"[W]omen generally are electrized more easily"

DELL' ELETTRICISMO [On Electricity]

[By Eusebio Sguario]

1746

First edition of the "first Italian book on electricity" (Bensaude-Vincent) — a popular text that spread word of early electrical experiments to fascinated amateurs, including many Italian women.

Very good.

Price: $2,500.00

DELL' ELETTRICISMO [On Electricity]

"While learned women were prominent in the French salons, known for their publications in England, and occasionally celebrated in Germany, no other region of Europe so closely bound the ascent of female learning to its scientific and cultural institutions as did Italy" — Paula Findlen

After the late 17th-century revolution in physics thanks to Newton, the 18th century's cutting edge scientific experimentation turned to electricity. Sguario's work predates Franklin's experiments with electricity, as well as the work of his famed Italian countrymen, Aldini, Galvani, and Volta. It was likely produced in collaboration with Christian Xavier Wabst, whose electrical performances "incited curiosity" among both "the academic and the amateur" (Bertucci, 54).

DELL' ELETTRICISMO incorporates the Newtonian worldview into its framework, as well as an expectation of interest from women in the subject. Among European countries, Italy was then the most welcoming to women's participation in scientific endeavors. Less than a decade before, IL NEWTONIANISMO PER LE DAME [1737, Newtonianism for the Ladies] became a tremendous bestseller, "one of the main channels through which Newtonian ideas reached the general public in continental Europe" (Mazzotti, 119). DELL' ELETTRICISMO shows a scene of a woman participating in an electrical experiment as its frontispiece, and features a "female protagonist in [its] dialogue" (Findlen, 314).

Experimentation at home by women interested in natural philosophy only grew over the course of the 18th century: "aristocratic women produced miniature lightning flashes from their fingers and their whale-bone petticoats, or titillated their admirers with a sensational — if rather painful — electric kiss" (Fara, 3). An important work of Enlightenment experimental philosophy in a lovely contemporary binding.

Read more: Firstenberg, Invisible Rainbow; Mazzotti, "Newton for Ladies," British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 37 no. 2; Findlen, "A Forgotten Newtonian: Women and Science in the Italian Provinces," The Sciences in Enlightened Europe; Bertucci, In the Land of Marvels; Fara, An Entertainment for Angels.

The Object

Venice: Gio. Battista Recurti, 1746. Full title: Dell' Elettricismo : o sia delle forze elettriche de' corpi svelate dalla fisica sperimentale, con un' ampia dichiarazione della luce elettrica sua natura, e maravigliose proprieta; aggiuntevi due dissertazioni attinenti all' uso medico di tali forze. Octavo, 7.75'' x 5''. Contemporary carta rustica, patterned paper spine. Uncut. Illustrated with engraved frontispiece, 3 engraved headpieces of electrical instruments, and woodcut head/tailpieces and initials. Title page printed in red and black. XVI, 391, [1] pages. Ink owner name marked out on front pastedown. Light soil to wrappers, some dampstaining to upper margins.

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