One Hundred Books Famous in Science. Based on an Exhibition held at the Grolier Club...
Facsimiles. 449 pp. Small folio, orig. cloth, t.e.g., slipcase. New York: The Grolier Club, 1964.
Limited to 1000 copies. Fine copy. More
Facsimiles. 449 pp. Small folio, orig. cloth, t.e.g., slipcase. New York: The Grolier Club, 1964.
Limited to 1000 copies. Fine copy. More
Two engraved plates & four folding printed tables (each printed on both sides). 2 p.l., 258 pp. 8vo, cont. black boards (minor foxing), pale blue lettering piece on spine. Braunschweig: F. Vieweg, 1799.
First edition of an important work on eudiometry, containing valuable data on the composition of air and different gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide) and on the oxidation of phosphorus. At the end (pp. 255-58) is a letter by Humboldt to the brother of A.J. Garnerin, the first man to descend by parachute from a balloon (1797), on the analysis of air gathered by the... More
Lithographed frontis. port. of the author in Vol. I. About 1200 very fine woodcuts, some double-page, of plants, many with sections delicately hand-colored. 20 vols. Large 8vo, orig. yellow patterned wrappers, orig. block-printed title-labels on upper covers, new stitching. Ogaki, Mino Province: Hirabayashi so 平林荘, 1874-75.
Second edition, revised and enlarged, of this magnificent Japanese botanical work; it is considered “the first comprehensive scientific monograph that appeared in Japan.”–Masuzo Ueno, “The Western Influence on Natural History in Japan” in Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 19, No. 3/4 (1964), p. 330.
Iinuma (1783-1865) was educated in Kyoto as a physician. He... More
46 finely hand-colored full-page woodcuts (all ca. 244 x 238 mm.). Two parts in one vol. 100 panels (or pages). Large 4to (267 x 267 mm.), orig. silk over boards, manuscript title slip on upper cover, bound in orihon (accordion) style. [China: 18th or 19th century].
A beautiful edition of this famous illustrated work on Chinese agricultural and sericultural techniques. The hand-colored illustrations are based on the Song dynasty edition of 1237 by Lou Shou 樓璹 (1090-1162), the earliest Chinese book to illustrate all the steps in rice cultivation and silk production. The illustrations were quite influential, serving... More
3 p.l. (lacking the first leaf, a blank; title a little soiled), 143, 152-66 pp. Small 4to, cont. English limp vellum. London: N. Okes for N. Bourne, 1623.
First edition of one of the great early English accounts of the exploration of the interior of Africa and the first to be published separately (others appear in collections); it is a classic account of the search for gold.
Ghana, the earliest known empire of the western Sudan, first entered the historical consciousness of North Africa near the end of the eighth century but probably originated long before. Famous to North Africans... More
Folding engraved frontis. & 18 folding engraved plates. [iii]-xvi, [one leaf of ads], 211, [1] pp. 8vo, mid-19th-cent. half-olive sheep & cloth, upper cover stamped in blind “Carolus Porcher de Clyffe” with his arms, binder’s ticket “Bound by S. Mepham, Dorchester,” spine gilt, red leather lettering piece on spine. London: R. Phillips, 1808.
“Third edition, corrected and enlarged” (the first edition appeared in 1797, and there were a total of five editions through 1841). Johnstone (d. 1838), an Edinburgh surveyor, was promised a grant of £1000 by the recently formed Board of Agriculture to provide a detailed and accurate account... More
Engraved vignette on title & 47 folding engraved plates. Title printed in red & black. 2 p.l., [1]-636, [10] pp. Large 4to, cont. Dutch vellum over boards, panelled in blind with a blind arabesque in center of each cover. Leiden: J. & H. Verbeek, 1725.
First Latin edition of Keill’s lectures on physics and astronomy delivered at Oxford University; each was first separately published in 1702 (physics) and 1718 (astronomy). The 1702 Introductio ad veram Physicam was “probably the first textbook of Newtonian physics ever to appear.”–Gjertsen, The Newton Handbook, p. 284–(giving the date as 1701).
Keill (1671-1721), a student... More
One woodcut diagram in the text. viii, 103 pp. 8vo, orig. American binding of sheep-backed green printed boards (browning throughout due to the quality of the paper). Philadelphia: E.Y. Schelly, 1838.
First edition in German, enlarged with the additional text by Joel Schelly. Kendrick (1789-1872), was the son of one of the pioneer nurserymen in America, who had established a nursery in 1790 between Newton and Brighton, Massachusetts.
“By 1823, William had become associated with his father in the enterprise, and for a half a century he was one of a small group of nurserymen who laid the foundations of... More
Engraved frontis., three folding printed plates (one in red & black), and numerous woodcut diagrams & illus. in the text. 8 p.l. (incl. frontis.), 301, [9] pp. 4to, cont. vellum over boards, green silk ties. Rome: Varesi, 1665.
