Sophia ∑ Rare Books
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Sophia Rare Books Flæsketorvet 68, 1711 København V, Denmark Tel: (+45)27628014 Fax: (+45) 69918469 www.sophiararebooks.com (The descriptions in this list are abbreviated; full descriptions are available) Stand no. A-22 Paris International Antiquarian Book Fair 25-28 April 2013 Astronomy . 8, 13, 23 Chemistry . 15, 30, 31 Computing, Information Theory . 3, 40, 41 Electricity, magnetism . 4, 9 Geometry . 1, 2, 3, 27, 36, 37 Mathematics . 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 36, 37 Mechanics, machinery, technology . 33 Medicine, Biology . 14, 26, 38 Optics. 11 Probability, Statistics . .28, 34 Physics . .5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 29, 32, 35 PMM*, Dibner, Horblit, Evans, Sparrow . 1, 4, 12*, 14*, 15*, 20*, 21, 29*, 30*, 35*, 36* Special copies, inscribed, provenance . .7, 17, 18, 23, 24, 31, 36, 37 20th century science . .7, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 32, 35, 39, 40, 41 ‘One of the greatest scientific books of antiquity’ (Stillwell). 1. APOLLONIUS of Perga. Opera, Libri I-IV. Venice: Bernardinus Bindonus, 1537. €48,000 Very rare editio princeps of Apollonius’ Conics, the basic treatise on the subject, “which recognized and named the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola” (Horblit 4, on the later edition of 1566). This is one of the three greatest mathematical treatises of antiquity, alongside those of Euclid and Archimedes. This first edition is very rare, preceding by 29 years the Commandino edition of the same four books canonized by Horblit (and taken over by Dibner and Norman), and this edition is known to have been used by Tartaglia, Benedetti and, however critically, Maurolico. Books I-IV were the only ones to survive in the original Greek; Borelli discovered Arabic versions of books V-VII and published them, in Latin translation, in 1661 (see item 2). “Apollonius (ca. 245-190 BC) was the last of the great Greek mathematicians, whose treatise on conic sections represents the final flowering of Greek mathematics” (DSB). Only five copies located in America (Harvard, Louisville, MIT, UNC, Yale). ❧Horblit 4; Dibner 101; Norman 57 (citing the 1566 edition); Stillwell 139; Honeyman 117; De Vitry 27. Large-paper copy, uncut in the original wrappers 2. APOLLONIUS of Perga. Conicorum lib. V. VI. VII. Florence: Cocchini, 1661. €9,500 Editio princeps of books V-VII of the Conics, the most original parts of Apollonius’s treatise on conic sections. Books I-IV were translated and published in 1537 (see item 1), and at the time it was believed that the remaining books were lost. “In the first half of the seventeenth century the Medici family acquired an Arabic manuscript containing Books V-VII of Apollonius’s Conics, which had been lost up to that time. In 1658, with the help of the Maronite scholar Abraham Ecchellensis, Giovanni Borelli prepared an edited Latin translation of the manuscript, which was published three years later. This was a valuable addition to the mathematical knowledge of the time, for whereas Books I-IV of the Conics dealt with information already known to Apollonius’s predecessors, Books V-VII were largely original. Book V discusses normals to conics and contains Apollonius’s proof for the construction of the evolute curve; Book VI treats congruent and similar conics and segments of conics; Book VII is concerned with propositions about inequalities between various functions of conjugate diameters” (Norman). “The fifth book reveals better than any other the giant intellect of its author. Difficult questions of maxima and minima, of which few examples are found in earlier works, are here treated most exhaustively. The subject investigated is to find the longest and shortest lines that can be drawn from a given point to a conic. Here are also found the germs of the subject of evolutes and centres of osculation” (Cajori, A History of Mathematics). The sheets of our copy measure 368 x 255 mm, significantly larger than all other copies of which we have been able to find descriptions. ❧Norman 58; Honeyman 119; De Vitry 29. Containing a detailed account of how to make Galileo’s geometrical compass 3. ARDÜSER, Johann. Geometriae, theoricae et practicae. Zürich: Bodmer, 1627. €12,000 Very rare first edition, and a fine copy, “of one of the fullest German works on surveying” (Zeitlinger), containing an early and highly detailed account of how to make Galileo’s geometrical compass. This work on geometry, surveying, geometric instruments, mathematical tables, map making etc., gives a full account of the mathematical and geometrical practice in central Europe in the early seventeenth century. Johann Ardüser, highly esteemed by his contemporaries, was in charge of the fortifications of Zürich from 1620, and published several works on fortification and geometry. After introductory chapters on Euclidean geometry and arithmetic the author gives a detailed description (with one plate) of the use and construction of the sector (Cirkelleiter) which is based on Galileo’s invention (dessen erfinder Galileo de Galilei von vilen