Del suono de' tremori armonici e dell'udito. Trattati del P. Daniello Bartoli della Compagnia di Giesu.

4to (196x135 mm.). [16], 330, [2] (last p. is blank) pp. Collation: [a]⁴ b⁴ A-Rr⁴ Ss2 Tt4. Many woodcut ornaments, 21 woodcut illustrations and diagrams in-text, initials, head- and tail-pieces. Colophon at l. Tt4. Little staining on the half-title, marginal staining at l. Q1. Contemporary cardboards with manuscript title on the spine, sprinkled edges. A very good, genuine copy.
Rare first edition of this important treatise, divided into four distinct parts, devoted to the mechanisms of sound transmission in nature and in music, in which the author describes the physical phenomena and psychological aspects related to the perception of different types of sound. The present work represents the first extensive treatise on acoustics, a discipline generally neglected during the 16th and the 17th century. Bartoli devised a series of ingenious experiments to study the movement of sound through bodies of different densities, the speed of sounds different in loudness, pitch and timbre; the form and transmission of sounds and the rules governing harmonic and sympathetic vibrations. Bartoli was the first to demonstrate against Kircher's and Gassendi's assertion that sounds can be conducted through solid bodies as well as through air. A large section is dedicated to the anatomy of the ear, where the author borrows much from Bartholin and Realdo Colombo, but recognizes for the first time the function of the Eustachian tube in the ventilation of tympanic cavity.
Daniello Bartoli, native of Ferrara, was the official historian of the Jesuit order and the rector of the Collegio Romano from 1671 to 1673. Beyond his famous historical work on the first century of Jesuit activity and several moral and religious treatises, he wrote some books of scientific subject, such as barometric experiments, acoustics and about phenomena linked to freezing.
Cf. Italian Union Catalogue: UFIE\002683; Honeyman, nr. 233; Wellcome, vol. II, nr. 109; Zeitlinger, nr. 4395 (2nd supplement): “Rare”; Gamba, nr. 1775; Vinciana, nr. 1512; Olschki-Choix, nr. 6068.