Catalogue Selections

First edition (?). Brunner (1764-1807), was administrator of the mining offices at Bodenmais in Bavaria. He is best known for his hypothesis concerning the origin of ore bodies (see Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences, p. 321).

“Very scarce. Completely revised edition, based on Lenz’s Mineralogisches Taschenbuch (Erfurt, 1798-9). Brunner’s mineralogical system offered little that was either new or interesting. Typical of the period, the external characters play a great part, and the chief divisions are Earths, Salts, Bitumens and Metals. The first of these is subdivided according to structure into earthy or powdery, fine bladed, leafy, star-like, fibrous, fine-grained and dense or compact. The salts are split according to their taste into sour and sweet assemblages. The volume begins with discussions of color, external form, fracture, and luster. An overview of the system is then presented, followed by the complete system including a section devoted to new minerals. The book concludes with an index to minerals mentioned.”–Schuh, Mineralogy & Crystallography: A Biobibliography, 1469 to 1920 (in progress), 906–(Schuh describes this as a second edition — of the Versuch eines neuen Systems der Mineralogie (1800) — but I am not entirely sure of that).

Very good copy of a very rare book.

Third edition (1st ed.: 1512) of the “Grosse Distillierbuch,” the most extensive early handbook of pharmacology, which remained an authority throughout the 16th century. The special purpose of this book was to apply the methods of distillation with steam to separate the active principles of medicinal agents from the nonessential matter.

This is a richly illustrated work with more than 125 handsome woodcuts depicting distillation equipment, furnaces, and anatomical subjects. The text describes the distillation of spirits from wine, mead, and fermented fruit juices, and the distillation of plants, roots, and flowers. There are sections on aromatic and empyreumatic oils, distilled vinegar, and other products of distillation. There are particularly good descriptions of the technique of distillation. For each plant, Brunschwig has provided its synonyms, indications, and valuable parts.

Brunschwig (ca. 1450-ca. 1512), after receiving an education in surgery, traveled extensively through Alsace, Swabia, Bavaria, and the Rhineland as far as Cologne, practicing surgery and acquiring experience in the preparation of medicines, specifically in the technique of distillation. He finally settled in his native city of Strasbourg where he practiced medicine and became a writer on medical and pharmacological subjects.

A very good copy in a contemporary binding. Two leaves — P6 and Q1 — carefully remargined at head and foot with several neat repairs (from another copy?).

❧ D.S.B., II, pp. 546-47. Durling 749.

First edition of the classic treatise on oblique bridges, an essential contribution to railway engineering since railways, unlike roads, cannot always approach crossings at right angles.

“This essay is devoted to the construction of oblique arches with spiral courses. Buck acknowledges the contribution to the subject in Nicholson’s work on stone cutting (1828), but feels that the earlier work did not enter into sufficient detail. Although known in Italy at least since 1530, the bridge of oblique arches presented certain problems which, up to Buck’s time, prevented the use of this design for larger spans...

“Herein, Buck provides architects and engineers with the descriptive geometry applying to such structures, the formulae for determining the dimensions and angles, the special formula applying to the working of the voussoirs, and the application of these formulae. This is followed by chapters on the mode of erection, and on the principles of projection, with a concluding chapter discussing the acceptable limits of obliquity and cautions concerning the stability of oblique elliptical arches. A short addendum gives a novel table of trigonometrical equivalents useful in engineering problems.”–Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 55.

Very good and fresh copy. 16-page publisher’s catalogue bound in at end. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.

❧ Skempton 202.

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.

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.

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.

First edition, and a very pretty copy, of this popular work on surveying which saw a second edition in 1813. The book was written upon the retirement of Busson-Descars (1764-1825), who had spent 25 years as a practicing engineer and surveyor. He describes a number of surveying instruments, including several of his own invention. The plates are particularly well-engraved and depict in 68 figures various parts of surveying instruments and methods of surveying.

Fine copy.

Very good copy. Bookplate of Giles Shaw.

Martin, p. 529.

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.”

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.

Fine copy.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fine copies.

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

Fine copy.

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

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.