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Winter 2014
Front cover illustration: Item 45 Rear cover illustration: Item 7 1. Anstice (Robert) Remarks on the Comparative Advantages of Wheel Carriages, of different Structure and Draught. Illustrated with Plates. Bridgewater: Printed for the Author, by S. Symes, 1790, FIRST EDITION, 8 folding engraved plates, and a small Masonic woodcut at the end, lacking half-title, some foxing, outer leaves a bit browned, pp. [3-] 69, 8vo, original(?) boards, worn at extremities, spine a bit defective at top and tail, good (ESTC N26268, 5 copies on either side of the Atlantic, but not in BL or Bodleian) £850
Robert Anstice (1757-1845) was a ship-owner and merchant, civil engineer and Somerset’s first County Surveyor. He was a keen amateur geologist and ornithologist, and wrote two books on mathematics. His professional work in the county covered roads and bridges, sea-wall work at Huntspill and Blue Anchor, and much drainage works, including Kings Sedgemoor Drain at Dunball. The present work, dedicated to the local Masonic Lodge, is ‘the fruit of leisure hours.’
The book is fairly poorly printed and on one page there is only a partial impression, but the text can be made out. These would seem to be the original boards, in which case the lack of the half-title is odd.
2. ‘Aristotle.’ Aristotle’s Works: Containing the Master- piece, Directions for Midwives, and Counsel and Advice to Child-bearing Women. With various useful remedies. Printed for the Booksellers [by John Smith, Tooley Street], c. 1850, with a colour printed frontispiece and additional title, 6 hand-coloured plates, and illustrations in the text, pp. 352, 16mo, original purple cloth, spine pictorially gilt, spine a little faded, good £250
A late flowering of this hardy perennial. The only copy in COPAC (York Minster) has a note after the imprint [?Halifax, Milner]. There are a few other UK locations in WorldCat, as well as a relatively small number in the US.
3. Arrhenius (Svante August) Recherches sur la conductibilité Galvanique des électrolytes. [Parts] I, II. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt & Söner, 1884, 2 parts in 1 vol., with 1 lithographed plate, pp. [i, general title/wrapper], [1-3] 4-63; [1-3] 4-89 (the last leaf, verso blank, forming the rear self-wrapper), original printed wrappers, uncut and unopened, slight cracking to spine and a hint of browning round the edges, otherwise fine £1,200
The rare offprint issue of Arrhenius’s landmark discovery of the theory of electrolytic disassociation. Arrhenius was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in chemistry ‘in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation.’ By 1880, ‘it was known that solutions of certain compounds conduct electricity and that chemical reactions could occur when a current was passed. It was thought that the current decomposed the substance. In 1883 Arrhenius proposed a theory that substances were partly converted into an active form when dissolved. The active part was responsible for conductivity. In the case of acids and bases, he correlated the strength with the degree of decomposition on solution. This work was published as Recherches sur la
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conductibilite galvanique des electrolytes and submitted as his doctoral dissertation. Arrhenius sent his work to several leading physical chemists, including Jacobus van’t Hoff, Friedrich Ostwald, and Rudolf Clausius, who were immediately impressed’ (Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists). The dissertation only gained Arrhenius a fourth class degree: Professor Sven Otto Petterson remarked ‘There are chapters in Arrhenius’ thesis which alone are worth more or less all the faculty can offer in the way of marks’ (quoted in DSB).
4. (Astronomy.) SPHAERAE ATQUE ASTRORUM COELESTIUM RATIO, NATURA, & MOTUS ad totius mundi fabricationis cognitione[m] fundamenta. [Basle]: Johann Walder, 1536, title-page with woodcut Valderus device within fine historiated woodcut title-border after Hans Holbein, numerous geometrical and astronomical woodcut diagrams in text (two full-page), text in Greek and Latin, a little browned in places, pp. [16], 104, [4], 105-294 (lacking the final blank leaf), the two unsigned leaves of tables here bound after p.104, before the opening of Aratus, small 4to, eighteenth-century blind-ruled sheep, spine richly gilt with red lettering piece, rebacked, endpapers replaced, manuscript ink inscription (cropped at foot) in an early hand to bottom margin of title-page (‘Satiabor cum apparuerit gloria tua’ [Psalm 16:15]), with ink corroded through paper (not affecting printed text), ownership inscription on title of Juan de Herrera, good (Adams S-1577; Hoffmann III, p.503; Houzeau & Lancaster I, 2440; VD16 S-8303; Hieronymus/Griechischer Geist Nr. 287; Hamel 3098) £2,500
First edition of this compilation of important astronomical texts, including the first printed edition (in any language) of Ptolemy’s Planisphaerium, accompanied by the related mediaeval work on the same subject by Jordanus. Written in the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy’s Planisphaerium deals with the problem of constructing a diagram in a plane representing the celestial sphere, in such a way that circles on the sphere are represented by circles in the plane. Ptolemy’s construction amounts, in fact, to producing a stereographic projection, that is, a projection through one of the sphere’s poles upon a plane parallel to the equator (though it is open to dispute whether Ptolemy was aware of this fact). Stereographic projection provided the mathematical basis of the plane astrolabe, an instrument which was widely used in the medieval Islamic world. The original Greek text of Planisphaerium is lost, but it survives in an Arabic translation by the 11th century astronomer and mathematician Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-Majriti of Cordoba. The present Latin translation is by the philosopher and astronomer Herman Dalmatin, or Herman of Carinthia, one of the most important translators and popularisers of Arabic astronomical works in 12th century Europe.
Ptolemy’s text is followed by a related medieval work by Jordanus de Nemore, a 13th century mathematician who probably taught at the University of Toulouse. His treatise on stereographic projection generally known as Demonstratio de plana sphaera (here simply called ‘Planisphaerium Iordani’) contains five propositions dealing with various aspects of stereographic projection. The first and historically the most important
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proposition established in full generality that circles on the surface of a sphere when projected stereographically on a plane remain circles (Ptolemy had proved this only in certain special cases).
The volume also includes the pseudo-Proclan work De sphaera in the original Greek with the acclaimed Latin translation by the English Tudor humanist Thomas Linacre. A textbook on spherical astronomy formerly ascribed to Proclus, De sphaera is now known to be an excerpt from the Elementa astronomiae of Geminus, a 1st century BC Greek author. De sphaera comprises the four chapters of Geminus’s work dealing with the general description of the celestial sphere, terrestrial zones and the constellations. It was first published by Aldus Manutius at Venice in 1499 as part of the celebrated compilation Scriptores astronomici veteres [see item 16]. The present edition includes the scholia of the itinerant geographer and cartographer Jacob Ziegler (ca. 1470-1549), which consist of fifty-six notes mostly concerned with spherical geometry. Several astronomical works by Ziegler himself are also included: De solidae sphaerae constructione, De canonica per sphaeram operatione, as well as his short study Hemicyclium Berosi of the semi-circular sundial devised by the 3rd century BC Babylonian historian, astronomer and priest Berossus the Chaldean.
The collection also includes the influential hexameter poemPhaenomena by Aratus (ca. 310 BC-240 BC), in the original Greek with the scholia by Theon of Alexandria. It appears to be based on two prose works by Eudoxus of Cnidus, written about a century earlier. Its purpose is to give an introduction to the constellations, with the rules for their risings and settings; and of the circles of the sphere. The Phaenomena was first published inScriptores astronomici veteres, and proved extremely popular. Aratus’s work is here preceded by a short treatise, inspired by Aratus, on the construction and use of celestial globes by the Byzantine monk Leontius Mechanicus.
The father of financial mathematics 5. Bachelier (Louis) Calcul des Probabilités. Tome I [all published]. Paris: Gauthier- Villars, 1912, FIRST EDITION, a little browning at either end and at the tips of the edges, pp. vii, 516, [1], 4to, contemporary grey cloth, twin black lettering pieces on spine, cloth slightly soiled, lettering pieces partly defective, rear inner hinge strained, bookplate of Glasgow University Library inside front cover, stamped ‘Withdrawn’, and at the foot of the inside front cover a barcode, sound £1,500
Bachelier’s first book, rare in commerce (and there are only 4 inCOPAC ), in which he elaborated and further developed the ideas from his celebrated thesis Théorie de la Spéculation (1900). ‘However, not only was his thesis remarkable, but his later researches were even more so ... Bachelier introduced an interesting theory of “inverse probability” and of “probability causes”, that is of statistical estimation, which he pursued in a treatise on the calculus of probabilities published in 1912 [the offered volume], which is as clear as it is remarkable’ (C.C. Heyde & E. Seneta (eds.), Statisticians of the Centuries, pp. 284-5). ‘Bachelier is now recognised internationally as the father of financial mathematics, but this fame, which he so justly deserved, was a long time coming ... In the light of the enormous importance of international derivative exchanges (where the pricing is determined by financial mathematics) the remarkable pioneering work of Bachelier can now be appreciated in its proper context and Bachelier can now be given his proper place’ (MacTutor).
This is a heavy book, and it is sagging slightly in its binding.
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6. Baldi (Bernardo) Cronica de Matematici overo Epitome dell’Istoria delle Vite Loro. Urbino: Angelo Antonio Monticelli, 1707, FIRST EDITION, with an engraved view of Urbino on the title-page, pp. [xvi, including half-title], 156, 4to, contemporary vellum, black lettering piece on spine, recased (new end papers), headcaps defective, Walter Bowman’s copy with his signature on verso of half- title, good (Riccardi I, 68) £2,000
First edition of the first history of mathematics written by a European. Probably completed in 1596, the Cronica arranges its brief biographical entries as a genealogical account of the restoration of mathematics from Ancient Greece (beginning with Euphorbus) to contemporary Italy (ending with Guidobaldo del Monte), including an impressive list of Arabic practitioners. It was an attempt to do for mathematics what Vasari had done for art. A polymath of remarkable range who left a large corpus of writings, Baldi (1553-1617) was a serious mathematician and translator of mathematical works (including Hero of Alexandria); he studied in Urbino with Federico Commandino and Guidobaldo del Monte.
The printer’s motive for publishing the Cronica in 1707 was to prepare an audience for the more detailed – if less inclusive – two volume Vite [Lives] which never followed. Rediscovered only in 1972, the voluminous Lives has meant that the less detailed Cronica has received little attention. But as the printer Monticelli points out, rather than being merely an abridgment of the larger project, the Cronica, with 366 biographical entries, is over half again as large as the Vite and represents a different but related project for the construction of a history of mathematics. Giovanni Maria Crescimbeni (1663-1728) described the genesis of the Cronica in his biographical notice on Baldi, written about 1704, just before its publication:
‘After finishing theVite he noted that even before Thales there were mathematicians, whose lives could not be written due to the loss of sources, but whose names survived and were worth recalling. Moreover, he thought that the vastness of the Vite he had written might make reading the work a little unwieldly and cumbersome, and lastly that after Clavius others had lived who were worth mentioning, so... he was persuaded to make a succinct chronology of these same Professors, starting with Euphorbus instead of Thales, and ending with Guidobaldo de’ Marchesi del Monte…. He certainly intended such a useful and beautiful work for the press, as we see both volumes [of the Vite] along with the Cronica carefully transcribed in his own hand, but, whether distracted by something else, or prevented by death, he left them unprinted.’
Walter Bowman, of Cupar, Fife, had a notable mathematical library. We have seen other books from it, including the first edition of Newton’sPrincipia .
