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First edition. DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF DNA. SIGNED BY ALL BUT ONE OF THE AUTHORS. First edition, offprint, signed by Watson, Crick, Wilkins, Gosling, Stokes & Wilson, i.e. six of the seven authors. We know of no copy signed by Franklin, and strongly doubt that any such copy exists. Furthermore this copy is, what we believe to be, just one of three copies signed by six authors. One of the most important scientific papers of the twentieth century, which "records the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the main component of chromosomes and the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms. Publication of this paper initiated the science of molecular biology. Forty years after Watson and Crick's discovery, so much of the basic understanding of medicine and disease has advanced to the molecular level that their paper may be considered the most significant single contribution to biology and medicine in the twentieth century" (One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine, p. 362). "The discovery in 1953 of the double helix, the twisted-ladder structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), by James Watson and Francis Crick marked a milestone in the history of science and gave rise to modern molecular biology, which is largely concerned with understanding how genes control the chemical processes within cells. In short order, their discovery yielded ground-breaking insights into the genetic code and protein synthesis. During the 1970s and 1980s, it helped to produce new and powerful scientific techniques, specifically recombinant DNA research, genetic engineering, rapid gene sequencing, and monoclonal antibodies, techniques on which today's multi-billion dollar biotechnology industry is founded. Major current advances in science, namely genetic fingerprinting and modern forensics, the mapping of the human genome, and the promise, yet unfulfilled, of gene therapy, all have their origins in Watson and Crick's inspired work. The double helix has not only reshaped biology, it has become a cultural icon, represented in sculpture, visual art, jewelry, and toys" (Francis Crick Papers, National Library of Medicine, profiles./SC/Views/Exhibit/narrative/). In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." This copy is signed by all the authors except Rosalind Franklin (1920 -1958) - we have never seen or heard of a copy signed by her. In 1869, the Swiss physiological chemist Friedrich Miescher (1844-95) first identified what he called 'nuclein' inside the nuclei of human white blood cells. (The term 'nuclein' was later changed to 'nucleic acid' and eventually to 'deoxyribonucleic acid,' or 'DNA.') Miescher's plan was to isolate and characterize not the nuclein (which nobody at that time realized existed) but instead the protein components of leukocytes (white blood cells). Miescher thus made arrangements for a local surgical clinic to send him used, pus-coated patient bandages; once he received the bandages, he planned to wash them, filter out the leukocytes, and extract and identify the various proteins within the white blood cells. But when he came across a substance from the cell nuclei that had chemical properties unlike any protein, including a much higher phosphorous content and resistance to proteolysis (protein digestion), Miescher realized that he had discovered a new substance. Sensing the importance of his findings, Miescher wrote, "It seems probable to me that a whole family of such slightly varying phosphorous-containing substances will appear, as a group of nucleins, equivalent to proteins". But Miescher's discovery of nucleic acids was not appreciated by the scientific community, and his name had fallen into obscurity by the 20th century. "Researchers working on DNA in the early 1950s used the term 'gene' to mean the smallest unit of genetic information, but they did not know what a gene actually looked like structurally and chemically, or how it was copied, with very few errors, generation after generation. In 1944, Oswald Avery had shown that DNA was the 'transforming principle,' the carrier of hereditary information, in pneumococcal bacteria. Nevertheless, many scientists continued to believe that DNA had a structure too uniform and simple to store genetic information for making complex living organisms. The genetic material, they reasoned, must consist of proteins, much more diverse and intricate molecules known to perform a multitude of biological functions in the cell. "Crick and Watson recognized, at an early stage in their careers, that gaining a detailed knowledge of the three-dimensional configuration of the gene was the central problem in molecular biology. Without such knowledge, heredity and reproduction could not be understood. They seized on this problem during their very first encounter, in the summer of 1951, and pursued it with single-minded focus over the course of the next eighteen months. This meant taking on the arduous intellectual task of immersing themselves in all the fields of science involved: genetics, biochemistry, chemistry, physical chemistry, and X-ray crystallography. Drawing on the experimental results of others (they conducted no DNA experiments of their own), taking advantage of their complementary scientific backgrounds in physics and X-ray crystallography (Crick) and viral and bacterial genetics (Watson), and relying on their brilliant intuition, persistence, and luck, the two showed that DNA had a structure sufficiently complex and yet elegantly simple enough to be the master molecule of life. "Other researchers had made important but seemingly unconnected findings about the composition of DNA; it fell to Watson and Crick to unify these disparate findings into a coherent theory of genetic transfer. The organic chemist Alexander Todd had determined t.

First edition. EXTREMELY RARE LARGE AND THICK PAPER COPY. First edition, extremely rare large and thick paper copy, of the most lavishly illustrated astronomical work published in the first half of the seventeenth century, with many full-page illustrations of Scheiner's observations of the sun and of the optical instruments he had designed for the purpose. "For his masterpiece, Scheiner produced the first monograph on a heavenly body, the Sun. Even today it is still an impressive volume, with scores of engravings of sunspots and the various instruments needed for solar observations" (Jesuit Science in the Age of Galileo). "Scheiner's drawings in the Rosa Ursina are of almost modern quality, and there was little improvement in solar imaging until 1905" (Britannica). In this work "Scheiner agreed with Galileo that sunspots are on the Sun's surface or in its atmosphere, that they are often generated and perish there, and that the Sun is therefore not perfect. Scheiner further advocated a fluid heavens (against the Aristotelian solid spheres), and he pioneered new ways of representing the motions of spots across the Sun's face" (Galileo Project). Scheiner was one of the first to observe sunspots by telescope, in March 1611, and in 1612 he published his findings anonymously. This led to a famous controversy with Galileo, who claimed to have observed sunspots earlier, involving the exchange of several letters. Galileo then turned to other matters, notably the preparation of the Dialogo, but Scheiner continued his observations of sunspots, culminating in the publication of the present work more than a decade later. Scheiner devised a number of new instruments in order to make his observations. Kepler had conceived the 'astronomical' telescope, consisting of two converging lenses, but he never constructed one. Scheiner was the first to do so, and he added a third convex lens which transformed the inverted image into an erect one and greatly increased the field of view and brightness of the image. Scheiner also invented the first equatorially mounted telescope. All of these instruments are described and illustrated in Rosa Ursina, in which "Scheiner confirmed his method and criticized Galileo for failing to mention the inclination of the axis of rotation of the sunspots to the plane of the ecliptic" (DSB). But when the Dialogo was published in 1632, Scheiner was dismayed to find that Galileo dismissed Scheiner's work and claimed there that he [Galileo] had known of the curved motion of sunspots and its explanation in terms of the inclination of the Sun's axis since 1614 (although the evidence casts serious doubt on Galileo's claims). "It has been said that his [i.e., Scheiner's] enmity toward Galileo was instrumental in starting the process against the Florentine in 1633" (Galileo Project). Although this book appears on the market from time to time, we have been unable to locate any large paper copies in auction records. This copy measures 405 x 260mm; for comparison, the Macclesfield copy (in contemporary binding) was 350 x 230mm. Scheiner (1573-1650) was appointed professor of Hebrew and mathematics at the Jesuit College at Ingolstadt in 1610. The following year Scheiner, together with his student Johann Baptist Cysat (1587-1657), constructed a telescope with which to observe the satellites of Jupiter, partly to investigate the claims made by Galileo in Sidereus nuncius (1610). At sunrise one day in March, they decided to observe the sun and noticed dark spots on its surface, although initially they were unsure whether this might be due to flaws in the lenses or to clouds. Scheiner was preoccupied with observations of Jupiter, and also of Venus, but Cysat persuaded him to return to the solar observations using coloured glass to enable them to observe in full daylight, a technique that was used by sailors when taking the altitude of the Sun. This was on 21 October, as Scheiner tells us in Rosa Ursina (Ad Lectorum, p. [2]). Others soon became aware of his observations, including the well-connected Augsburg humanist Marc Welser (1558-1614). Scheiner wrote three letters to Welser, dated 12 November and 19 and 26 December, which Welser published at his private press under the title Tres epistolae de maculis solaribus (1612). They appeared pseudonymously, as Scheiner's Jesuit superiors urged caution, and were signed Apelles latens post tabulum, 'Apelles hiding behind the painting' (this refers to a story told by Pliny, well known in the Renaissance, about the famed Greek painter Apelles hiding behind one of his pictures to hear the comments of spectators). Welser sent copies abroad, notably to Galileo (1564-1642). Galileo identified Scheiner as a Jesuit and took him to task in three letters addressed to Welser, to which Scheiner replied in a further series of letters published as De maculis solaribus . accuratior disquisitio (1612). In this work Scheiner discussed the individual motions of the spots, their period of revolution, and the appearance of brighter patches or faculae on the surface of the sun. Galileo's letters were published in Rome in 1613 as Istoriae dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari. His criticism of Scheiner's priority claims was misconceived, for the sunspots were observed independently not only by Galileo in Florence and Scheiner in Ingolstadt, but also by Thomas Harriot in Oxford (who was the first to observe them by telescope), Johann Fabricius in Wittenberg (who was the first to publish a work on sunspots), and Domenico Passignani in Rome. Having declared victory with the publication of Istoria e dimostrazioni, Galileo turned to other matters, notably the controversy on the comets (in which Scheiner may have played a role behind the scenes) and the preparation of the Dialogo. Scheiner was admonished personally by Claudio Aquaviva (1543-1615), the Superior General of the Jesuits, to follow the doctrines of traditional philosophy, and in his publications he now concentrated on the strictly.