geachtet wird, f. 53 verso). Illustrations of Galileo’s sector, a sort of primitive analog calculating machine, were kept secret by its inventor to protect the ‘copyright’. Until 1640 there was no authorized illustration of Galileo’s compasso. “Galileo’s sector became a calculating instrument capable of solving quickly and easily every practical mathematical problem that was likely to arise at the time” (Drake). ❧Honeyman 137; Kenney 4078. One of the most important practical texts on magnets in the seventeenth century 4. BARLOW, William. Magneticall Aduertisements: or divers pertinent obseruations, and approued experiments concerning the nature and properties of the Load-stone... most needfull for practise, of trauelling, or framing of Instruments fit for Trauellers both by Sea and Land. London: Griffin for Barlow, 1616. €18,000 First edition of this rare and important work. The result of forty years’ research into magnetism, with special regard to the manufacture and maintenance of the sea-compass, and containing Barlow’s two fundamental discoveries concerning the directional properties of the compass-needle: the first being that steel made a better needle than iron. Secondly, he devised a method for contact ‘touching’ which increased the directional capabilities of needles. Barlow “designed navigating instruments, polar charts, and compasses. He explained the difference between iron and steel needles; improved the needle’s shape; made an easily removable card so the needle could be easily remagnetized; gave instructions as to the best method of remagnetizing the needle by stroking it with the lodestone three or four times from the needle’s center to the ends, using the north end of the lodestone for the needle’s north end, and the south for the south. He also designed an azimuth compass for measuring the variations which happened to be an improvement on the instrument designed by Norman and Borough; it was a compass with sights and a verge ring marked in degrees, the first such compass, and was to be used by grateful seamen for over two hundred years” (Gurney, Compass, a Story of Exploration and Innovation, New York, 2004 p.64). ❧Horblit 83; Frank Streeter 19; Penrose 19; Wheeler Gift 89. The six papers in which Becquerel first announced his discoveries on radioactivity 5. BECQUEREL, Antoine Henri. €3,500 1) Sur les radiations émises par phosphorescence; 2) Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les corps phosphorescents; 3) Sur quelques propriétés nouvelles des radiations invisibles …; 4) Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les sels d'uranium; 5) Sur les propriétés différents des radiations invisibles émises …; 6) Émission de radiations nouvelles par l'uranium métallique. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1896. First edition. A very fine copy, in original wrappers, of the Comptes Rendus volume in which Becquerel first announced his discoveries on radioactivity. “On 24 February 1896, Becquerel announced to the French Academy of Sciences that fluorescent crystals of potassium uranyl sulfate had exposed a photographic plate wrapped in black paper after both had lain for several hours in direct sunlight, and on 3 March, he reported similar exposures after both crystals and plate had been kept together in total darkness. In the following two months, Becquerel determined that only crystals containing uranium emitted the penetrating rays, that non-luminescent compounds of uranium also produced radiation, and that the rays were capable of ionizing gases. On 18 May, he reported that a disc of pure uranium produced penetrating radiation three to four times stronger than that produced by the potassium uranyl sulfate crystals. In 1903 Becquerel shared the Nobel Prize for physics with the Curies, as his investigations had opened the way for the Curies’ discovery of radium and polonium.” (Norman). ❧Grolier/Medicine 84a; Norman 157. Inscribed copy of his doctoral thesis 6. BECQUEREL, Antoine Henri. Recherches sur l'absorption de la lumiere. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1888. First edition. €12,000 Presentation copy of his doctoral thesis on the absorption of light in crystals, inscribed by Becquerel to his demonstrator Peignot. “On March 15, 1888 he submitted his thesis ‘Recherches sur l’absorption de la lumière’ (Research on the absorption of light). Antoine Henri had been interested in the absorption of light by crystals since 1886 and showed the importance of crystal symmetry in the absorption spectra of polarized light. He noticed that tetravalent uranium compounds were not phosphorescent, whereas uranyl salts exhibited a bright luminescence under the same conditions of excitation. Interestingly enough this was the second experiment performed by a Becquerel on uranium. Like his father, Antoine Henri was fascinated by the phenomenon of phosphorescence, and at the time nobody suspected the secret hidden in the mysterious element. This strange coincidence might be regarded as a premonitory sign of destiny or as the first step towards a major discovery.” (Adloff: 100 Years after the Discovery of Radiochemistry, p.5).