7. Byrne (Oliver) The Geometry of Compasses, or problems resolved by the mere description of circles, and the use of coloured diagrams and symbols. [Elzevier Press: Printed by John C. Wilkins and Vernon (for)] Crosby, Lockwood, and Co., 1877, FIRST EDITION, with a colour printed frontispiece and 36 diagrams in the text, 19 of them in colour, pp. iv, [74], 48, 16 (the last 2 paginations are advertisement), 8vo, original grey-blue cloth, frames blocked in black on the covers and the upper cover lettered in black, spine faded, very good (Tomash B312) £2,000
A rare work on geometrical constructions, based on Lorenzo Mascheroni’s La geometria del compasso (1797). ‘In his Geometria del compasso, Maschéroni shows
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that all plane construction problems that can be solved with ruler and compass can also be solved with compass alone’ (DSB IX: 156). Like Byrne’s famous edition of Euclid (1846), this book has diagrams printed in colour, although here it is just lines rather than blocks of colour. ‘Little factual information seems to be available on Oliver Byrne’s life, though he published more than twenty volumes and is described variously in them. According to one or another of his publications, Byrne was Surveyor-General of the Falkland Islands, Professor of Mathematics in the College for Civil Engineers, Consulting Actuary to the Philanthropic Life Assurance Society etc. etc. etc.’ (Tomash, general note on Byrne). The frontispiece to this book is the ‘headpiece’ to the on-line version of the Tomash Library.
8. Callet (François) Tables portatives de logarithmes, contenant les logarithmes des nombres, depuis 1 jusqu’à 108000; les logarithmes des sinus et tangentes, de seconde en seconde pour les cinq premiers degrés, et de dix en dix secondes pour tous les degrés du quart de cercle ... précédées d’un discours préliminaire sur l’explication, l’usage et la sommation des logarithmes ... suivies de nouvelles tables plus approchées, et de plusieurs autres utiles à la recherche des longitudes en mer, etc. Paris: Chez Firmin Didot, 1795 an III (Tirage an XI) [1802], with a folding engraved plate and an adjacent folding table, some foxing and browning, table browned (but plate very clean), pp. vi, 7-118, [666] (Collation: A-G8, H4, A-S8, a-z8, aa4), 8vo, contemporary half vellum, tan morocco label on spine, a little soiled and rubbed, sound (Tomash C15 (first printing of this edition) £300
‘Printed by Firmin Didot (the son of the printer of the first edition [of 1783]). Didot explains in a preface that he is using stereotype plates so that any errors may be easily corrected in the future without the danger of introducing new ones. He offers to supply the corrected sheets to those who had purchased the original version. The typeface was newly designed for this work. Glaisher (1873) indicates that this is the most complete and practically useful collection of logarithms for the general computer that has been published. While this edition keeps the name portable tables, the size and weight of this volume can hardly be considered portatives.
‘Didot implies that stereotype printing had just been invented; the process was actually developed in Holland at the end of the seventeenth century but was little known and had to be rediscovered several times before becoming common technology shortly after this volume was produced’ (Tomash Library).
The accuracy of the Tables is reflected in their longevity, with editions published until at least 1862, and foreign (including English) editions. Babbage was much indebted.
9. Carr (Richard) The Young Arithmetician and Algebraist’s Companion. In two parts. The first contains arithmetic, vulgar and decimal; With Variety of Examples to explain each Rule: And the Method of squaring Dimensions, called Cross Multiplication; Extraction of the Square and Cube Roots; with their Application to Use. The second part algebra; Being an easy Introduction to that admirable Way of Reasoning; with the Solution to upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Numerical and Geometrical Questions. The Whole Being rendered in a plain and
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familiar Manner; and is a very useful Companion for all Students in Arithmetic and Algebra. Printed for the Author; and sold by M. Cooper, and D. Wilson, 1751, FIRST EDITION, diagrams in the text, a little bit of soiling on the terminal leaves, pp. [vi, including 3 pp. Subscribers Names], 240, 8vo, modern calf backed marbled boards, good (ESTC T99087) £750
A rare introductory treatise, just 4 copies being recorded in ESTC: BL, 2 in Cambridge libraries, and the University of Michigan. The Subscribers List includes Thomas Chipendale [sic] and George Stubbs. The list is headed by The Honourable Mr. O Hara, and The Honourable Miss O Hara, which suggests that Carr was tutor to the young lady.
10. Clairaut (Alexis Claude) Élémens de Géométrie. Paris: Lambert & Durand, 1741, FIRST EDITION, woodcut ornament on title, 14 folding engraved plates, some browning, 1 plate a little misfolded and extending slightly beyond the textblock, pp. [vi], xiii, [3], 215, [1], xxiv, 8vo, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments, later oval gilt stamp of the Ecole Centrale of the Département de l’Atiège at the centre of the upper cover, presentation inscription on verso of half-title awarding the volume as a prize in Arithmetic at the school on 16 Fructidor An 9 (3 September 1801), with the ink stamp of the school, minor wear to extremities, headcap defective, good £500
First edition of Clairaut’s textbook of geometry. It is interesting to find such an edition in use as a school prize 60 years after its original publication. The stamps of the Ecole Centrale both feature the figure of Liberty within an oval, but with different attributes. In the gilt stamp on the upper cover, at her feet are mathematical symbols, a globe, a telescope, and an open book.
11. Clairaut (Alexis Claude) Élémens d’Algèbre. Paris: chez les frères Guerin, David l’aîné, Durand, 1746, FIRST EDITION, woodcut device on title, with 10 folding plates, first few leaves slightly ‘nibbled’ at the fore-edge,pp. [i], xvii, 314, [22], 8vo, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments, good £800
First edition of Clairaut’s textbook of algebra, a rare book.
Dr. Darwin’s Orange Marmalade 12. (Cookery. Manuscript Receipt Book.) [?Wales or Shropshire]: 1852-53, manuscript in ink on paper, many entries on disparate pieces of paper pasted in, a number of leaves excised at the end, approx. 200 pp., 4to, original vellum, soiled, good £800
Written in a variety of hands, mostly easily legible, with perhaps half of the entries being on disparate pieces of paper pasted in. The compiler was clearly a most assiduous collector, having recipes sent to her or copied by others. A good proportion of the names of the sources are Welsh (Evans, Williams, Wynn, &c), suggesting a Welsh, or Welsh Marches, provenance, the suggestion of the latter re-inforced by the inclusion of a recipe by Dr. Darwin, i.e.
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Robert Waring Darwin, 1766-1846, father of Charles Robert, author of On the Origin of Species. Darwin’s recipe is for an Orange Marmalade (which for some reason is written in two hands), and ‘is more for a stomachick than a sweetmeat for the table.’ Recipes include Omlet Souffle (which draws the remark ‘this quantity of sugar is double what I use’), Mock Ginger, Malaccatawny Soup, Shrewsbury Cakes, Lemon Pudding (this with a calligraphic title), To Hash Calve’s Head, To Pickle Nasturtiums, Spiced Beef (Rub the beef with saltpetre ... then rub with sugar and Jamaica pepper ...), &c, &c.
13. Cusanus (Nicolaus) [Nicolas of Cusa] The Idiot in four books. The first and second of Wisdome. The third of the Minde. The fourth of statick Experiments, or experiments of the Ballance. Printed for William Leake, 1650, FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, a tendency to browning, more pronounced around the edges, tear in fore-margin of G6 entering the printed area but without loss, pp. [ii], 118, 117- 209, 230-231, [1], plus 2 blank leaves from original bindings with the making of an Index in contemporary manuscript, 12mo, late nineteenth- or early twentieth- century pebble-grained dark bue cloth, purple cloth spine, ink stamp of Mount St. Bernard Abbey on verso of title-page (2 impressions, 1 indistinct), ownership inscription dated 1655 George de La... (the rest indecipherable) on a fly leaf retained from first binding, and below this an inscrition recording the gift of the above to Tho. ?Brecknock, not dated, but not much later than the first one, sound (ESTC R202666) £2,500
‘Two of Nicholas’ Idiota dialogues, De sapientia and De mente (both 1450) are the philosophical synthesis of his mathematical work at this time: in them, a layman who recognizes God’s work in nature is given an opportunity, in the form of Platonic dialogues, to explain Cusan philosophy – especially its mathematicizing tendencies – to an Aristotelian philosopher. A third dialogue, De staticis experimentis, has a more practical bias, and contains numerous methods for determining physical parameters through the use of such apparatus as scales [the “ballance”] and a water clock’ (DSB). The water clock was used to count the pulse, Nicolaus being the first to do this.
This copy was closely read by its early owners, as numerous underlinings, manicules, and a few words in the margins testify. The last 2 leaves, retained from the first binding were intended for a cross-referencing Index, but this not very extensively filled up.
14. Dryander [Eichmann] (Johann) Novi annuli astronomici ... nuper Anno vicesimonono, excogitati, atque hactenus, ex crebra eiusdem Instrumenti, in diversis scholis professione, mirum in modum, aucti, canones, atque explicatio succincta. Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus, August 1536, FIRST EDITION, with title woodcut, three large woodcut historiated initials, twelve large text woodcuts, woodcut printer’s device on verso of last leaf, and volvelle (with two moving parts) on D2v, title-page slightly soiled, pp. [48], 4to, modern limp vellum , old ink stamp on title, good (VD16, E 673; BL STC German 255; Houzeau & Lancaster 2457; Ch. G. Jöcher, Allgemeine Gelehrten-Lexicon II; C. R. Johnson, The German Discovery of the World, 2009; E. Zinner, Deutsche und niederländische astronomische Instrumentedes 11 bis 18 Jahrhunderts 1; WorldCat: NYPL only outside EU) £5,000
A very rare treatise on measuring instruments. Dryander ‘discovered many new things in astronomy [and] invented distinct mathematical instruments’ (Jöcher 215, trans.).
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This copy is complete with the volvelle, which is almost always lacking.
The first part of the work deals with the construction and use of a portable astronomical ring dial invented by the author, illustrated with woodcuts (including that on the title page) and the volvelle. The second half is devoted to the quadrant, illustrated with five beautifully detailed woodcuts illustrating its applications. Dryander re-issued the work in the following year under the title Annulorum trium diversi generis instrumentorum astronomicorum componendi ratio atque usu, to which he added three other writings in order (according to Zinner) to defend himself against a charge of plagiarism.
‘[Dryander’s] astronomical annulus, an instrument used for stellar (as well as other) measurements and for the derivation of the associated numerical values, was portable in function as well as in form, since the user could adapt the annulus to any location in the world simply by calibrating it to the correct latitude. Dryander even helpfully provided a latitude catalog at the end of the instruction manual [i.e. the present work], either anticipating far-flung users or simply driving his point home through listing, over several pages, all the places where his instrument would still work. Of course, German and European cities dominated the list, and the Africa section was limited to northern African cities, but among the “Asian Cities” Dryander threw in Calicut (7 degrees latitude), Hispaniola (20 degrees latitude), and the Moluccas, which “have no latitude, because they are under [at] the equator”’ (Johnson, p. 63).
Like many humanist scholars of the period, Eichmann used a Hellenized version of his name, both Dryander and Eichmann translating as ‘oak-man’. His likeness, later engraved by Thomas de Bry, shows him holding a small oak leaf by way of identification.
15. Euler (Leonhard) Élémens d’algebre, Traduits de l’allemand [by Jean Bernoulli III], avec des notes et additions [by Lagrange]. Tome premier. De l’analyse déterminée. [-Tome seconde. De l’analyse indéterminée.] Lyons: Jean-Marie Bruyset, Father and Son. And Paris: the widow Desaint, 1774, FIRST EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION, 2 vols., uniformly slightly browned, a little more heavily in a few places, pp. xvi, 704; [iv], 664, [3], 8vo, contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt, red edges, corners slightly worn, engraved armorial bookplate ‘Del Conte della Trinitá’, good £1,200
An important translation of Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra, 1770. ‘Leonhard Euler (1707-83) is one of the most influential and prolific mathematicians of all time. His Elements of Algebra is one of the first books to set out algebra in the modern form we would recognize today. However, it is sufficiently different from most modern approaches to the subject to be interesting for contemporary readers. Indeed, the choices made for setting out the curriculum, and the details of the techniques Euler
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employs, may surprise even expert readers. It is also the only mathematical work of Euler which is genuinely accessible to all. The work opens with a discussion of the nature of numbers and the signs + and –, before systematically developing algebra to a point at which polynomial equations of the fourth degree can be solved, first by an exact formula and then approximately. Euler’s style is unhurried, and yet rarely seems long winded’ (C.J. Sangwin, Introduction to the 2006 edition of Hewlett’s translation, which was made from this French one). Very scarce.