First edition. DIBNER 186: ONE OF THE GREAT RARITIES OF EARLY ZOOTOMICAL LITERATURE - PRESENTED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION . First edition, first issue, of this sumptuous work, presented by the author in its year of publication and of his own death. This is "one of the great rarities of early zootomical literature" (Cole, p. 90), with illustrations considered comparable to those in Vesalius' Fabrica. "The unusual rarity of the first edition might be partially explained by the fact that a portion of the sheets of the first edition were reissued the following year by Gaspare Bindoni in Venice. Copies of this second issue, which is also rare, contain a cancel title and a different dedication leaf, changing the dedication to César, Duke of Vendôme, natural son of Henri IV" (Norman). "His book is the first devoted to the anatomy of an animal, and is one of the finest achievements of the heroic age of Anatomy" (Singer, The Evolution of Anatomy, p. 153, with three plates reproduced). "At the hands of Ruini the subject of equine anatomy jumped at a single bound from the blackest ignorance to relative perfection, the degree of which it is difficult to exaggerate" (Smith, The Early History of Veterinary Literature and its British Development, Vol. 1, p. 209). "As the author of the first book devoted exclusively to the structure of an animal other than man, Ruini ranks among the founders of both comparative anatomy and veterinary medicine. This is all the more remarkable as he was not a physician, or even a veterinarian, but a Bolognese aristocrat, senator, and high-ranking lawyer. Following the example of Vesalius, Ruini stressed the importance of "artful instruction" about all parts of the horse's body, the diseases that afflict them, and their cures. The first part of his work gives an exhaustive treatment of equine anatomy, with especially good accounts of the sense organs; it is illustrated with sixty-four full-page woodcuts, of which the last three, showing a stripped horse in a landscape setting, were clearly inspired by the Vesalian "muscleman" plates. The second part of the work deals with equine diseases and their cures from a traditional Hippocratic-Galenic standpoint. Some scholars, basing their arguments on Ruini's description of the horse's heart and blood vessels, believe that Ruini was active in the discovery of the greater and lesser circulatory systems. This is unlikely, but it is probable that he was one of many at that time who had a notion of the circulation of the blood" (Norman). ABPC/RBH list three other copies since Norman, two of which were in later bindings, but no presentation copies. Provenance: Inscribed on front free endpaper: 'Questo libro du donato al S[igno]r. Ascani Cospi dall'Autore l'Anno 1598 (i.e., 'given by the author, to Ascani Cospi in the year 1598'); 'Questo libro fu poi donato a Valerio Sampieri dal Sig[no]r Marchese Senatore Cospi l'Anno 1727' (i.e., 'given by a later Cospi, a Senator of Bologna, to Sampieri); signed at the bottom of the title page: 'Valerio Sampieri'. The Cospi were an ancient Bologna family who arrived there in 1350. The Sampieri were an influential Bolognese family, who had a well-known picture-gallery at their Palazzo Sampieri. "In the first volume, which deals mainly with anatomy, Ruini (ca. 1530-1598) includes notes on physiology that reflect his teleological Galenic approach. In the first book the morphology of the head is described in detail. The second book deals with the neck and its organs, the lungs, the heart, and the thoracic muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. The third book covers the liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach, intestines, peritoneum, and bladder. The structures of these organs and their positions are described, as are the lumbosacral region and its muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. The fourth book describes the genital system, and the fifth deals with the extremities. Volume II deals specifically with equine diseases and their cures. Explaining that he has followed the methods used by Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen to describe the human body, Ruini considers equine pathology, beginning with conditions of a general nature, such as fever, before progressing to descriptions of specific diseases. He considered it necessary to place pathology on a constitutional foundation because he believed that from knowledge of the horse's physical disposition one could more easily understand the nature of disease; also, from knowing the age of the horse, one could determine the appropriate treatment at any phase of an illness. At the beginning of the first book, Ruini discusses at length the four Galenic humors (choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic) and ways of telling a horse's age. He then offers a detailed analysis of fever, distinguishing three types, giving general causes and a general cure, and discussing fevers of various origins. "The second book considers various types of horse in regard to humoral pathology, using criteria based essentially on the concept of the four qualities (hot, cold, moist, dry). Ruini then examines a series of "affections" of the brain: frenzy, rage or fury, and insanity, leading to convulsions and paralysis. The book concludes with the diseases of the neck. In the third book Ruini describes the diseases of the heart and the lungs; in the fourth, the afflictions of the digestive tract, from diarrhea to jaundice; and in the fifth, hernia, diseases of the testicles and penis, and problems of obstetrics. The sixth book deals with the diseases of the legs. "On the whole, Ruini's treatise was still closely bound to the Scholastic tradition. It does, however, show the effort made by its author, who must certainly have known the work of Vesalius, to produce a work that would manifest the new direction being taken by sixteenth-century anatomy. Because it was so traditional, his treatment of pathology, although minutely detailed, is less valuable than his study of anatomy. A pioneer in the la.

First edition. LAND AS PRIVATE PROPERTY - A NEW ERA OF CAPITALISM. First edition of "the first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying" (Buisseret, p. 39), an outstanding copy in its original binding, and extremely rare thus. Benese's Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande marks an epoch, the widespread idea of land as private property."If there is a single date when the idea of land as private property can be said to have taken hold, it is 1538. In that year a tiny volume was published with a long title that began, This boke sheweth the maner of measurynge of all maner of lande.In it, the author, Sir Richard Benese, described for the first time in English how to calculate the area of a field or an entire estate . [T]his interest in exact measurement was also new. Until then, what mattered was how much land would yield, not its size . Accurate measurement became important in 1538 because beginning in that year a gigantic swath of England--almost half a million acres--was suddenly put on sale for cash. The greatest real-estate sale in England's history occurred after king Henry VIII dissolved a total of almost 400 monasteries, which had been acquiring land for centuries . Upon the monasteries' dissolution, all their land, including some of the best soil in England, automatically reverted to their feudal overlord, the king [who needed money to defend England against the French]. The sale of so much land for cash was a watershed . [U]p to that point the fundamental value of land remained in the number of people it supported. From then on the balance shifted increasingly to a new way of thinking . The emphasis in Benese's book on exact measurement reflected the change in outlook. Once land was exchanged for cash, its ability to support people became less important than how much rent it could produce. And to compare the value of rent produced by different estates, it was essential to know their exact size. The units could no longer vary; the method of surveying had to be reliable. The surveyor ceased to be a servant and became an agent of change from a system grounded in medieval practice to one that generated money" (Linklater, pp. 10-12). Richard Benese (d. 1546) was a canon of the Augustine priory of Merton in Surrey. "He supplicated for the degree of Bachelor of Common Law at Oxford, 6 July 1519, and signed the surrender of the Augustine Priory of Merton to Henry VIII on 16 April 1538. Before this he was a surveyor to Henry VIII and it was during this period that he wrote his treatise on surveying. This is a remarkable survival, not only because this copy was extensively used by practitioners (as evidenced by extensive arithmetical calculations on the free endpaper), but also because it is extremely unusual in general to find early 16th century English books in original state. Following the fashion prevalent in the 19th century, most such books were trimmed, often washed, and rebound. Indeed, of the four complete copies listed on RBH in the last century, three were in 19th or 20th century bindings (and one was disbound). ESTC lists a total of 10 copies - 6 in the UK and 4 in the US (Harvard (2 copies? - only one is listed on Hollis), Huntington and Madison-Wisconsin). The title page is undated; a publication date of 1537 is conjectured by STC, although some authorities give 1538. Provenance: John Grande (signature on title, crossed out); at least one other early signature on title, faded and undecipherable; early annotations and calculations on free endpaper and front cover; Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, November 4, 1918, lot 64 ('Extremely rare in this genuine state"). "Modern English land surveying had its origins in the sixteenth century, partly brought about by the beginning of enclosing. In simplest form enclosing was the process of combining the strips of the open fields into larger fields and then enclosing these larger fields with fences, hedges, or other boundaries. Later, meadows, parts of the commons, and reclaimed lands were brought into the enclosed system. This system of cultivation began in the late fifteenth century, gained momentum in the sixteenth century, and continued for many years thereafter. Combining and reorganising the land of the open field system to the enclosed form caused many complaints over titles, rights, and quantities of land involved, and often led to a state of such complete confusion that the true issues were obscured before the courts. This confusion brought about the realisation that a more exact determination of the quantities of land and a definite location of the boundaries were needed. Appeals were made to the surveyor for a correction of these faults" (Richeson, pp. 29-30). Following the dissolution of the monasteries greatly increased the importance of the surveyor. "Prominent among the purchasers of church property were land-hungry owners like the duke of Northumberland, who had been enclosing common pastures, but far more common were the landlords who had done well from the rise in the market value of wool and corn, and chose to invest in monastery estates . The new owners and their surveyors realised that the monasteries' widely separated rigs and shares of common land would become more valuable once they were consolidated into fields. Their predecessors, the old abbots and priors, had understood land ownership to be part of a feudal exchange of rights for services. But those who had bought their land knew that ownership depended on money passing hands, and that the old ways had to change if they were to maximize the return on their investment . What the new class of landowners required of their surveyors above all was exactness" (Linklater, pp. 11-12). A further stimulus to the development of surveying at this time was the increasing importance of geometry in practical matters. "John Dee, in his introduction to the first English translation of Euclid in 1570 echoed a change that was already making itself felt. How many were the error.

First edition. THE MOST INFLUENTIAL RENAISSANCE WORK ON ASTROLABES. First edition, an exceptionally fine copy, of the most influential Renaissance work on astrolabes, and also the first German work on astrolabes, by leading astronomer and mathematician Johannes Stoeffler. This work, "the first book of original astronomy published in the 16th century" (mhs.ox.ac.uk/exhibits/the-renaissance-in-astronomy/panels/3-stoeffler-astrolabe/) , is divided into two parts, describes both the construction and uses of the instrument, and includes 40 woodcut illustrations of which 24 are full-page, with all the required extended folding parts present (see below). Vital to astronomers, navigators, and astrologers, the astrolabe could be used to locate or predict the position of the sun, moon, planets and stars, to determine local time given local latitude (or vice-versa), to calculate daylight hours (and prayer times) for any given date, as well as for surveying, triangulation, and casting horoscopes. Johannes Stoeffler (1452-1531), Professor of Mathematics at the University of Tübingen and an accomplished astronomer and cosmographer, counted Philipp Melanchthon and Sebastian Münster among his students. A key member of the generation who considered Regiomontanus the paragon of Renaissance astronomers, Stoeffler adopted a program of astronomical observation and publication of tables, and promoted the importance of precision instruments and practical accounts of how they worked. His calendars, almanac, and astronomical tables were known throughout Europe, while his work on the astrolabe led him to be considered a leading authority on methods of defining latitude and longitude. "Johann Stoeffler was a leading authority on the methods of defining latitude and longitude in vogue in the beginning of the new era; cf. his Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii, Oppenheim, 1513 (colophon 1512)" (Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. II, p. 99). "Stoeffler recognized that, in mapping, computation of the distance between two places whose latitude and longitude were known failed to take into account the convergence of the meridians" (Stillwell). The astrolabe was an inclinometer, a device invented in c. 150 BC by the Ancient Greeks. It had a variety of uses such as locating and predicting the positions of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa, and in surveying and triangulation. Used in Europe from the Middle Ages onwards, Stoeffler's work was a comprehensive manual of the instrument. The first part concerns the construction of the astrolabe. The full-page woodcut illustrations are extended by paper strips to almost double the page size and clearly show the various stages in the construction process. The second part explains the use of the astrolabe with equally remarkable woodcut illustrations. Stoeffler ends his work with a discussion of perspective and measurement. This work was printed at the first press at Oppenheim and is one of the rarest books from that press. The poem by Melanchthon on **6v is probably the reformer's first appearance in print. Provenance: Large engraved exlibris (signed by Lucas Kilian) of Ferdinand Hoffman (1540-1607), director of the Hofkammer (Minister of the Treasury) of Emperor Rudolf II. The planispheric astrolabe, the type described by Stoeffler, enabled astronomers to calculate the position of the Sun and prominent stars with respect to both the horizon and the meridian. It provided them with a plane image of the celestial sphere and the principal circles-namely, those representing the ecliptic, celestial equator, and tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Because of such features, the planispheric astrolabe can be regarded as a rudimentary kind of analogue computer. It had several principal parts: a base plate (the 'mater') with a network of lines representing celestial coordinates; an open-pattern disk (the 'rete') with a 'map' of the stars, including the aforementioned circles, that rotated on the mater around a centre pin corresponding to the north celestial pole; and a straight rule (the 'alidade'), used for sighting objects in the sky. The alidade made it possible to use the astrolabe for surveying applications-e.g., determining the height of a mountain. Most astrolabes also had one or more plates (called climates) that were engraved with coordinate lines for different latitudes and were placed between the mater and the rete. The majority that remain intact today are made of brass, are very ornate, and are often associated with the educated elite. "Johannes Stöffler's treatise on the astrolabe, Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii (Explanation of the Construction and Use of the Astrolabe), while not the most innovative treatise ever written, was certainly the most influential in the Renaissance. It was reprinted 16 times after its original publication in 1513, and virtually every treatise on the astrolabe since has referenced it. In fact, it was common to refer to the normal planispheric astrolabe as a 'Stöffler astrolabe' in Renaissance literature. "Johannes Stöffler (1452-1531) was the first to hold the chair in mathematics at the University of Tübingen (1507). In addition to his treatise on the astrolabe, Stöffler also published books of astronomical tables and wrote on sundials and astrological instruments. He operated an atelier producing instruments and globes. The first edition of his treatise on the astrolabe was published in Oppenheim in 1513, with later editions from Mainz, Frankfurt (in German), Paris (10 editions), and Cologne. "Clearly, this success stems from the fact that the treatise is clear, concise, and complete for its time; and that it requires only a modest background to understand. It contains detailed instructions on how to lay out the components of a planispheric astrolabe and how to use this astrolabe for common problems. Then or now, any interested person with moderate drawing skills could make a.

