Manuscript on paper, entitled on the upper wrapper. One full-page manuscript map, in brush & ink, of the eight major roads or provinces of Korea & many tables in the text. 111 numbered folding leaves. Small folio (302 x 215), orig. patterned wrappers (wrappers a little soiled & wormed), stitched as issued. [Korea: 18th or 19th century].

Manuscript gazetteer describing Chosŏn Korea, which was referred to as “the East” (tung) or the “Eastern kingdom” (tungguk) before the 20th century. Our manuscript was written between 1694 (we find that date in the text) and 1895, when the eight provinces shown on... More

Four folding engraved plates. xxxviii, [2], 184 pp. 4to, cont. mottled calf, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: David l’aîné, 1749.

First edition of one of Alembert’s most important books. “During the late 1740’s, d’Alembert, Clairaut, and Euler were all working on the famous three-body problem, with varying success. D’Alembert’s interest in celestial mechanics thus led him, in 1749, to publish a masterly work, the Recherches sur la Précession des Equinoxes…The precession of the equinoxes, a problem previously attacked by Clairaut, was very difficult. D’Alembert’s method was similar to Clairaut’s but he employed more terms in his... More

80 pp. 8vo (216 x 135 mm.), early 20th-cent. cloth-backed marbled boards & orig. printed wrappers mounted on stubs, gilt title on spine. Paris: Bonnefons Delavialle, Ch. Paillet; London: Treuttel & Wurtz, Jarman; Amsterdam: Dufour & De la Chaux; Brussels: Danot; Berlin: Logier & Simon Schropp; Vienna: Schabacher, [1826].

A fascinating and rare auction catalogue of an extensive and influential collection of Asian artifacts belonging to a “F. Sallé,” with many contemporary pencil annotations in the margins. We have been unable to ascertain his first name, but Sallé appears in numerous early 19th-century Parisian auction catalogues as the commissaire-priseur.

This... More

Large woodcut printer’s device on each title & numerous woodcuts & illus. and printed tables in the text. 470, [7] pp., one blank leaf; 217, [1] pp., two leaves of dedication. Two parts in one vol. Large 4to, cont. binding from the south of France of red morocco (rather browned throughout as always with this book due to the quality of the paper, some minor worming towards end touching a few letters & carefully repaired), arms in gilt on covers of François de Rignac (1580-1663; see below), roulette border in gilt round sides, spine gilt. Frankfurt: J.G. Schönwetter, 1648.

First... More

147 woodcut diagrams in the text. 6 p.l., 196 leaves. Small folio (272 x 190 mm.), cont. Parisian binding of light brown calf (very skillful restorations to the binding), panelled in blind with gilt fleurons in the corners, gilt floral tool in the center of each cover of a hand holding flowers, small gilt stars in the six compartments of spine. Nuremberg: J. Petreius, 1543.

First edition, and a very fine and crisp copy, of “the earliest of the three books of science that most clarified the relationship of man and his universe (along with Newton’s Principia and Darwin’s Origin... 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

Each title within the same architectural woodcut border, two folding woodcut plates in the second part (the 2nd plate is numbered p. 33), & numerous woodcuts in the text of geometrical & surveying problems. 8 p.l., 88 pp.; 2 p.l., 33 pp. Two parts in two vols. Small 4to, modern vellum-backed paste-paper boards. Nuremberg: S. Halbmayer, colophon dated “1626.”

First edition, and complete with both parts, of this posthumously published work. Galgemair (1564-1619), who had been a student of both Apian and Mästlin at Tübingen, wrote a series of books on scientific instruments.

The first part of this book describes... More

Four folding plates (three are engraved & the moon map is lithographed). xxiii, 446 pp., 1 leaf of errata. 8vo, cont. slick boards. Munich: I.J. Lentner, 1812.

First edition of this varied and interesting book, reflecting the author’s wide-ranging interests. Gruithuisen (1774-1852), studied philosophy, medicine, and natural history, and was first appointed professor of medicine at the University of Munich and was later made professor of astronomy at the same institution. Gruithuisen wrote on many subjects and his works are well-known for their numerous new observations and thoughts.

The present work contains chapters on physiology, electricity, geology, optics, and astronomy... More

Many fine full-page woodcuts. 56; 51; 42 folding leaves. Three vols. Large 4to (337 x 260 mm.), orig. yellow wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (labels a bit frayed), new stitching (a little loose). [China]: from title-page in trans.: “woodblocks owned by Yi xue xuan, 1801.”

An important and uncommon large-format edition of the “first of all Chinese encyclopaedias, containing so much botanical and zoological terminology.”–Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 6, Part 1: Botany, p. 191. This edition of the Er Ya contains the enlargements and commentary of Guo Pu (276-324), considered “the greatest commentator of... More

Circular silver photographic print, 92 mm. in diameter, mounted on paper incorporating a printed title and descriptive letterpress dated August 1890 with the signatures of two of Herschel’s sons, mounted on card. Some small areas of abrasions to the paper surface. In the original frame, by Ryman & Co. of Oxford, made from the rungs of the ladder to the telescope. With a fragment of an original (?) printed descriptive notice on the back.

This is the earliest photograph of a scientific instrument and the first photograph deliberately taken to record an object prior to its disappearance (the earliest “record”... More

Black & white illus. throughout. 397, [1] p. Large & thick 4to (279 x 210 mm.), pictorial softcover, title on spine. Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1980.

The important catalogue for On Kawara’s survey exhibition at the Moderna Museet and three other institutions. This publication is profusely illustrated with images and reproductions of the conceptual artist’s work, including the Today series, I Met, I Went, I Got Up, I am still alive, etc. It also contains photographs of “Date Paintings” in galleries, museums, and the homes of private collectors. The second half of the catalogue, save the final dozen pages, is essentially... 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