Scriptores astronomici veteres 16. Firmicus Maternus (Julius) Mathesis (De nativitatibus libri VIII). Ed: Franciscus Niger. Add: Marcus Manilius: Astronomicorum libri V. Aratus: Phaenomena [Latin and Greek]. Tr & adapt: Germanicus Caesar, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Rufius Festus Avienus. Theon: Commentaria in Aratum [Greek]. Pseudo- Proclus Diadochus [i.e. Geminos]: Sphaera [Greek and Latin]. Tr: Thomas Linacrus. [colophon:] Venice: Aldus Manutius, [June] and October, 1499, 2 parts bound in 2 vols., with woodcut diagrams in the first part, and numerous woodcut illustrations in the second, all within the text, including the 2 blanks E7 and K10 in the second part, title-page slightly soiled and with a tiny hole, just afecting 1 letter on the verso, 3-line imprint (but not the register) excised from colophon of first part and the gap filled in, second part bound out of order (see below), lower inner corners of 2nd vol. a little damp-stained, ff. [184; [192], folio (1st part 298 x 204mm, 2nd 307 x 213), first part in late twentieth- century blue buckram, ?old blue edges, second part in later (seventeenth- or eighteenth-century) vellum over boards, repair to upper outer corner of lower cover, early pagination added in brown ink and many marginal notes, bookplate in both vols. of Paul Schmidtchen, his pencil notes at the beginning of each vol., good (Hain-Copinger *14559; GW 9981; BMC V, 560; Goff F191; ISTC if00191000; Renouard, page 20(3), ‘rare, et d’une très belle exécution’; Sarton I, 354) £25,000
Some of the texts had appeared before, Manilius, Avienus &c), but the edition contains two notable firsts, theEDITIO PRINCEPS of Aratus, and the first printing of Linacre’s translation of Proclus, itself Linacre’s first published work. This important collection is known as Scriptores astronomici veteres, the group term invented by Hain: it nowhere appears in the book itself, but ever since Hain it has had common currency. The two parts were printed some months apart, and it is not uncommon to find them separately. Paul Schmidtchen had evidently acquired the second part on its own (his collation note inside the front cover of the second vol. is dated 1948): his note inside the first part does not give us the date of its acquisition. The component parts of the second vol. are individually paginated in an early hand, and the order in which they
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are bound is likely to be a deliberate choice rather than the binder’s waywardness. The order is: Aratus in Greek (with the colophon at the end), Proclus and commentaries (i.e. gatherings N-T), Aratus in Latin (gatherings G-N - there are 2 gatherings N, as called for), Manilius (gatherings A-F). In any event, the order of the texts does not follow that on the title-page (i.e. the title-page of part I, which lists the contents of both vols.).
The 39 woodcuts illustrating Aratus are derived from Ratdolt’s edition of Hyginus (1482). This abundant use of illustrations is often seen as a trial run for the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, printed in December of the same year, and indeed 2 of the cuts are in the style of that work (G6v & H6r).
17. FitzRoy (Robert) [Synchronous charts]. [Printed by G.E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode for H.M. Stationery Office, 1861], lithographed ‘Notice’ and 30 folding engraved plates, 4 with (printed) shading, most 540mm square, 4 larger, folded to 300 x 230 mm, one chart with dust-staining to one of the folds, pp. [i, the Notice, mounted], the charts mounted on stubs, 4to, original blue cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt ‘Tenth Number’, a little faded and worn, bookplate inside front cover of Glasgow University Library, good £1,250
An important document in the development of modern meteorology, albeit the atlas volume only of the Tenth Number of the Meteorological Papers, which describes, in prose, the storm. A scarce item: WorldCat locates only 3 sets of Meteorological Papers in the US, while COPAC lists but 2 incomplete sets of the Papers (these include the Tenth Number).
‘In a tremendous storm of October 1859 the steamer Royal Charter was wrecked off Anglesey with the loss of 459 lives. This disaster profoundly moved FitzRoy and strengthened his belief in the importance of predicting such storms. He arranged for weather reports from around Britain and the nearer continent to be telegraphed to his office, where he prepared what he called ‘synoptic charts’, a term still in use to denote charts showing conditions across an area at any one time’ (ODNB: actually, the term here is ‘synchronous’). The charts seem to be complete, though oddly numbered. A synchronous chart is given for each day from 26th October to 2nd November 1859, usually at 9 a.m. There are 3 series: a straight numerical one, running from 1-26, but omitting 19-21, and 23-25: these show the British Isles and the neighbouring coast of the Continent. A second series, the number followed by an ‘a’, shows the whole North Atlantic Ocean at the same time. Then there are 4 lettered (A-D) sectional charts. In spite of the numbering, the sequence is complete for the 9 a.m. readings for the relevant days. There are additional chart for 3 a.m., 3 p.m., and 9 p.m. for the days when the storm was at its height.
In the ‘Notice’, FitzRoy states ‘These charts are but slightly attached. They may be readily separated, and then used independently’ - an invitation, if ever there was one, to ‘break’ a book.
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18. Flamsteed (John) Atlas céleste ... approuve par’ l’Académie royal des sciences ... Seconde édition. Par M.J. Fortin. Paris: F. G. Deschamps [et] l’Auteur, 1776, with 30 double-page engraved plates, small piece missing from edge of plate 7, slightly affecting printed area, minor spotting and a few minor stains, pp. viii, 30 plates, 40, 8vo, contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red lettering piece, crack in lower joint, corners worn, headcaps defective, sound £2,800
‘Seconde édition’ is a bit of a misnomer, since the Atlas coelestis, London, 1729, though ‘welcomed because of its unprecedented accuracy ... did suffer from some deficiencies. It was, for one thing, almost too big to use, with its twenty-four-by- twenty inch plates ... Fortin was not an astronomer but an artisan, a globe maker for the French royal family [and instrument maker for Lavoisier]. It is not known how or why he was commissioned to produce a revised edition of Flamsteed’s star atlas, but it turned out to be a very successful enterprise. All of Flamsteed’s twenty-six plates were re-engraved on a much smaller scale, so that they now measured only 23 by 18 cm. (One of Flamsteed’s original plates, depicting Hydra, was a double-page folding plate, and in Fortin’s editions it was divided in two, increasing the number of plates to twenty-seven). In the process, the engravers greatly improved the aesthetic appeal of Flamsteed’s often awkward figures’ (Out of this World, Linda Hall Library exhibition). The total number of plates in this edition is 30, as Fortin added others. Fortin says in his introduction: ‘On a cru rendre service au public, en réduisant au tiers les cartes de cet Atlas, afin d’en étendre l’usage par un format plus commode.’ This could be taken to mean that the enterprise was Fortin’s own initiative.
An attempt has been made at some point to colour in the exposed parts of the boards, but if once matching, the colour has now turned red.
19. Foucault (Jean Bernard Léon) Recueil des travaux scientifiques ... publié par Madame Veuve Foucault sa mère, mis en ordre par C. M. Garie; et précédé d’une notice sur les oeuvres de L. Foucault par J. Bertrand Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1878, 2 vols. in 1, with an engraved portrait frontispiece and several diagrams and text illustrations in vol. i, 19 double-page engraved plates in vol. ii, plate 19 foxed, pp. [iv], xxviii, 592; [iv], 18, [1], 4to, contemporary maroon cloth, lettered in gilt on spine and the stamp of the Glasgow College Library at foot of spine, bottom third of spine re-attached, bookplate inside front cover of Glasgow University Library, stamped ‘Withdrawn’, barcode below this, good £2,000
First (only) edition of the collected works of Foucault, extraordinary in their range, and a very scarce book. In 1851, by interpreting the motion of a heavy iron ball swinging from a wire 67 metres long, he proved that Earth rotates about its axis. Such a ‘Foucault pendulum’ always swings in the same vertical plane. But on a rotating Earth, this vertical plane slowly changes, at a rate and direction dependent on the geographic latitude of the pendulum. For this demonstration and a similar one using a gyroscope, Foucault received in 1855 the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London and was made physical assistant at the Imperial Observatory, Paris
20. Foullon (Abel) Descrittione et Uso Dell’ Holometro. Per saper misurare tutte le cose, che si possono veder coll’occhio cosi in lunghezza, & larghezza; come in altezza, & profondita ... Necessario a quelli che vogliono prontamente & senza far alcuna ragione arithmetica sapere le distantie de’ luoghi, misurar la terra & tor in disegno paesi & citta. Venice: Giordano Ziletti, 1564, engraved printer’s
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device on title page, and illustrated with 16 engravings, of which 8 are full-page, numerous fine decorative initials and headpieces, first 4 leaves a little browned and foxed, small stain to upper inner corner of title with paper repair on verso (no loss), pp. [xii], 60, 4to, old vellum, re-used from another binding, armorial stamp on title, numeral 3 at head of title (indicating probably that this was once in a Sammelband), good (CNCE 42798 (1 copy only, giving the date as 1563, in Florence); Adams F802; Wellcome I, 2476) £4,500
First edition in Italian (first published in French in 1555). Foullon was a poet (he made the first translation of Persius into French), master of the Mint for Henry II of France, and also an engineer to the king of France in succession to Leonardo da Vinci. His ‘holometro’ was a surveying instrument, which gave instant results, without the need for calculations – a saving grace in the age before logarithms. The original publication in French was akin to, if not in fact the first instance of, a modern patent specification (see M. Frumkin, ‘The Origin of Patents’, Journal of the Patent Office Society, March 1945, Vol. XXVII, No. 3, pp 143 et Seq.).
21. Franklin (Benjamin) The Life and Works of. [Edited by Benjamin Vaughan. With a biographical article by Henry Stuber, reprinted from ‘The Columbian Magazine’]. Bungay: Printed and Published by Brightly & Childs, [1815], with engraved portrait frontispiece, and an engraved title with a vignette, pp. ii (not including title), vi, 471, 8vo, bound up from the monthly parts in contemporary tree sheep, gilt roll tooled border on sides, spine with a gilt tool in each of the compartments, black lettering piece, a little rubbed, crack in upper joint, good £750
An attractive edition, and an attractive copy. An inscription on the front free endpaper, surrounded by pen ornaments, records: Thos. Heward, Sept. 10, 1819: For 15 Numbers at 6d - 7/6, Binding 2/6, [total] 10/-’ (there is a 1903 inscription below this). This is an unusual record of purchase in parts and contemporary binding. The book/ parts is usually catalogued as having been published in 1815, and certainly this is the date on the frontispiece; and there was a London edition in 1816 by Kinnersley, an edition presumably made up of sheets from the parts issue. The first owner therefore took his time to have the parts bound, it would seem, or perhaps the binder was slow.
22. Franz (Philip Jakob) Disputatio canicularis de meteoris. Vienna: 1675 [-1695], manuscript in ink on paper, with 1 large and attractive diagram (a wheel of the winds), ff. 14, small 4to, modern parchment backed marbled boards £1,500
A dissertation on meteorology under the auspices of Francisco Dietrichstam at the Jesuit University of Vienna. The dissertation proper is dated 1675, but is followed by an Index and an Appendix which refer to works published until 1695.
