Knoefel (Peter Klerner), 1906-1999

(24 cm), (8) 133 (1) pp., [6] leaves of plates. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Bibliography of works by and about Fontana, professor of logic and physics at Pisa, and director of the laboratory and museums of Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. A major figure in the Italian Enlightenment, Fontana investigated human and animal anatomy and physiology, eudiometry and gas chemistry, microscopy, the physical states and decomposition of water, and also busied himself with practical problems such as oxygen therapy, the protection of his patron’s powder magazines with Franklin conductors, and the search for the causes of diseases affecting the cereal crops of Tuscany. He is best known for work on irritability, on the movements of the iris, and on the venom of the viper. The range and significance of Fontana’s endeavours and his correspondence with other savants, including Haller and Volta, make his writings an important source for the study of eighteenth-century science. His bibliographer has sorted these works into those of verifiable (over 80, including translations), questionable, and false attribution, and illuminated the differences between editions and translations of the same work. ¶ Fine copy.