science, Edition originale (Plus de 514 000 résultats)

147 woodcut diagrams in the text. 6 p.l., 196 leaves. Small folio (272 x 190 mm.), cont. Parisian binding of light brown calf (very skillful restorations to the binding), panelled in blind with gilt fleurons in the corners, gilt floral tool in the center of each cover of a hand holding flowers, small gilt stars in the six compartments of spine. Nuremberg: J. Petreius, 1543. First edition, and a very fine and crisp copy, of "the earliest of the three books of science that most clarified the relationship of man and his universe (along with Newton's Principia and Darwin's Origin of Species)."-Dibner, Heralds of Science, 3. This work is the foundation of the heliocentric theory of the planetary system and the most important scientific text of the 16th century. This is the seventh or eighth copy I have handled over the past 39 years. How does it compare to the others? Quite nicely. First of all, this is one of the largest copies extant; simply, this copy is really big. Also, I have had only one other copy in a 16th-century binding (Census I.245). Our binding, while carefully and skillfully repaired, is a very beautiful contemporary Parisian example; the tool of a hand holding flowers in the center of each cover is very similar to the one used on many of Marcus Fugger's plain calf bindings. It is a lovely tool in general use by the Paris binders of the period 1550-1560. The endpapers have been renewed but they are not offensive. There is a small early erasure of an ownership inscription on the title just slightly touching the "D." in the date. The first six leaves have some light dampstaining but it is pale. Provenance: At the foot of the title-page, another early signature has been thoroughly lined through. 17th- or 18th-century ownership inscription on title: "Collegii Parisiensis Societat jesu." -Bookplate of Gustavus Wynne Cook (1867-1940, amateur astronomer, collector, and benefactor of the Franklin Institute). -Franklin Institute Library bookplate. -Sold Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 2 November 1977, lot 85, to the British Railway Pension Fund (a famously selective buyer). -Purchased by Pierre Berès at Sotheby's London, 21 October 1980 and sold to a prominent Spanish private collector. A very large, fresh, and crisp copy (the leaves "crackle"). Preserved in a morocco-backed box. Collation as in Horblit; some copies - about 20 per cent according to Prof. Gingerich - contain an errata leaf printed separately and later. â § Evans, Epochal Achievements in the History of Science, 15. Gingerich, An Annotated Census of Copernicus' De Revolutionibus, Madrid 7. Gingerich, Rara Astronomica, 16. Horblit 18b. Printing & the Mind of Man 70-"a landmark in human thought. It challenged the authority of antiquity and set the course for the modern world by its effective destruction of the anthropocentric view of the universe." Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 40. Zinner 1819 & p. 42.

Hardcover. Etat : Fine. Bound in attractive, contemporary Parisian calf with some discreet repairs. The boards are blind-ruled and adorned with gold-tooled ornaments. This is one of very few to have appeared on the market in a contemporary binding. The text is in excellent condition, with just minor blemishes (small early erasure of an ownership inscription on the title just slightly touching the "D." in the date. Light damp-staining to first six leaves.) Collation as in Horblit; this copy without the errata leaf -printed separately and later- that is found in a minority of copies (about 20 percent). Preserved in a morocco-backed box. Provenance: At the foot of the title-page, an early signature has been thoroughly lined through. 17th- or 18th-century inscription on title of the Jesuit College of Paris. Bookplate of Gustavus Wynne Cook (1867-1940, amateur astronomer, collector, and benefactor of the Franklin Institute). Franklin Institute bookplate. Soldat Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, November 1977, lot 85. Purchased by Pierre Berès at Sotheby's London, 21 October 1980 and sold to a prominent Spanish private collector. "The earliest of the three books of science that most clarified the relationship of man and his universe (along with Newton's Principia and Darwin's Origin of Species)."