Euler, Goldbach, Nicolas Fuss, and several Bernoullis 23. Fuss (Paul Heinrich von, editor) Correspondance mathématique et physique de quelques celebres Géomètres du XVIIIème Siècle précédée d’une notice sur les travaux de Léonard Euler, tant imprimés qu’inédits et publiée sous les auspices de l’Académie impériale des sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg. St. Petersburg: [Imperial Academy of Sciences], 1843, FIRST EDITION, 2 vols, with engraved frontispiece portrait of Euler (vol. i) and Daniel Bernoulli (vol. ii), 8 folding plates of geometrical diagrams and 8 facsimile letters (as called for on the title-pages),
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text in Latin, German and French, intermittent browning and foxing, pp. cxxi, 673, [1]; xxiii, 713, [1], Royal 8vo, late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century brown fine-ribbed cloth, vol. i rebacked preserving the original spine, with minor reparations to head of each spine, red speckled edges, stamp of Royal Society of Edinburgh on each title-page, bookplate of James Burgess, C.I.E., LL.D. on front paste-downs and a pencil note by Burgess on front free end-paper of vol. i stating that he acquired the book from the library of Professor J. P. Nichol (see below), good £5,000
A highly important collection of letters, all of which are published here for the first time, and a very scarce book. ‘In 1845, P.H. Fuss published a 2-volume work, the Correspondance mathématique et physique ... It contained much of the correspondence between Leonhard Euler, Christian Goldbach, Nicolas Fuss, and several members of the Bernoulli family (Johann (I), Nicolas, and Daniel). More than 150 years later, Fuss’s book continues to be one of our best sources for much of this correspondence. In addition to publishing the correspondence, Fuss included a short biography of Euler, and a list of all of Euler’s known works. Fuss had uncovered several of these himself, and brought the number of Euler’s publications to 756. This list would remain the standard catalog of Euler’s works until Enestrom’s Index was published in 1913’ (eulerarchive. maa.org). The letters published here contain a wealth of important results in mathematics and physics, far too many for a brief summary. We mention only three: Goldbach’s Conjecture, Euler’s famous Polyhedral Formula, and Daniel Bernoulli’s invention of the Gamma Function.
The collection was edited by Paul Heinrich von Fuss (1798-1855). Paul’s father Nicolas Fuss (1755-1826) was married to Albertine Euler, the daughter of Euler’s eldest son Johann Albrecht. Nicholas Fuss served as Euler’s assistant in St. Petersburg from 1773 to 1783, and was permanent secretary to the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg from 1800 until his death in 1826, when he was succeeded in that post by his son Paul.
Provenance: John Pringle Nichol (1804-59) was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow from 1836 until his death. He was a dynamic lecturer and, according to the historian David Murray, he was ‘in some respects one of the most remarkable men who ever held a Chair at the University.’ James Burgess (1832-1916) was a mathematician and archaeologist. He went to India, initially to do educational work, becoming Professor of Mathematics at Calcutta in 1855. In 1894 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, into whose library the present book presumably passed on his death.
24. Gauss (Carl Friedrich) Recherches arithmétiques ... Traduites par A.-C.-M. Poullet-Delisle. Paris: Courcier, 1807, a few leaves a little browned in the printed area, pp. xx, [ii], 502, 4to, contemporary calf backed boards, vellum tips to corners, minimal wear to head of spine, very good (for Disquisitiones arithmeticae see Grolier 38, PMM 257, and Norman 878) £3,000
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First edition in French of the work that ‘begins a new epoch in mathematics’(PMM) and revolutionised number theory. The first edition appeared in Latin in Leipzig in 1801. ‘Gauss summarised previous work in a systematic way, solved some of the most difficult outstanding questions, and formulated concepts and questions that set the pattern of research for a century and still have significance today ... TheDisquisitiones arithemeticae almost instantly won Gauss recognition by mathematicians as their prince, but readership was small’ (DSB). This French translation, the only translation into a vernacular for almost a hundred years, undoubtedly help to spread the influence of the work (German translation 1889, Russian 1959, English 1966). As a handsome quarto in a modern language it is much more accessible than the rather unprepossessing original (and a small fraction of the price). It is dedicated to Laplace.
25. Hamlin (Cyrus) Cholera and its treatment. Lewiston [ME]: Published by John G. Cook & Co., c. 1866, a little soiled in places, pp. 15, [1, ads], 24mo, original wrappers printed on both sides (the inside rear cover continuing the ads on the previous page), a little frayed, sound £400
Promotional literature for Dr. Hamlin’s Cholera Remedies, put up and for sale by John G. Cook & Co., druggists. The text was printed in several East Coast cities, as well a Montreal. Rochester only in WorldCat. It is of course ephemeral, and cheaply produced, so remarkable to have survived at all.
26. Hill (‘Sir’ James) The Family Herbal, or An account of all those English plants, which are remarkable for their virtues, and of the drugs which are produced by vegetables of other countries; with their descriptions and their uses, as proved by experience. Also directions for ... gathering and preserving roots ... Intended for the use of families. Embellished with fifty-four coloured plates.Bungay: Printed and Published by C. Brightly and Co, Published also by T. Kinnersley, 1812, with 54 hand-coloured engraved plates, 1 plate with a ?wax/oil blotch (not affecting image), a few other minor stains or thumbing, viii, xl, 376, 8vo, contemporary tree calf, gilt roll tooled border on sides, flat spine with a single gilt star tool in each compartment, red lettering piece, some wear to extremities, red morocco label inside front cover gilt lettered ‘Susannah Cannell/ L[ong] Stratton [Norfolk]/1815, good £400
The first edition of this illustrated edition ofThe Family Herbal, descendant of Hill’s The Useful Family Herbal, first published in 1754 (see Hunt 551). As well as being an above average copy of a book usually delapidated by the ‘family’, this has the attractive contemporary morocco book label of a Norfolk lady.
27. Huygens (Christian) Traité de la lumiere. Où sont expliquées les Causes de ce qui luy arrive dans la Reflexion, & dans la Refraction. Et particulierement dans l’etrange Refraction du Cristal d’Islande. Avec un Discours de la Cause de la Pesanteur. Leiden: van der Aa, 1690, FIRST EDITION, issue with the author’s name in full on title-page, title printed in red and black, woodcut printer’s device on
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title, numerous diagrams in the text, rather browned, a few scorch marks with the loss of a couple of letters in 2 instances, Q2 somehow ‘treated’, pp. [viii], 180, 4to, contemporary limp vellum, attractive ink titling and decoration on spine, the author’s name added later, remains of ties, sound (Dibner, Heralds of Science, 146; En Français dans le Texte 125; Evans, First Editions of Epochal Achievements in the History of Science (1934), 32; Horblit 54; Krivatsy 6124; Norman 1139; Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 111) £15,000
‘Light, according to Huygens, is an irregular series of shock waves which proceeds with very great, but finite, velocity through the ether. This ether consists of uniformly minute, elastic particles compressed very close together. Light, therefore, is not an actual transference of matter but rather of a “tendency to move”, a serial displacement similar to a collision which proceeds through a row of balls . Huygens therefore concluded that new wave fronts originate around each particle that is touched by light and extend outward from the particle in the form of hemispheres’ (DSB). In opposition to the corpuscular theory of propagation advanced by Newton, that of Huygens remained unaccepted for over 100 years until Young used it to explain optical interference.
28. John (Fritz) Vestimmung einer Funktion aus ihren Integralen über gewisse Mannigfaltigkeiten. Inaugural Dissertation. [Göttingen], n.d. [1934?], carbon copy typescript, inserted mathematical formulae in manuscript, text on rectos only, pencil annotations on several pages, correcting and supplementing the text, probably in John’s hand, ff. [i], 74, [1], folio, original plain stiff wrappers, spine faded and defective at head, good £500
The doctoral thesis of the German-born mathematician Fritz John (1910-94), dealing with the Radon transform. John studied mathematics at Göttingen from 1929 to 1933, where he was influenced particularly by Richard Courant. With Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 ‘non-aryans’ were being expelled from teaching posts, and John emigrated to England. He was awarded his doctorate in 1934. After a brief spell in England he went to the United States, where he spent the rest of his life. He continued to work on the Radon transform and its applications to partial differential equations, convex geometry and the theory of water waves.
29. John (Fritz and Charlotte) [Carbon copy Typescript Lecture Notes]. Göttingen, 1929-33, 5 vols., carbon copy typescripts with inserted mathematical formulae in manuscript, text on rectos only, folio, original card wrapers, paper labels on spine completed in manuscript, variously faded and flaked in places, good £1,500
A possibly unique set of notebooks compiled by Fritz John and his fellow student and future wife Charlotte of the lectures they attended while students at Göttingen from 1929 to 1933. The Johns were required to take full sets of notes of each lecture, turning them in for appraisal by the lecturer before collecting them the next day. But the Johns went much further and typed up their notes, mimeographed them, and had them bound as the present volumes. They present a remarkable snapshot of the
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graduate teaching at what was then arguably the finest mathematical centre in the world, just prior to its disintegration caused by Hitler’s decree in 1933 that ‘non-aryans’must be expelled from teaching posts. The most important of Fritz John’s teachers, Richard Courant, also had to leave Germany at the same time, where upon he established in New York the Mathematical Instiute that now bears his name – and where Fritz John reseached and taught for many years.
Comprising: 1. Vorlesungen ueber kontinuerliche Gruppen, by B. L. van der Waerden, Summer Semester, 1929, ff. [v], 203 (signed by Fritz John on title page); 2. Variationsrechnung I, [Lectures by] Richard Courant, Summer Semester 1929, ff. [i], 85. 3. Theorie der Partialdifferentialgleichungen, by Richard Courant, Winter Semester, 1931/32, ff. [iii], 256. 4.) Elliptischen Functionen, by Gustav Herglotz, Winter Semester, 1931/32, ff. [i], 340, [3] (signed by Fritz John on title page). 5. Integralgleichungen und allgemeine Spektraltheorie, by Franz Rellich, Summer Semester, 1933, ff, [iv], 182.
30. Lambert (Johann Heinrich) Anmerkungen über die Branderschen Mikrometer von Glase und deren Gebrauch nebst Beylagen die Geschichte und die Vortheile dieser Erfindung betreffend.Augsburg: The Widow of Eberhard Klett [ Maria Jakobina Klett], 1769, FIRST EDITION, with 3 folding engraved plates, title re- inforced at inner margin, library stamps to fly-leaf and to verso of the plates largely erased, 1 plate cropped at foot with slight loss to the figure at the foot,pp. [viii], 84, [64, Tables, and the last 3 pp. advertisements], small 8vo, nineteenth- century half green cloth, tan lettering piece on spine, minor wear, small label removed from foot of spine, good £2,000
Lambert (1728-77) came to know the instrument maker Georg Friedrich Brander (1713-83) when Lambert lived at his house in Augsburg during 1759-60, while writing his great work Photometria. Brander began to make glass micrometers from 1761, and these made him famous. In 1755, Brander had the idea of improving measurement in microscopy by producing rulings on glass that could be placed directly in the image plane. Consequently, he began to design a ruling machine, which was successful in producing glass micrometers by 1761. This volume is the result of Lambert’s work with Brander’s micrometer and his desire to provide a history of the instrument and advertise Brander’s work. The volume describes Brander’s micrometer, the history of the development of similar micrometers (including that of Tobias Mayer), and includes a description of Brander’s level, a list of Brander’s astronomical instruments, and a large trigonometric table. The advertisements list Brander’s works, and Lambert’s Photometria.
