1 p.l., 109 pp. Small 8vo, attractive modern marbled wrappers. Berlin: 1815.

The very rare sale catalogue — Loh, Vol. 6, p. 102, locates no copy — of the fine scientific library of Meyer (1739-1811), owner of the Hof-Apotheke in Stettin. He studied chemistry in Berlin under J.H. Pott and A.S. Marggraf, and in 1764 he went to Uppsala University, where he studied botany with Linnaeus and possibly chemistry with J.G. Wallerius. In 1780 Meyer founded a distillery in Stettin to produce French-style brandy and liqueurs according to a process that he had developed in his apothecary shop.

This library... More

30 black & white brush & ink drawings of diseased horses. Scroll (130 x 27,630 mm.), 94 joined sheets, with several extension flaps, which fold down with additional text, recently & expertly backed. Omi Province (today’s Shiga Province): the most modern date we find in the scroll is 1809.

A remarkably long scroll (90 feet); this is the most comprehensive old Japanese encyclopedia of horse diseases and their treatments we have encountered. The text includes recipes for medicines and acupuncture techniques as well as numerous case histories. There are references in this scroll to texts being copied in 1611. Each... More

Twelve full-page woodcuts & numerous woodcuts in the text. 36 folding leaves. Two parts in one vol. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers (wrappers rubbed & somewhat wormed), orig. block-printed title label on upper cover no longer present, modern stitching. “Ichijo-dori” [a street in Kyoto]: Tomikura Tahei, 1690.

First edition of this early and rare book providing prescriptions for treatments in the different stages of tuberculosis. The author describes ten drugs made from vegetables that give miraculous results in treating the disease. The second part, entitled “Mujo Gengen santen shinden gyokudo shoshi chiden shirochu soho,” describes the parasitic worms said to grow... More

75; 64 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo (275 x 180 mm.), orig. pale blue wrappers (label on upper covers rather corroded but legible), new stitching. [Japan]: Preface dated March 1755.

A rare commentary by the Japanese Aizu(?) fiefdom doctor Setsuo Kagayama on Wan jin yi tong by Tingxian Gong (1522-1619), physician of the Imperial Medical Academy in Beijing. The Wan jin yi tong is part of a larger work, the Wanbing Huichun of 1585 [Restoration of Health from Myriad Diseases], the author’s most famous work, which had pharmaceutical recipes from about 240 different ingredients.

Gong came from a prominent family... More

Wooden board with thick frame (1360 x 650 x 70 mm.), orig. metalwork pieces on sides & corners, with orig. metal fittings on top to facilitate hanging perpendicularly outside the shop. Both sides carved with characters of the same text, one side artfully carved in sosho tai (a calligraphic cursive script), the other side finely carved in gyosho tai (a semi-cursive script), with furigana reading marks. Characters painted with black pigment & highlighted in gold lacquer. [Japan]: date of manufacture of the board is engraved on one of the cornerpieces (in trans.): “February 1804” by “kazarishi Kinjiro Kamiya” (“ornamental metalwork... 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

xxiv, 616 pp.; 1 p.l., [3]-688 pp. Two vols. Small 8vo, cont. mottled sheep (head of spine of Vol. II chipped), spines gilt, red morocco lettering pieces on spines. Paris: Lacombe, 1766.

Second (first pirated) edition of the first modern chemical dictionary. Although technical dictionaries had appeared earlier, this was the first attempt to cover the whole field of chemistry, pure and applied, in an encyclopedic manner. The introduction traces the progress of chemistry from its origins to the time of Stahl and Boerhaave. The book was an immediate success and it was several times reprinted and translated; it produced... More

Four full-page brush & ink illus. 14 folding leaves. 8vo (244 x 165 mm.), orig. wrappers (wrappers somewhat soiled), stitched as issued. [Japan: ca. 1820].

Nakagami (1743-1833), a member of the great Koiho (Traditional Medicine) School, was one of the leading practitioners of his day. He was trained in the method of Kan, To, and Ge (perspiration, emesis, and purgation). He started his practice in Kyoto in 1791 and wrote on pathology, leprosy, psychiatric diseases, water cures, and diagnosis of diseases. Most of his texts remained in manuscript.

Our manuscript, based on the secret teachings of Nakagami, is concerned with... More

37 fine woodcuts (some are single-page, others double-page, & one is a text illus.), of which most are black & white, but 11 are printed in complex color & eight are delicately highlighted with gray tints. 33; 33; 32; 34; 35; 35 folding leaves. Six vols. 8vo, orig. decorated wrappers (wrappers slightly soiled), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Wakayama [& for Vols. IV-VI: Wakayama, Kyoto, Edo, & Osaka]: Ohiya Ihei et al., [Vols. I-III], Prefaces dated 1833 & 1850.

First edition, and a complete set in six volumes, of this beautifully illustrated natural history work; the... More

Woodcut of Saxon coat-of-arms on verso of title. 24 unnumbered leaves (final two leaves blank). Small 8vo, attractive antique calf-backed paste-paper boards, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Wittenberg: G. Müller for P. Hellwichs, 1596.

First edition of a most interesting book in which Person, the longtime city doctor of Rochlitz, gives a scientific description of the local stone — Rochlitzer porphyry — which has been mined on the Rochlitzer Berg for many centuries and used for building (bricks, facades, and tiles) and sculptures but also as a constituent of many medicines. Person describes numerous recipes using the... More

6 p.l., 240, [4] pp. 8vo, attractive antique calf, double gilt fillet round sides, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Leipzig: C.J. Eysseln, 1721.

[bound with]:

—. Anhang zu seiner Chymie, handlend von denen metallischen Saltzen und Schmertz-stillenden Schwefel des Vitriols. 1 p.l., 108 pp. 8vo. Leipzig: C.J. Eysseln, 1720.

Second and much enlarged edition of the first work (1st ed.: 1717) and first edition of the Anhang. Rothe (1679-1710), a practicing physician in Leipzig, was a diligent student of Stahl. This is his posthumously published work on pharmaceutical chemistry which went through many editions and was translated... More

Finely engraved architectural title-page by Mallery with Henri IV seated on his throne in a garden, eight fine woodcut vignettes, fine woodcut initials, and 13 large woodcuts in Chapters XIII & XIV. 9 p.l., 3-1004, [20] pp. Folio, 18th cent. mottled calf (minor scuffing to binding extremities), spine gilt, contrasting lettering piece on spine. Paris: J. Metayer, 1600.

First edition of the first great French work on agronomy — in its widest sense — to be published. In this book, Serres devotes substantial sections to hunting, cookery, practical medicine, irrigation, forestry, viticulture, vegetable gardening, medicinal plants, fruit trees, silk cultivation... More