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The Theory of Bending
[BUELFFINGER (or BUELLFINGER or BILFINGER), Georg Bernhard]. De Causa Gravitatis Physica Generali Disquisitio Experimentalis quae Praemium à Regia Scientiarum Academia promulgatum, retulit: anno 1728. Two folding engraved plates. 1 p.l., 40 pp. 4to, modern wrappers. Paris: C. Jombert, 1728.

First edition and very rare; OCLC records no copy in the U.S. Bülffinger (1693-1750), was professor of mathematics at Tübingen. He later was appointed professor of experimental and theoretical physics at St. Petersburg by Peter the Great. He wrote many scientific treatises.

“These experiments conducted in St. Petersburg, were designed to check Galileo’s and Mariotte’s theories of bending. Büllfinger finds the latter theory better for explaining the experimental results. He also found that Hooke’s law was not borne out by the experiments and suggests a parabolic relation...where “m” is a constant to be determined experimentally.”–Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 55.

Fine copy preserved in a box. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.

❧ Poggendorff, I, 189-90.

$1,500.00
 
“One of the Most Carefully Made Catalogues of a
Private Library”–Taylor
(BUENAU, Heinrich, Graf von). Catalogus Bibliothecae Bunauianae. [Compiled by Johannes Michael Francke]. Engraved vignettes on each title. Three vols. bound in six. Thick large 4to, cont. half-sheep & paste-paper boards (heads of spines & several corners a little worn). Leipzig: Widow of B.C. Fritsch, 1750-51-52-53-55-56.

A fine set, compiled by Johann Michael Francke (1717-75); this is an extraordinarily rare and important library catalogue. Ebert has described this as an “unsurpassed masterpiece” and Bogeng called it “ the best catalogue of a German eighteenth century private library.”

“This catalogue describes the library (42,000 volumes) of Count Heinrich von Bünau, the Saxon statesman and historian (1697-1762). Although it remained unfinished, it is a model of its kind. Three sections were completed, comprising bibliography, ‘historia literaria,’ ancient authors, universal history, geography, genealogy, heraldry, chronology, and writers on ecclesiastical history. All the same, it was extremely useful. Independent publications, single articles in periodicals, and even bibliographical references to books on special subjects not contained in the library were included. The great J.J. Winckelmann, who was the Count’s secretary and librarian from 1748 to 1754, may have had some share in the cataloguing. The bibliographical system of Francke, on which his catalogue is based, was much appreciated. He later became librarian of the Elector’s library at Dresden.”–Grolier Club, Bibliography, 104.

Bünau formed his library as an aid to his studies of German history, resulting in his “German Imperial History” (1728-43), which made him one of the founders of modern German historiography. He devised for his library a bibliographical system which Francke (1717-1775) applied to his catalogue.

Nice set from the library of His Serene Highness Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen. Minor foxing.

❧ Peignot, p. 86–“Cet excellent catalogue…c’est un des monuments bibliographiques les plus curieux. Les titres des livres y sont parfaitement détaillées.” Taylor, Book Catalogues, pp. 114, 119, 127, 182, 186, 197, 207, 227, 228, & 234.

$29,500.00
 
BUQUOY, Georg Franz August de Longueval, Graf von. Analytische Bestimmung des Gesetzes der virtuellen Geschwindigkeiten in mechanischer and statischer Hinsicht. 72 pp. 8vo, cont. marbled boards (title a little spotted). Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1812.

[bound with]:

-- . Weitere Entwickelung und Anwendung des Gesetzes der virtuellen Geschwindigkeiten in mechanischer and statischer Hinsicht. xii, 164 pp. 8vo. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1814.

First editions. "These two rare works deal with the analytical determination of the laws of virtual velocity in relation to mechanics and statics. The second work is a continuation, containing material Buquoy was unable to include in the earlier work. Throughout, he makes reference to various authorities, including Archimedes, Bernoulli, Lagrange, Laplace, and to the work of Dalton and Eytelwein."­Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 57.

Buquoy (1781-1851), wrote many works on various aspects of physics and technology and was the owner of a large glassworks.

Fine copies. The second work is not in N.U.C. Bookplate and stamp of the Berlin Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.

Poggendorff, I, 343-44.