31. Lamy (Bernard) Traitez de mechanique, de l’equilibre des solides et des liqueurs: où l’on découvre les causes des effets de toutes les machines dont on mesure les forces d’une maniere particuliere, on y en propose aussi quelques nouvelles. Paris: André Pralard, 1679, FIRST EDITION, with large woodcut printer’s device on title, woodcut illustrations and diagrams in the text, and 1 folding engraved plate,
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a little browned in places, pp. [ii], 163 (recte 263), [1], 12mo, contemporarry speckled calf, rebacked, sownership inscription on fly-leaf of Patrick Hume (first earl of Marchmont) with a quotation from Horace below, Hume’s splendid armorial bookplate, dated 1702, on verso of title, initialled by Hume at the foot of p. 19, later in the John Crerar library with their stamp in gilt at the foot of the upper cover, good £1,100
The work of ‘a good teacher and not of a researcher’ (DSB), although Lamy does state ‘on y en propose aussi quelques nouvelles’. A scarce book in commerce: in auction records since 1975 only 4 are recorded - 3 before 1978, and then a gap until the Macclesfield copy, 2005, which lacked the plate.
32. [Langley (Batty)] The Young Builder’s Rudiments, teaching the meanest capacity in a plain familiar manner (by questions and answers) the most useful parts of geometry, architecture, mechanicks, mensuration, several ways of perspective, &c. The second edition, to which are added, The five orders of architecture ... Also, great variety of beautiful doors, windows, and chimneys, &c., according to Inigo Jones, and others ... Illustrated with above 40 large copper plates, engraved by the late ... Mr. Vandergucht. Printed for J. Millan, 1734, with an engraved frontispiece and 41 engraved plates on 39 leaves, some folding, clean tear across plate XIV (no loss) and a small piece of the surface (hatching) on plate XXX removed, some minor staining, thumbing, &c, 2 plates misfolded and protruding slightly beyond the textblock, pp. [vi], 130, [2], 4to, original calf, rubbed, and worn at extremities, tile-page inscribed ‘Thomas Edwards / College Ludlow / I desite this Book may be preserved safe for Arthur Evans, if he should want it! Thos. Edwards’, sound (ESTC N475549; Archer 175.2) £1,250
There is only one copy of this edition (the title was first published in 1730) recorded in ESTC, Columbia University. It is one of ‘the mass of instructive builders’ manuals which Langley churned out’ (Eileen Harris in ODNB). In spite of the claim on the title-page, the plates are signed by Benjamin Cole.
33. Lindley (John) An Outline of the First Principles of Botany. Longman & Co., 1830, FIRST EDITION, with 4 engraved plates, interleaved and extensively annotated by Ann Haselwood, pp. viii (but ?lacking half-title), [ii], 106, 12mo, contemporary calf, gilt and roll tooled borders on sides, spine gilt in compartments, rebacked preserving the original spine, ownership inscription of Ann Haselwood at head of title-page, good (Pritzel (2nd), 5349; Stafleu (2nd), 4642) £600
This Outline formed the basis of Lindley’s lectures at the University of London (UCL), and was published in the same year as the Introduction to the Natural System (1830), of which Asa Gray, reviewer of the 1831 American edition, exulted, ‘No book, since printed bibles were sold in Paris by Dr Faustus, ever excited so much surprise and wonder’ (quoted in Stafleu and Cowan, 3.54). The annotations in this copy, in a very neat but minute hand, are entirely legible. They would appear to be notes made by an auditor of the lectures, as they expand or correct the text. If so, then Ann Haselwood must have been one of the pioneer female students at ‘that Godless institution on Gower Street’, which was founded in 1826 (although it didn’t award degrees to women until 1880). Lindley was appointed to the chair of Botany in 1829 and remained in it till 1860.
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34. McIlvaine (William) Dissertatio medica inauguralis de anorexia. Edinburgh: Balfour, Auld, and Smellie, 1771, pp. 36, 8vo, modern boards, good (ESTC T6478) £750
Designated ‘Pensylvaniensis’ on the title-page, McIlvaine was born in Philadelphia in 1750 to Scottish immigrant parents. He was a surgeon in Col. Read’s Regiment in 1776. Died 1806.
35. MacKenzie (Sir George Steuart) Travels in the Island of Iceland, during the summer of the year MDCCCX. Edinburgh: Printed by Thomas Allan and Company for Archibald Constable [et al.], 1811, FIRST EDITION, half-title, hand-coloured engraved frontispiece and 7 plates on india-paper and mounted, 6 plain plates of which one folding, one plate of music, 2 maps, one folding and with partial colour, 15 wood-engravings in the text, 4 folding letterpress tables, edges foxed but text clean, the maps foxed, pp. xvii, [ii], 491, [1], 4to, uncut in the original boards, printed paper label on spine, a litle rubbed and worn, crude repair to head of spine, upper joint broken but cords holding, inscription on title-page, good (Abbey, Travel 160; Tooley 314) £600
Mackenzie travelled with the physicians Henry Holland (1788-1873) and Richard Bright (1789-1858). ‘Travels in the Island of Iceland ... described the natural history of the island and the history, literature, and diseases of the people. (Bright and Holland made significant contributions – both had read papers on Iceland to the Geological Society of London in 1811.) Mackenzie’s Iceland long remained a key publication but he had drawn on Holland’s manuscript, and Holland objected to Mackenzie’s misrepresentation of his geological observations ... Lyell admired Mackenzie’s “magnificent collection of mineralogical treasures” from Iceland, part of which later went to Glasgow University’ (ODNB).
36. Maclaurin (Colin) A Treatise of Fluxions. In two books. Volume I [-II]. Edinburgh: Printed by T.W. and T. Ruddimans, 1742, FIRST EDITION, 2 vols. in 1, with the half-title to vol. i (not called for for in vol. ii), and with 51 folding engraved plates, pp. [vi], vi, 412; [ii, title to vol. ii], 413-763, [1], 4to, old calf, gilt roll tooled borders on sides, skillfully rebacked, spine gilt, red lettering piece, red edges, very good £4,500
‘In 1742 Maclaurin published his 2-volume Treatise of Fluxions, the first systematic exposition of Newton’s methods written as a reply to Berkeley’s attack on the calculus for its lack of rigorous foundations. Maclaurin wrote in the introduction “[Berkeley] represented the method of fluxions as founded on false reasoning, and full of mysteries. His objections seemed to have been occasioned by the concise manner in which the elements of this method have been usually described, and their having been so much misunderstood by a person of his abilities appeared to me to be sufficient proof that a fuller account of the grounds of this was required.”
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‘The Treatise of Fluxions is a [beautifully printed] major work of 763 pages, much praised by those who read it but usually described as having little influence. However, [Grabiner] argues convincingly that Maclaurin’s influence on the Continentals has been underrated. Grabiner gives five areas of influence of Maclaurin’s treatise: his treatment of the fundamental theorem of the calculus; his work on maxima and minima; the attraction of ellipsoids; elliptic integrals; and the Euler-Maclaurin summation formula.
‘Maclaurin appealed to the geometrical methods of the ancient Greeks and to Archimedes’ method of exhaustion in attempting to put Newton’s calculus on a rigorous footing. It is in the Treatise of fluxions that Maclaurin uses the special case of Taylor’s series now named after him and for which he is undoubtedly best remembered today. The Maclaurin series was not an idea discovered independently of the more general result of Taylor for Maclaurin acknowledges Taylor’s contribution. Another important result given by Maclaurin, which has not been named after him or any other mathematician, is the important integral test for the convergence of an infinite series. The Treatise of fluxions is not simply a work designed to put the calculus on a rigorous basis, for Maclaurin gave many applications of calculus in the work. For example he investigates the mutual attraction of two ellipsoids of revolution as an application of the methods he gives’ (MacTutor, on-line).
See J.V. Grabiner, Was Newton’s calculus a dead end? The continental influence of Maclaurin’s treatise of fluxions,Amer. Math. Monthly 104 (5) (1997), 393-410.
37. Marci of Kronland (Johannes Marcus) Dissertatio in propositiones physicomathematicas de natura iridos R. P. Balthassaris Conradi ... Prague: G. Schyparz, 1650, FIRST EDITION, with an engraved plate, ff. [36], [bound with:] Anatomia demonstrationis habitae in promotione academica die 30 Maii Per R.P. Conradum ... De angulo quo iris continetur. Prague: G. Schyparz, 1650, with a folding engraved plate (loose), FIRST EDITION, ff. [20], small 8vo, 2 works in 1 vol. (plus another, incomplete: see below), eighteenth-century mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red lettering piece (‘Miscellaneous Tracts’), joints cracked, cords holding, Macclesfield copy with bookplate and blind stamp (on the title- page of the incomplete work bound first), good (Wellcome IV p. 51, erroneously calling for ‘plates’ in the first work: the copies of these 2 titles in the Wellcome are bound together; no locations in the US in WorldCat) £5,000
A pair of decidedly rare dissertations: extensions to, and defences of, Marci’s main work on optics Thaumantias: liber de arcu coelesti, 1648. Prior to Marci, the prevailing theory of colour assumed that light was modified by the action of a medium to produce color. Most theories were based upon the assumption that color was simply a modification of light varying between whiteness and blackness. Marci preceded Isaac Newton in his belief that Light is not changed into colors except by a certain refraction in a dense medium; and the divers species of colors are the products of refraction’ (Richard S. Westfall, ‘The Development of Newton’s Theory of Color’ ISIS, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Sept. 1962) pp. 339-358). Although he thought that different colours were caused by varying angles of incidence across the 1/2 degree apparent diameter of the sun, he stated that each color was condensed or disentangled from the others after refraction into homogeneous or elementary colors of red, green, blue and purple, and that no further change in color was obtained by additional refraction of elementary colours.
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The work bound first is the 1684 edition of John Browe’sThe Carpenters Joynt-Rule, lacking the plates (5 copies only recorded in ESTC, not in the BL).
38. Mensforth (George) The Young Student’s Guide in Astrology. Consisting of choice aphorisms, selected from the most celebrated authors. The Works of the Famous Cardan, Gadbury, Guido Bonatus, Alfregnus, Hermes Trismegstius, Bethem, Marcus Manilvs, Lilly, Coley, Dariot, &c. Are particularly considered. Wherein is comprised, all the useful tables and instructions necessary for every young student to be acquainted with; particularly in the Questionary Part. With Many Useful Rules in Nativities. Printed for the Author, by T. Bensley; and sold by Mr. Nicoll [and others], 1785, FIRST EDITION, with a fine engraved frontispiece of an Armillary Sphere, frontispiece offset onto title, a few leaves spotted, pp. 264, 257-63, 8vo, contemporary tree calf, spine gilt in compartments, red lettering piece, minor wear to extremities, joints cracked but cords firm, good (ESTC T124386) £1,500
Following a period of neglect, there was an upsurge of popular interest in astrology after the American War of Independence. The first two chapters comprise a rejection of the Ptolemaic system and an acceptance of the Copernican, though, as the author points out: ‘yea the Copernicans themselves, although they professedly own and defend the contrary, yet in vulgar speaking, in our present case, say the sun riseth, setteth, and moveth.’ The last chapter is ‘Description and Use of the Armillary Sphere; by the famous Ferguson.’ A scarce work, with ESTC recording just 4 copies in the UK and 3 in North America: Cleveland Public, Huntington, Western Ontario.
