COCCHI, Antonio Celestina (1685-1747). Corticis Peruviani vindiciae. Dissertatio physico-practica. Rome: Ex Typographia Komarek in via Cursus, 1746. 8vo (195 x 130mm). Headpieces, initials and ornaments (lacks all before title [i.e. blanks which are not called for in the collation], wormtrack reducing to a single wormhole from the title to B4, affecting some letters, occasional light spotting, staining and browning). Contemporary stiff plain wrappers, with old title on paper label, and further inscribed on the upper wrapper. Provenance: old stamp on verso of title. FIRST EDITION of this rare work on the medicinal properties of Peruvian, or Jesuit's, bark, which was originally discovered by Jesuit missionaries to Peru in the 17th-century. Since it contained quinine, it was long believed to be a natural remedy for malaria.
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![[DAGUERRE, Louis Jacques Mandé (1787-1851) & Dominique François Jean ARAGO (1786-1851)]. [In: Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaire](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/a1b85be3-4511-4510-b1c4-ac2b00e82a3e/468x382.jpg)
[DAGUERRE, Louis Jacques Mandé (1787-1851) & Dominique François Jean ARAGO (1786-1851)]. [In: Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l' Academie des Sciences ... Tome Huitième. Janvier - Juin 1839.] Paris: Bachelier, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1839. 4to (275 x 220mm). Half title, tables and diagrams (occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Later plain wrappers. THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE INVENTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY. On page 4 begins an article which is headed, "Physique Appliquée - Fixations des images qui se forment au foyer d' une chambre obscure" and which goes on to state, "... M. Daguerre a découvert des écrans particuliers sur lesquels l' image optique laisse une empreinte parfaite; des écrans où tout ce que l' image renfermait se trouve reproduit jusque dans les plus minuieux détails, avec une exactitude, avec une finesse incroyables. En vérité, il n'y aurait pas d' exagération à dire que l' inventeur a découvert les moyens de fixer les images ..." (author's italics). There is a further relevant article on pp. 243-9 of the same journal. cf. PMM (citing Daguerre's Historique et Description des Procédés du Daguerréotype et du Diorama (Paris, 1839)): "There had been earlier discoveries of the actinic effect of sunlight on silver compounds but the first succesful attempts to produce images by this means were described in a paper by Thomas Wedgwood in 1802 (Journal of the Royal Institute, I, 170). He tried to reproduce camera obscura effects but the light was too dim. The outlines of leaves, some silhouettes and other objects exposed on suitably impregnated paper were reproduced. J. N. Niepce's experiments of 1822 and 1824, when he unquestionably took at least one successful photograph with a camera, were first made public as late as 1841, in his son Isidore's brochure - Historique de la Découverte improprement nommée Daguerréotype. Arago, himself a chemist and a member of the Camber of Deputies, made a brief prnouncement on Daguerre's process in the Chamber on 7 January 1839, and in the following August printed the full text of his report thereon made to a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Academy of Sciences ..."
D' AUBUISSON DE VOISINS, Jean-François (1769-1841). Traité de Géognosie, ou Exposé des Connaissances Actuelles sur la Constution Physique et Minérale du Globe Terrestre. Strasbourg & Paris: F. G. Levrault (Strasbourg) & "Et rue des Fossés M. le Prince" (Paris), 1819. 2 volumes, 8vo (204 x 128mm). Half titles, "signature" [but ?stamp] of the editor on verso of both half titles, 2 folding engraved plates, one hand-coloured, tables (some very light mainly marginal spotting, some leaves very lightly browned). Attractively-bound in contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, spines lettered and decorated in gilt (extremities rubbed). FIRST EDITION of this important pioneering work of French geology. (2)
DESAGULIERS, John Theophilus (1683-1744). Cours de Physique Expérimentale ... Traduit de l' Anglois par le R. P. Pezenas. Paris: Chez Jacques Rollin ... et Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1751. 2 volumes, 4to (252 x 200mm). Half titles, 78 folding engraved plates (occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Contemporary calf, spines gilt with red morocco lettering-pieces and 5 raised bands (extremities rubbed, corners a little worn). FIRST FRENCH EDITION. Quérard 2; not in Brunet. (2)
DOPPLER, Christian (1803-53). Beiträge zur Fixsternenkunde. Prague: Druck der k. k. Hofbuchdruckerei von Gottlieb Haase Söhne, 1846. 4to (280 x 215mm). 26-pages numbered [1]-26 [i.e. separately paginated], lithographed plate (some light mainly marginal spotting and staining throughout). Original blue printed wrappers within woodcut typographical borders (very lightly stained), contained in purpose-made protective burgundy buckram wallet with label. RARE first separately-paginated offprint of this highly important paper in which Doppler, after whom the 'Doppler Shift' is named, suggests the use of photography or daguerreotype as a means of establishing the distances of fixed stars from the Earth, thereby leading to the discovery of the 'Redshift' phenomenon. Schuster Doppler IV, 42.
FIRST SOLVAY CONFERENCE - La Théorie du Rayonnement et les Quanta. Rapports et Discussions de la Réunion tenue à Bruxelles, du 30 Octobre au 3 Novembre 1911 sous les Auspices de M. E. Solvay. Publiés par MM. P. Langevin et M. de Broglie. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1912. Large 8vo (254 x 168mm). Half title, illustrations and diagrams (some very light marginal browning). Original printed grey/blue wrappers with woodcut ornament, unopened (backstrip and edges of covers lightly browned, backstrip creased). Provenance: illegible name stamped faintly on title; "Majoration 20%" stamped on front free endpaper. THE FIRST AND ONLY EDITION of the printed report of the proceedings of the first Solvay Conference which proved to be a turning-pointing in modern physics. In this first conference, Einstein came to early prominence as the second youngest participant at the age of 32. Also included among the 18 leading scientists present were the director, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorentz, Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie and Henri Poincaré.
FOUCAULT, Jean Bernard Léon (1819-68). [In: Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l' Académie des Sciences ... Tome Trentième. Janvier - Juin 1850]. Méthode générale pour mesurer la vitesse de la lumière dans l' air et les milieux transparents. Vitesses relatives de la lumière dans l' air at dans l' eau. Projet d' expérience sur la vitesse de propagation du calorique rayonnant; par M. L. Foucault. (Comissaires, MM. Arago, Pouillet, Babinet, Regnault.) (pages 551-560). Paris: Bachelier, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1850. 4to (285 x 230mm). Half title (half title and title rather browned, variable mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few leaves browned). Contemporary yellow marbled paper boards, printed label on spine, largely unopened, uncut (upper joints split, stain to top edge of upper cover, extremities rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: Bibliotheca Univ. Andegav. (faded stamp on general title and a few to text leaves, but not affecting Foucault's paper); Bibl. Dom. S. I. Eegenhoven (stamp and number on verso of title). FIRST EDITION OF FOUCAULT'S PAPER ON THE MEASUREMENT OF THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT (at 298,000 km/s) which established that light travels more slowly in water than air. In partnership with Hippolyte Fizeau, he used an instrument - now known as the Fizeau-Foucault apparatus - to prove beyond doubt that the 'corpuscular theory' of light, which had been proposed by Descartes as early as 1637, and then taken up by Newton, was not correct.
