MARSILI, Luigi Ferdinando. Histoire physique de la mer. Ouvrage enrichi de figures dessinées d'après le naturel. 1725.

Amsterdam, aux depens de la Compagnie, 1725.

Folio (367x237 mm), frontispice, (8)-xi-(1 bl.)-173--1 bl.) pages, and 52 plates (10 folding). A first series numbered I to XII comprising two folding maps including one of the Gulf of Lion, profiles of the Provençal coastline, and tables, some enriched with figures. The second series numbered I to XL is devoted to marine plants, and in particular offers a very large number of coral figures.  binding : Contemporary full blindstamped vellum. Minor default to the binding. Small lack at the outer margin of the frontispice an at one plate. Tear repaired page 173. Marginal waterstain at the end. 

references: DSB [IX p.135 : " in 1725 he published the first treatise on oceanography, 'Histoire physique de la mer'. In it he treated problems which until then had been veiled by error and legend. Marsili examined every aspect of the subject : the morphology of the basin and relationships between the lands under and above water; the water's properties (color, temperature, salinity) and its motion (waves, currents, tides); and the biology of the sea, which froretold the advent of marin botany. Among the plants he numbered animals like corals, which before his time had been regarded as inorganic matter."]
Norman [1445 : "First edition. The first book devoted entirely to marine science, and the first oceanographic study of a single region.]
Koeman [IV, 421: "This work on oceanography contains the first printed chart with depth-lines."]
Marsigli conducted an intensive investigation of the Gulf of Lyon in the south of France, taking soundings to obtain a profile of the sea floor, analyzing the relationship of the lands under and above water, studying the water's physical properties (temperature, density, color) and its motions (waves, currents, tides), and describing the marine life of the region.
Marsigli was the first to give an account of formation of the continental shelf and slope, and the first to class corals as living beings rather than as inorganic mineral formations.
His belief that the land and the sea bed formed a continuous structure was confirmed when he discovered rock strata dipping below sea level at the coast.
Marsigli's work prefigured the systematic oceanographic exploration that would begin fifty years later with Captain James Cook's voyage in the 'Endeavor' "].

Price : 15000 €