NOLLET Jean-Antoine, abbé Lettres sur l’électricité. Dans lesquelles on examine les dernières découvertes qui ont été faites sur cette matière, & les conséquences que l’on en peut tirer.

Wheeler Gift, 379-379a; not in Gartrell.

First edition of the first two portions (a third portion was published in 1767). A skilled researcher and professor, Nollet made a major contribution to the popularization of the physical sciences in France, studying in particular the effects of electricity.

“The most typical of these popularizers [alongside Maupertuis and the Marquise Du Châtelet, for example] was undoubtedly the famous Abbé Nollet. The physics course he taught in several pulpits, first in the provinces and then in Paris, was aimed above all at people of good standing, curious about the secrets of nature. He achieved great success by repeating in public the most novel experiments in physics; at this time, the phenomena of static electricity and Franklin’s discoveries provided him with the subject of spectacular demonstrations” (see Daumas, Histoire de la Science, p.110).

A good copy.