First edition. "THE GREATEST ADVANCE IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF SET THEORY SINCE ITS AXIOMATIZATION" (KURT GÖDEL). First edition, extremely rare offprints, of Cohen's proof that the continuum hypothesis (CH) and the axiom of choice (AC) cannot be proved from the generally accepted Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms (ZF) of set theory; the method of 'forcing' which Cohen devised for the purposes of his proof revolutionized the subsequent development of set theory. Kurt Gödel wrote in 1964 that this work "no doubt is the greatest advance in the foundations of set theory since its axiomatization" (Gödel, Works 2, p. 270). Gödel had proved in 1938 that CH and AC cannot be disproved from ZF - Cohen's and Gödel's results together showed that CH and AC are independent of ZF. Gödel had, in fact, also proved that AC could not be proved from ZF, although he never published this result, but his methods had failed to establish this for CH. In 1878, German mathematician Georg Cantor put forward the 'continuum hypothesis': any infinite subset of the set of all real numbers can be put into one-to-one correspondence either with the set of integers or with the set of real numbers ("There is no set whose cardinality is strictly between that of the integers and that of the real numbers"). This was the first in Hilbert's famous list of mathematical problems, presented in an address to the International Congress of Mathematicians at Paris in 1900. The 'Axiom of Choice', proposed by the German logician Ernst Zermelo in 1904, states that, given any collection of sets (even an infinite collection), each containing at least one element, it is possible to construct a new set by arbitrarily choosing one element from each set. "The principle of set theory known as the 'Axiom of Choice' has been hailed as 'probably the most interesting and, in spite of its late appearance, the most discussed axiom of mathematics, second only to Euclid's axiom of parallels which was introduced more than two thousand years ago" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). All attempts to prove or disprove CH or AC failed until the work of Gödel and Cohen. For this work, Cohen was in 1966 awarded a Fields Medal (the equivalent for mathematics of a Nobel Prize). Just as Gödel followed up his 1938 announcement with a monograph based on a series of lectures, published in 1940 by the Princeton University Press, so Cohen followed up his announcement with a monograph entitled Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis, which acted as a very readable introduction to both set theory and his remarkable results. Cohen's offprints and book are accompanied here by an autograph letter from Cohen to the mathematician Martin Davis, whom Cohen writes was "directly responsible for my looking once more at set theory". RBH lists one other copy of each offprint. Not on OCLC. Provenance:MartinDavis (1928-2023), American logician and computer scientist (ownership signature and his notes on Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis; ALS from Cohen to Davis). Two problems had preoccupied workers in the field of set theory since its creation by Cantor beginning in the 1870s: the well-ordering principle and the cardinality of the continuum. An 'ordering' of a set X is a rule for deciding, given any two different elements of X, which one precedes the other (such as the usual ordering on the set of integers ., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, .). A 'well-ordering' of X is an ordering with the property that every non-empty subset Y of X has a least element (an element that precedes all the other elements of Y). So the usual ordering of the integers is not a well-ordering (there is no least integer), but the same ordering on the set of positive integers is a well-ordering. "Cantor had conjectured the proposition, now called the 'well-ordering theorem,' that every set can be well-ordered. In 1904 Zermelo gave a proof of this conjecture, using in an essential way the following mathematical principle: for every set X there is a 'choice function,' f, which is defined on the collection of non-empty subsets of X, such that for every subset A of X,f(A) is an element of A [so f 'chooses' an element of each subset of X]. Subsequently, in 1908, Zermelo presented an axiomatic version of set theory in which his proof of the well-ordering theorem could be carried out. One of the axioms was the principle just stated, which Zermelo referred to as the 'Axiom der Auswahl' (the Axiom of Choice, abbreviated AC). "Zermelo's proof was the subject of considerable controversy. The well-ordering theorem is quite remarkable, since, for example, there is no obvious way to define a well-ordering of the set of real numbers. Nor is such an explicit well-ordering provided by Zermelo's proof. Thus, many people who thought Zermelo's result implausible cast doubt upon the validity of AC. The other set-existence axioms all have the form that some collection of sets, explicitly definable from certain given parameters, is itself a set. The axiom of choice, on the other hand, asserts the existence of a choice function but does not provide an explicit definition of such a choice function. Zerrnelo was well aware that his axiom had this purely existential character, but many other mathematicians were uncomfortable with existence proofs that did not provide the construction of specific examples of what was asserted to exist" (Gödel, Works 2, pp. 1-2). Beginning in 1874, Cantor introduced the concept of the 'cardinality' of a set. For a set with a finite number of elements, its cardinality is just the number of elements in the set. But the cardinality is also defined for infinite sets. Two sets have the same cardinality if and only if they can be put into one-to-one correspondence. If Ï is the cardinal number of a set X, the cardinal number of the set of all subsets of X is denoted by 2Ï (because if a finite set has n elements, the set of all its subsets has 2n elements). A set X has cardinality less than or equal to that of another set Y if X can be put into o.

First edition. PRESENTATION OFFPRINT INSCRIBED BY FEYNMAN. First edition, extremely rare offprint, inscribed by Feynman, of Feynman's senior undergraduate thesis at MIT, a fundamental discovery "that has played an important role in theoretical chemistry and condensed matter physics" (Selected Papers, p. 1), published when he was just twenty-one. This is a remarkable paper, documenting the first steps in original research of one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century. "Feynman was one of the most creative and influential physicists of the twentieth century. A veteran of the Manhattan Project of World War II and a 1965 Nobel laureate in physics, he made lasting contributions across many domains, from electrodynamics and quantum theory to nuclear and particle physics, solid-state physics, and gravitation" (DSB). Feynman showed that "the force on an atom's nucleus is no more or less than the electrical force from the surrounding field of charged electrons - the electrostatic force. Once the distribution of charge has been calculated quantum mechanically, then from that point forward quantum mechanics disappears from the picture. The problem becomes classical; the nuclei can be treated as static points of mass and charge. Feynman's approach applies to all chemical bonds. If two nuclei act as though strongly attracted to each other, as the hydrogen nuclei do when they bond to form a water molecule, it is because the nuclei are each drawn toward the electrical charge concentrated quantum mechanically between them" (Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman). His discovery, now known as Feynman's theorem or the Feynman-Hellmann theorem, has endured as an efficient approach to the calculation of forces in molecules. "The importance of the forces on the atomic nuclei for molecular geometry, the theory of chemical binding, and for crystal structure is evident" (Selected Papers, p. 1). ABPC/RBH lists no copy of any offprint of any of Feynman's papers in Physical Review (where he published almost all of his most important work). Not on OCLC. Provenance: Signed 'R. P. Feynman' in pencil in top margin of first page. This offprint was signed by Feynman and given by him to Robert Kinsel Smith (1920-99), a classmate and personal friend of Feynman's at Princeton University, where both Feynman and Kinsel Smith studied for their PhDs (a letter from Kinsel Smith's son testifying to this provenance accompanies the offprint). Born in Far Rockaway in the Queens section of New York City, Feynman (1918-88) entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1935 to begin his undergraduate studies. Although he originally majored in mathematics, he later switched to electrical engineering, as he considered mathematics to be too abstract. Noticing that he 'had gone too far,' he then switched to physics, which he claimed was 'somewhere in between.' To complete their bachelor's degree, all physics majors at MIT were then (as now) required to write a 'senior thesis'. "Thirteen physics majors completed senior theses in 1939. The world of accumulated knowledge was still small enough that MIT could expect a thesis to represent original and possibly publishable work. The thesis should begin the scientist's normal career and meanwhile supply missing blocks in the wall of organized knowledge, by analyzing such minutiae as the spectra of singly ionized gadolinium or hydrated manganese chloride crystals . Seniors could devise new laboratory instruments or investigate crystals that produced electrical currents when squeezed. Feynman's thesis began as a circumscribed problem like these. It ended as a fundamental discovery about the forces acting within the molecules of any substance" (Gleick). Feynman recounted his work on the thesis in an interview with Charles Weiner in March, 1966. "I went to Slater [the renowned solid-state theorist John Clarke Slater (1900-76)], and he gave me a problem, which was . why does quartz have such a small coefficient of expansion? He thought that maybe the possibility was that the quartz crystal has moveable - see it's silicone dioxide, SiO2 so I think there are oxygen's clinging to silicones, and in the motion the oxygen can swing back and forth, and it's a bent angle, turning back and forth, like the bores on the governor of an old steam engine, and when it turns - when this is oscillating, it's the same idea - it pulls the heads of the steam engine together, the ends, because the bore goes out by centrifugal force. And so the bent bottom will be shortened - I mean, it will be pulled together by the motion - and this will compensate the ordinary effects which tend to make something expand, so that the expansion will be much less than usual. Can I work out any details or estimates or something to show that in fact that's the reason that quartz doesn't expand? All right, that was the problem. I was very interested in it. The first thing I did was, I looked up the forms, crystobalite A, crystobalite B, crystal forms, and so on, to get the idea of the bonds and the angles and so on. I got in the crystal business. Then I realized I'd have to figure out how a change in forces will change the dimensions of the crystal. So then I got involved . with the connection between the forces between the atoms, and the forces - all together. For example, if a crystal is compressed, what is the compressent strength? Supposing I assume certain spring constants between all the atoms and I want to know what the elastic constants of the whole crystal are. I realized that what I had to do there was an infinite bridge truss problem, like the guys in applied engineering with bridges with a lot of members. I had an infinite number of members. But, because of the periodicity, I had an advantage that I could work out. Then I gradually developed the theory of the connection between the elastic bonds . So I worked that out, and then discovered by fooling around that I could get it for a principle of energy.

