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 東) or the “Eastern kingdom” (tungguk 東國) before the 20th century. Our manuscript was written between 1694 (we find that date in the text) and 1895, when the eight provinces... 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

Many illustrations in the text. Manuscript in accordion format. 36 pages (or panels), written on both sides. 8vo (204 x 98 mm.), orig. boards. [Korea?]: 18th or 19th century.

A unique manuscript collection of Daoist texts and talismans, richly illustrated with diagrams and images. The manuscript is probably Korean, as we find another manuscript with the title Sindo t’aeŭlgyŏng held at Dongshin University library in Naju, South Korea. We find no copy of a work with this title in WorldCat, be it Chinese or Korean.

This unique manuscript contains spells (Ko.: chu, Ch.: zhou 咒), registers (Ko.: nok, Ch.: lu... More

Finely engraved added title & numerous woodcut diagrams & printed tables in the text. Printed title in red & black. 9 p.l. (incl. engraved title), 323, 184 pp. Two parts in one vol. Large 4to, cont. vellum over boards, covers nicely decorated with coats-of-arms in gilt & silver (now oxidized) on each cover, a.e.g., ties gone. Hamburg: Frobenius, 1634.

First edition of this handsome and rare work on trigonometry by a student of Tycho Brahe. Frobenius (1566-1645), after studying in Tübingen and Wittenberg, went in 1591 to the island of Hven where he intended to live and study with Tycho... More

Woodcut Medicean arms on title. 36 pp. Small 4to, attractive antique calf (final five leaves a little stained & with some minor marginal paper repairs), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Florence: C. Giunti, 1605.

First edition of this rare and important book on the new star of October 1604; it plays a significant role in the first great controversy of Galileo’s scientific career in which he turned his back on the whole philosophical approach to science and sought reliable information and secure knowledge about the physical world through observations and calculations. The controversy which arose from the... 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

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

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

Engraved port. of the author & an engraved vignette on title. Title printed in red & black. xxiv, 303 pp. Large 4to, cont. vellum over boards (minor worming at front & back). Florence: Tartini & Franchi, 1721.

First edition of this posthumously issued collection of letters by this famous scientist who has the distinction “of having written the best scientific prose in Italian after that of Galileo; his descriptions of experiments in physics are written in colorful, almost dramatic, language.”–D.S.B., IX, p. 3. Essays include those on light (addressed to Viviani), Galileo, the effects of snow, the comet of 1664... More

Finely engraved frontis. of the interior of the Imperial Library in Vienna, 43 folding engraved plates, 17 engravings in the text (including 8 full-page), engraved plan of Vienna on title, engraved headpiece, & one initial. Title printed in red & black. 12 p.l. (incl. the frontis.), 210 pp., one leaf of errata. Folio, cont. mottled sheep (dampstain, for the most part quite faint, in lower portion of final 40 leaves), spine richly gilt, contrasting leather lettering piece on spine. Vienna: L.J. Kaliwoda, 1745.

First edition, first issue, of this luxuriously printed and illustrated volume; this is a particularly fine and... More