Paris, Gueffier, 1784. 8vo (19.5 x 12.3 cm). xvi, 637 pp. Contemporary tree-calf-resembling paper boards. Spine with gilt lines and red morocco label with gilt ornamental bands and title. Edges yellow.

A very uncommon, early work on the properties of air, written by the French chemist Urbain François Rouland (d. 1824), a nephew of the French obstetrician, chemist and phycisist Joseph-Aignan Sigaud de Lafond (1730-1810). Sigaud de Lafond published on gasses too, and his Essai sur différentes espèces d’air-fixe ou de gas , pour servir de suite aux Elemens de Physiquewas edited and expanded by Rouland and also published by Gueffier, in 1785. Rouland published on electricity too. Provenance: stamp of Ernst August, King of Hanover, with his monogram, on the half-title and title blank versos. Ernest Augustus (1771-1851) "...was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death in 1851. As the fifth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, initially he seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his elder brothers had a legitimate son. When his older brother William IV, who ruled both kingdoms, died in 1837, his niece Victoria inherited the British throne under British succession law, while Ernest succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which barred women from the succession, thus ending the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714" (Wikipedia). Slight wear to the boards, notably some chipping to the title shield edges, and the lower front hinge; otherwise very good, clean.