Volume 6 (of 13) only. [3]-592, [1] pp. With 3 folding engraved plates. 22.4x14 cm (8¾x5¾"), later cloth, spines lettered in gilt, page edges untrimmed.

With the ownership signature of Allesandro Volta on upper portion of the title-page, and later ownership signature of Giosue Carducci near the bottom of the title-page. Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (1745-1827) was the Italian physicist and chemist credited with the invention of the first electrical battery, the Voltaic pile. Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci (1835-1907) was an influential Italian poet and teacher, regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy, and in 1906 he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The primary work in the present volume is "Il Saggiatore" (The Assayer), generally considered to be one of the pioneering works of the scientific method, first broaching the idea that the book of nature is to be read with mathematical tools rather than those of scholastic philosophy, as generally held at the time. The volume represents a unique confluence of two great Italian scientists (Galileo and Volta) and an Italian Nobel Laureate.