-Dibner, Heralds of Science, 3. This work is the foundation of the heliocentric theory of the planetary system and the most important scientific text of the 16th century. Copernicus began to work on astronomy on his own. Sometime between 1510 and 1514 he wrote an essay that has come to be known as the Commentariolus that introduced his new cosmological idea, the heliocentric system, and he sent copies to various astronomers. He continued making astronomical observations whenever he could, hampered by the poor position for observations in Frombork and his many pressing responsibilities as canon. Nevertheless, he kept working on his manuscript of On the Revolutions. In 1539 a young mathematician named Georg Joachim Rheticus (1514-1574) from the University of Wittenberg came to study with Copernicus. Rheticus brought Copernicus books in mathematics, in part to show Copernicus the quality of printing that was available in the German-speaking cities. He published an introduction to Copernicus's ideas, the Narratio prima (First Report). Most importantly, he convinced Copernicus to publish On the Revolutions. Rheticus oversaw most of the printing of the book, and on 24 May 1543 Copernicus held a copy of the finished work on his deathbed. It is impossible to date when Copernicus first began to espouse the heliocentric theory. Had he done so during his lecture in Rome, such a radical theory would have occasioned comment, but there was none, so it is likely that he adopted this theory after 1500. His first heliocentric writing was his Commentariolus. It was a small manuscript that was circulated but never printed. We do not know when he wrote this, but a professor in Cracow cataloged his books in 1514 and made reference to a "manuscript of six leaves expounding the theory of an author who asserts that the earth moves while the sun stands still" (Rosen, 1971, 343). Thus, Copernicus probably adopted the heliocentric theory sometime between 1508 and 1514. Rosen (1971, 345) suggested that Copernicus's "interest in determining planetary positions in 1512-1514 may reasonably be linked with his decisions to leave his uncle's episcopal palace in 1510 and to build his own outdoor observatory in 1513." In other words, it was the result of a period of intense concentration on cosmology that was facilitated by his leaving his uncle and the attendant focus on church politics and medicine. In the Commentariolus Copernicus listed assumptions that he believed solved the problems of ancient astronomy. He stated that the earth is only the center of gravity and center of the moon's orbit; that all the spheres encircle the sun, which is close to the center of the universe; that the universe is much larger than previously assumed, and the earth's distance to the sun is a small fraction of the size of the universe; that the apparent motion of the heavens and the sun is created by the motion of the earth; and that the apparent retrograde motion of the planets is created by the earth's motion. Although the Copernican model maintained epicycles moving along the deferent, which explained retrograde motion in the Ptolemaic model, Copernicus correctly explained that the retrograde motion of the planets was only apparent not real, and its appearance was due to the fact that the observers were not at rest in the center. The work dealt very briefly with the order of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the only planets that could be observed with the naked eye), the triple motion of the earth (the daily rotation, the annual revolution of its center, and the annual revolution of its inclination) that causes the sun to seem to be in motion, the motions of the equinoxes, the revolution of the moon around the earth, and the revolution of the five planets around the sun. The Commentariolus was only intended as an introduction to Copernicus's ideas, and he wrote "the mathematical demonstrations intended for my larger work should be omitted for brevity's sake.". In a sense it was an announcement of the greater work that Copernicus had begun. The Commentariolus was never published during Copernicus's lifetime, but he sent manuscript copies to various astronomers and philosophers. He received some discouragement because the heliocentric system seemed to disagree with the Bible, but mostly he was encouraged. Although Copernicus's involvement with official attempts to reform the calendar was limited to a no longer extant letter, that endeavor made a new, serious astronomical theory welcome. Fear of the reaction of ecclesiastical authorities was probably the least of the reasons why he delayed publishing his book. The most important reasons for the delay.