$1,250.00
 
BURGSDORF, Friedrich August Ludwig von. Forsthandbuch. Allgemeiner theoretisch- praktischer Lehrbegriff sämtlicher Försterwissenschaften; auf Seiner Königlichen Majestät von Preussen allerhöchsten Befehl abgefasst. One folding handcolored engraved plate & 9 folding printed tables (3 of which are included in the pagination). lvi, 786 pp. 8vo, cont. half-sheep & paste-paper boards (light foxing), spine gilt, contrasting vellum lettering piece on spine. Frankfurt & Leipzig: 1792.

The unauthorized reprint of the second edition of this classic work. The first edition appeared in 1788 and the second authorized edition was published by the author in 1790 in Berlin. Due to the enormous success of this book, it was pirated and published again in Frankfurt and Leipzig, without any publisher named, in 1792. There were later editions, authorized and pirated, through a fifth edition in 1812 and a French translation.

This is, according to A.D.B., Burgsdorf’s most important book. “Burgsdorf’s Bedeutung ist doppelter Art. Er war Naturforscher, bez. Forstbotaniker und Forstwirth zugleich und wirkte in beiden Richtungen durch Wort, That and Schrift.”–A.D.B., Vol. 3, pp. 613-14.

Burgsdorf (1747-1802), was manager of the forests of the Kurmark Brandenburg and a member of the Berlin Académie des Sciences and many other societies. The author wrote a number of “highly esteemed” (N.B.G. in trans.) books on arboriculture and forestry.

The handcolored plate is a map of an idealized forest, depicting by use of different colors, the various sections and types of trees.

Fine copy and very rare with no copy in the U.S., according to OCLC. Finely engraved contemporary bookplate of “Le Comte de Seinsheim.”

❧ Mantel, I, p. 15. N.B.G., Vol. 7, col. 836.

$1,350.00
 
BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB, LONDON. Exhibition of Illuminated Manuscripts. 162 fine plates. Large thick folio, orig. cloth (covers a little marked & soiled), gilt, t.e.g. London: 1908.
A magnificent catalogue, compiled by S.C. Cockerell. This was one of the greatest exhibitions of illuminated manuscripts ever assembled.
$950.00
 
Limited to 200 Copies
(BUTURLIN, Dimitrii Petrovich, Graf). Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de son Exc. M. le Comte D. Boutourlin. Engraved arms on title. [482] pp. 8vo, attractive modern black morocco-backed marbled boards. Florence: [Privately Printed], 1831.
Limited to 200 copies only, privately printed. Buturlin (1763-1829), Russian soldier, military historian, politician, librarian of the Imperial Russian Library, and one of the most outstanding book collectors of 19th century Russia, had formed earlier an important library but it was unfortunately destroyed during the burning of Moscow in 1812. The present catalogue describes Buturlin's very large second collection, formed during his retirement in Florence, which Brunet describes as being superior to the first. It contained 244 important early MSS., 964 15th-century books (many of which were unrecorded), a very complete Bodoni collection, and other outstanding later items.

7929 items in all are described. Edited by E.L.J.E. Audin.

Fine copy.

$2,750.00
 
(BYROM, John). A Catalogue of the Library of the late John Byrom, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Preserved at Kersall Cell, Lancashire. Engraved frontis. of Kersall Cell. 2 p.l., [3]-249 pp. 4to, orig. blind-stamped cloth (neatly rebacked with the orig. spine laid-down). [London]: Printed for Private Circulation Only, 1848.
The rare catalogue of the library of John Byrom (1692-1763), poet, inventor of a novel and successful shorthand system, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His library remained in the possession of his descendants at his house at Broughton near Manchester and included many works by his friends Bishop Hoadly, Richard Bentley, John Wesley, Anthony Collins, and William Law.

Very good copy. Bookplate of Giles Shaw.

Martin, p. 529.

$450.00
 
“The First Recognition of Electrical Repulsion”
CABEO, Niccolo. Philosophia Magnetica, in qua Magnetis Natura penitus explicatur, et Omnium quae hoc Lapide cernuntur, causae propriae afferuntur... Engraved title & several engravings & numerous woodcuts in the text. 8 p.l., 412, [12] pp. Folio, cont. half-sheep & marbled boards (minor worming towards end), spine gilt, black leather lettering piece on spine. Ferrara: F. Succius, 1629.

