[AEROSTATION]
LUNARDI, VINCENZO. An Account of the First Aerial Voyage in England in a series of letters... London: printed for the author and sold by J. Bell etc., 1784. First edition, signed on the half-title in black ink by Lunardi, as published. Later three-quarters mottled calf, cloth sides. 8 1/4 x 5 1/8 inches (21 x 13 cm); half-title, title, plate explanation, 66 pp., with the frontispiece portrait and two folding plates (bound after the title. Binding worn, joints cracked (the front board holding on a cord), half-inch at head of spine lacking, internally a clean copy. Lacking the ad leaf sometimes found at the rear; Together with ROBERTSON, ETIENNE-GASPARD. La Minerve, vaisseau aërien destiné aux decouvertes... Paris: Hocquet, 1820. Second edition (first published Vienne: 1804). Three-quarters calf, cloth sides, all edges gilt. 7 5/8 x 4 3/4 inches (19.5 x 11.5 cm); 36 pp., with a magnificent hand-colored engraved folding frontispiece and three wood-engraved plates of aerial vessels at the rear. Light wear to binding, title soiled, tiny repair to one corner of plate.
The first work is an account of the twenty-four mile flight (with one descent) made by Lunardi; the second a rare work describing a most improbable balloon (though Robert made several successful ascensions in more convenional craft). The first work is Tissandier 58.