First edition. TURING AND THE SECRET OF LIFE. First edition of the extremely rare true offprint (without price to front wrapper), of Turing's last major published work, which was "in every respect ahead of its time" (Copeland, p. 510). Taking his cue from the zoologist D'Arcy Thompson, who held that the forms of living things are to be explained in terms of the operation of physical forces and mathematical laws, Turing presents here the first mathematical theory of embryology. "At a time when Crick and Watson were using X-ray diffraction to establish the structure of DNA, Turing was grappling with a theoretical understanding of how information might be spread and diffused at a chemical level. In a classic statement of the scientific method Turing wrote: 'a mathematical model of the growing embryo will be described. This model will be a simplification and an idealisation, and consequently a falsification. It is to be hoped that the features retained for discussion are those of greatest importance in the present state of knowledge'. The result was applied mathematics par excellence. Just as the simple idea of the Turing machine had sent him into fields beyond the boundaries of Cambridge mathematics, so now this simple idea in physical chemistry took him into a region of new mathematical problems" (Hodges, p. 434). "Alan Turing's paper, 'The chemical basis of morphogenesis,' has been hugely influential in a number of areas. In this paper, Turing proposed that biological pattern formation arises in response to a chemical pre-pattern which, in turn, is set up by a process now known as diffusion-driven instability. The genius of this work was that he considered a system which was stable in the absence of diffusion and then showed that the addition of diffusion, which is naturally stabilising, actually caused an instability. Thus, it was the integration of the parts that was as crucial to the understanding of embryological development as the parts themselves - patterns emerged or self-organised as a result of the individual parts interacting. To see how far ahead of his time he was, one has to note that it is only now in the post-genomic era of systems biology that the majority of the scientific community has arrived at the conclusion he came to 60 years ago . Applications of Turing's work to developmental biology are too numerous to list but include limb development, pigmentation patterning, hair and feather germ formation, tooth morphogenesis, phyllotaxis, hydra patterning and regeneration. Moreover, ideas of self-organization now abound in biology, chemistry and ecology. The stimulus for a lot of this work stems from Turing's original ideas. Although still very controversial, Turing's theory for morphogenesis provided a paradigm shift in our way of thinking" (Maini, in Alan Turing: his work and impact, p. 684). There are two separate issues of 'The chemical basis of morphogenesis', the genuine author's presentation offprint offered here, and a commercially produced reprint; the latter differs from the former only in the presence of a price (eight shillings) at the foot of the front wrapper. ABPC/RBH records the sale of only one copy of this offprint (Christie's, June 12, 2013, lot 136, £13,125) Provenance: Owner's name written in ink to upper right corner of front wrapper; botanist Otto L. Stein (1925-2014). The offprint is accompanied with a signed typed letter from 1956 by R.A. Brooker at the Computing Machine Laboratory Manchester in reply to Stein's request to Turing for a copy of the offprint. "Alan had thought about embryology all the time, fascinated by the fact that how such growth was determined was something 'nobody has yet made the smallest beginnings at finding out.' There had been little advance since Growth and Form [by D'Arcy Thomspon], the 1927 classic that he had read before the war. "The greatest puzzle was that of how biological matter could assemble itself into patterns which were so enormous compared to the size of the cells. How could an assemblage of cells 'know' that it must settle into a five-fold symmetry, to make a starfish? How could the Fibonacci pattern of a fir-cone be imposed in its harmonious, regular way upon a growing plant? How could matter take shape or, as biological Greek had it, what was the secret of morphogenesis? Suggestive words like 'morphogenetic field', vague as the Life Force, were employed by biologists to describe the way that embryonic tissue seemed to be endowed with an invisible pattern which subsequently dictated its harmonious development. It had been conjectured that these 'fields' could be described in chemical terms - but there was no theory of how this could be. Polanyi believed that there was no explanation except by a guiding esprit de corps; the inexplicability of embryonic form was one of his many arguments against determinism. Conversely, Alan told Robin [Gandy] that his new ideas were intended to 'defeat the Argument from Design'. "There were other suggestions in the literature for the nature of the 'morphogenetic field', but at some point Alan decided to accept the idea that it was defined by some variation of chemical concentrations, and to see how far he could get on the basis of that one idea. [The problem was] to discover circumstances in which a mixture of chemical solutions, diffusing and reacting with each other, could settle into a pattern, a pulsating pattern of chemical waves; waves of concentration into which the developing tissue would harden; waves which would encompass millions of cells, organising them into a symmetrical order far greater in scale. "There was one central, fundamental problem. It was exemplified in the phenomenon of gastrulation. in which a perfect sphere of cells would suddenly develop a groove, determining the head and tail ends of the emergent animal. The problem was this: if the sphere were symmetrical, and the chemical equations were symmetrical, without knowledge of left or right, up or down, where did th.

Pas de couverture. Etat : Comme neuf. Edition originale. "EXPOSITION PICASSO VALLAURIS 1956" Affiche originale entoilée tirée en linogravure par Imp. ARNERA Vallauris en 200 exemplaires non numérotés (1956) / Signée au crayon rouge de la main de PICASSO en plus de la signature imprimée dans la planche / Format entoilé: 69x103cm / Parfait état /// Original poster on linen (Linocut 1956 / printer ARNERA Vallauris)/ The edition was not numbered per piece, but we know there were only 200 printed. There are two signatures on this piece, one from the plate that was printed and one in red crayon hand-signed. / Size on linen: 69x103cm / Perfect condition.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. John Leech (illustrateur). 1st Edition. Set of three Daniel Defoe Editions of Robinson Crusoe:  Exceptionally rare set comprising all three books in the Robinson Crusoe series. A very good set in very good condition. All volumes are rebacked in calf with Vol 1 and 2 having raised bands on the spine. The contents are in very good condition with a scattering of brownings and light markings. Covers are lightly rubbed and corners/edges a little worn. Bindings are tight. All octavo 20cm x 13cm x 3cm. Volume 1, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York Mariner and Volume 2, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Being the Second and last part of his life. Together with the rarest of the three - Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe with his vision of the Angelick World. Volume 1: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Second Edition. 1719. Bookplate on front free page. Engraved front piece portrait by Clarke and Pine. Variant in p 343 Line 2 reading "Pilot" and Line 21 "Portugesfe" printed for W. Taylor at the ship in Pater-Nofter-Row. Volume 2: The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe being the second and last part of his life. First edition 1719. Map is missing. Volume 3: Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe: First edition. 1720. This volume was not as popular as the first two books so was never reprinted, making this the first and only printing. Few exists outside museums. This volume has excellent provenance as it was owned by Walter Wilson who was an evangelist of Daniel Defoe. Walter Wilson (1781¿1847) was an English biographer of nonconformist clergy and their churches. Wilson was an illegitimate son of the founder the Times newspaper. He became a book seller and set up a shop in Mewsgate, Charing Cross where he collected Daniel Defoe editions. Wilson went onto write a three volume "The Memoirs of the Life and Times of Daniel Defoe" in 1830 which was well received. When his father died, Wilson was left a shareholding in the Times newspaper. Bookplate with Walter Wilson printed on the paste down. Inscription to the front free end paper, dated March 11th 1832, as a gift from Walter Wilson to his friend James Plumptre. Light pencil markings on p112. Frontispiece of the map of the island with some episodes depicted, signed: "Clark & Pine Sc. 1719" is missing.

First edition. THE DISCOVERY OF NUCLEAR FISSION - PMM 422b . First edition, extremely rare offprint, of the discovery of nuclear fission, a process which had been observed by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann the previous year but for which they were unable to provide an explanation. "In the late 1930s, a series of experiments showed that bombarding uranium with neutrons produced several new radioactive elements, which were assumed to have atomic numbers near to that of uranium (Z = 92). This assumption followed naturally from the prevailing view of nuclear decay, which involved the emission, through tunnelling, of only small charged particles (α and Π). How then did one explain the formation of an element which was, as far as could be determined, identical to barium (Z = 56), and thus much smaller than uranium?" (Nature Physics Portal) "Experiments conducted in 1938 at Berlin by Hahn and Strassmann were reported to Lise Meitner, an Austrian scientist who had fled to Copenhagen to escape religious persecution. She and her nephew, O. R. Frisch, working in Niels Bohr's laboratory, found the true explanation of these phenomena. The interpolation of a neutron into the nucleus of a uranium atom caused it to divide into two parts and to release energy amounting to about 200,000,000 electron volts. This process bore such a close similarity to the division of a living cell that Frisch suggested the use of the term 'fission' to describe it" (PMM). "When Frisch returned to Copenhagen with the news, Bohr immediately exclaimed 'Oh, what idiots we have all been! Oh, but this is wonderful!' Bohr publicised the discovery at a physics conference in the US later in January 1939, and soon others were confirming Hahn and Strassman's results and Meitner and Frisch's calculations. It was quickly recognised that fission of uranium's 235 isotope would release further neutrons, possibly starting a chain reaction. On the eve of another war, the nuclear age had begun" (Sutton). The first nuclear reactor became operational in 1942 and the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945. Hahn was the sole recipient of the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei". The official Nobel citation noted only that "Otto Hahn's long-time colleague, Lise Meitner, and her nephew, Otto Frisch, tackled the problem from a theoretical standpoint and proved that the uranium nucleus had been split". No copy on OCLC. ABPC/RBH list a single copy (Sotheby's, 16 November 2001, lot 126). Provenance: Robert Leroy Platzman (signature on title page). Platzman (1918-73) was a chemist at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory during World War II, the research group responsible for the first successful nuclear reactor in 1942. Its primary role was to design a viable method for plutonium production that could fuel a nuclear reaction. Platzman, together with 70 other scientists from Chicago, signed the letter sent on July 17, 1945 by Leo Szilard to urge President Truman not to use the atomic bomb against Japan. He was involved in establishing and publishing the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a journal founded by Manhattan Project scientists who "could not remain aloof to the consequences of their work" (Atomic Heritage Foundation). "In December 1938, over Christmas vacation, physicists Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Otto Frisch (1904-79) made a startling discovery that would immediately revolutionize nuclear physics and lead to the atomic bomb. Trying to explain a puzzling finding made by nuclear chemist Otto Hahn (1879-1968) in Berlin, Meitner and Frisch realized that something previously thought impossible was actually happening: that a uranium nucleus had split in two. "Lise Meitner was born in Vienna in 1878. She grew up in an intellectual family, and studied physics at the University of Vienna, receiving a doctorate in 1906. As a woman, the only position available to her at that time in Vienna was as a schoolteacher, so she went to Berlin in 1907 in search of research opportunities. Meitner was shy, but soon became a friend and collaborator of chemist Otto Hahn. In 1912 the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for chemistry was established, and she obtained a position there. During World War I Meitner volunteered as an x-ray nurse in the Austrian army. Upon returning to Berlin she was made head of a physics section at the KWI, where she did research in nuclear physics. "After the neutron was discovered 1932, scientists realized that it would make a good probe of the atomic nucleus. In 1934 Enrico Fermi (1901-54) bombarded uranium with neutrons, producing what he thought were the first elements heavier than uranium. Most scientists thought that hitting a large nucleus like uranium with a neutron could only induce small changes in the number of neutrons or protons. However, one chemist, Ida Noddack (1896-1978), pointed out that Fermi hadn't ruled out the possibility that in his reactions, the uranium might actually have broken up into lighter elements, though she didn't propose any theoretical basis for how that could happen. Her paper was largely ignored, and no one, not even Noddack herself, followed up on the idea. "Following Fermi's work, Meitner and Hahn, along with chemist Fritz Strassmann (1902-80), also began bombarding uranium and other elements with neutrons and identifying the series of decay products. Hahn carried out the careful chemical analysis; Meitner, the physicist, explained the nuclear processes involved. "Meitner, who had Jewish ancestry, worked at the KWI until July 1938, when she was forced to flee from the Nazis. Her research was her whole life, and she had tried to hang on to her position as long as possible, but when it became clear that she would be in danger, she left hastily, with just two small suitcases. She took a position in Stockholm at the Nobel Institute for Physics, but she had few resources for her research there, and felt unwelcome and isolated. She kept up her correspondence with Hahn, an.