39. Newton (Sir Isaac) Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. Editio tertia aucta & emendata. William and John Innys, 1726, title printed in red and black, with engraved portrait frontispiece, 1 engraving and numerous diagrams in the text, complete with half-title and final advertisement leaf, some foxing at the beginning and end, a few scattered minor stains, repairs to margins of front fly-leaves,pp. [xxxvi, including half-title, engraved frontispiece portrait by George Vertue facing title], 530, [8], 4to, late nineteenth-century half red hard-grained morocco, spine gilt in compartments and lettered direct, red edges, rebacked preserving spine, early inscription at head of title (see below), nineteenth-century signature stamp of Dugald Macdonald at centre of title-page, bookplate on flyleaf of the Québecois George G. Leroux, very good (Babson 13; Wallis 9; PMM 161 (first edition, 1687)) £11,000
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Third and definitive edition of ‘the greatest work in the history of science’(PMM), one of only 1250 copies printed, 250 of which were printed on large or thick paper. ‘This edition was the last published during the author’s lifetime and the basis of all subsequent editions. It was edited by Henry Pemberton, M.D., F.R.S., and contains a new preface by Newton and a large number of alterations, the most important being the scholium on fluxions, in which Leibnitz had been mentioned by name. This had been considered an acknowledgement of Leibnitz’s independent discovery of the calculus. In omitting Leibnitz’s name in this edition, Newton was criticized as taking advantage of an opponent whose death had prevented any reply’ (Babson, p. 12).
The inscription at the head of the title-page, dated July 9, 1733, is a little cropped at the top, and faded. It is difficult to read, but seems to say: ‘Gifted to Mr. William Scott of Babecan advocate by me [ ] Foulis.’
40. (Non-Euclidean geometry.) ENGEL (Friedrich) and Paul STÄCKEL (editors) Die Theorie der Parallellinien von Euklid bis auf Gauss, eine Urkundensammlung zur vorgeschichte der nichteuklidischen geometrie ... Leipzig: Teubner, 1895, FIRST EDITION, with 145 figures in the text, and a facsimile of a letter by Gauss over 4 pages at the end, pp. x, 325, 8vo, contemporary half maroon cloth, slightly rubbed, lettered in gilt on spine, Glasgow College Library stamp at foot of spine, bookplate of Glasgow University inside front cover, stamped ‘Withdrawn’, barcode at foot of inside front cover, good £1,100
First edition of this important collection of texts in the pre-history of non-Euclidean geometry, many of which are virtually unobtainable in their original editions. Included are works by Euclid, Wallis, Saccheri, Lambert, Gauss, Schweikart and Taurinus, together with critical comments by the editors, bibliographies, &c.
41. Pasteur (Louis) Mémoire sur les Corpuscules organisées qui existent dans l’Atmosphere. Examen de la doctrine des générations spontanées. Paris: Mallet- Bachelier, 1862, with two large folding plates, pp. 110, 8vo, uncut in the original printed wrappers, rebacked, wrappers soiled, stamp of the Wellcome Institute Library on verso of tile and last page of text, the former endorsed ‘withdrawn’, good (Garrison-Morton 2475 (first appearance);PMM 336c; Norman 1654 – a presentation copy) £6,000
Very rare offprint from from Annales de chimie et de physique, 3rd series, 64 (1862) of Pasteur’s longest and most important paper on airborne micro-organisms; the downfall of the theory of spontaneous generation. Pasteur used a heating process, the earliest form of pasteurization, in ‘further experiments which demonstrated beyond dispute that fermentation is caused by the action of minute living organisms, and that if these organisms are excluded or killed fermentation does not occur’ (PMM). The paper first appeared inAnnales des sciences naturelles, Zoologie, 4th series (1861), from which no offprints are known.
42. [Purshall (Conyers)] An Essay at the Mechanism of the Macrocosm: or the dependance of effects upon their causes. In a new hypothesis, Accommodated to Our Modern and Experimental Philosophy. In which are solved several Phoenomena, hitherto unaccounted for; as the Cause of Gravitation, Motion, Reflexion, Refraction, &c. With a Method proposed to find out the Exact Rate that a Ship Runs, and consequently the Longitude at Sea. Printed by F. Collins, for
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Jeffery Wale, 1705, FIRST EDITION, with some diagrams in the text, some browning and spotting, repair to fore-margin of first leaf,pp. [xvi], 336, 8vo, modern calf backed boards, old signature on title-page, stamp of the Royal Society at beginning and end, sound (ESTC T113565) £750
In this wide-ranging work Conyer Purshall, ‘a product of pre-Newtonian Oxford defends a revised version of the Tychonic system in which planetary orbits and periods were brought into numerical harmony with Kepler’s laws’ (Stephen Gaukroger, The Emergence of a Scientific Culture, p. 189). For Purshall’s theory of light see Cantor’s Optics After Newton, p. 94. As well, Purshall is a footnote in the Quest for Longitude.
43. Reece (Richard) The Domestic Medical Guide: or, Complete Companion to the Family Medicine Chest. Comprising in addition to the former edition, the management of children, treatment of poisons, recovery of drowned persons, method of destroying contagion by fumigation, with a more copious account of diseases, and the most rational mode of treatment, &c. Printed by C. Stower, and sold by Longman and Rees, Murray and Highley, Lawrence, and Spragg, 1803, with an engraved frontispiece, one engraving in the text, bound without the terminal advertisements and Errata, a trifle browned, small damp-stain at top of frontispiece, pp. xvi, 308, [bound with:] Boudier de Villemert (Pierre-Joseph) The Friend of Women: translated from the French ... By Alexander Morrice. Printed by Knight and Compton, for the Author: sold by H.D. Symonds, 1802, pp. [iii-viii, [5-] 164, 8vo, contemporary tree calf, gilt ruled compartments on spine, black lettering piece (‘Friend of Women’), armorial bookplate of the Earl of Granard, very good £1,250
Richard Reece (1775-1831) ‘became a member of the Company of Surgeons in 1796, and from 1797 to 1808 he practised in Chepstow and Cardiff. The Royal Humane Society in 1799 awarded him its silver medal ‘for his medical services in the cause of humanity vitam ob restitutam’, and he afterwards became one of the society’s medical assistants. He was living in London in 1812, and he subsequently graduated MD, but it is not known from which university. He developed a considerable practice in London’ (ODNB). In addition to his practice, he was the proprietor of ‘The Chemical and Medical Hall’ in Covent Graden, in promotion of which he published various ‘Medicine Chest’ books, directed at differing audiences, Ladies, as here, the clergy, heads of families, &c. The present edition is a very scarce one: its being bound with The Friend of Women is suggestive of nuptials.
The first edition ofL’ami des femmes appeared in 1774, and there were almost immediate translations into English, Spanish, Russian and Polish. This is the first edition of Morrice’s translation.
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44. Roger (Nicolas, pseud for Gabriel Feydel) Essai sur l’art de nager. Par l’Auteur des Préceptes publiés en 1783, sous le nom de Nicolas Roger, Plongeur de Profession, & inserérés depuis dans l’Encyclopédie. A Londres: 1787, additional title-page printed in red (advertising the book’s availability in Paris and the province’s ‘quoiqu’imprimée à Londres’), woodcut vignette on main title, woodcut headpiece, additional title soiled and defective in upper outer corner, other irregularities of the edges, but no loss anywhere, some foxing, pp. [i], 64, 8vo, mid- to late-nineteenth-century half vellum, spine gilt, red lettering piece, a bit soiled and worn, sound £800
The author refers on the title-page to the first edition of this booklet in 1783, and its subsequent inclusion in the Encyclopédie: in the text he animadverts upon the mangling of the text in the latter. His main output was Revolutionary journalism. The present work is in three sections: on swimming in general; on the elements of swimming; and on the establishment of a swimming school. In the first section Feydel gives an account of one rescue he made in particular, and in general the system of rewards in Paris as regards retrieving people from the Seine, so much for a body, and so much for someone still alive: a system open to abuse.
Rare: the only copies located in WorldCat are BNF, and Stasbourg.
45. [Ruscelli (Girolamo)] The seconde part of the Secretes of Maister Alexis of Piemont, by hym collected out of diuers excellent authors, and nevvly translated out of Frenche into Englishe. With a generall Table of all matters contained in the saied Booke. By Willyam Warde. Imprinted By Ihon Kyngston, for Ihon Wight, [1580], with woodcut printer’s device on title, and another at the end, printed for the most part in black letter, numerous pen trials &c on verso of last leaf, ff. 75, [5], 8vo, modern calf backed boards, good (STC 303; ESTC S100108) £2,000
‘One of the most famous of the receipt-books and its popularity is shown by the number of editions in various languages through which it has passed ... The receipts are for the most part medical and pharmaceutical’ (Ferguson, Bib. Chem., vol. i, p. 22). The first edition appeared in Italian in 1555 and the first part in English in 1558. The first English edition of the second part appeared in 1560, and the present is the fourth edition. The parts are considered separate entities in STC. Alessio is considered by most to be a pseudonym for Girolamo Ruscelli, but Ferguson asserts that there is no evidence for this: nonetheless, STC and ESTC stick with Ruscelli, as does DSB. Girolamo Ruscelli (Viterbo 1500 - Venice 1566), was a humanist and cartographer. In a later work, he reported that the Secreti contained the experimental results of an ‘Academy of Secrets’ that he and a group of humanists and noblemen founded in Naples in the 1540s. Ruscelli’s academy is regarded as the first recorded example of an experimental scientific society.
46. Rush (Benjamin) Three Lectures upon Animal Life, Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Bobson, 1799, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, stamp of the Birmingham Medical Institute on title, some foxing at the beginning and end, closed tear at foot of half-title, pp. viii, 84, 8vo, modern calf backed boards, half-title with a cropped presentation inscription with just the words ‘friend’ and ‘Author’ remaining, plus the date Novemr. 21, 1800, one leaf folded in with corrections to the text with some 18 words in Rush’s hand in the margin, sound £1,500
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Lectures on physiology, one of Rush’s scarcer work. Not only was Rush a preeminent physician and a revered teacher, he was also a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
47. (Serres (John Thomas)) BOUGARD (René) The Little Sea Torch: or, true guide for coasting pilots: by which they are clearly instructed how to navigate along the coasts of England, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Sicily; the isles of Malta, Corsica, Sardinia, and others in the straits; and of the coast of Barbary, from Cape Bon to Cape de Verd. Enriched with upwards of one hundred appearances of head-lands and light-houses. Together with plans of the principal harbours. Also a table of soundings ... Translated from the French of Le Sieur Bougard, with corrections and additions, by J.T. Serres ... Published for the Author, by J. Debrett, and sold also by G. and W. Nicol [and others], 1801, FIRST EDITION in English, with 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates (watermarked 1796) comprising 127 subjects, 12 hand-coloured engraved charts comprising 24 subjects, occasional faint spotting, tear at foot of Mm1 (List of Appearances) entering printed area but not affecting the text, pp. [ii], vi (recte iv), 144, [5], folio, contemporary half calf, rebacked and recornered, preserving the original red lettering piece, the edges worn and the covers rubbed, a subcriber’s copy with the armorial bookplate of Joseph Neeld and his ownership inscription inside the front cover, good (Abbey, Life 344: in Abbey’s copy the plates were watermarked 1799; NMM 3, 218) £7,000
Only edition in English of this highly attractive coasting pilot. Bougard’s Le petit flambeau de la mer first appeared in 1684 and went through numerous editions. John Serres succeeded his father in 1793 as marine painter to George III and to the duke of Clarence. ‘The views are very reminiscent of De Barres and the plans etc. are coloured in much the same way as Bellin’s Petit atlas maritime’ (Wardington Catalogue).
The collation given in the NMM catalogue indicates a lack of the List of Subscribers.
