FRANCESCO ALGAROTTI (1712-1764)

Il Newtonianismo per le dame, ovvero dialoghi sopra la luce e i colori. In Napoli (but Milan), no printer, 1737


§ 4to (15,5x21x2,5 cm.); XII,pp, missing, as usual, the last leaf of errata. Signature: *1-6, A-Z1-4, Aa-Oo1-4, Pp1-2. Engraved frontispiece by Giovan Battista Piazzetta (1683-1754), engraved by Giuseppe Filosi. Slightly later half-vellum, gilt title-piece on spine. Frontispiece from the 2nd edition (1739); in the first edition was present the same illustration by Piazzetta, but engraved by Pitteri. Occasional foxing in places, but fine copy.

First edition, published without the required permissions and with a forged imprint place, it was included in the Roman Catholic church’s 1739 list of prohibited books; a second Italian edition was published in 1739 and a French translation in 1738. Written by the Italian philosopher and polymath Francesco Algarotti, this work was instrumental for the popularization of Newtonianism in continental Europe. In six conversations with a fictional marchiness, the author explains Newton’s experiments on light and colours. The frontispiece, by the Italian painter Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, is a portrait of Algarotti and Émilie du Châtelet, portraying the characters in the book.
The frontispiece in this copy is from a copy of the second Italian edition, engraved by Giuseppe Filosi from the same drawing by Piazzetta: Filosi “engraved the title page for the second edition of the “Newtonianismo delle dame, o Dialoghi sulla luce e sui colori” by F. Algarotti; the text was published in Padua in 1739 at an unknown printing house, identical in form, graphic layout and decorations, to the first Milanese edition of 1737: F. replicated the anteporta of the first edition which had been engraved by B. Pitteri from GB Piazzetta.” .
Ref: Graesse I, p. 75; Cynthia J. Huffman (Pittsburg State University), "Mathematical Treasure: Francesco Algarotti’s Newtonianism for the Ladies," Convergence (January 2017); Massimo Mazzotti Newton for Ladies: Gentility, Gender and Radical Culture In: The British Journal for the History of Science 37, no. 2 (June 2004), pp. 119-146