Yesodey Chochmat HaTeva HaKlalit - Sefer HaMenuchah veHaTnuah.

one of the first science books in Hebrew

Zvi Hirsch ben Meir HaKohen Rabinowitz (1832-1889) was a Jewish-Russian intellectual, author and publicist. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of the Hebrew Scientific literature.
He was taught Talmud by his father, who was a rabbi but recognised the scientific talents of his son and allowed him to venture into sciences studies. In his early twenties Rabinowitz founded a technical school for Jewish boys in Dvinsk. He published several self-instructing scientific textbooks in Hebrew, in addition to two different Russian-language Jewish magazines during his lifetime. His works were published during the 'golden age' of the Tsarist Russia's Haskalah movement under Tsar Alexander II. In 1886 Rabinowitz was awarded an honorary citizenship by the government in recognition of his services to literature and the advancement of knowledge.

In 1852 he started writing his first scientific work 'Yesodey Chochmat HaTeva HaKlalit' that was intended to include six volumes. Due to luck of funds he eventually published one volume only, presented here - 'Sefer HaMenuchah veHaTnuah' covering the physics of movement, mechanics and acoustics. Almost a decade later he published a few additional scientific books and many articles, but never published the rest of the volumes of his first work. Many of his book manuscripts were left unpublished.

First edition; 8vo, original publisher's green textured cloth, with blind-tooled illustration and Hebrew title to front, joints cracked, back partially detached; numerous woodblock illustrations to text, marbled edges, staining throughout; titles in Hebrew and Russian to front and in German to end of the book, main text in Hebrew; [2], XXIV, 408, [2] pp.