Numerous woodcuts in the text. Much Greek printing. 5 p.l., liii, 168 pp. 8vo, cont. panelled calf, remains of label on spine. Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1706.

First edition of Halley’s translation of Apollonius’s “cutting off a ratio” from an Arabic manuscript. This text of Apollonius, like Books V-VII of the Conics, survives only in Arabic, and in this case the Arabic remains unpublished.

“Much of Halley’s scholarship was exercised upon the works of Apollonius of Perga, one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity, and indeed of all time, who flourished in the latter part of the third century B.C. One... More

Four vols. 8vo, cont. vellum over boards (covers of Vol. I lightly stained, spines dust-soiled, lightly foxed throughout as usual). The Hague: J. Swart & P. de Hondt, 1725.

With its almost 30,000 lots this was the largest sale ever held in any country up to 1725, a record not broken until the Thott sale (Copenhagen: 1789-1795) and the Heber sales of the 1830s. The Du Bois sale lasted for nearly two months.

This extraordinary library was the creation of the Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon (1662-1743), who was for many years secretary of the Académie des Sciences. When, in 1718, he was appointed Bibliothécaire du... More

16 vols. bound in 6. 8vo, cont. patterned cloth (Vols. 1-13), modern cloth (Vols. 14-15), & orig. wrappers (Ghent sale). London: Sotheby, Evans, or Wheatley (Vols. 1-13), Paris: Silvestre (Vols. 14 & 15), & Ghent: Ch. Citerne, 1834-37.

The auction catalogues of the library of Richard Heber are very rare; this set is complete and includes the very rare Ghent catalogue of 26 Oct. 1835.

“The Dibdinian age may be aptly said to terminate with the dispersal of the gigantic library accumulated by Richard Heber (1773-1833), a bibliomaniac if ever there was one…From 1800 to 1830, he purchased at every London sale, either in his own name or through... More

4 p.l., CXII leaves (the first a blank) [lacking at end, as is often the case, eight leaves which is a separate work]. Gothic type, 34 lines, rubricated in red throughout with chapter initials, capitals, paragraph-marks, & initial strokes. Small 4to (216 x 155 mm.), cont. blue-dyed goat- or sheep-skin over wooden boards (some rubbing & fading), sides ruled with intersecting blind fillets forming lozenges, later clasp & catch. Nuremberg: C. Zeninger, 13 June 1482.

A lovely and large copy from the Benedictine monastery at Lambach in Upper Austria, with their ownership inscription on the lower paste-down endpaper. Blue-dyed bindings of this period are extremely uncommon; woad was... More

Engraved frontis. port. of Black & 3 engraved plates. lxvi [i.e., lxxvi], 556 pp.; 1 p.l., 762, [4] pp. Two vols. Large 4to, marbled boards (minor foxing at beginning & end of each vol.), attractive modern red calf spines & corners, flat spines gilt. Edinburgh: Mundell & Son, 1803.

First edition and a very handsome set. These two monumental volumes are the only substantial account of the work of the founder of modern quantitative chemistry and discoverer of latent and specific heats. Black (1728-99), began to lecture upon his appointment as professor of medicine and chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 1766. “His career thenceforward was exclusively... More

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. More

Three facsimile illus. in the text. iv, 34 pp. 8vo, cont. red half-morocco & brown drab boards, sides ruled in blind, spine lettered in gilt, a.e.g. London: Printed by W. Bulmer, 1811.

First edition, limited to 36 copies only (so printed on the half-title), and a presentation copy, inscribed on the free front endpaper “With the Author’s respectful Compts.” This is the very rare specimen of what was to ultimately become the great catalogue of the Spencer Collection, published as the Bibliotheca Spenceriana (1814-15) in four volumes with three volumes of supplements appearing in 1822-23. In the rather charming “Address” which... More

Seven folding engraved plates. 2 p.l., xxxx, 738 pp., 1 leaf of errata; 2 p.l., lvi, 680 pp. Two vols. Large 4to, attractive cont. marbled sheep, flat spines richly gilt, green morocco lettering pieces on spines. Paris: la Veuve Valade, 1786-89.

First edition and quite scarce on the market. “From 1764 to 1783 he [Dionis] wrote a series of important memoirs on the application of the most recent analytic methods to the study of the principal astronomical phenomena (eclipses, occultations, reductions of observations, determination of planetary orbits, etc.). Revised and coordinated, these memoirs were reprinted in the two-volume Traité analytique des mouvements apparents... More

Woodcut vignette on title, two engraved headpieces, five folding engraved plates, & woodcut diagrams in the text. 6 p.l., 210, [3] pp. Folio, early 19th-cent. half red morocco & red boards (minor browning), flat spine gilt. Toulouse: J. Pech, 1679.

First edition, and now rare on the market; this copy belonged to Dominique François Jean Arago (1786-1853), the great French scientist who made important contributions to astronomy, electro-magnetism, and optics (see D.S.B., I, pp. 200-03).

This book, Fermat’s only substantial publication apart from his edition of Diophantus (both prepared and published posthumously by his son), contains the majority of Fermat’s mathematical work... More

18 p.l., 123 pp. 8vo, cont. marbled wrappers (minor browning). Amsterdam: 1731.

First edition of a very uncommon book. Fourmont (1683-1745), “was the first scholar in France to deal with Chinese matters. He started his career in the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as a Hebraist and had written several small books on Hebrew matters, but he left this discipline and turned to Chinese in 1711. At that time he met a young French-speaking Chinese man by the name of Arcadio Huang [(1679-1716),] in the Bibliothèque Nationale; Huang was the only Chinese speaking-person in France. Fourmont seized the opportunity to be introduced... More

Woodcut device of the Medicean stars on title & two woodcut diagrams in the text. 2 p.l., 54 pp., one blank leaf. Small 4to, late 19th-cent. green diced morocco, arms of the House of Visconti in gilt within a richly decorated border, spine richly gilt, a.e.g. Florence: P. Cecconcelli, 1619.

First edition and a very fine copy. Although published under the name of his pupil and assistant Mario Guiducci (1585-1646), the present book is actually the work of Galileo (the autograph manuscript survives). It is a concealed reply to the attack of the Jesuit Orazio Grassi’s De Tribus Cometis, published earlier... More

Four vols. & two related vols. Large 8vo (275 190 mm.), orig. patterned wrappers, manuscript labels on upper covers, stitched. Japan: ca. 1911.

A fine archive of notes and drawings by Ishimoto, a notable interior decorator and fashion historian in Tokyo. The first volume is devoted to women’s court attire and contains 17 highly detailed and fine drawing and paintings, 14 of which are richly colored, of traditional costumes of women of different ranks at court. The artist has included front and back views. These drawings are all executed on graph paper with mica and contain manuscript notes regarding the sources for the illustrations... More