Wenner Books Now Online
Followers of Ex Libris Universum may remember the Wenner Collection , a frequent subject on this blog . The collection, which the Niels Bohr Library & Archives acquired in 2018, consists of over 1,000 rare books and publications documenting the history of physics. In 2021 we received a grant from the Sloan Foundation to digitize some of the most unique volumes in the collection. The collection was reviewed to find editions of important texts in the history of physics that did not have copyright restrictions or high-quality freely accessible scans available elsewhere.
We are excited to announce that the 12 volumes digitized through this grant are now available on our digital repository ! The digitized texts include works from the 17th century birth of modern physics, the first publications of famous laws of physics by Hooke, Pascal, and Boyle, and responses to Einstein’s theory of general relativity in the early 20th century. Over the course of this three-part blog series, we will introduce you to each of these twelve books. We encourage you to explore them all in more detail online.
Part 1: Popularizing Natural Philosophy
The 17th and 18th centuries were periods of great scientific discovery and laid the foundations for what would become the modern physical sciences. Natural Philosophers, as scientists were then called, aimed to understand and describe the workings of natural phenomena. In this first selection of texts from the Wenner Collection, we will see some examples of the use of print to popularize and explain new scientific theories to the masses.
Bacon’s Natural History
Bacon, Francis. Sylva sylvarum: or, A naturall history in ten centuries. Whereunto is newly added the History naturall and experimentall of life and death, or, Of the prolongation of life. Both written by the Right Honourable Francis lo. Verulam viscount St Alban. Published after the authors death, by William Rawley ... Hereunto is now added an alphabeticall table of the principall things contained in the ten centuries (London, 1651) Sixth Edition.
Catalog Record | Digitized Book
Frontispiece portrait of Francis Bacon from Sylva Sylvarum
Niels Bohr Library & Archives, Wenner Collection
Title page of the 6th English edition of Sylva sylvarum: or, A naturall history.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives, Wenner Collection
Sectional title page of Bacon’s posthumously published work “New Atlantis: A Worke unfinished”
Niels Bohr Library & Archives, Wenner Collection
Francis Bacon, the First Viscount St. Alban (1561-1626) was a key figure in the scientific revolution, popularizing the scientific method of inductive reasoning still used today. This is the 6th edition of his encyclopedia on science and medicine, Sylva Sylvarum, which was first published a year after his death by his secretary William Rawley. The text was very popular in the 17th century and went through 16 English and 3 Latin editions and printings within its first 60 years of print. The encyclopedia draws on works of antiquity and Bacon’s own scientific experiments to summarize theories of natural phenomena, organized by table of experiments, on topics including physics, medicine, chemistry, acoustics, geology, herbology, and zoology. With experiments ranging from “Of Making Gold,” “Of the Prolongation of Life,” and “of Sneezing” to “Of Motion of Gravity,” “Of Chamoletting* of Paper,” and “Of the Lasting of Flame.”
At the end of the book, William Rawley also tacked on one of Bacon’s unfinished texts: “New Atlantis: a Worke Unfinished,” which describes a fictional Utopian island that is the home of a scientific community named “Salomon’s House.” The founders of the Royal Society credited “Salomon’s House” as inspiration for the structure of their society and was later parodied in Book III of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.
*Chamoletting is an archaic term for the technique of marbling paper.
Boyle’s Corpuscularian Philosophy
Boyle, Robert. Certain physiological essays, written at distant times, and on several occasions (London, 1661) First Edition.
Catalog Record | Digitized Book
Title page of 1661 first edition of Boyle’s Certain physiological essays
Niels Bohr Library & Archives, Wenner Collection
Introductory essay addressed to the reader “Pyrophilus”
Niels Bohr Library & Archives, Wenner Collection
As the title suggests, this volume is a compilation of various essays and short tracts on experimental philosophy and fluidity that Irish physicist Robert Boyle wrote over the course of several years. Certain physiological essays is the first formal publication of these works, which had previously been informally published or shared among Boyle’s friends. The tome is written in a conversational epistolary style, addressed to a reader named “Pyrophilus” or “Pyro” (Greek for “Lover of Fire”). This playful name is identified in the preface as a nickname for Boyle’s nephew, Richard Jones, son of Boyle’s sister Katherine, the Lady Viscountess Ranelagh, to whom many of his works are addressed.
The book is best known for presenting Boyle’s argument for the “Corpuscularian Philosophy,” (also known as the “Mechanical Hypothesis for Experimental Philosophy”). At the time, the scientific community was in a debate over the nature of matter. The Corpuscularians (coming from the Latin “corpusculum” meaning “little body”) believed that all natural phenomena could be explained by the interactions of tiny divisible particles (corpuscles) that had basic qualities, shapes, and weights, that could be measured. While similar to Aristotelian atomism, the Corpuscularians believed instead of indivisible atoms, they were instead of minimal quantities of matter. Some of the particles making up matter could further be divided and transmuted into other forms. This philosophy was adopted by figures such as Isaac Newton, Thomas Hobbes, and René Descartes, and provided an alternative to alchemy and the idea of three essential elements (mercury, salt, and sulfur). Boyle’s arguments helped to lay the foundations of modern chemistry.
Further reading:
Bigotti, Fabrizio, “Corpuscularianism,” in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences, edited by D. Jalobeanu and C.T. Wolfe (Cham, CH: Springer, 2022). https://doi.org/10/1007/978-3-319-31069-5_133
Jones, Jan-Erik, “Boyle’s Mechanical Philosophy” in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences ed. D. Jalobeanu and C.T. Wolfe (Cham, CH: Springer, 2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31069-5_132
Walker’s Familiar Philosophy
Walker, Adam. A System of Familiar Philosophy: in twelve lectures being the course usually read by Mr. A. Walker. Containing the elements and the practical uses to be drawn from the chemical properties of matter ; the principles and application of mechanics; of hydrostatics; of hydraulics; of pneumatics; of magnetism; of electricity; of optics; and of astronomy. Including every material modern discovery and improvement to the present time. Illustrated by Forty-seven Copper-plates, neatly and accurately Engraved. (London, 1799)
Catalog Record | Digitized Book
Marbled cover with quarter calf binding of NBLA’s copy
Niels Bohr Library & Archives, Wenner collection
Title page for Adam Walker’s A System of Familiar Philosophy.
Niels Bohr Library & Archives
Adam Walker was a British scientist and inventor who wrote several popular works on natural philosophy. He was known for traveling the country and giving scientific lectures and demonstrations for the public on a range of subjects to educate and bolster public opinion on the value of the new scientific discoveries of the 18th century. This first edition of Walker’s Lectures compiles twelve of his lectures on a range of topics including light, planetary motion, the nature of fire, magnetism, mechanics, chemistry, the atmosphere, hydrostatics, electricity, optics, and astronomy. Walker draws attention to the explanations of contemporary industrial inventions, including how windmills and wheeled wagons work, and even an explanation of James Watt’s steam engine. Walker himself was an inventor of a water pump and several steam and wind-driven vehicles.
Unfortunately, our copy is missing the engraved plates of figures advertised on the title page. These would have been made through a separate process than the print of the book and added separately at the point of binding. It is unclear when our copy lost its plates, but it was rebound some point in the 19th or 20th century, which is not uncommon for rare books that have passed through many hands. If you are interested in viewing the figures, the Internet Archive has a digitized microfilm copy that still includes some of the figures.
Stay tuned for a look at more digitized Wenner Collection books next month showcasing the origins of some famous laws in physics!
