Essai d'une théorie sur la structure des crystaux appliquée a plusiers genres de substances crystallisées HAÜY, René Just [Near Fine] [Hardcover]

8vo. (192 x 120 mm). [8], 236 pp., including half-title, woodcut head- and tailpieces, 8 folding engraved plates by Sellier after Fossier bound at end. Near contemporary mottled half calf over marbled boards, spine with gilt decoration and morocco label lettered in gilt (extremities rubbed). Text and plates somewhat browned mostly to outer margins, minor occasional spotting, light brown stain near gutter of half-title (this also with tiny repair of tear at fore-margin). In all a very good, clean copy. ---- Dibner 92; Horblit 47; Sparrow 93; Norman 1021-1022, Ward & Carozzi, Geology Emerging, 1984: no. 1020; Wilson, History of Mineral Collecting, 1994: 53-6. - FIRST EDITION of the work that laid the foundation for the mathematical theory of crystal structure. Often thought of as the founder of crystallography, Hauy proposed the idea of the crystal molecule and recognized that, based on the discontinuity principle, there are limited varieties of a crystal species. (Dibner). Haüy's first printed book, this work was instrumental in establishing a solid foundation on which modern theories of crystal structure rest. In it, Haüy brought together the advances in crystallography made by Romé de l'Isle, Bergman and others into a coherent structural theory, based on the structural unit, the ""molecule constituante"" (later renamed by him to ""molecule integrante""). Haüy's model depicted crystals as built up out of these molecular units which were polyhedral in form. Haüy also theorized a common ""nucleus"" or ""primitive form"" for all crystals of the same ""species."" This primative form was often revealed by cleavage of a crystal symmetrically along its angles and edges. Haüy's theory of crystal structure changed little in its essentials during the remainder of his career, which went on for almost forty years after the publication of the Essai. (Mineralogical Record online Library).