FOUCAULT, Jean Bernard Léon (1819-68). [In: Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l' Académie des Sciences ... Tome Trente-Deuxième. Janvier - Juin 1851]. Demonstration physique du mouvement de rotation de la terre au moyen du pendule; par M. L. Foucault. (Commissaires, MM. Arago, Pouillet, Binet.) (pages 135-138). Paris: Bachelier, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1851. 4to (282 x 230mm). (Half title and general title stained, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary yellow marbled paper boards, printed label on spine, largely unopened, uncut (upper joints split, stain to upper cover, extremities rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: Bibliotheca Univ. Andegav. (faded stamp on general title and a few to text leaves, but not affecting Foucault's paper); Bibl. Dom. S. I. Eegenhoven (stamp on verso of title). FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE ROTATION OF THE EARTH. "Although the rotation of the earth had been accepted since Copernicus, it was Foucault who first demonstrated it by experiment. His early experiments were private, but Louis Napoleon (later Napoleon III) became so interested that he arranged for them to be repeated publicly. This was a splendid affair which took place in the Pantheon in 1851 before a fashionable audience. A heavy metal ball was suspended from the dome on a wire 220 feet long; beneath the ball was a table 12 feet in diameter covered with sand on which the ball could leave a mark. This is known as 'Foucault's pendulum'. It soon became apparent that the plane in which the pendulum was swinging moved in a clockwise direction and in about thirty-two hours the plane of vibration had completed a full circuit. Mathematical calculations made it possible to apply the results of this experiment to the rotation of the earth. The audience in the Pantheon was greatly impressed; some ladies fainted with excitement, while other spectators maintained they could feel the earth move beneath them" (PMM). Barchas 738; PMM 330: (citing the later offprint with title "Sur Divers Signes Sensibles du Mouvement Diurne de la Terre"); Dibner 17 (also citing the later offprint only).
GLAUBER, Johann Rudolf (c.1604-70). Furni novi philosophici, sive descriptio artis destillatoriae novae; Nec non spirituum, oleorum, florum, aliorumque medicamentorum illius beneficio, animalibus & mineralibus ... Amsterdam: Prostant apud Joannem Janssonium, 1651. 6 parts bound in one [and separately paginated], [Bound with the same author's:] De auri tinctura sive auro potabili vero. Amsterdam, 1651. 8vo (157 x 100mm). Typographical ornaments, 3 folding woodcut plates, woodcut illustrations (one plate torn without loss, some light spotting and browning). Contemporary vellum, title in old manuscript on the spine (part torn away from upper cover, some staining). Provenance: old illegible ownership inscription on front free endpaper. References for first work: Brunet II, 416 (citing only a French edition of 1659); Ferguson I, p.323: "This is certainly one of the most remarkable books on chemistry of the seventeenth century"; Krivatsy 4784; Wellcome III, p.125.
GREW, Nehemiah (1641-1712). The Anatomy of Plants. With an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants, and several other Lectures, Read before the Royal Society. [Second title, bound after the first dedication, reading:] An Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants. Read before the Royal Society, January 8. and January 15. 1672 ... The Second Edition. London: Printed by W. Rawlins, for the Author, 1682. [Imprint of second title reading:] London: Printed by W. Rawlins, 1682. Folio (319 x 202mm). Woodcut head-pieces and initials, sectional titles, 83 engraved plates, of which 5 folding (plate 14 with short tear without loss, [?]paper flaw at margin of plate 45, without loss, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Modern old-style half calf and marbled boards, spine lettered in gilt with 5 raised bands. [?]Second edition, but printed in the same year as the first. A printed note before the first title states: "Dr Grew having read several Lectures of the Anatomy of Plants, some whereof have been already printed at divers times, and some are not printed; with several other Lectures of their Colours, Odours, Tasts[sic], and Salts; as also of the Solution of Salts in Water; and of Mixture; all of them to the satisfaction of the said Society: it is therefore Ordered, That He be desired, to cause them to be printed together in one Volume. Chr. [istopher]. Wren. P.R.S." Brunet II, 459; Grolier Science 436: "The birth of microscopic anatomy of plants"; Henrey 162; Hunt 362: "[the author's] chief work which gained him the reputation of being one of the most distinguished scientists of the 17th-century"; Nissen BBI 758; Krivatsy 4988; Norman 946: "[the author] showed that the "cells" first observed by Robert Hooke ... made up the normal structure of the parenchyma, and came very close to recognizing the universal cellular structure of plants"; Pritzel 3557; Wellcome III, p.164.
GROLLIER DE SERVIERE, Gaspard (1676-1745). Receuil d' Ouvrages Curieux de Mathematique et de Mecanique, ou Description du Cabinet de Monsieur Grollier de Serviere. Lyon: Chez David Foley, 1719. 4to (242 x 182mm). Title printed in red and black with woodcut printer's device, fine engraved coat-of-arms at head of dedication, initial, headpieces and ornaments, 85 engraved plates, errata leaf (without plates numbered 39, 48 and 76 [as in all copies], which are omitted from the accompanying text, and were not issued, light stain at head of title and first dedication leaf, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining, plate II torn at margin). Contemporary cat's paw calf, spine gilt with red morocco lettering-piece and riased bands (some strips worn on covers, extremities rubbed with some wear to lower fore-corners, front endpapers torn with slight loss). Provenance: de [?]Strada (old signature on front free endpaper); A. Rogier Fils. Horlogerie (later stamps on front free endpaper and on first page of dedication). FIRST EDITION of this remarkable collection of machines and inventions of a bewildering variety. "Ce sont des Ouvrages de Tour, des Horloges extraordinaires, & des modelles de machines inventez & executez par seu mon grand-pere, qui pour la plûpart sont regardez par les conoisseurs, comme des chefs d'oeuvre inimitables" (from the author's epistle, or dedication, to "Son Altesse Royale, Monseigneur le Duc d' Orleans, Petit Fils de France, Regent du Royaume" ). Berlin Kat. 1784; not in Brunet; Honeyman 1560; Poggendorff I, p. 957; Wheeler Gift 369.
![[HAUY, René Just (1743-1822, attrib.)]. Instruction sur les Mesures déduites de la Grandeur de la Terre uniformes pour toute](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/14bdf1ad-c138-4a3c-bfb3-ac2b00ea4102/468x382.jpg)
[HAUY, René Just (1743-1822, attrib.)]. Instruction sur les Mesures déduites de la Grandeur de la Terre uniformes pour toute la République et sur les Calculs relatifs a leur division Décimale; par la Commission temporaire des Poids et Mesures républicaines, En exécution des Décrets de la Convention Nationale. Sur l' Edition Originale du louvre. Caen: chez G. le Roy ... II.e Année de la République, une & indivisible, [ie. 1794]. 8vo (199 x 123mm). Folding engraved frontispiece, folding engraved plate, tables, errata leaf (outer edge of frontispiece frayed without loss, some light browning, spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Modern calf-backed marbled boards, spine gilt. cf. Barbier II, 942; Dibner 113.