Hardcover. Etat : Fine. Dust Jacket Included. 1st Edition. Leopold, Aldo. "A Sand County Almanac", Oxford Univerity Press,1949. True first edition and first printing and first state book and dustjacket. Teal cloth with silver gilt letters on covers, original $3.50 price on dustjacket and no mention of "Round River" on back flap. Book and dustjacket in Near Fine condition. SIGNIFICANTLY SIGNED AND DEDICATED BY Mr. LEOPOLD'S WIFE TO LONG TIME COLLEAGUE AND CONSERVATIONIST WILLIAM ABERG. Dedication stands: "To Mr. Aberg, in appreciation of your untering work in conservation and the wonderful comradship between you and Aldo, Estella Bergere Leopold, October fourteenth 1949". An amazing association copy. This is a lovely copy of a book scarce in this condition and unheard of with such warm dedication. This is the closest we are going to get to an association copy for this title since the author passed away fighting a brush fire before the book was printed. Photos available upon request. $17,000. Inscribed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. 1597 1st John Gerarde Herball Plants English Herbal Illustrated Stirpium Botany Over 2100 INCREDIBLE Woodcuts / comp@$40,000+ John Gerard, also spelt John Gerarde, (c. 1545 1612) was a botanist and herbalist. He maintained a large herbal garden in London. His chief notability is as the author of a big 1484 pages and heavily illustrated Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes. First published in 1597, it was the most widely circulated botany book in English in the 17th century. Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes was often thought to be an English translation of Dodoen s Stirpium ; however, it was later discovered that Gerarde was brought in to finish the work of a Robert Priest. (see below for more thorough explanation of history) We find (uncolored) examples of this work for sale elsewhere for $23,000! We find a Sothebys auction record hand colored, for $40,000+ Main author: John Gerarde Title: The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. Published: London : John Norton, 1597. Language: Latin Notes & contents: 1st edition of most famous English herbal Contains portrait of Gerarde 2139 illustrated woodcut engravings Lacks only the following pages: o Engraved title page (replaced in facsimile) o Three prelims following title o pp. 15/16; pp. 983/984 + 19 various leaves from indices at end Provenance: Alexander O Driscoll Taylor (1832-1910, of Belfast, Ireland, booklabel, but died Newport , Rhode Island, USA); Robert Magill Young (1851-1925, of Belfast, inscription). The history of the production of Gerarde's Herball has not been entirely worked out. It seems that the publisher had commissioned Dr. Robert Priest to translate Dodoens' Stirpium historiae pemptades sex (1583) into English, but that he had died before completing the task. John Gerarde was then brought in, and finished the translation, while changing the system of classification from that of Dodoens (a pharmacological one) to that of Mathias de Lobel (an attempt at a natural system), and adding notes and observations of his own. The vast majority of the woodcuts were hired from the Frankfurt publisher of Tabernaemontanus. At one point Norton brought in Lobel to correct some of Gerarde's more egregious errors (Lobel claimed to have discovered over 1000). Gerarde's own contribution may be no more than his appealing Elizabethan prose style and his description of the 'Virginian potato'. One of the few woodcuts that is original to this work is in fact the first illustration of the potato. The Tabernaemontanus cuts were based on the images of Fuchs, Brunfels, Mattioli, and the Flemish botanists published by Plantin (Dodoens, L'Écluse, and others). Interestingly, the portrait of Gerarde, who is depicted aged 53 holding a potato flower, is dated 1598. It is by William Rogers, and exists both in an unsigned state, and signed 'WR' (as here). FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE Wear: wear as seen in photos Binding: tight and secure leather binding Pages: lacking only a few pages as described above, but otherwise complete with all 1392 pages; plus indexes, prefaces, and such Publisher: Morgiis : excudebat J. Le Preux, 1581. Size: ~13in X 9in (33cm x 22.5cm) FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE Shipping: Very Fast. Very Safe. Free Shipping Worldwide. Satisfaction Guarantee: Customer satisfaction is our first priority. Notify us within 7 days of receiving your item and we will offer a full refund guarantee without reservation. $15000 Photos available upon request.

First edition. LIMITED EDITION SIGNED BY EINSTEIN. First edition, number 629 of 760 numbered copies signed and dated by Einstein. This important volume contains Einstein's autobiography, specially written for the book, and itself an important scientific contribution. It also includes a bibliography of his works, twenty-five scientists' discussions of Einstein's work and achievements, with Einstein's response in his 'Remarks Concerning the Essays Brought Together in this Co-Operative Volume'. Contributors of essays include Niels Bohr, Max Born, Wolfgang Pauli, and Kurt Gödel. Nobel laureate Isidore Rabi's review hailed this as a most important and significant volume: "It is most difficult to get scientists to write simply and clearly about the fundamentals of their science and the leading philosophical ideas that guide them. Yet these very attitudes, preferences, and tastes are the fundamental ingredients which give quality, differentiation, and individuality to scientific creation and discovery" (Science 3 (1950), pp. 409-410). The book begins with Einstein's 'Autobiographical Notes'. "Everyone who knows Professor Einstein personally is all too well aware of his extreme shyness and his honest and forthright humility. I do not believe that there would have been one chance in ten thousand that the world would ever have secured an autobiography from the hand of Professor Einstein, if the unique nature of the Library of Living Philosophers had not finally convinced him of the worth-while-ness and significance of such an 'obituary', as he calls his autobiography. Einstein's 'Autobiographical Notes' in themselves assure, therefore, the unique importance of this volume" (Preface, p. xiv). Perhaps the most famous contribution other than by Einstein himself is Bohr's 'Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics' - "Bohr's account of his discussion with Einstein has been called 'one of the great masterpieces of modern scientific reporting.' According to Abraham Pais 'nowhere in the literature can a better access to [Bohr's] thinking be found'" (Jammer, Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, p. 136). There is also Gödel's 'A Remark about the Relationship between Relativity Theory and Idealistic Philosophy,' a seminal paper on the concept of time, which "appears to be the only published piece by Gödel that deals with philosophical issues not directly concerned with mathematics" (S. Feferman, Introductory note, Gödel's Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 199). In Hans Reichenbach's 'The Philosophical Significance of the Theory of Relativity,' the "argument over the nature and role of conventions in science . reach[ed] its highest level of sophistication . The question is whether the choice of a geometry is empirical, conventional, or a priori" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). "In this book there is played out a great scientific drama of the last two decades. The central theme is not a matter which is strictly scientific. It is not whether quantum mechanics is correct in the sense that it gives a true or false description of physical phenomena. It is agreed that quantum mechanics has been extraordinarily fertile in predicting new phenomena which have been verified by experiment and that it has reconciled a whole host of seemingly contradictory experimental results. "The sole question is whether quantum mechanics is satisfactory from the philosophic and aesthetic point of view, and whether it is a good point of departure for a more profound understanding of physical phenomena. "The book starts with an intellectual autobiography by Einstein himself. He satirically calls it his obituary. It is a singularly moving and charming document. I know of no other to compare with it. Neither Newton nor Maxwell nor any of the other great giants of physics had his Schilpp to catalyse such an effort. After reading Einstein's article one realises the great loss this is to scientific culture. "Einstein traces the development of his scientific attitudes frankly and objectively with many amusing digressions on education and other topics. He describes the crosscurrents of the scientific thinking of his day and the points of departure from which he made his great early contributions to statistics, quantum theory and relativity. It is an entrancing story. At the end it becomes manifest that relativity and field theory are his great loves. In these fields and modes of thought he finds real joy and comfort of spirit. Quantum theory, which has so completely pervaded the thinking of this age, leaves him quite cold. To him it is a provisional and useful structure but only, so to speak, 'what to do till the doctor comes.' Yet as becomes clear in later articles - particularly those of Bohr, Born, and Pauli - Einstein, almost more than anyone else after Planck, formulated the leading ideas on which quantum mechanics is founded. From a reading of Einstein's article, one has the impression that he never permitted himself to grasp the importance and significance of his own tremendous contributions to quantum theory. "For all the revolution which he brought to modern physics, Einstein remains the great classicist. Statistics for him are a means of gaining knowledge in situations where one is of necessity ignorant of the precise values and properties of many of the variables. However, to introduce a statistical interpretation into the very fundamental relations of physics, into the simplest conceivable physical situations, is repugnant to him. It is best summed up in his statement that he is willing to believe that the dear God plays dice, but not according to fixed rules. "With this attitude, Einstein has withdrawn himself from the mainstreams of physics of the last two decades. He has devoted himself to what he believes will be the right path to the construction of a unified field theory, which will combine the gravitational and electromagnetic properties of matter. Such a program, if successful, would leave no room for such empi.

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. Etat de la jaquette : Near Fine. 1st Edition. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Publishers. 1937, 1954. London, U.K. First edition and thirteenth printing. Signed by author on half title page. Book in FINE condition, tight and square, sharp corners. Dustwrapper in NEAR FINE condition, original 12s. 6d. net price present on front flap, no chips or damage, unfaded spine, foxing on both flaps. Overall a FINE copy in great collectible condition. Very rare signed. Photos available. $13500. Signed by Author(s).

Kein Einband. Etat : Gut bis sehr gut. Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) - Rare Document Signed - Last queen of France before the French Revolution whose public execution by guillotine, along with that of her husband, was the most grisly, visible, and powerful symbol of the political aims of the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. Highly desirable Document Signed "payez Marie Antoinette". 1 page, 9.25 x 14.5 inch, Versailles, 1788 April 1. As always the first "Marie Antoinette" at the end of the text was written by a secretary. Instructions to her general treasurer, Marc Antoine François Marie Randon de La Tour, to pay out a total of 270 livres from her budget "pour l Entretennement et nourriture de plusieurs de nos officiers pendant la présente année" an 18 "grands Valets de pied qui ont servi pres de nous pendant le Q[uarti]er de Janvier, Février et Mars". Boldly signed at the conclusion by Marie Antoinette and countersigned by her secretary Nicolas-Joseph Beaugeard. In 1793, Beaugeard was a conspirator in the failed plot to rescue King Louis XIV. from execution. Mailing folds, minor blemishes expertly repaired, else good condition. COMES WITH A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY BY ANDREAS WIEMER HISTORICAL AUTOGRAPHS. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Signatur des Verfassers.