First edition, Jesuit issue, and a very fine copy. “Perhaps the most significant discovery of the century following Gilbert was that of electrical repulsion. This effect seems first to have been noticed incidentally by Cabeus, who, in his Philosophia Magnetica (1629), describes how filings attracted by excited amber sometimes recoiled to a distance of several inches after making contact.”–Wolf, A History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy, I, p. 303.

Cabeo also relates his many experiments on the possibility of telegraphic communication by means of magnetized needles and gives the first picture of the sympathetic telegraph, an imaginary magnetic telegraph which sometimes appeared in early electrical literature, fancifully prefiguring the actual telegraph. It was supposed to operate by synchronous activation of two instruments with alphabetic dials whose needles had been magnetized by the same magnet.

Cabeo (1586-1650), taught theology and mathematics in Parma for many years until he settled in Genoa where he taught mathematics.

Handsome and large copy. There are three issues (no priority) of this book: the first issue has a royal coat-of-arms at the head of the title; the second issue has the coat-of-arms replaced by the Jesuit emblem; and the third was produced for export to Germany and has an added printed title with a Cologne imprint.

❧ Ferguson, I, p. 136. Neville, I, p. 232. Riccardi, I, 205-06. Wheeler Gift Cat. 97–“the first recognition of electrical repulsion.”

$15,000.00
 
CALVER, Edward Killwick. The Conservation and Improvement of Tidal Rivers, considered principally with Reference to their Tidal and Fluvial Powers. Three hand-colored maps on one large folding lithographed plate & diagrams in the text. x, 101, [1] pp. 8vo, orig. blindstamped cloth, upper cover stamped in gilt. London: J. Weale, 1853.
First edition. "In his thirty-six years as a coastal surveyor, Calver devoted himself to studying the action of tides, waves, and running water on tidal harbors and sea works. His views were published in this book, which anticipates many of the principles later employed in the engineering and construction of artificial harbors and other such works. His remarkably accurate predictions as to the result of such works by others also appear here."­Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 60.

Calver (1813-92), was a fellow of the Royal Society and Institution of Civil Engineers.

Fine fresh copy. Booklabel of "Bethune of Balfour" on verso of title. Embossed stamp of the Franklin Institute in blank portion of title with its bookplates on front pastedown. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.

$650.00
 
CAMBOIS, J.P. Essai sur les Épanchemens de Sang dans la Poitrine. 23 pp. Large 4to, orig. marbled wrappers. Paris: Didot jeune, 1815.

First edition and very rare with no copy in OCLC. Cambois describes the problems of thoracic bleeding created by external causes. He discusses how to identify and treat bleeding in the chest.

Fine copy.

$250.00
 
CAMBRIDGE CHRISTMAS BOOK. Hammer and Hand. An Essay on the Ironwork of Cambridge. By Raymond Lister. With Drawings by Richard Bawden. Oblong 8vo, orig. red morocco-backed boards, spine gilt. Cambridge: 1969.
Limited to 500 copies. Fine.
$125.00
 
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY, BOTANIC GARDEN. Hortus Cantabrigiensis; or, an Accented Catalogue of indigenous and exotic Plants, cultivated in the Cambridge Botanic Garden. By the late James Donn. vii, [1], 415, [1] pp. 8vo, cont. calf, sides ruled in blind, spine nicely gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: C. & J. Rivington et al., 1826.
"Eleventh Edition, with numerous Additions and Corrections by John Lindley." The first edition of this "celebrated" (Henrey) work appeared in 1796. "According to John Lindley, the editor of the tenth edition (1823), after the fourth or fifth edition had been sold, Donn enlarged the work by the addition of the names of all the ornamental plants known to be cultivated in the various gardens of Great Britain, until, by the seventh edition, this catalogue 'scarcely bore more relation to the Cambridge botanic garden than to the Royal gardens at Kew'."­Henrey, II, p. 239.

Fine copy.

Henrey, III, no. 657. Pritzel 2374. Stafleu & Cowan 1505.

$600.00
 
CANCRIN, Franz Ludwig von. Anleitung zur Scheide oder Aufbereitungskunst der Mineralien. Engraved vignette on general title & 21 folding engraved plates. 5 p.l., 158, [8] pp. 8vo, cont. boards covered with blue-green paper (light foxing). Frankfurt am Main: Andrea, 1782.
First edition. Cancrin (1738-1812), was an engineer and high government official, both in Germany and in Russia where he was recruited by Catherine II to manage the Staraya Russa saltworks. "Despite the press of his civil offices, Cancrin found time (1773-1791) to write an encyclopedic work in twenty-one volumes that covered all aspects of the mining of metals and salt -- including mineralogy, assaying, mathematics, and mechanics. This work brought him a European reputation."­D.S.B., III, pp. 41-42.