No binding. Etat : Near fine. First. "THE MOST DISTINGUISHED OF ALL PRINTS OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA" [London:] Engraved by G. Vandergucht, Sep.br 1.st 1754. First state ("Skull" for "Scull" twice on sheet 3). Four sheets (ca. 29 1/2" x 23 1/2" each). Framed floating. An old transverse crease about 9" below the top edge, reinforced verso. Some small repairs to the sky. Tanning at the corners from an early mount. With good upper and lower margins throughout; sheets 1-3 trimmed to right-hand plate-mark; sheet 4 trimmed to left-hand plate-mark. Occasional very mild patches of tanning. An extraordinary set. From its founding in 1680 between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, Philadelphia was strategically poised to be a hub of trade. By the mid-XVIIIc it had become the major Atlantic port, fueling a golden age of growth and eminence in the arts and sciences -- the Athens of America. The Penn family had long dominated the colony, and Thomas Penn, the founder's son, commissioned a grand view of the city in 1750 to commemorate and to enhance its stature (the Penn arms at the lower left corner of the third plate underscore their dominance). George Heap undertook the project; he had been Philadelphia's coroner. The ambition of the project matched the city's stature: it was the grandest illustrated view of an American city that had ever been attempted. Nicholas Scull (perhaps an uncle by marriage) superintended the work, and Heap began advertising for subscribers (20 shillings, 10 payable in advance) and with that money set sail for England (there being no means to print it in Philadelphia) with his drawings. Heap got only as far as Delaware, and died on-board; he was buried in Philadelphia on Boxing Day 1752. Thereafter Scull shepherded the vast work through the engraving and publishing process. The Dutch engraver Gerard Vandergucht was commissioned to cut the plates, which finally emerged in June of 1754 (the King hung it in his own apartments). Wainright begins his article on the prospect by hailing it as "the most distinguished of all prints of the city of Philadelphia in terms of age, rarity, and historic importance." In 1755 the view was shrunk by about two-thirds, and placed above a plan of the city and a view of the state house and the batter, engraved by Thomas Jefferys. This is far more common; of the Heap-Scull-Vandergucht view we have located only six copies in institutional collections: the American Philosophical Society (.748:P53:1754), Haverford College, Colonial Williamsburg, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (second state), Independence National Historic Park and the New York Public Library (Stokes Collection, second state). Deák I:99 (second state). See Wainright, Nicholas B. "Scull and Heap's East Prospect of Philadelphia" in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 73, no. 1 (January 1949) 16-25.

Hardcover. Etat : Near fine. First. THE FIRST MODERN ATLAS -- "THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL PTOLEMY EDITIONS" -- THE BOURNE-ROSENBACH-STREETER-WARDINGTON COPY. First edition. Strasbourg: Johann Schott, 1513. Folio ( 17 1/2" x 12 1/2", 444mm x 317mm). With 47 woodcut maps by Martin Waldseemüller, 45 double-page, 2 single (the final map printed in three colors). Bound in contemporary paneled dark calf (rebacked) over wooden boards with red silk ties. On the boards, two broad borders of emblems blind. In the central panel, fleurons with two sets of initials: "T. C." and "T. A." On the spine, seven raised bands with blind fleurons in the panels. Presented in a felt-lined clam-shell box by Brockman. Rebacked. Conserved by James and Stuart Brockman (full report available on request). Ties perished. Lacking the final blank. Small dampstain to the lower fore-corner, with some additions and repairs. Ownership signature on the title-page: "Su[m] Jo(hannis) Bourne". With scattered early ink marginalia to the text and to the plates. Bookplate of Thomas Winthrop Streeter (his sale, Parke-Bernet 25 Octover 1966, lot 6) to the front-paste down, between a lot description of the volume and the armorial bookplate of York Minster. Gilt bookplate of Lord Wardington (his sale, Sotheby's London 10 October 2006, lot 399) to the rear paste-down. Claudius Ptolemaeus was a second-century philosopher living in Roman Alexandria in Egypt. In the Greek tradition, philosophy -- the love of wisdom -- bridged what we now divide into the humanities and the sciences; he was a mathematician, natural scientist and geographer-astronomer. No manuscripts of the Geographike Hyphegesis (Geographical Guidance) survive from before the XIIIc, but some examples survive with maps that bear some relation to those Ptolemy himself drew. Various translations circulated, but Ringmann's is generally regarded as superior to his predecessors'. In the XVc, the Geographia was the core of ancient knowledge of the world. It was crucial to explorers; Columbus expected to find the East Indies because of Ptolemy's calculations and assertions about longitude. With funding from René II, Duke of Lorraine (whence the polychromy of the map of Lorraine), Walter Lud, canon in St-Dié-des-Vosges, gathered a group of humanists to knit together the new knowledge coming from Christopher Columbus and other early explorers with a new translation (Ringmann) and new maps (Waldseemüller). Together they revolutionized cartography, and were likely responsible with the coinage of America and a description of the New World. The provenance of the present copy befits the importance of the work. Sir John Bourne (ca. 1518-1575) was, until the accession of Queen Mary (1553), a rather minor parliamentary figure. Probably due to his support of Mary's claim in the succession crisis, he was knighted, given a manor and elevated to a principal secretaryship on the Privy Council. Having grown quite rich -- he was a founder of the Russia (or Muscovy) Company, perhaps the source of his geographic curiosity -- Bourne was a significant book-collector, and more than a dozen of his volumes (in Greek, Latin and Hebrew) are to be found in institutional libraries. Eight of Bourne's books remain in the collection of York Minster, most having been acquired by Toby Matthew, Archbishop of York. Doubtless our volume entered the library of the cathedral in the same way. Long afterwards, the book was bought privately by that greatest of all booksellers, A.S.W. Rosenbach, who sold it to Thomas W. Streeter, whose sale of Americana was epochal. Charles W. Traylen -- himself a force among booksellers for some eight decades -- bought the volume at that sale on behalf of Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, Lord Wardington, in whose collection it remained until his death. His landmark sale of important atlases and geographies in 2006 included some 20 copies of Ptolemy's Geography. Fairfax Murray German 348 and 348A; Harrisse 74; Phillips 359; Sabin 66478; Shirley 34; Streeter I:6.