First edition. THE FOUNDATION OF MODERN VIEWS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND EPIDEMIOLOGY. First edition of Fracastoro's most important scientific work, forming "the foundation of all modern views on the nature of infectious diseases" (Heirs of Hippocrates 101). "The first scientific definition of contagion known and a competent discussion of causes of infection. Gives a clear account of typhus" (Stillwell, The Awakening Interest in Science during the First Century of Printing, 368). Fracastoro's "most important medical treatise, De contagione, consists of a short theoretical discourse on sympathy and antipathy in physics and a longer, more practical account of contagion and contagious diseases. Here, for the first time, was a clear description of the spread of disease by seminaria contagionum, the seeds of infection - the suggestion of the germ theory. De contagione is arranged in three 'books.' The first explained the mechanism of contagion, how seminaria can be carried a distance, and why only some diseases are contagious. In the second book he wrote about a series of contagious diseases. Fracastoro had made careful observations; he differentiated smallpox from measles, gave the earliest precise description of typhus, and showed that tuberculosis was contagious. He discussed rabies and syphilis and dealt with the differential diagnosis of contagious skin diseases. Finally, in the third book, he outlined the treatment of diseases covered in book two and commented on the spread and control of epidemics" (Le Fanu, Notable Medical Books). "In this treatise on epidemiology Fracastoro hypothesized that contagious diseases were caused by minute particles, spontaneously generated from certain types of putrefaction and possessing the faculties of propagation and movement. He illustrated the three means by which contagion can be spread: by simple contact, as in scabies and leprosy; by fomites or inanimate carriers, such as clothing or sheets; and at a distance without direct contact, as in plague smallpox, and like diseases, whose transmission he attributed to the action of the air, denying widespread belief in the influence of occult powers'" (Norman). "Fracastoro's scientific thought culminates and concludes with De contagione et contagiosis morbis et curatione (1546), which assures him a lasting place in the history of epidemiology" (DSB). This copy of Fracastoro's work is bound with two minor medical works from the same press: Giovanni Antonio Sicco, De optimo medico, 1551, and Julius Alexandrinus, Antargenterica pro Galeno, 1546. Provenance: Signed on title of each work by 'Gabriel Canzeniusti' (?). "The three books of Fracastoro's De contagione form only one part of the volume as printed. Between the prefatory dedication to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and the work itself stands a separate tract on sympathy and antipathy. The exact relationship between the two treatises is never spelled out, but both serve to attack explanations for the working of the universe in terms of 'occult' qualities. Far from being hidden from the scientist, the causes of, for example, magnetic attraction or repulsion could be explained logically by the principle of antipathy and sympathy. The same doctrine could also explain why lime and a sponge were both good at soaking up water, and why some bodies were more receptive than others to particular diseases. The action of certain contagions was explicitly compared by Fracastoro to that of poisons or the deadly catablepha, whose gaze was believed to be fatal and whose virulence could be attributed to the antipathy of its 'spiritual form' to the spirits of the human body. In short, although Fracastoro did not explicitly make the connection, his tract On Sympathy provided a general theoretical framework for the discussion of the specific example of contagion and contagious disease. "This discussion involved both theory and practice. The first two books of De contagione offered a general theory of contagion, followed by a discussion of a number of different contagious diseases, while the third book dealt with their treatment and cure. The treatise opened with a definition of contagion that was far from unique to Fracastoro. Contagion was, so he stated, 'a similar corruption of the substance of a particular combination which passes from one thing to another and is originally caused by the infection of the imperceptible parts.' In other words, like could only corrupt like; contagion involved the transmission of a corrupt substance; and infection and corruption began at the most fundamental level of the body's constituents, the various combinations that made up each individual part of the body, beyond the reach of human perception. In that sense, the process of contagion was occult, but it could be revealed by sound reasoning. "More striking than this definition is Fracastoro's division of contagion into three types: by direct contact, by indirect contact through fomites, and at a distance. The first and third types had long been familiar, and Fracastoro was far from alone in incriminating such intermediaries as clothing and wood. But e appears to have been the first to use the word fomes as a technical term for the substance deposited on these intermediaries and to describe the transferred infective agent as 'seedlets of contagion' (seminaria contagionis). Both Galen and his medieval translators had used the phrase 'seeds of disease', albeit very occasionally, and Fracastoro himself in his poem Syphilis had talked of the seeds of disease 'creeping' into the body. But it is hard to interpret these allusions and metaphors precisely, even harder to reconstruct a theory of contagion and of seeds solely from within the poem. Such hints as exist were extended by Fracastoro in a prose tract on syphilis, probably written in the early 1530s. In it he oscillated between calling the infective agents of syphilis 'seeds', 'seedlets', or simply 'first principles' of contagion. His discussion was naturally.

First edition. THEORY OF THE PLANISPHERE - THE JONES-MACCLESFIELD COPY . First edition, very rare, the Jones-Macclesfield copy, signed by William Jones, of the first modern theoretical treatise on the planisphere, an instrument for representing the celestial sphere on a plane surface. Guidobaldo was one of the most prominent figures in the renaissance of the mathematical sciences, and is famous for his Mechanicorum liber (1577), generally regarded as the most important treatise on mechanics since Archimedes and a critical influence on his friend and disciple Galileo. "Two years after the publication of the Mechanicorum Liber, Guidobaldo released the Planisphaeriorum Universalium Theorica (1579), re-edited after another two years later at Cologne. The treatise attended to the mathematical branch in which Guidobaldo seems to have been most interested besides mechanics, namely to perspective . Guidobaldo's treatise of 1579 is subdivided in two books and is dedicated to the explication of various types of planispheres. Planispheres had the function to represent in the plane the celestial sphere with all his significant circles - a procedure that obviously posed problems relative to stereographic or orthogonal projection, according to the type of planisphere. Fundamental for their construction were the empirical guidelines given in Ptolemy's Planisphaerium. A different way of stereographic projection had been found by Gemma Frisius (1508-55), exposed in De astrolabio catholico (1556), by assuming the centre of projection on the equinoctial circle, while in Ptolemy it was fixed in one of the two poles. The advantage of this method consisted in the possibility to adapt the planisphere to an arbitrary latitude (for that reason it was called 'universal'), while Ptolemy's was valid only for a specific horizon.In the first book, Guidobaldo attends to comment on Gemma Frisius's planisphere furnishing geometrical demonstrations of what had remained unproven by the Dutch mathematician. Furthermore, he gave the necessary indications to construct the described device. In the second book, Guidobaldo approached the analysis of the planisphere of Juan De Rojas, considered the inventor of the universal astrolabe. As the projection exposed by the Spanish mathematician refers to a point of observation at infinite distance, his planisphere poses problems relative to orthographic projection. Guidobaldo addressed himself to the topic with the usual mathematical rigour, inter alia proving that the section of a cylinder and a plane (not parallel to the axis of the cylinder) is generally an ellipse - a fact unknown both to De Rojas and to Frisius. Here, again, he exposed a scientific instrument appropriate to draw ellipses, with a clear and detailed theoretical justification. This fact confirms Guidobaldo's interest in the practical aspects connected with mathematics, besides his unquestioned skill to present theorisations of mathematical fields" (Frank, pp. 40-41). ABPC/RBH lists only one other complete copy in a contemporary binding in the last 40 years. Provenance: William Jones (1675-1749) (signature on title), probably acquired by him from John Collins (1626-83); the Earls of Macclesfield (South Library bookplate on front paste-down, embossed stamp on first two leaves); sold Sotheby's, 13 April 2005, lot 1434, £3,360 ($6,372). As the Macclesfield catalogue notes (A-C, p. 12), "It is not unreasonable to suppose that anything published before 1683 [in the Macclesfield library] belonged to him [i.e., Collins]". It would seem very likely that Collins would have owned a copy of this book, given his own interest in mathematical instruments - he wrote The sector on a quadrant (1658); Geometrical dyalling (1659); and The mariner's plain scale (1659). Jones acquired Collins's books and papers some time before he edited Newton's Analysis per quantitatum series (1711). "Painters were well acquainted with the representation of a three-dimensional object by three two-dimensional drawings, in each of which the object is viewed along parallel lines that are perpendicular to the plane of the drawing (plan, front and side elevations). For example, a projection by means of parallel lines was used by Albrecht Dürer in his Von Menschlicher Proportion in 1528. Dürer used an orthographic projection to foreshorten the heads of humans, showing a top, front and side view, a method already used by Piero della Francesca in his unpublished manuscript De Prospectiva Pingendi. Thus, as a drawing method, a projection along parallel lines must have been common practice in the painter's workshop. However, it was left to the designers of mathematical instruments around the middle of the sixteenth century to understand the orthographic projection as a projection along parallel lines perpendicular to the plane of projection with the center of projection at infinity. "Astrolabes had a plate showing a map of the celestial sphere. The equator, the tropics, the ecliptic, the lines of equal azimuth and the almucantars were projected onto the astrolabe plate. Most common, also in the sixteenth century, was the use of a stereographic projection, with the south celestial pole as center of projection and the plane of the equator (or a plane parallel to it) as the plane of projection. This type of stereographic projection was used by Stöffler in his Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii (1513). "However, a major drawback was that the astrolabe plate made with this type of stereographic projection could only be used at the particular latitude it was designed for - each latitude asked for a different plate. The sixteenth century saw the publication of two different types of projection that were considered to be a solution to this problem. These projections allowed a 'universal' application of the astrolabe, that is, only one plate was needed, whatever the latitude of the observer or user of the astrolabe. "In 1556, the 'astrolabum catholicum' of Gemma Frisius was posthum.

Quarto. Pagination [20], 875, [1] p. Woodcut head-pieces, initials, and portraits within text. Collated and complete. Two verse dedications (Oo4 to Charles Howard, and Eee3) present, leaf Eee3 (Variant 3: cancel leaf signed "Nicols"), misbound after A4. [STC 13446; Pforzheimer 738]. Bound in later (probably 20th-century) panelled calf, first few leaves with small hole to blank inner margin, minor worming to first few gatherings, a few times touching text, a few closed tears, but without loss, some light damp staining and softening of blank margins of later leaves (Aaa-Lll6), with small loss to blank sections only. Three of the four titles have their 1610 date neatly amended to "1616" in early ink manuscript (the 1609 date to 'The Variable Fortvne' has not been amended). We have not ascertained the reason for this. There was no 1616 edition of A Mirror for Magistrates, but the date coincides with the death of one of the book's editors, Richard Niccols (1584-1616), and of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). 17th-century ownership inscription and purchase price to title page; "Ma: Weld pre 6d.8a." A Mirour for magistrates, was an influential sourcebook for Elizabethan dramatists, including Shakespeare, who "was familiar with it and used the story of Queen Cordelia for some points in 'King Lear'". Also, to be found here is the story of Locrine, "which was used in the anonymous play of that name wrongly attributed to Shakespeare in the Third Folio".1 The book is "a collaborative collection of poems in which the ghosts of eminent statesmen recount their downfalls in first-person narratives called 'tragedies' or 'complaints' as an example for magistrates and others in positions of power".2 This is a complete copy of the first complete edition of edition collects all three earlier parts of Mirrour for Magistrates and adds 'A Winter Nights Vision' and 'England's Eliza' (an account of the reign of Elizabeth I), written by Richard Niccols. Our copy is notable for having its cancel leaves present. According to Pforzheimer, "The general-title in all copies examined is a cancel, for what reason cannot even be conjectured. Originally A Winter Nights Vision had a dedication to Prince Henry, Sig [Oo4], but upon the death of that youthful patron of the arts that leaf was cancelled and a new one containing a dedication to the Earl of Nottingham inserted in its place. Evidently the substitution was delayed for most copies occur without any dedication."3 1. Bartlett, Henrietta Collins. Mr. William Shakespeare, original and early editions of his quartos and folios; his source books and those containing contemporary notices, 1922. 277 2. 3. Jackson, William A.; Emma Va Unger. The Carl H. Pforzheimer Library: English literature, 1475- 1700. 1997. 738.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. First edition 1839, with most first issue points, Smith 5, p.41/42. Rare and early signature, Faithfully Yours Charles Dickens, signed two days after publication  in October 25th, 1839 tipped in between plate and title page. Dickens signatures are scarce but this early is scarcer still. Contemporary half-calf binding, rubbed, with slight bumping to corners and extremities. Internally clean, some spotting to plates, occasional tears or marginal loss, most repaired and not affecting illustrations. Final leaf pp.623-624 torn with loss affecting text, otherwise complete. 8vo. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. Etat de la jaquette : Very Good. 1st Edition. Published in 1947 in New York by Reynal & Hitchcock. First edition, first impression. Book in Near Fine condition, grey cloth and bright red gilded title on spine and on front board, clean pages. Dustjacket in Very Good condition with original $3.00 on front flap, first issue dustjacket with "Advance critical acclaim" on back, very minor chips to spine ends, unfaded spine. Signed/inscribed by author on front page. Very rare copy signed in collectible condition. Photos available on request. $10,500. Inscribed by Author(s).

