PALISSY Bernard Œuvres, revues sur les exemplaires de la bibliothèque du Roi, avec des notes par MM. Faujas de Saint Fond et Gobet.

D.S.B. , X, 280 ; Norman, 1630 ; Caillet, 8265 ; Poggendorff, II, 347.

Édition originale.

Les œuvres de Bernard Palissy étaient, depuis sa mort en 1590, tombées dans l’oubli, jusqu’à ce que Faujas de Saint-Fond et Gobet en redécouvrent l’intérêt. Ainsi les éditeurs notent dans la préface : “Les œuvres de Bernard Palissy, l’un des plus grands génies que la France ait produits, étoient devenues si rares, que la plupart des naturalistes, des physiciens & des chymistes, à qui elles sont nécessaires, ne les connoissoient que de nom, ou d’après des extraits qu’en donné MM. de Fontenelle, de Jussieu, de Buffon, Venele. &c. Depuis plus de deux siècles les différens traités de cet auteur n’avoient point encore pâru réunis en un seul corps d’ouvrage”. Les sujets abordés concernent la minéralogie, l’alchimie, l’agriculture, etc. L’un des derniers chapitres décrit le cabinet de curiosités de Bernard Palissy avec des minéraux, coquillages et fruits pétrifiés et d’autres objets rares.

“On trouve dans ces oeuvres plusieurs traités relatifs à l’alchimie” (Caillet).

“Palissy (1510/1590), first became famous through his technique for making a rustic enamelled earthenware, a skill which gained him the appointment of inventeur des rustiques figurines du roy. In 1575, despite his lack of formal education, he began giving public lectures in natural history; there is little doubt that Palissy was probably one of the first men in France to teach natural sciences from facts, specimens and demonstrations rather than hypotheses. His works deals with agriculture, geology, alchemy botany, ceramics, embalming, engineering, hydrology, medicine, metallurgy, meteorology, mineralogy, palaeontology, philosophy, physics, toxicology and zoology. Palissy’s views on hydrology and palaeontology are of particular interest. He was one of the few men of his century to have a correct notion of the origins of rivers and streams. An early advocate of the infiltration theory, he refuted the old theories that streams came from seawater or from air that had condensed into water. He also wrote on the principles of artesian wells, the recharging of wells from nearby rivers and forestation for the prevention of soil erosion. He also discusses fossils extensively. He believed them to be a remnant of animals and plants and firmly rejected the idea that they were detritus of the biblical flood, suggesting that inland fossils are found on site as the result of the congelation of a lake. He recognized the relation between these fossils and living species and, in some cases, extinct ones. From experimentation Palissy concluded that all minerals with geometric crystal forms must have crystallized in water”. (DSB).

Bel exemplaire, bien conservé.