HAUY, René Just (1743-1822). Tableau Comparatif des Résultats de la Cristallographie et de l' Analyse Chimique, Relativement a la Classification des Mineraux. Paris: chez Courcier, 1809. 8vo (208 x 130mm). Half title, 4 folding engraved plates (occasional light spotting, staining and browning, a few darker spots). Contemporary parchment-backed pink marbled boards, black morocco lettering-piece (extremities rubbed, some staining). Provenance: Zur Bibliothec der Berlin: Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde (bookplate and stamp on verso of title); Bibliothek der Konigl. Landw. Hochschule zu Berlin (old stamp on title). FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, the front pastedown inscribed [in the author's hand], "A la Sociéte des Scrutateurs de la Nature, hommage de l' auteur." The author is regarded as the 'father of modern crystallography', and, during the French Revolution, one of the pioneers of the metric system (see previous lot). "In his Tableau comparatif (1809) Haüy compared the results of the crystallographic and chemical determinations of mineral species. Haüy"s survey of the results of crystallography and chemical analysis in relation to the classification of minerals gave a detailed exposition of the successes and difficulties his method encountered. Haüy emphasized the invariability of the form and the composition of the constituent molecule of a species but was forced to admit that the definite proportions were often blurred by heterogeneous materials accidentally mixed with the compound" (DSB). Honeyman 1628; Ward & Carozzi 1025; Wellcome III, 224.
HERTTENSTEIN, Johann Heinrich (1676-1741). Cahiers de Mathematique a l' Usage de Messieurs les Officiers de l' Ecole Royal d' Artillerie de Strasbourg. Strasbourg: Chez Jean-Renauld Doulssecker, 1737. [?]First part only (of 2). 4to (238 x 180mm). Woodcut device on title, headpieces and initials, 53 folding engraved plates (lacks all before title, occasional mainly light spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Later marbled paper boards. FIRST EDITION. Included in this volume are treatises headed "Arithmetique", "Geometrie", "Trigonometrie", "Mechanique", "Hygronomie", "Fortification," and "Architecture". Not in Brunet.
INGENHOUSZ, Jan or John INGEN-HOUSZ (1730-99). Experiments upon Vegetables, Discovering Their great Power of purifying the Common Air in the Sun-shine, and of Injuring it in the Shade and at Night. To which is joined, a New Method of Examining the Accurate Degree of Salubrity of the Atmosphere. London: Printed for P. Elmsly and H. Payne, 1779. 8vo (204 x 128mm). Folding engraved plate, woodcut ornament at end of index (some very light browning, a few darker spots). Contemporary pale speckled boards, gilt spine label (extremities rubbed). Provenance: G. A. Landgren (old signature on front free endpaper); Bibliotheque Hammer, Stockholm (wood-engraved label of a winged charioteer). FIRST EDITION of this pioneering work by the discoverer of photosynthesis. "The discovery of Dr. Priestley, that plants thrive better in foul air than in common and in dephlogisticated air, and that plants have a power of correcting bad air, has thrown a new and important light upon the arrangement of this world. It shews, even to a demonstration, that the vegetable kingdom is subservient to the animal; and, vice versa, that the air, spoiled and rendered noxious to animals by their breathing in it, serves to plants as a kind of nourishment. But in what manner this faculty of the plants is excited remained still unknown ..." (from the Preface). Dibner 29; Garrison & Morton 103; Grolier 55; Henrey 866; Norman 1141; Wellcome III, p. 329.
JOBLOT, Louis (1645-1723). Descriptions et Usages de Plusieurs Nouveaux Microscopes, tant Simples que Composez, avec des Nouvelles Observations faites sur une Multitude Innomerbrable d' Insectes, & d' autres Animaux de Diverses Especes. Paris: Jackques Collombat, 1718. 2 parts in one volume, 4to (249 x 185mm). Woodcut device on title, initials, head- and tail-pieces, first page of text engraved with head-piece, 34 engraved plates (tear to o1 just touching signature letter, some light mainly marginal staining and spotting). Contemporary calf, spine gilt with raised bands and red morocco lettering-piece (worn at extremities, rubbed). FIRST EDITION of the first treatise on Protozoa which had been discovered a few years earlier by Anton van Leeuwenhoek. Cole 1265; Nissen ZBI 2113.
![JOHANNES DE SACRO BOSCO (c.1195-c.1256). Sphaera mundi, edited by Pedro Ciruelo (1470-[?]1554). Alcala de Henares: Miguel de](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/18cba142-3d2c-4487-b4c8-ac2b00eaed9d/468x382.jpg)
JOHANNES DE SACRO BOSCO (c.1195-c.1256). Sphaera mundi, edited by Pedro Ciruelo (1470-[?]1554). Alcala de Henares: Miguel de Eguia, 1526. Folio (265 x 188mm). Title within woodcut architectural border, armillary sphere within border on verso and repeated at the end, woodcut diagrams and illustrations, historiated and pictorial initials, printed in black letter and double column (title repaired at fore-margin but affecting lower corner of woodcut border, lower corner of first quire repaired, some repaired wormtracks, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Later vellum ruled in gilt with floral cornerpieces, gilt edges. Provenance: old illegible signature on title; some old annotation. FIRST SPANISH EDITION [i.e. printed in Spain, but not in the Spanish language] of one of the most popular scientific works of the 15th- and early 16th-centuries. Only 3 copies are recorded as sold at auction in the last 50 years, and there is no copy of this edition in the British Library. cf. Brunet IV, 160l; Palau 284125; Salva 3812; not in Adams.
KANT, Immanuel (1724-1804). Anthropologie in pragmatischer hinsicht abgefasst. Konigbserg: Friedrich Nicolovius, 1798. 8vo (198 x 120mm). (Some light staining to title, a few isolated darker spots.) Contemporary paper boards, spine gilt with tan morocco label (extremities rubbed, corners bumped, piece excised from front free endpaper comprising about an eighth of the leaf). Provenance: old illegible signature on front free endpaper; Landesbibliothek Oldenburg (stamp on verso of title). FIRST EDITION of the author's only work on psychology. Adickes 98; Garrison & Morton 4969; Norman 1201; Roback 53-55; Warda 195; Wellcome II, 378. With the same author's Critique de la Raison Pure ... Traduite de l' Allemand, sur la Septième Edition, par C.-J. Tissot (Paris, 1835-36, 2 vols., contemporary green calf-backed marbled boards, First French edition). (3)
KRAUSS, Friedrichs von (1724-89). Selbstschreibende Wundermaschinen, auc mer andere Kunst- und Meisterstüche. Vienna: Gedruckt mit Schultisch-Gastheimischen Schriften [privately printed], 1780. 8vo (200 x 128mm). Engraved portrait of the author, 11 folding engraved plates, errata leaf at the end (very light stain to title, a few darker mainly marginal spots). Contemporary half calf and speckled paper baords, spine with printed label and raised bands (extremities rubbed). Provenance: "Privately printed and rare" (later pencil inscription on front pastedown); very faint coat-of-arms stamped in ink on the lower cover. FIRST EDITION. The author was a master watchmaker who is credited with inventing the first writing machine. The design involved an automated "hand" holding a quill pen that was driven by a programmed drum to move in parallel to a person writing out text. Krauss later adapted one of his automata to write specific letters on command using a manual keyboard, thus creating an early precursor of the typewriter. His collection of inventions remains in the Kuntskammer Wien to this day. Tomash & Williams, The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing K53.