48. Simpson (William) Philosophical Dialogues Concerning the Principles of Natural Bodies: wherein the Principles of the Old and New Philosophy are stated, and the new demonstrated, more agreeable to Reason, from Mechanical Experiments and its usefulness to the benefit of Man-kind.Printed by T. Hodgkin, for Dorman Newman, 1677, FIRST EDITION, some damp-staining around the edges, a single worm hole throughout, without causing any serious loss, pp. [xvi], 173, [1], 12mo, recased in later sheep, red edges, a bit scuffed, various ownership inscriptions, Jn Ash (c.1700) at the head of the Dedication, David Dott, 1759, and J.G., 1785, on the preserved fly-leaf of the original binding, and Joseph Hay, 1822, on the title-page, sound (ESTC R25204) £1,200
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William Simpson was a medical doctor from York, whose dates in ESTC are given as ‘active 1665-1677’, this being the span of his printed works, all of which relate to his spat with Robert Wittie over Scarsborough Spaw. The present work deals more with Wittie’s stubborn support of Aristotelianism. The two characters in the dialogues are Hydrophilus (intended for Wittie, as made clear in the Preface) and Pyrophilus (Simpson himself, or the type of the new philosopher as exemplified by Bacon, Harvey and Boyle – all mentioned in the text). The dispute with Wittie was characterised by some choice terminology, a feature of the present work. The dialogues begin with Hydrophilus in high choler: ‘Would it not, Pyrophilus, raise the spleen of any, even the calmest Dogmatists, to see you appear upon the stage of the World, like so many Americans, presenting new and unheard of things ...’
49. (Smithsonian.) NATIONAL INSTITUTE [for the Promotion of Science]. Medical Department. [Drop-head title.] Circular. Washington DC: [1843], 2-page circular with integral leaf with manuscript address panel on verso, mildly discoloured, hole in inner margin of the second leaf from the wax seal, formerly folded for posting, 4to, good £275
The National Institute for the Promotion of Science was formed in 1840 by Joel Poinsett and others to secure control of the Smithson bequest and create a National Museum in Washington. This circular, possibly the first of its kind under the auspices of the Federal Government, sets out sixteen questions on matters of public health, and was sent to ‘corresponding and resident members, and other gentlemen who feel an interest in the advancement of medical science.’ This example was sent to James P. Screven MD (who had studied in England under Sir Astley Cooper), in Savannah, Georgia. The topics include the environmental impact of the early industrial revolution, epidemic diseases, comparative health and longevity of whites and blacks, and of slaves and free blacks, diet, the temperance movement, &c. This last topic was a particular interest of Thomas Sewall, Chairman of the Medical Department. Sewall had settled in Washington in 1819, having fled Massachusetts, where he had been convicted on multiple charges of body snatching. Just one copy is located in OCLC, Countway Library.
50. Stanley (Edward) Notes taken [by Alexander Monro] at anatomical Lectures at St. Bartholomews Hospital delivered by Mr. Stanley. The Spring Course of 1829 commenced on the above day [Jany. 22d 1829] ended on the 4th day of May. [London]: 1829, manuscript in ink and pencil on paper, with a drawing of the bust of Mr. Abernethy at the Anatomical Theatre St. Barts on the opening page, 3 drawings on the verso of the last leaf, and a drawing of a skeleton inside the back cover, 240 leaves, oblong 12mo, original sheep with a brass clasp, rubbed, skin mostly worn from joints but covers held by (original) vellum strips, good £2,500
Edward Stanley was ‘born on July 3rd, 1793, the son of Edward Stanley, who was in business in the City; his mother was sister to Thomas Blizard, the surgeon. In 1808 he was apprenticed to Thomas Ramsden, Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, who died in February, 1813; Stanley was then turned over to John Abernethy for the rest of his term. He was awarded the Jacksonian Prize for his essay “On Diseases of Bone”, and was elected Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on Jan. 29th, 1816, at the early age of 24 ... . He acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy until 1826, when he was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in place of Abernethy and held the post without distinction until 1848 ... Stanley is described as being one of the most
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sagacious teachers and judicious practitioners of his day ... Stanley’s writings and the specimens he added to the Museum show how extensive was his knowledge of diseases of bone’ (Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows).
The Alexander Monro who took these notes was not a member of the dynasty that held sway in Edinburgh for almost a century. Alexander Monro tertius did study anatomy in London, but 30 years before the date of this manuscript: he was still active at this time however, and in fact a week into this course he carried out the public dissection of the West Port murderer William Burke. Our Alexander Monro gives his address as 13 Hadlow Street (later renamed Sandwich Street), a relatively new development in the north of Bloomsbury, which had already become notorious for its brothels.
After a list of the books recommended by Mr. Stanley, the lectures begin, appropriately enough, with the Structure of the Bones, and bones are the subject of the first 13 lectures. The next 20 or so are concerned with the muscles, then follow the veins, fractures and dislocations, and finally various topics dealt with in one or two lectures, such as the tissues of the eye, the salivary glands, the anatomy of the brain, &c. The text begins on the rectos and returns on the versos. The lectures are numbered up to 64, after which there are about another 10, and these are – still – in pencil, for it was evidently Monro’s practice to take the notes in pencil and then write over this in ink (occasionally the pencil is visible under the ink).
51. Stone (Edmund, translator) The Method of Fluxions both Direct and Inverse. The former being a translation from the celebrated Marquis de L’Hospital’s Analyse des infinements [sic] petits: and the latter supply’d by the translator.Printed for William Innys, 1730, FIRST EDITION of this translation, with 15 folding engraved plates, repair to marginal tear in last leaf of the preliminaries, and this leaf also with a splash mark and a small hole resulting in the loss of the page numeral, title-page a bit stained just at the edges, a little minor staining elsewhere, pp. xix, iv, 238, [i], 212, [2], 8vo, contemporary calf, double gilt fillets on sides enclosing a roll tooled border in blind, rebacked and re-rebacked somewhat crudely, corners worn, ownership inscription of William Gartland of Dublin on title, and various notes by him (see below), sound (ESTC T110037) £2,000
Not a rare book in terms of library holdings (though not super-abundant either), but extremely scarce in commerce: there was no copy in the Macclesfield Library, and there has not been a copy at auction since at least 1975.
‘The rift between British and Continental mathematicians during the eighteenth century was not sufficiently wide to prevent Stone in 1730 from publishing an English translation of L’Hospital’s Analyse des infiniment petits, ten years before Buffon reciprocally prepared a French translation of Newton’s Method of Fluxions… The translator opens with praise of the author’s work, “the Character whereof is so well establish’d”, but adds that out of regard to Sir Isaac Newton he has altered some of the language and notation of the original to conform to the Newtonian. Increments or
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differentials, for example, are taken as fluxions, inasmuch as they are proportional to the latter; and [Newton’s dot notation is used instead of Leibnizian differentials]…
‘Stone’s translation, in part I, does not depart much from the original, and the diagrams are faithful reproductions of those of L’Hospital. Some new material is added, however, on logarithms, exponentials, and trigonometric functions. The second part or appendix (separately paginated) is on the inverse method of fluxions [i.e. integration], and this constitutes a new work. L’Hospital apparently had hoped that his treatise would sometime be completed by a second part on the integral calculus. The pages of the Analyse (even in later editions) carry the heading I. Part, but the author never completed another part. Stone was but one of several who undertook to compose a suitable second half. His attempt was so successful that it was translated into French and published in 1735, “servant de suite aux infiniment petits de M. le Marquis de l’Hospital.”
‘The Analyse des infiniment petits continued throughout the eighteenth century to be the standard elementary manual on higher mathematics’ (The European Mathematical Awakening, Frank J. Swetz, pp. 203-4). The Analyse of L’Hospital (1696) was the first published book on the calculus, but it treated only differential calculus, and did so using Leibnizian differential notation.
Provenance: William Gartland of Dublin. There was a surveyor of this name working in the city in the 1840s, and certainly the exquisitely neat notes in his hand would grace any engraved map. The notes fill the front free endpaper and occur sporadically among the preliminary pages. They concern the history of fluxions, the authors concerned, and the books.
52. Thomson (Thomas) [Sammelband of four presentation offprints on chemistry and mineralogy]. London and Edinburgh: 1814-31, 4 works in 1 vol., the first a little browned, especially the title-page, the second, being larger, a little dust- stained in the fore- and lower margins of the title, which is a bit foxed, a little dust-staining elsewhere, short tears in the fore-margin of the 3rd piece, pp. 8; [ii], 37; [ii], 13; [ii], 38, 4to, early twentieth-century brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, ‘Pamphlets - Thomson’, gilt stamp of Glasgow College Library at foot of spine, bookplate of Glasgow University Library inside front cover, stamped ‘Withdrawn’, good £1,200
Four rare offprints, three of them inscribed by the author, as follows: ‘Analysis of a new species of copper ore,’ from the Philosophical Transactions. London: W. Bulmer, 1814, ownership inscription of Thomas Allan (see below). 1 copy of this offprint is recorded in COPAC (Bristol), none in WorldCat. ‘On Asbestus, Chlorite, and Talc,’ from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Neill, 1831 inscribed ‘Mr. R. Philips from the Author’. Glasgow only in COPAC and WorldCat (presumably this copy). ‘On the composition of Blende,’ from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Neill, 1831, inscription and location as previous item. ‘Description and analysis of some minerals,’ from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Neill, 1831, inscription and location as previous 2 items.
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Thomas Thomson (1773-1852) was ‘Dalton’s bulldog’ (ODNB), author of a highly successful text book, A System of Chemistry (first edition 1802), and latterly ‘the patriarch of Glasgow science’ (op. cit). We have not been able to identify the recipient of the presentation copies, but Thomas Allan (1777-1833), the original owner of the first item, was a Scottish mineralogist, after whom allanite is named. Like Thomson, he contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
53. Tolver Preston (Samuel) Physics of the Ether. E. & F. N. Spon, 1875, FIRST EDITION, with a few figures in the text, a few spots and a little dust-staining to the first 2 leaves, pp. [iv], 136, 8vo, original chocolate-brown cloth, lettered in gilt on the upper cover and on the spine, minor wear to corners, bookplate of Glasgow University Library, stamped ‘Withdrawn’, inside front cover, below this a barcode, and, opposite, the remains of a label, good £2,000
‘In 1875, S. Tolver Preston published a prophetic treatise, which set forth his arguments for the existence of an aethereal medium in space. The title of this work is Physics of the Ether. Its purpose is to discredit the spiritualistic concept of “action at a distance” and to evince the irrationality of the principle of “potential energy”, and replace these mythologies with “physical causes capable of rational appreciation.” Among the many achievements of this heuristic masterpiece are Preston’s arguments for atomic energy, the atomic bomb, a luminal speed for the propagation of gravity, and the heuristic principle that E = mc2’ (Christopher Jon Bjerknes). A very scarce book.
Can machines think? The Turing Test 54. Turing (Alan Mathison) Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Edinburgh: Published for the Mind Association by Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., 1950, FIRST EDITION, contained in Mind, A Quarterly Review, pp. 433-60 (the beginning of Vol. LIX, No. 236, the vol. continuing on to p. 576), 8vo, original wrappers, edges of wrappers slightly frayed, spine slightly defective at foot, good (Origins of Cyberspace 936) £1,500
‘The most lucid and far-reaching expression of [Turing’s] philosophy [is] the paper “Computing machinery and intelligence.” This, besides summarizing his view that the operation of the brain could be captured by a Turing machine and hence by a computer, also absorbed his first-hand experience with machinery. The wit and drama of the ‘Turing test’ has proved a lasting stimulus to later thinkers, and a classic contribution to the philosophy and practice of artificial intelligence’ (Andrew Hodges in ODNB).