First edition of Kircher’s treatise on numerology, the “hidden mysteries” of the origins of numbers. “The Arithmologia, one of Kircher’s more curious works, is a veritable gold mine of curiosities: magic formulas, amulets, and symbolic matrices. For Kircher all knowledge was to some extent bound up in mystery, and this was particularly true of numerology…Kircher did not accept the mysticism uncritically, however... More
Engraved frontis. port. & 8 engraved plates. Four vols. 8vo, cont. sheep-backed marbled boards (some foxing, upper joint of Vol. IV cracked & head of spine worn, very slight chips to heads of two other spines). Paris: Klostermann fils, 1810-10-11-11.
First edition in French of the first German chemical dictionary, originally published in Berlin in 1807–10. “Klaproth was the foremost supporter of Lavoisier’s antiphlogistic theory in Germany, and in addition to his classic researches in analytical chemistry, he wrote an excellent chemical dictionary…The translators added valuable notes and state in their preface that all the important advances in chemistry since... More
Fine engraved frontis. port. of Klein & 28 engraved plates. 3 p.l. (incl. frontis), 233, [1] pp., one leaf of ads. 8vo, fine cont. polished calf, spine nicely gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: C.J.B. Bauche, 1754.
[bound with]:
—. Doutes ou Observations de Mr. Klein…sur la Revûe des Animaux, faite par le premier Homme, sur quelques Animaux des Classes des Quadrupedes & Amphibies du systême de la Nature, de M. Linnaeus. Et des Remarques sur les Crustacés, sur les Animaux qui ruminent, & sur la Vie de l’Homme, comparée avec celle des Animaux. One folding engraved plate. 2... More
Portfolio of original photographs (mainly from 210 x 300 mm. to 240 x 330 mm.) depicting artillery, field guns, howitzers, cannons, ammunition wagons, etc., produced by Friedrich Krupp. 53 mounted photographs (some partly faded) on 51 stiff boards (640 x 480 mm.), all boards signed “Photogr. Atelier des Krupp’schen Etablissements.” Large oblong folio (645 x 500 mm.), orig. red cloth folder (a little rubbed & soiled) with title printed in gilt on cover, metal protectors at corners. [Essen]: dated 1869-76.
A very rare portfolio issued by the Krupp Steel Works with 53 original albumen photographs. A sort of trade catalogue... More
Six albumen prints from wet collodion negatives (each 430 x 430 mm.), each mounted on stiff card stock panels (each panel measuring 620 x 430 mm.), joined together with the orig. linen, with the lithographed title at foot of the two middle panels. Preserved in the orig. green cloth-backed board portfolio, ties gone. [Essen: F. Krupp, ca. 1872-73].
A magnificent and rare photographic panorama of the Krupp Steel Works in Essen, consisting of six albumen prints, each mounted on paper board panels, measuring altogether 430 x 2480 mm. The industrial steel manufacturer Friedrich Krupp AG was the largest company in... More
Two folding engraved plates. xi, [5], 390 pp. Small 8vo, cont. red morocco, with the arms in gilt of either the Comtesse de Provence or the Comtesse d’Artois (see below), triple gilt fillet round sides, spine nicely gilt, a.e.g. Paris: J.B. Coignard, 1745.
First edition and a lovely copy in contemporary red morocco with arms (see below). “La Garaye (1675-1755), a Breton nobleman and philanthropist, was a diligent chemist who devised a novel method of preparing medicines from minerals by long maceration with neutral salt solutions. He also extracted a number of principles from plants as from Peruvian bark, the... More
3 p.l., 474, [2] pp. 8vo, cont. sheep-backed boards (several small wormholes in margins of final few leaves), spine ruled in gilt, brown morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: Rue et Hotel Serpente, 1785.
First edition. La Métherie (1743-1817), an inveterate opponent of Lavoisier’s theories, was chief editor of the famous Journal de Physique from 1785 until the year of his death. He wrote a number of important works on mineralogy and was a friend to many of the leading scientists of his time, especially Cuvier.
In this work, La Métherie stated that “all combustibles (including perhaps diamond) contain inflammable... More
Finely engraved frontis. port. of the author & eight folding engraved plates. Five vols. 8vo, fine cont. mottled calf (a few minor defects), flat spines gilt, red morocco lettering pieces on spines. Paris: Maradan, 1797.
