Manhattan Rare Book Company

”I content that almost all of Chemistry rests upon this doctrine of elective attraction like a solid base, and if we want a reasonable theory which conveniently and clearly binds things together in a single idea, this theory serves us well...” -Torbern Bergman

EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of Bergman’s study of chemical affinities, including a large fold-out table, “the finest achievement in the tradition of affinity tables,” and a major predecessor of the periodic table.

“Tobern Bergman published his table of chemical affinities and his accompanying 90-page Latin Dissertation of Elective Attractions in 1775, approximately three-quarters of a century before Dmitri Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer published their periodic tables of the chemical elements...”

Bergman “put himself to this enormous task [of classifying chemical affinities] and produced... the most elaborate affinity table so far, comprising 50 columns and constructed for two different analytical methods: dry and wet ways.... Bergman’s table represented a giant stride in chemists’ capacity for analytic control. It listed 25 separate acids, 15 earths, and 16 metallic calces... Translated into French, German, and English, it won immediate recognition from the European chemical community, which indicates that the affinity table had a secure place in contemporary chemical theorizing” (Kim, Affinity, that Elusive Dream: A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution. J.A. Schufle, Introduction, Dissertation on Elective Attractions.

IN: Nova Acta Regiae Societatis, Vol II, pp. 161-250. [Note: There are two paginations of the same paper, one numbered 159-248, one numbered 161-250; no priority known.] Upsala: Johan. Edman, 1775. Quarto (9x11 in), original blue wrappers; uncut and almost entirely unopened; custom box. The whole volume offered. Complete with nine plates (including the two folding tables for the Bergman paper). While rare in any form, this is a nearly perfect copy in the exceedingly rare original wrappers.

Price: $7,500 .