The present work is Part VIII of the above-mentioned Erste Gründe der Berg und Salzwerkskunde and is a complete work on the extraction of metals from ore.

Fine copy. From the library of His Serene Highness Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen.

Poggendorff, I, 370.

$1,250.00
 
CANCRIN, Franz Ludwig von. Kurzer Entwurf der Grubenbaukunst. Engraved vignette on general title & 57 folding engraved plates. 6 p.l., 244, [16] pp. 8vo, cont. boards covered with blue-green paper (some worming in gutter, occasional unimportant dampstaining). Frankfurt am Main: Andrea, 1774.
First edition. Cancrin (1738-1812), was an engineer and high government official, both in Germany and in Russia where he was recruited by Catherine II to manage the Staraya Russa saltworks. "Despite the press of his civil offices, Cancrin found time (1773-1791) to write an encyclopedic work in twenty-one volumes that covered all aspects of the mining of metals and salt -- including mineralogy, assaying, mathematics, and mechanics. This work brought him a European reputation."­D.S.B., III, pp. 41-42.

The present work is Part V of the above-mentioned Erste Gründe der Berg und Salzwerkskunde. This is a richly illustrated work on methods of digging and constructing mines. The plates depict the different kinds of shafts which could be established, the tools used to dig the shafts and remove metals and their ores, methods of securing the shafts, etc.

Good copy, lacking the sectional title. Light dampstaining. From the library of His Serene Highness Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen.

Poggendorff, I, 370.

$1,500.00
 
CANCRIN, Franz Ludwig von. Entwurf der Salzwerkskunde. Engraved vignette on general titles, 52 folding engraved plates, & three folding printed tables. 8 p.l., 270, [26] pp.; 5 p.l., 284, [18] pp.; 5 p.l., 210, [20] pp. Three parts in one vol. 8vo, cont. boards covered with blue-green paper (some dampstaining, light foxing). Frankfurt am Main: Andrea, 1788-89-89.
First edition. Cancrin (1738-1812), was an engineer and high government official, both in Germany and in Russia where he was recruited by Catherine II to manage the Staraya Russa saltworks. "Despite the press of his civil offices, Cancrin found time (1773-1791) to write an encyclopedic work in twenty-one volumes that covered all aspects of the mining of metals and salt -- including mineralogy, assaying, mathematics, and mechanics. This work brought him a European reputation."­D.S.B., III, pp. 41-42.

The present work is Part X of the above-mentioned Erste Gründe der Berg und Salzwerkskunde and is a complete work on salt mining and refining.

Very good set. From the library of His Serene Highness Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen.

Poggendorff, I, 370.

$1,750.00
 
CANFIELD, Thomas Hawley. [Drop-title]: Deep Waterways. Subject of a Talk at the Algonquin Club last Evening. Hon. Thomas H. Canfield speaks of the Vast Amount of Business on the Great Lakes and of the value to Burlington of a Ship Canal. (From the Burlington Free Press). [16] pp. 12mo, stitched as issued. N.p.: n.d [OCLC gives a date of 1890; a contemporary note in pencil on the title states “March 1896”].

First book edition and rare. Canfield (1822-97), a native of Arlington, Vermont, was, by 1850, involved in railroad construction and lake and rail transportation between Montreal, Vermont, and New York. His most important project was probably the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He was tireless in promoting the opening of routes for the transportation of the agricultural and mineral products of the West to New England, by way of the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River, and Vermont railroads and canals.

Fine copy, preserved in a box. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.

$750.00
 
(CAPUCHIN ORDER). Bibliotheca Scriptorum Ordinis Minorum S. Francisci Capuccinorum... By Dionigi, da Genova & ed. by Bernardo da Bologna. Finely engraved allegorical frontis. & numerous engraved headpieces. 11 p.l. (incl. frontis.), 322, [1] pp. Small folio, 19th cent. half-vellum & boards. Venice: S. Coleti, 1747.

[bound with]:

(--). ...Appendix... [By Johann Maria von Regensburg]. 56 pp. Small folio. Rome: Bertinelli, 1852.

