Annales de chimie; ou recueil de mémoires concernant la chimie et les arts qui en dépendent. Périodique illustré, du n° 1 à 9, et 11 à 15

First edition, highly sought after in the 19th century, comprising 14 of the first 15 volumes, published between 1789 and 1792, of the first series of the celebrated French scientific periodical Annales de chimie. Volume 10 missing.

Contemporary full brown calf, spines smooth with gilt fillets, brown morocco lettering-piece and green morocco numbering-piece, blind-ruled border to covers, red speckled edges, bookplate of P. H. Chavoix to front pastedown of each volume. Volumes 1 and 11 numbered in Roman rather than Arabic numerals.

Overall, discreet restorations, corners rubbed, occasional light foxing and browning, some worming to bindings not affecting text, head and tail of headcaps worn on volumes 7, 13, 14 and 15.

The complete first series of the Annales de chimie, published between 1789 and 1815, runs to 96 volumes. From 1793 to 1797, publication was suspended following the arrest of Antoine Lavoisier, the journal's treasurer and, in Édouard Grimaux's words, its "true director." The opening run here contains nearly all the issues produced under the direction of, and with contributions from, the chemists Antoine de Lavoisier and Baron Philippe Frédéric de Dietrich. Both were condemned to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror, in 1794 and 1793 respectively.

This set is further illustrated with 12 scientific plates, including two by the engraver Sellier, as well as a map of the county of Bigorre. The majority of the articles and essays are first editions, written by distinguished French and foreign chemists and physicists who helped disseminate "The New Chemistry": (in order of appearance) Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine de Lavoisier, Gaspard Monge, Claude-Louis Berthollet, Anne-François Fourcroy, Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, Jean Henri Hassenfratz, Pierre-Auguste Adet, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, Johann Georg Albrecht Höpfner, Christoph Girtanner, Johann Christian Wiegleb, Jacques-Anselme Dorthes, Johann Friedrich Westrumb, Armand Seguin, Henry Cavendish, William Austin, Martin van Marum, l'abbé René Just Haüy, Peter Jacob Hjelm, Jan Ingenhousz, Isaac Milner, Johan Gadolin, James Watt, Lorenz Florenz Friedrich von Crell, Charles Blagden, Jean Senebier, Jean d'Arcet, William Higgins, Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin, Nicolas Joseph Thiéry de Ménonville, Dom Michel Rubin de Celis, Jacques Louis Schurer, Augustin-François de Silvestre, l'abbé Claude Chappe, Antoine Augustin Parmentier, Nicolas Deyeux, Bertrand Pelletier, Charles-Augustin Coulomb, Joseph Priestley, Richard Kirwan, Jean André de Luc, Jean-François Clouet, chevalier Marsilio Landriani, Jean-Noël Hallé, François Pierre Nicolas Gillet de Laumont, Georges-Charles Bartholdi, Alexandre Brongniart, Jean-Michel Haussmann, Henri Reboul, François René Curaudau, Thomas Henry, Jean-Anthyme Margueron, Nicolas Leblanc, Johann Rudolph Deiman, Pieter Nieuwland, Pierre de Ribaucourt, Pissis fils, Jean-Baptiste Van Mons ou encore Louis François Antoine Arbogast.

In 1816, the Annales de chimie was retitled Annales de chimie et de physique. In 1913, the journal split into two separate publications, Annales de chimie and Annales de physique. The titles have undergone further changes up to the present day.

A collection of 14 volumes from the opening run of the prestigious French scientific periodical Annales de chimie, containing numerous essays and articles, most in first edition, published under the editorship of distinguished figures: Antoine de Lavoisier, Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Gaspard Monge, Claude-Louis Berthollet, Anne-François Fourcroy, Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, Jean Henri Hassenfratz, and Pierre-Auguste Adet.