‎Natuurkundige Beschryving der Zeeën‎

‎Gravenhage, Compagnie, 1786, un volume in folio relié en demi-basane (reliure de l'époque), (dos et plats frottés, coiffes et coins usés), 1 FRONTISPICE, (3), 26pp., 216pp., 52 PLANCHES numérotées 1 à 12 et 1 à 40‎

‎---- PREMIERE EDITION NEERLANDAISE ---- "THE PRECURSOR OF THE SYSTEMATIC OCEANOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION - THE FIRST TREATISE ON OCEANOGRAPHY". (DSB) ---- "Marsili was the precursor of the systematic oceanographic exploration...He accumulated a vast knowledge of history, politics, geography and the natural sciences. He traveled widely throughout Italy and the rest of Europe, particularly in the regions around the Danube and made several long sea voyages (from Venice to Constantinople, from Leghorn to Amsterdam)... As a naturalist, Marsili undertook the exploration of two basic subjects : the structure of the mountains and the natural condition of the sea, lakes and rivers... 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. He 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 foretold the advent of marine botany. Among the plants he numbered animals like corals, which before his time had been regarded as inorganic matter...". (DSB IX pp. 134/135)**3545/A7‎