GALVANI (Luigi). DE VIRIBUS ELECTRICITATIS MOTU MUSCULARI COMMENTARIUS. Bononiae, ex typographia Instituti Scientiarum, 1791. In-4° of 58 pages, modern paperback, in folder and hard case. RARE FIRST EDITION OF WHICH ONLY 12 COPIES WERE PRINTED and which is said to have been distributed by Galvani himself. This seminal treatise in the history of science aroused great interest and controversy. Galvani believed that "animals possess in their nerves and muscles a subtle fluid quite analogous to ordinary electricity". It is illustrated with 4 folding plates engraved by Jacopo Zambelli, showing electrical experiments carried out on frogs and a sheep (the latter plate extremely rare). Scattered spotting, banding to bottom margin of plates, a copy with wide margins. Ex-libris A. Denier.