KRUNITZ, Johann Georg (1728-96, editor), and others. Oeconimsche Enclopaedie, oder allgemeines Enstem der Staats, Stadt, haus, und landwithschaft, in alphabetischer Ordnung ... Dritter Theil. Brunn: Joseph Georg Trakler, 1787. 8vo (198 x 120mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece, illustration on title, tables, 17 folding engraved plates (a few plates detached, some worming affecting letters principally to first few leaves, occasional light staining). Contemporary calf-backed boards (rubbed). With 5 other volumes of the same enclopaedia published between 1787 and 1790, all with engraved plates. This monumental encyclopaedia was founded by Krunitz in 1773 and ran until 1858, comprising a total of 242 volumes. The lot sold as a collection of plates, not subject to return. (6)
LAGRANGE, Joseph Louis (1736-1813). Théorie des Fonctions Analytiques, contenant les Principes du Calcul Difféerentiel, dégagés de toute considération d' Infiniment Petits ou d' Evanouissans, de Limites ou de Fluxions, et Réduits a l' Analyse Algébrique des Quantités Finies. Paris: De l' Imprimerie de la République, "Prairal an V" [ie. 1797]. 4to (251 x 200mm). Half title, head-piece (variable but mainly light and marginal spotting and browning). Contemporary tree calf with the coat-of-arms of Maastricht stamped in gilt on both covers (rebacked preserving old spine, extremities rubbed, small section of lower cover eroded). Provenance: school prize label dated 1820 awarding the book to G. de [?]Crastien. FIRST EDITION, the [?later] issue with 276-pages, in which the author "... intended to show that power series expansions are sufficient to provide differential calculus with a solid foundation. Today mathematicians are partially returning to this conception in treating the formal calculus of series" (DSB). Barchas 1198; Honeyman 1881; Norman 1258; Riccardi I (2), 3; Stanitz 250.
LAPLACE, Pierre-Simon (1749-1827). Exposition du Système du Monde. Paris: De l' Imprimerie du Cercle-Social, "L' An IV de la République Française" [i.e. 1796]. 2 volumes, 8vo (201 x 125mm). Half titles, errata leaves at the end of each vol. (strip torn away from lower edge of half title to vol. one without loss of letters, variable mostly light spotting, staining and browning throughout, but more pronounced to errata leaves). Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, spines elaborately gilt with red and black morocco lettering-pieces (inconspicuous old repairs to spines, lightly rubbed). Provenance: unidentified old monogram ([?] "BL") stamped in mauve on half titles. FIRST EDITION of this highly important work which presents the author's explanation of the origin and formation of the solar planetary system, his celebrated "nebular hypothesis", his discoveries pertaining to the rotation of the moon and which first speculates upon, far ahead of its time, the existence of "black holes" and the possible destruction of the earth by a meteor. Brunet III, 46 (citing only the sixth edition of 1835); Houzeau & Lancaster 8940; cf. PMM 252 (note): "... includes in a footnote his famous 'nebular hypothesis.'". (2)
![LEDERMULLER, Martin Froben (1719-69). Mikroskopische Gemüths- und Augen-Ergötzung. [Nuremberg:] Gedruckt ben Christian de Lau](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/765bc253-7ab7-46bf-9abc-ac2b00ebb481/468x382.jpg)
LEDERMULLER, Martin Froben (1719-69). Mikroskopische Gemüths- und Augen-Ergötzung. [Nuremberg:] Gedruckt ben Christian de Launoy, 1760-61. Volumes I - II only (of 3), 4to (228 x 190mm). 2 engraved frontispieces including one of the dedicatee in vol. II, woodcut ornaments on titles, elaborate head-pieces and initials, 100 hand-coloured plates engraved by Adam Wolfgang Winterschmidt after Martin Froben Ledermüller (a few plates with plate number cropped in the first vol., some supplied in manuscript, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary marbled boards, spines with black and blue morocco lettering-pieces, red edges (some wear to spines with loss to lettering-pieces, extremities rubbed). Provenance: old illegible signatures on front free endpapers; Leopold Epstein (modern stamps on front free endpapers); inconspicuous old stamps on titles. FIRST EDITION of "one of the most beautiful microscopical works issued during the XVIII. century" (Sotheran). The very scarce third part, published c. 1765, is often lacking. Please see the following lot. Blake S. 261; Graesse IV, 139; Hirsch III, pp.645-646; Nissen BBI 1156; Poggendorf I, 1403; Stafleu & Cowan 4288; Wellcome III, p.472; this work not in Brunet (1843). (2)
MARIOTTE, Edmé (c. 1620-84). Oeuvres de Mr. Mariotte, de l' Académie Royale des Sciences; Divisées en Deux Tomes. Leiden: chez Pierre Vande Aa, 1717. 2 volumes bound in one, 4to (245 x 185mm). Titles printed in red and black with engraved illustrations, 26 folding engraved plates (some plates lightly browned, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt with red morocco lettering-piece and 5 raised bands (extremities rubbed). FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. Bibliotheca mechanica pp.217-218; not in Brunet.
![[MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1698-1759)]. Dissertation Physique a l' Occasion du Negre Blanc. Leyden: [no publisher]](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/fae88039-9e59-405a-8b2a-ac2b00ecab82/468x382.jpg)
[MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1698-1759)]. Dissertation Physique a l' Occasion du Negre Blanc. Leyden: [no publisher], 1744. 8vo in 4s (171 x 100mm). Half title, woodcut armillary sphere on title (some very light mainly marginal browning). Contemporary mottled calf gilt, spine gilt with red morocco lettering-piece and raised bands. gilt edges (extremities rubbed). FIRST EDITION, in fine and original condition. Please see the footnote to the following lot. Not in Brunet; Barbier I, 1062; Bib. Osleriana 3349.
MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de (1698-1759). Oeuvres ... Nouvelle Edition corrigée & augmentée. Lyon: Chez Jean-Marie Bruyset, 1756. 4 volumes, 8vo (195 x 126mm). Half titles, engraved portrait of the author, titles printed in red and black, head-pieces, initials and ornaments, engraved map in vol. IV, diagrams, some full-page (occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Attractively-bound in contemporary half calf, spines gilt with green morocco labels and gilt motifs, one taken from the bookplate (very lightly rubbed). Provenance: Thomas Conolly (armorial bookplate). (4)
MONCONYS, Balthasar de (1611-65). Voyages ... Divisez en V. Tomes. Où les Scavans trouveront un nombre infini de nouveautez, en Machines de Mathematique, Experiences Physiques, Raisonnemens de la belle Philosophie, curiositez de Chymie, & conversations des Illustres de ce Siecle; Outre la description de divers Animaux & Plantes rare, plusieurs Secrets inconnûs pour le Plaisir & la Santé. Paris: Chez Pierre Delaulne, 1695. 5 volumes, 12mo (161 x 95mm). Engraved frontispiece, 52 plates (one plate in vol. one torn without loss, some light spotting, staining and browning, a few darker spots ). Contemporary calf, spines gilt with 5 raised bands (some areas quite heavily rubbed, corners bumped and a little worn, lower joints of vol. II splitting). The third edition, published posthumously (as were the two earlier editions of 1665 and 1677), of this veritable "Cabinet of Curiosities" of a book. The author's travels, in which he makes the diverse observations detailed on the title page, take him to virtually every country in Europe, including England, and then on to Egypt, Syria, Constantinople and Anatolia. The crowded frontispiece depicts the author, looking somewhat perplexed, sitting amongst some of these marvels. Blackmer 1146; Caillet 7642; Hage Chahine 3249; not in Brunet. (5)
NOLLET, Jean Antoine (1700-70). Essai sur l' Electricité des Corps ... Seconde édition. Paris: Chez les Freres Guerin, 1765. 8vo (183 x 110mm). Half title, engraved frontispiece, 4 folding engraved plates (occasional mainly marginal spotting and staining). Old marbled wrappers, uncut (backstrip a little ragged). Mottelay, Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism (1922) pp. 181-3; Poggendorf II, 295; Wheeler Gift 329. "Nollet was the first to observe that pointed bodies electrified give out streams of light, but that they do not exhibit as powerful indications of electricity as are shown by blunt bodies. He also found that glass and other non-conductors are more strongly excited in air than in vacuo; that the electric spark is more diffuse and unbroken in vacuo; and that an excited tube loses none of its electricity by being placed in the focus of a concave mirror when the sunlight is therein concentrated" (Mottelay).