55. Turner (Richard) A View of the Heavens: Being a Short, but Comprehensive, System of Modern Astronomy ... The whole illustrated with copper-plates of the system, the Sun, Moon, Eclipses, &c. and disposed in so easy and natural a manner, as to be understood in a few days. The second edition, with many additions and improvements. Printed for S. Crowder, 1783, with 2 full-page engraved plates (1 as frontispiece), 12 engravings in the text, 1 with a volvelle
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(complete), and 3 woodcut diagrams in the text, some foxing and browning, offsetting of engravings, the engraving with the volvelle backed with later paper, pp. [iv], 64, folio, stitched in the original drab paper wrappers, apparently without ever had a spine covering, a bit stained and worn, sound (ESTC T66039, 3 in the UK, 4 in the US) £1,100
This text was first published in 1765. It is dedicated to the Chancellor and other officers of the University of Oxford and is: ‘Drawn up with a View to render the first Rudiments of so illustrious and useful a Science more easy and practicable to the Minds of Youth, and particularly of those who receive their Education in that ancient and venerable Seat of Learning.’ Although strictly modern as regarding the state of astronomy, Turner is a stickler for the Creation story, as per John Kennedy’s A Complete System of Astronomical Chronology, 1762 (which contains a dedication to George III written by Samuel Johnson). He also takes it for granted that all the planets are inhabited.
Turner liked to elaborate his status on his title-pages. Here he is ‘of Magdalen-Hall, Oxford; rector of Comberton;-vicar of Elmley;-minister of Norton;-and chaplain to the Right Honourable the Countess Dowager of Wigton.-author of the heavens survey’d;-the view of the Earth;-Plain Trigonometry rendered easy and familiar;-System of Gauging;-Chronologer Perpetual;-and a New Introduction to Book-keeping.’
The backing of the volvelle plate is for no apparent reason. The thread holding the volvelle is held by a smaller strip. The instructions for the use of this ‘Astronomical Clock’ include holding up the book in Southern Latitudes and pointing the clock to the south pole.
56. Volta (Alessandro) On the electricity excited by the mere contact of conducting substances of different kinds. [with:] Herschel (William) Investigation of the powers of the prismatic colours to beat and illuminate objects. [and:] Investigation of the powers of the prismatic colours to beat and illuminate objects. [and:] Experiments on the solar, and on the terrestrial rays that occasion heat. Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., and Sold by Peter Elmsley, 1800, complete volume of the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1800, containing exceptionally important papers by Volta and Herschel (consecutive PMM nos.), 3 parts in 1 vol., with 1 folding engraved plate to the Volta paper, and 7 in total to the Herschel papers, the volume as a whole lacking 1 plate (No. XXVIII, to An Account of the Trigonometrical Survey), Volta’s paper in French (titled in English), intermittant browning, pp. [viii], 26, 238; printed slip announcing the 3 parts, [iv], [239-] 436; [iv], [437-] 732, [4], 4to, contemporary calf, spine with a large gilt arabesque in each compartment, red lettering piece, date (MDCCC) in gilt direct apparently in place of a former label, a bit rubbed and worn, craquelure to spine diminishing the gilt, rebacked (preseving original spine), Dutch library stamp on title, and a note in Dutch in pencil on the flyleaf signalling William Morgan’s paper on Probabilities, sound (Volta: PMM 255; Dibner 60. Herschel: PMM 254) £5,000
The first announcement of the Voltaic ‘Pile’, or electric battery, and the dicovery of infra-red rays. ‘The indispensability and ubiquity of electricity, in one form or another, in western civilization today emphasize sharply the fact that before 1800 human environment and existence were closer to life in ancient Egypt than to our own. Volta’s
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invention is one of the earliest and most important causes of the change’ (PMM). PMM flags up Herschel’s discovery of infra-red rays, and also points to his ‘remarkable prophecy’ contained in these papers regarding the chemical properties of the prismatic colours – the basic factor of photography.
PMM sometimes combines various items under a single number (typically scientific papers and/or monographs) which collectively make the entry. Here we have an instance of that, with the 3 Herschel papers: but they are all together in 1 volume, as they should be, together with yet another PMM entry in the same volume.
57. Voltaire (François Marie Arouet de) Jämförelse emellan Newtons och Leibnitz’s Meningar in Metaphysiken och Naturläran ... Øfwersättning af J.J.v.B. Stockholm: C. F. Marquard, 1799, pp. [i], 124, 8vo, entirely uncut and unopened in the original light blue paper wrappers, fine (Besterman, ‘A provisional bibliography of Scandinavian ... editions ... of Voltaire’, in: Studies in Voltaire no. 58 (locating copies at Göteborg and Lund; not in Wallis or the earlier bibliographies of Newton). £800
Rare Swedish translation of the first book of Voltaire’sElemens de la philosophy de Newton, under its alternative title (in English) ‘The Newtonian Philosophy compared with that of Leibniz’ (e.g. Urie’s edition of 1764). The translator was Johan Jacob von Bilang (1740-1803), a high ranking official in the Swedish navy who wrote on philosophy, politics, trade and monetary policies. Worldcat locates copies in the National Library of Sweden, Griefswald and Harvard: not in COPAC or SUDOC.
58. Wilkins (John) Mercury, or The secret and swift messenger: shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance. Printed by I. Norton, for Iohn Maynard, and Timothy Wilkins, 1641, FIRST EDITION, with woodcut diagrams and lettering in the text, fore-edge of F4 cropped with the loss of 3 of the woodcut letters on the verso (sense recoverable), K8 also cut close with the loss on the verso of a modicum of the musical stave, pp. [xiv (without the initial blank], 48, 65-80, 83-98, 81-128, 127-180 [i.e. 170], plus 2 blank leaves, 8vo, contemporary calf, rebacked and recornered and the surface crackled, paste- downs and fly-leafs from a contemporary French-English phrase-book, early ownership inscription at foot of title J. Cm, book label of Lawrence Strangman, good (ESTC R1665; Tomash W75; see J. S. Galland, An Historical and Analytical Bibliography of the Literature of Cryptology, 1945; and D. Kahn, The Codebreakers, 1996) £1,800
‘The most important of early English works on cryptography’ (Galland). ‘Concerned primarily with means of encoding or otherwise protecting the secrecy of communications, orally or in writing, [Mercury] also discussed how messages may be secretly and swiftly conveyed over great distances. In the course of this work Wilkins briefly considered the possibility of a ‘Universal Character’ that would be legible to readers in any language. This was a theme to which he would later return ... [Wilkins] ... also played a crucially important role in the establishment of the Royal Society’s self-professed experimental methodology, and thus in the establishment of
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the characteristic method of English scientific empiricism. Finally, as a result of his strong interest in and commitment to the development of so-called universal language schemes, he made an important contribution to the history of linguistics’ (John Henry in ODNB). It is not unusual to find the book cropped as here, and most often it is missing all the blanks
59. Wilkins (John) An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language. Printed for S. Gellibrand, and for J. Martin Printer to the Royal Society, 1668, FIRST EDITION, with 2 engraved plates, 1 folding, and 2 engraved tables, and engravings in text; includes section title for the alphabetic dictionary, the errata and approbation leaves, the last dust-soiled at the inner margin, a few leaves spotted, 1 plate trimmed at fore-edge almost to plate-mark, short tear in the fore-margin of one leaf, not affecting text, pp. [xx], 454, [2, blank], [158]; folio, contemporary calf, tan lettering piece (slightly defective, lacking 2 half letters), joints cracking but cords very sound, some wear to corners, early armorial bookplate of James Plunkett, Earl of Fingall, later bookplate of (Sir) Edward (Crisp) Bullard, the geophysicist, very good (Alston VII, 290 (‘not all copies have the folding sheets’); ESTC R21115; Wing W2176; Keynes, John Ray, 6) £2,000
After the Restoration ‘Wilkins also produced what is perhaps his most significant work, his Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language. This was published in 1668, though it seems that he began work on it with the help of Seth Ward shortly after their collaboration on Vindiciae academiarum. Calls for a universal language had increased as a result of the flourishing of vernacular literature and an increasing dissatisfaction with Latin, partly with regard to the difficulty of learning it, but also with regard to its ambiguities and complexities. Wilkins rejected the approach of those who believed that the supposed language of Adam might be recovered, but tried to develop an artificial equivalent based upon a classification of knowledge. The vocabulary of this new language was to be built up by systematic modifications of the basic generic terms that were deemed to cover all the major categories of existence. A knowledge of the system would enable the reader, or listener, not just to recognize the signification of a word but also to understand how the referent fitted into the entire scheme of things. This is what made Wilkins’s artificial language ‘philosophical’, not just universal in the sense that a unanimously agreed upon lingua franca would be.
‘During the final stages of work on hisEssay Wilkins lost his house, and most of his belongings and papers, in the great fire of London, but being eager to complete his scheme he enlisted the help of John Ray and Francis Willoughby to improve the botanical and zoological nomenclature. This was a major factor in stimulating Ray to develop his own classificatory studies. Similarly, Samuel Pepys reported that he helped to draw up a table of naval terms, such as the names of rigging. Even with this and other help, Wilkins admitted his scheme’s shortcomings and called upon the Royal Society to improve it. Although various fellows of the society spoke highly of the scheme for a while, only Robert Hooke showed any lasting commitment to it, and the committee established to improve on the Essay never reported. Scholars have argued about the major influences upon Wilkins’s linguistic studies. There is little evidence that the universal language schemes of Amos Comenius played any significant role; Mersenne may have been an inspiration but George Dalgarno, to help whom Wilkins had begun to draw up classificatory tables of knowledge after 1657, was a more direct influence’ (ODNB).
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60. Wright (Thomas, of Durham) An Original Theory or Hypothesis of the Universe, Founded upon the Laws of Nature, and solving by Mathematical Principles the General Phænomena of the Visible Creation; and particularly the Via Lactea. Compris’d in Nine Familiar Letters from the Author to his Friend. And Illustrated with upwards of Thirty Graven and Mezzotinto Plates, by the Best Masters. Printed for the Author, and sold by H. Chapelle, 1750, FIRST EDITION, title printed in red and black, with 32 plates, 8 of them mezzotint, 2 folding, scattered foxing (worst on the title-page), some offsetting of the plates, 4 plates (15, 16, 19, 32) with small pieces missing from the fore-margins, possibly paperflaws rather than damage inflicted, not affecting engraved area,pp. viii, [4], 84, 4to, contemporary half calf, well rebacked and recornered, marbled boards rubbed, nineteenth- century engraved armorial bookplate inside front cover of Robert Fiennes Hibbert of Bucknell in the County of Oxon., good (Taylor 321; ESTC T78780) £15,000
The first correct explanation of the Milky Way, a very scarce book, with remarkable illustrations. In his article “Thomas Wright of Durham and Immanuel Kant” (The Observatory, Vol. 64, pp. 71-82, 1941) F.A. Panneth says of the claims of the title – new and original – that they are not at all exaggerated.
‘Wright ponders the question of why we see the Milky Way as we do, and concludes that the stars must be arranged in a disc or grindstone, or a spherical shell like the rind of an enormous orange. The sun is in the middle of this layer, so that when we look in the plane of the disc or shell we see a multitude of stars, the Milky Way, whereas at right angles to it there are very few. The grindstone plate is well known; the shell one, a vast orange with the eye of God at its centre, less so. The book did not attract the attention of astronomers, but Immanuel Kant saw – and perhaps creatively misunderstood – a review of it in a German publication.
‘It was only in the nineteenth century, after the work of William Herschel, that the spiral shape of the galaxy became accepted, and Wright with his grindstone was seen as a precursor. William Whiston’s writings were a major influence on Wright, who once believed that each system in the universe had its own gravitational and spiritual centre, sometimes shown as divine eyes, and that stars were all equal in size (so that fainter ones were farther away) and had planets like the sun.’ (David Knight in ODNB).
See M.A. Hoskin, “The Cosmology of Thomas Wright of Durham” in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, I (1970), pp. 44-52.
32 VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.blackwell.co.uk/rarebooks Blackwell’s Rare Books Direct Telephone: +44 (0) 1865 333555 Switchboard: +44 (0) 1865 792792 Email: [email protected] Fax: +44 (0) 1865 794143 www.blackwell.co.uk/rarebooks
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