Two parts in one volume in 4° (mm 160x225); pp. (14), 376, wood-engraved endpapers at the end of the books. Full contemporary stiff vellum. Frontispiece with engraving representing a framed phoenix. Printed notes in the margin. The work is complete with the 7 full-page silograph plates on stills and kilns and one at the end of the Lettera di ragguaglio. First Italian edition. François Xavier Bon de Saint Hilaire (1678-1761), president of the Court of Accounts in Montpellier, demonstrated in 1709 that he could produce textiles from spider silk. Many cocoons were boiled, washed and dried and the thread was gathered with fine combs. Using this method, he produced three pairs of stockings and gloves from spider silk. He presented one pair to Hans Sloane at the Royal Society in London and the other two at the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris. He also claimed to have produced medicines from spiders that could cure apoplexy, lethargy and coma. His report, published in 1710, was republished several times and was translated into several languages, including Chinese. Excellent specimen with a curious watercolour dated 1748 depicting a man with a pipe on the initial guard sheet. Blake 797.