OSIO, Carlo Cesare (b. 1612). Archittetura Civile Demostratiuamente Proportionata et Accresciuta di Nuove Regole con l' Use delle quali si Facilita l' Inventione d' Ogni Douuta Proportione nelli Cinque Ordini. E Col Ritrovamento d' un Nuovo Strumento Angolare si dà il Modo à gl' Operarii medesimi di Practicamente Stabilire le Sacome in Ogni loro Necessario Contorno. Milan: Nella Stampa Archiepiscopa, 1661. Folio (330 x 220mm). Woodcut ornament on title, initials and ornaments, diagrams, some full-page (lacks frontispiece and additional engraved allegorical title, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Contemporary vellum (foot of spine worn, corners bumped, some staining). Berlin Kat. 589; Cicognara 589; Graesse V, 58; Riccardi II, 222; not in Brunet or Fowler.
OZANAM, Jacques (1640-1717). Recreations Mathematiques et Physiques, qui contenant Plusieurs Problemes d' Arithmetique, de Géometrie, de Musique, d' Optique, de Gnomonique, de Cosmographie, de Mécanique, de Pyrotechnie, & de Physiques. Avec un Traité des Horloges Elementaires ... Nouvelle edition. Paris: Chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1750. 4 volumes, 8vo (192 x 125mm). Headpieces, initials, ornaments and tables, 136 engraved plates, a few folding (vol. II lacks title page, some ink spots to edges of plates in vol. III, some very light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt with red and green morocco lettering-pieces and raised bands, red edges (rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: old bookseller's label of Henry Bottin, Mons, mounted on front pastedown; old signatures exuberantly scribbled out on front free endpapers of vols. I, III and IV; later signatures of [?]Madame de Rouillé on titles; some old annotation. Brunet III, 607: (citing only an edition of 1778 or 1779); cf. Caillet II, 4900; Wheeler Gift 426. (4)
PENTHER, Johann Friedrich (1693-1749). Praxis Geometriae, worrinnen nicht nur alle bey dem Feld-Messen vorkommende Fälle, mit Stäben, dem Astrolabio, der Boussole, und der Mensul. Augsburg & Leipzig: Jenisc und Stageschen Buchhandlung, [c. 1788]. Folio (356 x 220mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece, 39 engraved plates, 2 of which folding (some staining at gutter, occasional light staining, browning and spotting). Old paper boards (heavily stained, rubbed and creased). Ninth edition of this perennially popular German work on surveying which was first published in 1732 with just 25 plates. Poggendorff II, 399-400.
PERRAULT, Claude (1613-88). Recueil de Plusieurs Machines, de Nouvelle Invention. Ouvrage Posthume. Paris: Chez Jean Baptise Coignard, 1700. 4to (238 x 180mm). Large woodcut printer's device on title, engraved illustrations at head of dedication and on A1, initials, woodcut diagram, 11 folding engraved plates (some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt with raised bands (some wear to foot of joints, extremities rubbed, some scuffing). Provenance: old library stamp on verso of title; old manuscript library shelf numbers on front pastedown; some old annotation referring the text to plate numbers. FIRST EDITION. Plate IX depicts the Abaque Rhabdologique (the author's own name for it), a calculating device which can be considered a forerunner of modern calculating and computing devices. Other machines described in this work include a mechanism for anchor cables, for raising a bridge, for rotating a telescope, and a water clock. Cicognara 948; Tomash & Williams, The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing P46.
PETISCO, Giuseppe Michele (1724-1800). Compendio della Vita del Ven. Servo di Dio il Fratello Antonio Alonso Bermejo .... Scritta in Ispagnuolo dal Sig. Abbate Don Giuseppe Michele Petisco, e Tradotta in Ataliano da un Divoto del Venerabile. Venice: Presso Sebastiano Valle, 1792. 8vo (200 x 140mm). Engraved frontispiece full-length portrait of the author with a walking stick, typographical ornament on title, engraved plate with printed caption "Il Ven. Fratello Antonio Alonso Bermejo ancor giovine trionfa della natural repugnanza, e lambe le piaghe più schiffose" (last leaf of "Tavola" torn without loss, title lightly browned, occasional light spotting and staining, darker waterstain to a few leaves at the front). Contemporary decorated wrappers (backstrip a little frayed). FIRST EDITION of this puzzling work: the plate shows the author apparently licking the sores on a man's leg. Palau 224145: "First and only edition of this work since the Catalonian original has never been published."
![PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius [Pliny the Elder] (23-79 AD). Naturalis historie libri xxxvii. [Colophon:] Venice: "Impressum Veneti](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/875d0c71-c33f-491c-8656-ac2b00ee4984/468x382.jpg)
PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius [Pliny the Elder] (23-79 AD). Naturalis historie libri xxxvii. [Colophon:] Venice: "Impressum Venetiis summa diligentia per Melchior Sessam, & Petru Serenae, Socios, Anno reconciliare natiuitatis," 24 March 1525 [Colophon to index dated April 24 1525]. 2 parts including index by J. Camertes, with the index bound first, folio (294 x 210mm). Titles printed in red and black with historiated woodcut borders, woodcut printer's devices, woodcut initials, 38 woodcut illustrations including maps of Europe and Africa, index printed in triple column (severe V-shaped stain from folio CCVIII to the penultimate leaf, intermittent heavy staining at lower gutters, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining, oviii torn at margin). Modern buckram, later endpapers. Provenance: old annotation to first [index] title and at a few margins. Adams P1559; Graesse V, 339; Mortimer 388; Sander 5764; Wellcome I, 5117; this edition not in Brunet.
