PERRAULT, Pierre. - Lot 103

PERRAULT, Pierre. On the Origin of Fountains. Paris: Pierre Le Petit, 1674. Small 12mo, (19)-353 pp., 7 pp. of tables, frontispiece. Contemporary speckled fawn sheepskin with root-cut edges, decorated ribbed spine, gilt roundel on the corners, speckled edges (binding rubbed, joints worn but interior still fresh). First edition of this seminal work on modern hydrology. Dedicated to (Christian Huygens), The author, brother of the famous storyteller and friend of the mathematician Huygens, was the first to demonstrate the reality of the water cycle. A seminal work in hydrology. Includes the allegorical frontispiece, engraved in black on copper. Perrault succeeded in scientifically proving for the first time that rainfall was sufficient to feed river flows, and that rain originated from the evaporation of rivers and seas As early as 1674, Pierre Perrault published *De l’origine des fontaines*, a two-part work: a critique of concepts put forward before the 17th century, followed by observations and experiments that laid the foundations of continental hydrology (letter to Hugues de Zulichem, preface, privilege)