Guericke (Otto von) Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio, first edition, additional engraved title, engraved portrait of the author (trimmed to almost touching at fore-edge), 23 engraved plates, of which 2 double-page, eighteenth century ink ownership inscription to letter-press title and front endpaper, a few short marginal tears and small paper flaws, none touching the text, occasional finger soiling, contemporary vellum, pastedowns torn, folio, Amsterdam, Johannes Jansson Waesberge, 1672.

⁂ A fine first edition copy of one of the great classics of science, of prime importance for electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump. Guericke famously proved the existence of a vacuum through a dramatic experiment at Imperial Diet at Ratisbon in 1654, demonstrating how two teams of eight horses could not separate a bronze pair of hemispheres from which he had exhausted the air.