Third and best edition of the first work and first edition of the Appendix. This is the earliest and, for several centuries, the standard bio-bibliographical guide to members of the Capuchin order. About 3000 authors are listed, each with a biographical sketch and a list of their writings. The first edition appeared in Geneva in 1680 and there was a 1691 second edition.

Fine copies.

Besterman, The Beginnings of Systematic Bibliography, pp. 55-56. Besterman 1135.

$1,750.00
 
A Poetical Mathematician
CARAVAGGIO, Pietro Paolo. Geometria applicationum deficientium Figura Data Specie. Numerous woodcut diagrams in the text. 2 p.l., 188 pp. 4to, cont. English speckled calf (extremities a little rubbed). Milan: B. Bidelli, 1659.
First edition of a very rare book. Caravaggio (1617-88), was an Italian poet, mathematician, and military architect in Milan and later became professor of mathematics and Greek at the Palatine Gymnasium of that city. In 16?6, he was appointed supervisor of all the principal castles in the region surrounding Milan. He left many poetical and mathematical treatises in manuscript.

Fine copy.

N.B.G., Vol. 8, col. 672. Riccardi, I, 243.

$2,250.00
 
One of His Scarcest Books
CARDANO, Girolamo. Liber de Immortalitate Animorum. Woodcut printer's device on title & another printer's device on verso of final leaf (otherwise blank). 308, [10] pp. 8vo, cont. vellum over boards (final 40 leaves with a small puncture in blank margin, final few leaves with minor marginal defects). Lyons: S. Gryphius, 1545.
First edition of one of Cardano's scarcest and most provoking works; one of his earliest publications, this book is concerned with the immortality of the soul. Cardano distinguishes in man "between the mens, or spirit, and the soul which is the seat of the sensitive faculties including the ratio. The latter belongs to the body and perishes with it, while the former is immaterial and immortal and partakes of the Divine. Moreover, one and the same spirit dwells in all men."­Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III, p. 332.

Very good copy. 17th century signature of De Mareste d'Alge on title (with his rather wonderful bookplate on front paste down endpaper) and another ownership inscription of a monastery on title dated 1718.

Thorndike, V, p. 545 & VI, p. 511.

$5,500.00
 
Cardano's Second Great Encyclopedia of Natural Science
CARDANO, Girolamo. De Rerum Varietate Libri XVII. Fine medallion woodcut port. of the author on title, numerous woodcut illus. in the text, & a woodcut plate illustrating a volvelle inserted at p. 438. Tables in the text. 6 p.l., 707, [32] pp. Thick folio, cont. blind-stamped panelled pigskin over wooden boards (binding a little soiled, minor foxing here & there), orig. clasps & catches. Basel: [H. Petri], 1557.

[bound with]:

NIGER, Dominicus Marius. Geographiae Commentariorum Libri XI...Una cum Laurentii Corvini Novoforensis Geographia. Et Strabonis Epitome per D. Hieronymum Gemusaeum translata. Woodcut printer's device on title & another version on verso of final leaf. 48 p.l., 787, [1] pp. Folio. Basel: [H. Petri, 1557].

A very attractive sammelband of two important works in a handsome contemporary blind-stamped panelled pigskin binding over wooden boards.

I. First edition of Cardano's second great encyclopedia of natural science; it is a continuation and supplement to his De Rerum Subtilitate (1st ed.: 1550). These two works contain his important ideas on physics and metaphysics. In this book, Cardano made notable contributions to mechanics, hydrodynamics, and geology and there are interesting chapters on astronomy, botany, zoology, chemistry, metallurgy, etc.

"Of special chemical interest is Book X (p. 375-410), comprising one chapter on fire...a chapter on distillation with woodcuts of apparatus, and a chapter on chemistry. It finishes by a chapter on glass."­Duveen, p. 117.

II. First edition of this rare and massive geography. Niger, of Venice, wrote his "Geography" in 26 books, 11 on Europe, 11 on Africa, and 4 on Asia. This first edition contains the commentary of Wolfgang Weissenburger. The text was used by Hakluyt and Holinshed.

Nice fresh copies. Signature of "Lud. Romanus. 1580" on title.

I. D.S.B., III, pp. 64-67. Partington, II, pp. 9-15. Thorndike, V, pp. 563-79. Wheeler Gift Cat. 45.

$23,500.00