Kein Einband. Etat : Sehr gut. Einstein, Albert (1879-1955) - Humorous typed letter signed re: chocolates and limit speed - A German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. Best known for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 - "the world's most famous equation". Received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. Fantastic typed letter signed "A. Einstein". 1p., 8.5 x 11.0 inch, Princeton, 1949 March 28. On his blind embossed "A. Einstein 112, Mercer Street, Princeton, New Jersey stationery", erh. (received) 30/3 in pencil at the top, signed in dark black ink. Addressed to Mr. L. Manners in New York. In German, in full: "Sehr geehrter Herr Manners, Ihr Brief war wirklich erquickend. Man fühlt die freundliche Gesinnung und freut sich. Was nun die von Ihnen mit so viel Recht gepriesenen Pralinen anbelangt, so ist der Vergleich mit der Grenzgeschwindigkeit wohl berechtigt. Ich habe es konstatiert indem ich unter Missachtung strengster medizinischer Vorschrift eines aus der Menge probierte. Es ist gut, wenn man etwas produzieren kann, das dauernd des allgemeinen Interesses gewiss ist; mit dem Gehirn allein lässt sich das nicht zuwege bringen". Translated: "Dear Mr. Manners, Your letter was really refreshing. One feels the friendly attitude and is happy about it. As far as the chocolates you so rightly praised, the comparison with the limit speed is probably justified. I found it out by trying one of the crowd, disregarding the strictest medical regulations. It's good when you can produce something that is always of general interest; that cannot be achieved with the brain alone." Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. Mailing folds, else fine condition. Beautiful and humorous letter from the great scientist! COMES WITH A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY BY ANDREAS WIEMER HISTORICAL AUTOGRAPHS. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Signatur des Verfassers.

Kein Einband. Etat : Sehr gut. Hirohito, Emperor (1901-1989) & Kojun, Empress (1903-2000) - Scarce oversized formal presentation photographs signed - Emperor of Japan from 1926 to his death in 1989. Following the devastating result of the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in World War II, he renounced his divinity in favor of a democratic constitutional monarchy. Empress Kojun, born Princess Nagako was a member of the Imperial House of Japan and the wife of Emperor Hirohito. Incredibly scarce set of vintage matte-finish three-quarter length photographs of Hirohito and Empress Nagako. 8.5 x 12.75 inch, n.p., n.d. (about 1957), beautifully signed in thick black ink in Japanese by the emperor and empress. Inserted with photo corners in the original presentation folders, bearing an embossed gold Imperial Seal of Japan (called the Chrysanthemum Seal) on the front. Photographs in very fine condition, folders with minor handling and corner wear. Few Hirohito/ Kojun signed photographs are made available to the collecting public, particularly those of this quality and size. A wonderful pair and one of the finest you can hope to find. COMES WITH A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY BY ANDREAS WIEMER HISTORICAL AUTOGRAPHS. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Signatur des Verfassers.

Kein Einband. Etat : Sehr gut. Gandhi, Mohandas "Mahatma" (1869-1948) - Autograph letter signed "my heart is with you." - Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific "Mahatma" (from Sanskrit "great-souled"), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world. Wonderful autograph letter signed "Bapu". 1 page, recto and verso, 3.75 x 6.5 inch, Sevagram (Wardha), 1940 April 11. To Miss Lilian Andrews in Paignton. A fine letter regarding the death of his friend Charles Freer Andrews. In full: "My dear Lilian, my heart is with you all in the joint sorrows. For Charlie had innumerable brothers & sisters as good as beloved relations. I am sure you are braverly bearing the loss. His last moments were glorious. It was a grand thing that the metropolitan was with him. God be with you". The original mailing envelope (addressed in another hand) is included. Address has been redirected to London. Mailing fold, paper clip impression, minor stains, else good condition. Charles Freer Andrews (1871 - 5 April 1940) was an Anglican priest and Christian missionary, educator and social reformer, and an activist for Indian independence. He became a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi and identified with the Indian liberation struggle. He was instrumental in convincing Gandhi to return to India from South Africa, where Gandhi had been a leading light in the Indian civil rights struggle. Bapu is a word for "father" in many Indian languages. COMES WITH A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY BY ANDREAS WIEMER HISTORICAL AUTOGRAPHS. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Signatur des Verfassers.

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. Etat de la jaquette : Near Fine. 1st Edition. signed by author on title page; signature obtained in person by bookseller; originally sent as a review copy and includes the review slip and publicity sheet from the publisher; a deeply thoughtful collection from one of America's most significant writers and intellectuals. Signed by Author(s).

No Binding. Etat : Near Fine. Princeton, February 14th, 1769. Single page ADS by the hand of the Signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon. Measuring 7.5 x 4.5. Reading: "On sight of this please pay to the order of Jonathan Baldwin Steward of the College of New Jersey the sum of forty six Pounds ten Shillings money of New Jersey & place to my Account with the said College - Jno Witherspoon. Addressed To Mr Jonathan / Sergeant Treasurer of the / College of New Jersey, and Recd. of the Treasurer / Jon Baldwin. A rare surviving record of Witherspoon s formative work as president and head professor of Princeton University, then the College of New Jersey. He transformed the school from a small college that trained clergymen, into a more secular, academically rigorous institution designed to shape the leaders of a country. The very year this letter was signed, Aaron Burr entered Princeton under Witherspoon s tutelage, as did the young James Madison, who would become the Father of the Constitution. Witherspoon later became a member of the emergent American congress, and would assert that a plan of union should be laid down for all the colonies in opposition of British policy. His contribution to the American Revolution was major, yet of all the Signers of the Declaration, his manuscripts and documents are among the rarest. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. First edition. SYMMETRY IN QUANTUM MECHANICS. First editions, very rare offprint issues, of the papers that laid the foundations of the role of symmetry in quantum mechanics. "Wigner was a member of the race of giants that reformulated the laws of nature after the quantum mechanics revolution of 1924-25. In a series of papers on atomic and molecular structure, written between 1926 and 1928, Wigner laid the foundations for both the application of group theory to quantum mechanics and for the role of symmetry in quantum mechanics" (David J. Gross, 'Symmetry in Physics: Wigner's legacy,' Physics Today, December 1995, pp. 46-50). Wigner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles." Provenance: the last three offprints with the signature of German physicist Gregor Wentzel (1898-1978), who made important contributions to quantum mechanics; he is best known for the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation for finding approximate solutions to linear partial differential equations with spatially varying coefficients. "Eugene Paul Wigner (1902-1995) contributed in a seminal way to theoretical physics. He is distinguished from other physicists who laid the foundations of quantum mechanics from the mid-1920s by his pioneering application of group theory and symmetry principles to quantum mechanics. Steven Weinberg has seen in the introduction of symmetry principles to physics the core of the revolutionary world view which has come to dominate modern physics: 'Out of the fusion of relativity with quantum mechanics has evolved a new view of the world, one in which matter has lost its central role. This role has been usurped by the principles of symmetry, some of them hidden from view in the present state of the universe.' "Wigner was a key figure in building the new language Weinberg is writing about, especially in the domains of quantum mechanics and fundamental particle theory. While Wigner was not alone in carrying out this momentous project, he was a pioneer in applying symmetry considerations and group theory on a grand scale to quantum mechanics. while Hermann Weyl is sometimes thought of as the originator of the group-theoretic approach in quantum mechanics, Wigner's groundbreaking papers on group theory appeared before Weyl's important work on the subject" (M. Chayut, 'From the Periphery: the genesis if Eugene P. Wigner's application of group theory to quantum mechanics,' Foundations of Chemistry 3 (2001), 55-78). "In the spring of 1926, Heisenberg had written a paper ['Mehrkörperproblem und Resonanz in der Quantenmechanik,' Zeitschrift für Physik, 38 Band, pp. 411-426] on quantum states of two identical electrically charged oscillators symmetrically coupled to each other. These, he found, separate into two sets of states, one symmetric, the other antisymmetric, under exchange of the oscillator coordinates. He further discovered that radiative transitions can occur only between states within each set, never between one set and the other. He went on to conjecture that non-combining sets should likewise exist if the number of identical particles is larger than two, but had not yet found a proof. Six weeks later, this work led Heisenberg to give the theory of a famous, yet unsolved two-electron problem, the spectrum of the helium atom. "Wigner, who had read these papers soon after his return to Berlin, had become interested in this more-than-n identical particle problem. He rapidly mastered the case n = 3 (without spin) [the first offered paper]. His methods were rather laborious; for example, he had to solve a (reducible) equation of degree six. It would be pretty awful to go on in this way to higher n. So he went to consult the mathematician Johnny von Neumann. In the late 1950s Wigner explained to me what happened next. "When he posed his question to von Neumann - Wigner told me - Johnny walked to a corner of the room, faced the wall, and started mumbling to himself. After a while he turned around and said: 'You need the theory of group characters.' At that moment Eugene had no idea what that theory was about. Whereupon von Neumann went to Issai Schur, obtained reprints of two of his papers, and gave them to Wigner. '[Those were] so easy to read, and of course it was clear that that was the solution.' Within weeks, he had completed a second paper, now for the general n-particle problem [the second offered paper]. It contains these lines: 'It is clear that one can hardly apply these elementary methods [he had used for n = 3] to the case of 4 electrons, since the computational difficulties get to be too large. There exists, however, a well-developed mathematical theory which one can use here: . . . group theory. . . . Herr von Neumann has kindly directed me to the relevant literature. . . . When I told Herr von Neumann the result of the calculations for n = 3, he correctly predicted the general result' . Thus did group theory enter quantum mechanics. "Wigner has said later: 'I had a bad conscience because I felt that I should have published [that] second paper together with von Neumann.' Joint publications did soon follow, however, three papers on atomic spectra which take account of the spin of the electron" (Pais, The Genius of Science, p. 335). "Wigner perfected the group-theoretical 'explanation of certain properties of spectra' in three later communications [the last three offered papers] by taking care of the specific 'quantum mechanics of the spinning electron,' which he signed together with his friend John von Neumann and submitted in December 1927, February 1928 and June 1928, respectively. Von Neumann frequently came from Berlin to discuss matters with Wigner, who recalled: 'These papers were written principally by me, but I felt that I had to express my gratitude to von Neumann for having introduced me to the work of Fr.