![[PLUCHE, Noël-Antoine (1688-1761)]. Le Spectacle de la Nature, ou Entretiens sur les Particularités de l' Histoire Naturelle](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/de41991b-d224-4ba2-8bfd-ac2b00ee5632/468x382.jpg)
[PLUCHE, Noël-Antoine (1688-1761)]. Le Spectacle de la Nature, ou Entretiens sur les Particularités de l' Histoire Naturelle, qui ont paru les plus propres à rendre les Jeunes-Gens curieux, & à leur former l' esprit ... Nouvelle Edition. Paris: Chez les Freres Estienne, 1771. 8 volumes in 9, 8vo (170 x 98mm). Half titles in vols. III & V - IX, 201 engraved plates, most folding (wormhole running through lower margin of vol. IV, not affecting letters, occasional very light mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few darker spots). Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt with red morocco lettering-pieces, red edges (rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: early signature at head of titles ([?]"... de la Sangirie"). Brunet III, 777 (citing an edition of 1732-50). (9)
POLINIERE, Pierre (1671-1734). Experiences de Physique ... Seconde edition, revûë & beaucoup augmentée. Paris: chez Jean de Laulne & Claude Jombert, 1718. 12mo (161 x 98mm). Woodcut device on title, woodcut head-piece and initial, 16 folding engraved plates at the end (fore-edges of some plates cropped with very slight loss and soiling, variable mainly marginal spotting and staining, many darker spots). Contemporary calf (spine worn and tatty with a few wormholes, upper joints split, heavily rubbed). Provenance: old manuscript key to plate stubs; remnants of library label to front pastedown. The work contains descriptions of experiments involving magnetism, electricity, galvanism, light, the spectrum, hydrostatics and the properties of air. For this second, and three subsequent editions, the author abandoned the old theory of colour which had been advocated in the first of edition of 1709 and adopted Newton's recent findings in opticks. Gartrell, Electricity, Magnetism and Animal Magnetism: A Checklist of Printed Sources 432; Wheeler Gift 248.
PRIESTLEY, Joseph (1733-1804). [In: Philosophical Transactions, Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenuious in Many Considerable Parts of the World. Vol. LXII.] XIX. Observations on different Kinds of Air ... Read March 5, 12, 19, 26, 1772 (pages 147-264). London: Printed for Lockyer Davis, in Holbourn, Printer to the Royal Society, 1772. 4to 220 x 165mm). 14 engraved plates, all but one folding [one illustrating Priestley's contribution], tables (2 plates torn without loss, occasional light spotting and staining). Contemporary speckled calf (rebacked and recornered, rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: Belfast Society (stamped in gilt on upper cover). FIRST EDITION of the author's most important work on gas theory, published in the Philosophical Transactions two years before its first appearance in book form under the title Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air in 1774; see the following lot). Dibner 40; Honeyman 2535; PMM 217: "The paper here cited, for which the Royal Society awarded Priestley the Copley medal, announced the discovery of hydrochloric acid and nitric oxide, and the use of the latter in measuring the purity of air, which led through the work of Cavendish, Fontana and others to exact eudiometry. Priestley also observed that plants consume carbon dioxide and give out oxygen, thereby purifying air which has been vitiated by combustion, respiration or putrefaction, and that this action takes place only under daylight. This proved of the greatest value for the subsequent work on respiration by Ingenhousz and Senebier."
PRONY, Gaspard Clair François Marie Riche de (1755-1839). Nouvelle Architecture Hydraulique. Paris: Chez Firmin Didot, 1790-96. 2 volumes, 4to (291 x 217mm). Half title in vol. one, wood-engraved printer's devices on titles, tables, 54 engraved plates, all but one folding (2 plates numbered as 16 [XVI], plate 42 mis-numbered as 47, occasional light spotting, a few darker spots). Contemporary calf-backed marbled paper boards, spines gilt, green edges (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: "Bibliotheca Alsatica. R.v.W." (bookplates). FIRST EDITION. Brunet III, 846; Poggendorff II, 534. (2)
![[?]PSEUDO-GEBER. Summa perfectionis Magisterii in sua natura; Ex bibliothecae Vaticanae exemplari undecunq; emendatissimo ed](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/caa722f1-5a00-4eb5-9481-ac2b00eed9db/468x382.jpg)
[?]PSEUDO-GEBER. Summa perfectionis Magisterii in sua natura; Ex bibliothecae Vaticanae exemplari undecunq; emendatissimo edita, cum vera genuinaq delineatione vasorum & fornacum. Deniq; libri investiationis Magisterii & testamenti ejusdem Gebri, ac Aurei trium verborum libelli, & acutissimi philosophi, mineralium additione castigatissima. "Gedani" [i.e. probably Gdansk]: Apud Brunonem Laurentium Tancken, 1682. 8vo (149 x 90mm). Woodcut initials and ornaments, 9 engraved plates showing methods of distillation ([?]lacking frontispiece [see footnote], rusthole in H7 affecting letters, lightly browned and stained throughout, a few darker spots). [?]18th-century half vellum and boards with a stylised interlacing foliate design incorporating birds and allegorical figures, spine with title in early manuscript (some light staining and rubbing). Provenance: illegible signature dated 1712 on front pastedown. This work on alchemy and distillation is believed to have been attributed to Geber in the middle-ages. A copy of the same edition included in a sale at Sotheby's in 2014 had a frontispiece (not present in our copy) but only 8 plates. Duveen 240; Ferguson I, p.300; cf. Maggs Medicine, Alchemy, Astrology and Natural Sciences, Cat. 520 (1929): 118 (citing a 1542 edition bound with another alchemical work).
![PUERBACH, Georg von (1423-61). Novae theoricae planetarum, edited by Peter Apian. [Colophon:] Venice: per Petrum de Nicolini](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/1868cca2-c18d-4d11-a6a0-ac2b00eee1b1/468x382.jpg)
PUERBACH, Georg von (1423-61). Novae theoricae planetarum, edited by Peter Apian. [Colophon:] Venice: per Petrum de Nicolinis Sabiensis, 1551. Small 8vo (155 x 100mm). Woodcut diagrams, woodcut ornament on verso of final leaf (some light staining and spotting, ink stains in margin of B4). Modern crushed red morocco, spine lettered in gilt with raised bands, new endpapers. Provenance: some old annotation and underlining. This edition is rare and is not recorded in Adams or BL Italian STC.
RONALDS, Francis (1788-1873). Descriptions of an Electrical Telegraph, and of Some Other Electrical Apparatus. London: Printed for R. Hunter, 1823. 8vo (227 x 140mm). Engraved frontispiece and 7 plates, all but one engraved by Lowry after Francis Ronalds, errata leaf at the end (title and a few text leaves lightly browned, some light spotting and staining). [?]Later grey boards, uncut. FIRST EDITION. The author, commenting on the experiments with electrical transmissions which are described in the book, states: "The result seemed to be, that that most extraordinary fluid or agency, electricity, may actually be employed for a more practically useful purpose than the gratification of the philosopher's inquisitive research, the schoolboy's idle amusement, or the physician's tool; that it may be compelled to travel as many hundred miles beneath our feet as the subterranean ghost which nightly haunts our metropolis, our provincial towns, and even our high roads; and that in such an enlightened country and obscure climate as this its travels would be productive of, at the least, as much public and private benefit. Why has no serious trial yet been made of the qualifications of so diligent a courier? And if he should be proved competent to the task, why should not our kings hold council at Brighton with their ministers in London? Why should not our government govern at Portsmouth almost as promptly as in Downing Street? Why should our defaulters escape by default of our foggy climate? And since our piteous inamorati are not all Alphei, why should they add to the torments, of absence those dilatory tormentors, pens, ink, paper and posts? Let us have electrical conversazione offices, communicating with each other all over the kingdom, if we can ..." (pp.2-3).