Second edition, corrected, and enlarged. This edition expands the sections on mineralogy and petrology from two volumes to four. First published in 1795, this is the author’s chief work, which enjoyed considerable popularity among his contemporaries; it was founded for the most part on Werner’s teachings. “Taking a broad cosmogonical view of creation, Lamétherie regarded the major features of the earth as the result of... More
Translated from the French [by John F.W. Herschel, Charles Babbage, & George Peacock]. With an Appendix and Notes. Five folding engraved plates. viii, 720 pp. 8vo, attractive antique half-calf & marbled boards (minor foxing & occasional dampstaining), flat spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine, uncut. Cambridge: J. Deighton & Sons, 1816.
First edition in English. It was this work that was largely responsible for the introduction of Continental methods of analysis and notation into English mathematics. Herschel, Babbage and Peacock, who formed the Analytical Society while still undergraduates at Cambridge, translated and edited Lacroix’s work and secured its... More
One engraved plate & one woodcut head-piece vignette. 40 pp. 8vo, attractive modern marbled boards, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: Gibert, 1773.
First edition of this famous book which caused a panic in Paris before it was published. Lalande “caused another stir in 1773, when he discussed the possibility of a collision between the earth and a comet. His work on the perturbation of comets by the planets indicated that the orbit of a comet might be altered enough to make a collision with the earth possible. He realized that the likelihood of such a collision was extremely... More
One engraved plate & one folding printed table. xvi, 375 pp.; 2 p.l., 412 pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. cat’s paw calf (light foxing & minor stains). Paris: Maradan, Seconde Année de la République [1794].
First edition. Lamarck (1744-1829), the noted biologist and evolutionist, had pronounced chemical theories and they were an important part of his ideas about nature and evolution. He was an adversary of Lavoisier’s anti-phlogistic theory and proposed the four-element theory (earth, air, water, and fire). Lamarck believed that these four elements “have no attraction for one another but tend to separate unless constrained by force…He proposed... More
Folding engraved plate in Vol. IV. Five vols. Large 4to, handsome antique blue morocco-backed marbled boards, flat spines nicely gilt. Paris: J.B.M. Duprat & others, An VII [1798]-1825.
First edition and a complete set with all the supplements. In this monumental and fundamental astronomical work, Laplace -- the "Newton of France" -- codified and developed the theories and achievements of Newton, Euler, d'Alembert, and Lagrange. "Laplace maintained that while all planets revolve round the sun their eccentricities and the inclinations of their orbits to each other will always remain small. He also showed that all these irregularities in movements and positions... More
Folding engraved plate in Vol. IV. Five vols. Large 4to (281 x 200 mm.), cont. polished calf, sides panelled in blind & gilt, spines decorated in blind & gilt, a.e.g.. Paris: J.B.M. Duprat & others, An VII [1798]-1825-1827.
First edition, a magnificent set on large and fine paper, complete set with all the supplements. This is the only large and fine paper set I have ever seen on the market.
In this monumental and fundamental astronomical work, Laplace — the “Newton of France” — codified and developed the theories and achievements of Newton, Euler, d’Alembert, and Lagrange. “Laplace maintained that... More
199 finely lithographed plates (the plate “Irrigations, No. 6“ in Vol. I was not published). Lithographed title, 48 printed leaves of text including final leaf listing plates; one lithographed leaf of “Prospectus,” lithographed title, 45 leaves of text incl. final leaf listing plates. Two parts in one vol. Large 4to, cont. green half-sheep (joints very carefully repaired), spine gilt. Paris, “á l’Etabissement lithographique du Comte de Lasteyrie, Rue du Bac No. 58,” 1820-21.
First edition of one of the most extensive and important lithographic works published in the early days of the medium. Lasteyrie (1759-1849), agronomist, industrialist, and philanthropist, was... More
One large folding printed table & six folding engraved plates. 2 p.l., 314 pp. 8vo, cont. mottled calf (foot of one joint repaired). Paris: Cuchet, 1787.
First edition, second issue, of one of the key books in the history of modern chemistry. Lavoisier’s discoveries made a new and rational chemical nomenclature imperative. Initiated by Guyton de Morveau, still an adherent of the phlogiston theory, the project was taken up by Lavoisier, who soon convinced Guyton of the truth of his system. They entered into collaboration with Berthollet and Fourcroy. The result of their combined efforts is contained in the present... More
Three folding engraved plates. xxx, [2], 443 pp. Two parts in one vol. 8vo, cont. half-sheep & speckled boards, flat spine gilt, blue morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: Deterville, 1801.
Second edition of this “pioneer work in which [Lavoisier] first gives a historical survey of previous workers’ efforts and then describes his own experiments on gases and the conclusions to be derived from them.”–Duveen & Klickstein, p. 94.
“The genuine second edition in which Deterville has reprinted the entire book with the errata corrected in the text and with the plates reengraved by Tardieu senior. Another so-called seconde edition... More