First edition. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY VIVIANI TO MARIOTTE. The true first edition, very rare, signed and inscribed by Viviani to Edme Mariotte, of this important Galileanum, an assembly of previously unpublished writings by Galileo, together with texts by Torricelli and Viviani himself. Most importantly, it contains the first printing of a Galileo manuscript concerned with the Eudoxian theory of proportion which may be regarded as a supplement to the Discorsi (1638); the manuscript had been given to Viviani (1622-1703), Galileo's distinguished pupil, amainuensis, and biographer, by Cardinal de' Medici. Galileo had composed this manuscript in response to Viviani's demand that Galileo provide a more secure geometrical basis for his theory of falling bodies. As Galileo wrote to Benedetto Castelli in 1639, 'Objections made to me many months ago by this young man [Viviani] who is now my guest and disciple, against that principle postulated by me in my treatise on accelerated motion . made me think about this again in such a way as to persuade him that that principle might be conceded as true. Finally, to his and my great delight, I succeeded in finding a conclusive demonstration" (Boschiero, pp. 43-44). The manuscript had been dictated, in dialogue form, by Galileo to Torricelli in November 1641 (Galileo died on January 9, 1642). Since Torricelli's book on the theory of proportion (written in 1647) was not published, this edition by Viviani of Galileo's Fifth Day of the Discorsi (pp. 61-78) is the first printing of Galileo's reform of Book V of the Elements. It contains "Galileo's reflections on two definitions found in Euclid's Elements, that of 'same ratio' in Book V, and that of 'compound ratio' on Book VI. These were the two most important keys taken from antiquity in creating Galileo's mathematical physics . Galileo's critique of these definitions is by no means trivial. His discussion of Book V, Definition V, shows how a rigorous theory of irrational magnitudes can be built on the natural numbers by means of equimultiples . That is a large step in formulating a rigorous analysis of the continuum. His discussion of the spurious Book VI, Definition V illuminates the nature of mathematical definitions in general, essential to foundational analysis" (Drake, pp. 421-422). Galileo's treatise is prefaced by Viviani's own attempt to render more rigorous the theory of proportions, which includes ten new principles (pp. 1-60). The work also includes 12 letters from Galileo to an unnamed French scholar, an unpublished treatise by Galileo on the 'angle of contact', other unpublished works by Galileo on topics including the construction and use of telescopes and the movement of animals, and writings by Torricelli on Euclid, Book VI, and by Viviani on Euclid, Book I. A second edition was issued in 1676, with a second part containing the solution of 36 problems which had been published as challenges by a Leiden student in 1675, and with the dedication dated 16 May 1676, although the title page date remained 1674. The first edition is very rare: ABPC/RBH list only this copy since 1961. Institutional holdings are difficult to assess as collations are rarely given and the title page carries the same date in both editions. Provenance: Edme Mariotte, French physicist known for formulating Boyle's law independently - "honored as the man who introduced experimental physics into France, Mariotte played a central role in the work of the Paris Academy of Sciences from shortly after its formation in 1666 until his death in 1684" (DSB) (inscribed by Viviani on title verso 'A Monsieur Mariotte' and 'Vinc. Viviani' at bottom right); inscription of a Jesuit seminary on half-title recto, shelf-marks on front endpapers. "Viviani (1622-1703) was the son of Jacopo di Michelangelo Viviani, a member of the noble Franchi family, and Maria Alamanno del Nente. He studied the humanities with the Jesuits and mathematics with Settimi, a friend of Galileo's. His intelligence and ability led to his presentation in 1638 to Ferdinand II de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany. Ferdinand introduced him to Galileo, who was so impressed by his talent that he took him into his house at Arcetri as a collaborator in 1639" (DSB). "Often described as 'Galileo's last student,' Viviani is a principal actor in the standard account of the reception of the Two New Sciences, included for his devotion to his late teacher and for the volume of textual material he preserved and produced . Viviani is often considered in tandem with another of Galileo's students, Evangelista Torricelli. Torricelli and Viviani served successively in Galileo's former position as mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany . After Galileo's death, both Viviani and Torricelli continued to work with Galileo's unpublished manuscripts. They developed some of these writings into two additional 'days' to augment the 1638 publication. The Fifth Day was published in 1674 by Viviani as Quinto Libro degli Elementi d'Euclide ovvero Scienza Universale delle Proporzioni (Raphael, pp. 47-48). "During the last months of Galileo's life, as Viviani embarked on a career inside the Tuscan Court, they worked together in order to strengthen the role of mathematics in natural philosophy . The topic they worked on together to achieve this was the geometrical demonstration of accelerating falling bodies. Galileo's and Viviani's combined efforts to illustrate accelerated motion on inclined planes, resulting in the scholium Viviani added to the Third Day of Two New Sciences, became a major part of Viviani's education, shaping the natural philosophical skills, commitments, and agendas he was to use during his entire career . "To complete his dynamical analysis of the ratios of speeds of bodies falling down differently inclined planes, [Galileo] wrote the following postulate; a critical part of his mathematical demonstration of the physical phenomenon of accelerating falling bodies: the body always reaches the same sp.

First edition. UNCUT LARGE PAPER COPY. First edition, very rare uncut large paper copy, and a very early printing of this great work (see below). "The first and best edition, and rare" (Duveen). "[Boerhaave] introduced exact quantitative methods into chemistry by measuring temperature and using the best available balances made by Fahrenheit; indeed he may be considered the founder of physical chemistry as well as a contributor to pneumatic chemistry and biochemistry . When a spurious edition of his chemical lecture notes was published in 1724 . he felt impelled to publish a textbook on chemistry, the Elementa chemiae, which was later translated into English and French and remained the authoritative chemical manual for decades" (DSB). In the preface, Boerhaave pointedly disowned the unauthorised 1724 publication, railing that "The false Notions, Absurdities, and Barbarisms, that are imputed to me in every page of that Work, are so abominable, that they will not bear mentioning" (quoted in Powers, Inventing Chemistry, p. 144). To distinguish the present authorised edition from that published in 1724, Boerhaave signed all copies on the verso of the title page. This copy is printed on thick paper - the text block of this copy is about one-third thicker than that of a normal copy - and is entirely uncut. The only other uncut large paper copy we have located is that in the British Library; the only other large paper having appeared in commerce was the Macclesfield copy (although it was not so described in the Macclesfield catalogue). This copy is 2 cm taller and 1 cm wider than the Macclesfield copy. "To some historians of science the great event of the 18th century is the rise of modern chemistry. This is commonly associated with the names of men like Black, Cavendish, Scheele, Priestley or Lavoisier, whose careers, distinguished by brilliant discoveries, fell mainly in the later part of the century. But if we are to judge history not only in terms of individual men's accomplishments, but also of the influence which guided them, the name of Herman Boerhaave and the title of his great work, Elementa chemiae, stand out among all the others. Boerhaave gathered up the chemistry of the centuries before him, extracted what was factually sound, eliminated what was theoretically irrelevant, and re-presented it in a form congenial to a century which was to seek above all things a dignified enlightenment. Boerhaave assimilated to a chemistry which was a practical art a chemistry which was a material philosophy, and he expounded the product as a science unified as best he knew . "Like all chemists of his time and even after him, he had to come to terms with the traditions of alchemy. He did so experimentally, finding that he could repeat some of the alchemists' experiments, while others he could not. To some extent he retained a theory of the composition of metals similar to that of the alchemists but experiment was for him the deciding factor in his choice, not tradition. "His chemical lectures were enormously successful and suffered a common fate. They were recorded, transcribed, and published by students, without his consent. They appeared in 1724 as Institutiones et experimenta chemiae, followed by other editions and in 1727 an English translation. Anyone may be expected to be angry at unauthorised publications. Boerhaave was doubly angry to see his books being brought into his own lectures. He could rectify the position only by producing his own textbook. It appeared in 1732, each copy bearing a signed declaration as a guarantee of authenticity . "The leading characteristic of this great work is its realism. Stahl defined chemistry succinctly as the art of resolving compound bodies into their principles and of recombining them again. By comparison Boerhaave's definition is ponderous: Chemistry is "an art which teaches the manner of performing certain physical operations, whereby bodies cognizable to the sense, capable of being rendered cognizable, and of being contained in vessels, are so changed by means of proper instruments, as to produce certain determinate effects, and at the same time discover the causes thereof, for the service of various arts." Yet while Stahl's writings are complicated, argumentative and self-opinionated, Boerhaave's are clear and purposeful, superior in their discipline to the author's definition of the subject. Perhaps the biggest difference between these two influential men was that Stahl denied the relevance of chemistry to medicine, whereas Boerhaave saw the relevance of chemistry to every art including medicine" (Greenaway, pp. 102-4). "Boerhaave was firmly convinced of the usefulness of chemistry in medicine and the "mechanical arts", among which he mentioned in particular painting, enamelling, staining glass, manufacturing glass, dyeing, metallurgy, the art of war, natural magic, cookery, the art of winemaking, brewing, and alchemy. In the "practical part" of his textbook he presented a collection of 227 "processes" which were, apart from dozens of experiments devoted unambiguously to chemical analysis, recipe-like descriptions of "the actual operations of chemistry" - that is, familiar operations performed in pharmaceutical and chemical laboratories all over Europe, both for the acquisition of knowledge and for the manufacture of useful goods. Much of the fame of Boerhaave's Elementa chemiae depended on this second, practical part of the book" (Klein & Lefèvre, Materials in 18th century Science: A Historical Ontology (2007), p. 29). "Boerhaave's [Elementa chemiae] is dedicated to his brother Jacobus (James), 'in memory of the many days and nights we have spent together in the chemical examination of natural bodies, at the time when your chief view was to Medicine and mine to Theology.' It begins in Part I with a good history of Chemistry; Part II is on the Theory of Chemistry (metals, salts, the universal acid, sulphur, bitumens, stones, earths, semi-metals, vegetables, and anim.

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. 1551 RARE Peter Apian Cosmographia Astronomy Navigation AMERICA Map Mathematics Peter Apian was a 16th-century humanist who is remembered for his studies in astronomy and mathematics. His best and most-known work was his book on cosmography which was extremely influential into the 17th-century. In this work, Apian discusses navigation by use of astronomy, utilizing woodcut illustrations to depict aspects of astronomy and navigation. Other illustrations include zodiac characters, planets, maps, and navigational instruments. Perhaps the most important aspect of this book is that it is one of the earliest works relating to America. In 1507, Martin Waldseemuler printed a map which included the word America for the first time. Cosmographiae Introductio was published as an accompaniment to that map. This 1551 edition was collected and annotated by Gemma Frisius, a famed Dutch cartographer. The illustrations found in this work are utterly impressive it even includes interactive engravings imitating navigational devices. Item number: #24721 Price: $9500 APIANUS, Peter Cosmographia Petri Apiani, per Gemmam Frisium Parisiis: Vivant Gaultherot, 1551. Details: Collation: Complete with all pages o [4], 74 leaves (i.e. 70) o Numerous woodcut engravings throughout (4 interactive) References: USTC 150792 Language: Latin Binding: Vellum; tight and secure Size: ~9.5in X 6.5in (24cm x 16.5cm) EXCEEDINGLY RARE, valuable, and desirable Our Guarantee: Very Fast. Very Safe. Free Shipping Worldwide. Customer satisfaction is our priority! Notify us with 7 days of receiving, and we will offer a full refund without reservation! 24721 Photos available upon request.