[Japan: early Meiji, ca. 1875].

An unusually finely illustrated scroll on copper refining, illustrated by Suian Hirafuku.

The Ani-kozan silver and copper mine in Akita prefecture has been in operation since the late 16th century. Silver was extracted in the early years. In 1672, veins of copper ore were discovered there, and by 1716 it became the largest producer of copper in Japan. The copper was ultimately shipped to Nagasaki for export by the Dutch East India Company to European and Asian markets. By the late 1670s, Japan had become the largest copper producing and exporting country in the world (replacing... 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

Woodcut device on title & some woodcut diagrams in the text. 4 p.l., 88, [300] pp. Small folio, cont. reversed calf (upper cover partly stained, lower margin of final leaf cropped & renewed with loss of the catchword), triple ruled border in blind round sides. London: G. Jones, 1624.

First edition; this is the fine and unpressed John Evelyn copy with his pressmark — “Vulcanus 14” — in his hand at the foot of the title-page. The logarithms in this book, “together with those of Adriaan Vlacq, form the basis from which almost all other logarithm tables were produced…In the preface to this work…Briggs coined... More

Many fine brush & color and black & white paintings in the text. 26; 20; 27; 17; 32 folding leaves of mica paper. Five vols. 8vo (240 x 172 mm.), orig. finely decorated wrappers, each set of endpapers finely painted with botanical landscapes, orig. title labels on upper covers in manuscript, new stitching. [Japan: mid-Edo].

A beautiful and remarkable luxury manuscript, created on mica paper and richly illustrated in fine colors and brush, describing and depicting all the elements of the costumes for the emperor, the emperor “emeritus,” the crown prince, the prince’s son, male aristocrats, retainers, and guards of the court. Many of the costumes date from the... More

Seven folding engraved plates. 2 p.l., xxxx, 738 pp., 1 leaf of errata; 2 p.l., 680, lvi pp. Two vols. Large 4to, cont. sheep (a little rubbed, head of spine of Vol. I a bit chipped), spines gilt, red & green morocco lettering pieces on spines. Paris: la Veuve Valade, 1786-89.

First edition. “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... More

Twelve folding engraved plates. 1 p.l., 300 pp.; 1 p.l., 166 pp.; 1 p.l., 165 pp. Three vols. in one. 4to, cont. sheep-backed mottled boards (minor rubbing, some foxing as is usual with this book). Berlin: A. Haude & J.C. Spener, 1746-50-51.

First edition of one of Euler’s scarcer works; this collection contains separate monographs on astronomy, optics, magnetism, electricity, mathematics, and physics and includes several of Euler’s most important and fundamental works.

Vol. I deals mostly with astronomy and optics. It is valuable for Euler’s tables of the sun and moon and for his discussion of the problem of... More

Woodcut illus. on title, two ports. of J. Kentmann, many woodcuts of fossils & stones in the text, & several printer’s devices. 8 parts in one vol. 8vo, 18th-cent. mottled half-sheep & marbled boards, spine gilt, red leather lettering piece on spine. Zurich: J. Gesner, 1565.

First edition of this famous collection of texts which forms one of the most important contributions to 16th-century geology and mineralogy. It consists of eight separate treatises by seven authors on the subjects of fossils, gems, and metals, all edited by Gesner and with his general introduction and extensive commentaries.

This is an important association copy, with the signature on the title of Caspar (Gaspard) Bauhin (1560-1624), the first professor of anatomy and botany at the University of Basel. He made a number of important contributions to both anatomy and botany (see D.S.B., I, pp. 522-24). Like Gesner, Bauhin was greatly concerned with nomenclature; his great merit, again like Gesner, was his ability to treat his subjects in an orderly and methodical manner. More

Several diagrams in the text. 1 p.l., 33 (i.e. 29) pp. Large 4to, orig. blue wrappers, uncut. London: W. Bulmer, 1814.

First separate edition, with new pagination. This offprint belonged to Carl Friedrich Gauss, with the “Gauss-Bibliothek” stamp on the title. This copy was no doubt sent by Herschel to Europe’s leading mathematician.

The present work is an important contribution to mathematical notation by Herschel, who was, with Charles Babbage and George Peacock, a founder of the famous Analytical Society, a group of Cambridge mathematical reformers. They wanted to leave behind the fluxional, Newtonian notation so prevalent in 18th-century Britain and... More

Two full-page woodcuts serving as frontispieces & a full-page woodcut on final leaf. 1 p.l., 38, 38, 29 folding leaves. Three parts in one vol. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers, manuscript title label on upper cover, new stitching. [Guangzhou]: Yao Shi, [1679].

A very rare illustrated printing of the translation by Kumarajiva of the Vimalakirti Sutra, one of the fundamental texts of Chinese Buddhism. Kumarajiva (344-413), Buddhist monk, scholar, missionary, and translator, who came from the Silk Road kingdom of Kucha, was famous for his encyclopaedic knowledge of Indian and Vendantic learning. He was the greatest translator of Buddhist scripture from Sanskrit into Chinese, and it... More

A portfolio of ten finely lithographed plates loosely housed (as issued) in stiff boards and a slip-case (slightly worn). [From inside of lower cover]: Torino: Marco Noire Editore, 1986.

A rare and striking LeWitt suite of prints, signed by the artist and consisting of ten vividly rendered folding lithographs reproducing his famous wall drawings. This publication was finely printed in a numbered edition of 400 copies, many of which have been broken up and sold individually.

The slip-case is a bit worn, but the binding is in fine condition. WorldCat locates only two institutional copies in North America. This portfolio should not... More

Numerous woodcut diagrams in the text. xxxii, 133 pp. 8vo, cont. blond calf (very short crack at foot of upper joint), triple gilt fillet round sides, spine nicely gilt, contrasting morocco lettering piece on spine, a.e.g. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1741.

First edition and a fine copy, printed on large and thick paper. This is a further work by Maupertuis to determine the shape of the earth through the accurate measurement of a degree of the meridian, using the results of the French expedition to Lapland in 1735. He argued “that a theory of the moon’s motion, based on parallax observations... More

Six parts bound in two vols. Large 4to, cont. polished mottled calf, spines nicely gilt. Avignon, 1756-1758-[1760].

First edition of all six parts, and a fine copy, of one of the great classics of political economy. This work marks the birth of the physiocratic school and contains the first appearance on a large scale of the “Tableau Economique” of Quesnay (portions of Quesnay’s work had been privately printed in a few copies only at the palace at Versailles in 1758 and 1759).

In this work, Mirabeau made the ideas of Cantillon known and the book had a very great influence... More