemics. The manuscript of the book survives amongst Locke’s papers in the Lovelace Collection in the Bodleian Library.