ROSEL VON ROSENHOF, August Johann (1705-59). Der Monatlich-Herausgegebenen Insecten-Belustigung. Nuremberg: Fleischmann, 1746-61. 4 volumes, 4to (203 x 163mm). 3 hand-coloured engraved titles and 286 hand-coloured plates [?only, see note], of which 4 folding (vol. one lacks all before coloured title, 2 letterpress titles restored at lower fore-corner, one laid down with slight loss, occasional mainly light spotting and browning). Contemporary speckled calf (vols. I-III rebacked preserving old spines, vol. IV restored at head of spine). Nissen ZBI 3466. Nissen calls for 287 plates but most copies have 286. (4)
SAVERIEN, Alexandre (1720-1805). Dictionnaire Universel de Mathematique et Physique. Paris: Chez Jacques Rollin ... Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1753. 2 volumes, 4to (272 x 208mm). Half titles, woodcut printer's device on titles, printed mostly in double column, 101 folding engraved plates (hole in blank area of first half title, hole in one plate touching engraved frame, occasional light spotting and staining, more pronounced to the plates in vol. II). Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt with tan morocco lettering-pieces and 5 raised bands (rubbed, with damage to lettering-pieces, some crackling). Provenance: unidentified armorial bookplates [without name or motto]; "Tillier" (old signatures on titles); Auguste Boutin, Paris (later stamps on half title of vol. one and title of vol. II). FIRST EDITION. (2)
![[SENAC, Jean-Baptise de (1693-1770)]. L' Anatomie d' Heister avec des Essais de Phsyque[sic], sur l' usage des Parties du Co](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/bee1fa21-bdea-49ef-b7bb-ac2b00efc749/468x382.jpg)
[SENAC, Jean-Baptise de (1693-1770)]. L' Anatomie d' Heister avec des Essais de Phsyque[sic], sur l' usage des Parties du Corps Humain, & sur le Méchanisme de leurs mouvemens ... Seconde edition. Paris: Chez Jacques Vincent, 1735. 8vo (198 x 122mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, headpiece and initial, 14 folding engraved plates (occasional mainly light spotting and staining). Contemporary calf, spine gilt with tan morocco lettering piece and raised bands (rubbed and scuffed). Barbier I, 172; Blake p. 203 (listed under Lorenz Heister); not in Brunet or Waller.
SIGAUD DE LA FOND, Joseph-Aignan (1730-1810). Description et Usage d' un Cabinet de Physique Expérimentale. Paris: Chez P. Fr. Gueffier, 1775. 2 volumes, 8vo (195 x 122mm). Half titles, woodcut devices on titles, 51 folding engraved plates (a few dark spots to title of vol. one, and elsewhere, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary calf, spines gilt with red morocco lettering-pieces and raised bands (rubbed and scuffed). FIRST EDITION. The fine plates depict a variety of scientific experiments in domestic rather than laboratory settings. In his preface, the author pays generous tribute to Benjamin Franklin, "... ce génie supérieur ...". Not in Brunet. (2)
SPALLANZANI, Abate (1729-99). Opuscoli di Fisica Animale, e Vegetabile. Modena: Presso la Societa Tipografica, 1776. 2 volumes, 8vo (218 x 142mm). Half title in first vol. only, woodcut printer's device on titles, 6 folding engraved plates (occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary Italian half calf, spines gilt with black morocco lettering-pieces (piece torn away from head of spine of vol. II, spines quite heavily rubbed and scuffed, corners rubbed). Provenance: Sergio Colombi (modern label). FIRST EDITION. Garrison & Morton 102; Heirs of Hippocrates 984: "A long controversy with John Tuberville Needham and Comte de Buffon resulted in a series of essays, published in this two-volume work, in which Spallanzani rejected the then-popular theory of spontaneous generation ... Most of the experiments described in the Opuscoli consist of observations Spallanzani made on infusions of vegetable matter heated in closed vessels for various periods of time and set aside to await developments that would later be viewed with the eye or under the microscope ... it clearly foreshadowed subsequent experiments by other investigators which culminated nearly a century later in Pasteur's epic work"; Norman 1981; Waller 11007 (citing French ed. of 1777 only). (2)
STECZKOWSKI, Joannes Cantius (1800-81). De longitudine geographica dissertatio quam adjectis thesibus. Cracow: Typis Universitatis, 1828. 4to (230 x 180mm). Folding table (some very light staining). Later plain blue wrappers. Provenance: old stamp on title; author's surname underlined in red pencil. FIRST EDITION.
STURM, Johann Christoph (1635-1703). Collegium experimentale, sive curiosum in quo primaria seculi inventa & experimenta physico-mathematica, Speciatum Campanae urinatoria, camerae obscurae, tubi Torricelliani, seu baroscopii, antliae pneumaticae, thermometrorum, hygroscopiorum, telescopiorum, microscopiorum & phenomena & effecta. Nuremberg: Sumptibus Wolfgangi Mauritii Endteri, & Johannis Andraeae Endteri Haeredum, 1676. 4 parts bound in one volume, 4to (200 x 160mm). Half title, 4 folding engraved plates, numerous engraved illustrations and diagrams, some full-page (2 substantial sections misbound, variable but mainly light spotting, staining and browning, a few darker spots). Contemporary calf (rebacked, rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: unidentified armorial bookplate with motto "In promptu"; modern label of E. N. da C. Andrade on front free endpaper; contemporary note in Latin about the misbinding problem in this copy ("Culpa [?]Bibliopegi ...") before the third part. FIRST EDITION of this fascinating compendium of experiment and invention and including, on p. 64 of the first part, a full-page engraving of a flying machine and, on p. 4 of the third, a diving bell. Grasse VI, 517; not in Brunet.
SUE, Pierre (1739-1816). Histoire du Galvanisme; et Analyse des Différens ouvrages publiés sur cette découverte, depuis son origine jusqu' à ce jour. Paris: Chez Bernard, 1802. 2 volumes, 8vo (193 x 122mm). Half titles, folding engraved plate of an electrical experiment [inserted from another work] at the end of vol. II, 16-pages of publisher's advertisements (dated January 1804) at the end of vol. one, errata leaf at the end of vol. II, the following leaf, unusually, with "spare" printed paper spine labels for each vol. printed side by side (title page to the first vol. spotted, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Attractively-bound in contemporary marbled calf, spines gilt with red and green morocco lettering pieces and with classical urns and ceiling rose ornaments stamped in gilt (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: Doctor P. A. Créhange (modern bookplate). FIRST EDITION. (2)
SWAMMERDAM, Jan (1637-80). Histoire Générale des Insectes. Ou l' on expose clairement la manière lente & presqu' insensible de l' accroissement de leurs mebres & où l' on découvre évidemment l' Erreur où l' on tombe d' ordinaire au sujet de leur prétendué transformation. Utrecht: Chez Jean Ribbius, 1685. 4to (193 x 147mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, headpieces and initials, folding letterpress table, 13 engraved plates, one of which folding, 7 of which double-page (some mainly marginal light browning, occasional very light spotting and staining, a few darker spots, without the instructions to the binder leaf at the end recorded in some copies). Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, spine gilt with green morocco lettering-piece, later endpapers (neatly rebacked preserving old spine, extremities rubbed, some light staining). Provenance: later faint "ex-libris" stamp on front free endpaper. FIRST EDITION, but [?]second state with Ribbius imprint. Brunet IV, 369; Dibner 191; Krivatsy 11602; Nissen ZBI 4054; Norman 2037.
