Berkeley (George)

Saggio d'una nuova teoria sopra la visione, FIRST and ONLY EDITION, woodcut printer’s device to title, illistrations in text, a little staining or dust soiling in places, contemporary vellum boards, spotted, 8vo, Francesco Storti, Venice, 1732.

*** Scarce Italian translation of one of George Berkeley’s scientific works. Berkeley was one of the three most famous British Empiricists. He’s best known for his early works on vision (‘An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision’, 1709) and metaphysics (‘A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge’, 1710; ‘Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous’, 1713). Berkeley’s empirical theory of vision challenged the then-standard account of distance vision, based on geometrical calculations. His alternative account focuses on visual and tactual objects.