MATTEUCCI Carlo Recueil de 8 mémoires en français et en italien.

An important collection, presumably compiled by Matteucci himself, who presented it to Cardinal Lambruschini, as evidenced by the handwritten inscription on the flyleaf: “A sua Eminenza Card. Lambruschini, Segretario di stato… Mecenato delle scienze e delle sue applicazioni. L’autore in profundo omaggio di rispetto e riverenza. »

This collection brings together Matteucci’s early scientific works, ranging from his very first paper, published in 1828, on the electrical phenomena of thunderstorms, to his research in the 1830s on electricity, electrochemistry and animal electricity. Described by the DSB as “an outstanding scientist, whose work greatly influenced nineteenth-century electrophysiology”, Matteucci studied in Bologna between 1825 and 1828 and graduated with a degree in physics at the age of 17. Through the intervention of Alexander von Humboldt, the University of Pisa offered him the post of professor of physics in 1840.

This copy was presented to Luigi Lambruschini (1776–1854), a cardinal of the Roman Curia and a leading figure during the pontificate of Gregory XVI. Appointed cardinal in 1831, Lambruschini served as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Studies from 1834 to 1836, before being appointed, in January 1836, Cardinal Secretary of State, a post he held until the death of Gregory XVI in 1846.

By dedicating this work to Lambruschini, Matteucci pays tribute to the man he explicitly describes as a patron of the sciences and their applications: ‘Mecenato delle scienze e delle sue applicazioni’. At the age of barely twenty-six, the young scholar thus dedicated this collection of his early research to one of the most senior officials in the papal administration, who had previously been in charge of educational institutions before taking up his post in the Secretariat of State.

This copy therefore provides a particularly interesting insight into the relationship between scientific research, papal institutions and networks of scholarly patronage in Italy during the Restoration period. It is all the more remarkable given that Matteucci, still at the start of his career, would go on to become one of Italy’s leading figures in experimental electrophysiology and electrochemistry.

bound at the head of the volume is a bibliography of the works and papers published by Matteucci.

Contents :

1. Sur la propagation du courant électrique dans les liquides. [Paris, E.-J. Bailly, 1837] 89 pp. Without the printed self-wrappers. Not in Wheeler-Gift, Gartrell and Wheatland. First edition of the Off-print from Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 1837, very rare. The overview of this memoir is followed by six lengthy chapters detailing the meticulous work carried out by scientist Carlo Matteucci. He addresses questions concerning the influence of the nature, the volume, the surface area of the liquid on electricity. The tables detail the results of the experiments.

2. De la Force chimique du courant volatile, 3e mémoire. (communiqué par l’auteur).- De la diffusion du courant électrique dans les liquides (communiqué par l’auteur).- Note sur les courants électriques développés dans l’action chimique les uns sur les autres, par M. A Mousson. [Mémoires présentés à Ravenne, 14 mai, et 1er juin 1839] pp. 153-176. Memoirs taken from an unidentified scientific journal. In it, Matteucci sets out the results of research into the chemical effects of electric current and their relationship to the relative quantities of the substances produced or decomposed.

3. Del Temporale. Discorso. Bologna, Tipografia Marsigli, 1828. 67 pp. Not in Wheeler-Gift, Gartrell and Wheatland.

   First edition, very rare, of the first scientific publication of the young researcher. “At the age of sixteen he prepared his first published paper, on meteorology” (DSB). This thesis concerns atmospheric electricity produced during thunderstorms. The author first provides a historical overview of the work of his predecessors, then studies cloud formation and other meteorological electrical phenomena.

4. Sul Passaggio della corrente elettrica fra i metalli et i liquidi e fra i liquidi e i liquidi. Memoria. Forli, Mattei Casali, 1835. 39 pp. Not in Wheeler-Gift, Gartrell, and Wheatland. Important memoir in which Matteucci examines the direction of electric current in bodies and liquids.

5. Sulla formatione della grandine. Mémoria. Pesaro, stamperia del Nobili, 1834. 14 pp. First edition, very rare, on the formation and the electric properties of hale.

6. Sulle correnti elettro-magnetiche di Faraday. Osservazioni. [Forli, Matteo Casali, 1832]. 6 pp. 4 f.n.ch. Not in Wheeler-Gift, Gartrell and Wheatland. Important paper on the polarisation of magnetic electric current based on Faraday’s findings. Schematic images illustrate the text.

7. Sur l’Origine de la chaleur animale. Observations. Extrait de la Correspondance mathématique et physique de Mr. Quetelet, Bruxelles. N.p., n.d. 7 pp. After dismissing Lavoisier and Laplace’s theory that animal heat was due to the ‘conversion of carbon and hydrogen in venous blood into carbonic acid and water’ Matteucci concluded that ‘it is therefore in nutrition, an act composed of physical and chemical actions carried out under the influence of the nervous system, that the cause of animal heat seems to lie’.

8. Sur l’électricité animale. Mémoire. [Florence, 10 septembre 1834]. 2 ff.n.ch. Not in Wheeler-Gift, Gartrell and Wheatland. Memoir in which Matteucci studies animal electricity based on research conducted by Wollaston, who ‘was the first to attempt to explain animal secretions using electrochemistry’.

Fine copy.

Other provenance : André Dénier (bookplate).