SWITZER, Stephen (1682-1745). An Introduction to a General System of Hydrostaticks and Hydraulicks, Philosophical and Practical. Wherein the most reasonable and advantageous methods of raising and conducting Water, for the watering Nobelmens and Gentlemens Seats, Buildings, Gardens, &c. are carefully (and in a Manner not yet publish'd in any Language) laid down. London: Printed for T. Astley (and others), 1729. 2 volumes, 4to (246 x 200mm). Engraved frontispiece, historiated initials and headpieces, tables, and 61 engraved plates, all but one folding (plates 8 and 9 bound out of sequence, 2 plates torn without loss, one text leaf torn without loss, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary panelled calf (rebacked with later old-style spines, rubbed and scuffed). Provenance: E. C. Oakes (modern bookplate). Berlin Kat. 3614; Bibliotheca Mechanica p. 309. FIRST EDITION. (2)
![TARTAGLIA, Nicolò (1506-57). La Nova Scientia ... con una gionta al terzo Libra. [Colophon:] Venice: Appresso Camillo Castel](https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/c3a81119-4c18-44b7-93c9-ac2500e0b44d/a362e6d4-7799-4be3-b2a8-ac2b00f3a254/468x382.jpg)
TARTAGLIA, Nicolò (1506-57). La Nova Scientia ... con una gionta al terzo Libra. [Colophon:] Venice: Appresso Camillo Castelli, 1583. 4to (207 x 150mm). Title with full-page allegorical woodcut illustration, woodcut diagrams, one full-page (minor repair to title and first 2 leaves with very slight loss, some browning to the third part, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Modern calf-backed boards, spine gilt. First published in 1537, this is the first printed treatise on ballistics. "Tartaglia's 'The New Science' stands at the threshold of a new age in the history of mechanics ... [The author] deals with ballistics, surveying, engineering and fortification. He sought - but did not find - a mathematical theory defining the flight of projectiles. In some respects his views were anti-Aristotelian, e.g. he thought that the path of a projectile is at all points curved towards the ground, owing to its weight. He learned from gunners that the longest range was obtained at 45 degree elevation" (PMM). Cockle 658 (note); PMM 66; Riccardi I, 497; not in Brunet.
TIMOFEEFF-RESSOVSKY, Nikolay Vladimirovich (1900-81), Karl Günter ZIMMER (1911-88) & Max Ludwig Henning DELBRUCK (1906-81). Uber die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1935. 4to (245 x 170mm). Offprint from "Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen", pages [189]-245, diagrams (some light spotting at lower margin of the first leaf). Original green printed wrappers with circular woodcut device on upper wrapper (some very light staining), contained in modern green buckram protective wallet with pocket. FIRST SEPARATELY-PUBLISHED EDITION of "a paper of fundamental importance in molecular biology" (Garrison & Morton). PRESENTATION COPY, the upper wrapper indistinctly inscribed by Timofeeff-Ressovsky. "'Ueber die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur'" (often referred to as "the green paper" after the color of its wrappers, or the "Dreimanner" paper after the number of its authors) is divided into four sections. The first, by Timofeeff-Ressovsky, describes the mutagenic effects of x-rays and gamma rays on Drosophila melanogaster; the second part, by Zimmer, analyzes Timofeeff-Ressovsky's results theoretically. The third and most remarkable section, by Delbruck, puts forth a model of genetic mutation based on atomic physics that "shows the maturity, judgment and breadth of knowledge of someone who had been in the field for years . . . its carefully worded predictions have stood the test of time" (Perutz, Physics and the Riddle of Life, p. 557). Garrison & Morton 254; Norman 326.
TORRICELLI, Evangelista (1608-47). Lezioni Accademiche ... Lettore delle Mattematiche nello Studio di Firenze e Accademico della Crusca, edited by Tommaso Bonaventuri. Florence: Nella Stamper. di S. A. R. Per Jacopo Guiducci, 1715. 4to (267 x 193mm). Half title, engraved illustration on title, engraved portrait of the author, head-pieces, initials and ornaments, 3 woodcut illustrations (half title spotted, a few inconspicuous holes in title and portrait, stain to lower margin of v, long tear in c7 without loss, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary plain wrappers (backstrip rather worn, some light staining and creasing). Provenance: old illegible stamp on title; preface inscribed in an old hand, "Di Tommaso Bonaventuri." FIRST EDITION of this posthumously-published collection of 12 lectures delivered to the Accademia della Crusca, the Studio Fiorentino and the Academy of Drawing. Torricelli was a student of Galileo, and succeeded him as Professor of Mathematics at Florence. "From the point of view of physics, the lectures on the force of impact and on wind are of particular interest. In the former he said that he was reporting ideas expressed by Galileo in their informal conversations, and there is no lack of original observations. For example, the assertion that 'forces and impetus' (what we call energy) lie in bodies was interpreted by Maxwell in the last paragraph of A Treatise on Electricty and Magnetism (1873) as meaning that the propagation of energy is a mediate and not remote action. In the lecture on wind Torricelli ... advanced the modern theory that winds are produced by differences of air temperature, and hence of density, between two regions of the earth" (DSB). Dibner 149; Honeyman 2993; Norman 2088; Riccardi I, 544.
VAN ZYL, Johannes (dates unknown). Theatrum machinarum universale; of Groot Algemeen Moolen-Boek, Behelzende de Beschryving en Afbeeldingen vanallerhande soorten van Moolens, der zelver Opstallen, en Gronden. Amsterdam: Petrus Schenk, 1761. Large folio (548 x 335mm). Half title, engraved dedicatory poem with allegorical illustration, title printed in red and black with engraved printer's device, 63 double-page plates of windmills and their mechanisms engraved by Jan Schenk, one of which folding [the folding plate numbered XXXVII & XXXVIII], the plates numbered I - LVI, I - VI and I-II, the last 2 plates not called for in the list (a few heavy spots, some very light staining, but otherwise plates generally very crisp and clean). Contemporary half calf and speckled boards, spine gilt with black morocco lettering-piece (extremities rubbed). Bierens de Haan 5482l; Brunet IV, 568 (citing an edition printed in Amsterdam in 1734).
A Doulton Lambeth stoneware oil lamp (converted to electricity), dated 1881, decorated by Florence Barlow with two quatrelobed panels of a bird in branches inside beaded frames, the body incised with foliate decoration, brass mounts, impressed and incised marks to base, 33cm high, excluding top light fitting.
A pair of George II style cast silver twin light table candelabrum, by J B Chatterley & Sons, Birmingham 1965, with baluster form knop stems, shell cornered detachable nozzles, the shaped spreading bases with shell corners, by removing the candle branches they can be used as candlesticks, 28cm high, combined weight 2015 gms.
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