No binding. Etat : Near fine. First. THE ORIGINALS DRAWINGS OF THE MOST AMBITIOUS STATE SURVEY OF MARYLAND. 1833-1837: 1. Manuscript map of Washington and Frederick Counties. 19 1/2" x 27 1/4", laid down on linen. Ink and wash. 2. Manuscript map of the District of Columbia and Anne Arundel, Montgomery and Prince George's Counties. 19 3/8" x 20 1/2", laid down on linen. Ink and wash. 3. Manuscript triangulation map of the northeastern part of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Plateau. 21 3/4" x 29 1/2", laid down on linen. Graphite and red and black ink. 4. Manuscript map of Dorchester, Somerset and Worcester Counties. 19 1/2" x 27 1/2", laid down on linen. Ink and wash 5. Manuscript map of Kent, Queen Ann, Talbot and Caroline Counties. 19 1/2" x 17 1/4", laid down on linen. Ink and wash. 6. Manuscript map of Calvert, Charles and St. Mary Counties. 19 1/2" x 27 1/4", laid down on linen. Ink and wash. 7. Manuscript map of Allegany County (including modern Garrett County). 19 1/2" x 27 1/2", laid down on linen. Ink and wash. 8. Manuscript map of Baltimore, Harford and Cecil Counties. 7 3/4" x 12 3/8". Graphite. 9. Manuscript map of the state of Maryland. 16 1/4" x 28", laid down on linen. Ink. 10. Map, shewing the proposed Division of the Counties of Howard and Anne-Arundel. Baltimore: Edward Weber, [ca. 1837]. 13" x 22" sheet. Lithograph. 11. Map showing the proposed new Carroll ("Carrol") County and its surroundings. Baltimore: J. Penniman, [ca. 1835]. 16" x 10" sheet. On the verso, the text of the petition. [Individual condition reports available.] Each map with marginal pencil shelfmarks as well as inkstamps from the Enoch Pratt Free Library. In 1833, John Henry Alexander (1812-1867), twenty-one and already some years graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, was commissioned by the Maryland General Assembly to survey and map the whole of its state for topographical and census purposes. Alexander as State Topographical Engineer with his friend Julius Ducatel, State Geologist, mapped the whole of the state with exceptional accuracy, issuing surveys with the General Assembly's annual reports through 1840. The present manuscript maps are the basis for those printed and published maps. Although the project was never completed, Alexander's is surely the largest contribution made by an individual to the mapping of a state. The small pencil map (8) shows an earlier phase of the mapmaking process; it would be enlarged and inked once it had been reviewed. Triangulation was the most accurate method of mapmaking up until satellite surveys; Alexander proposed to build on the work of the United States Office of Coast Survey, founded 1807 and re-established in 1832, which used the same method, but was sluggish in reaching Maryland. The general trigonometric plan is visible in map 3, but Alexander would not have the opportunity to bring it down to the county level. When funding stopped in 1841, he abandoned the project, and focused his efforts on his highly profitable coal mines in the western part of the state. (The Library of Congress holds a single three-sheet manuscript map of Alexander's (LCCN 77693816) from 1840, summing up all the work that had been done up to that point.) Alexander's maps would come to be of immense use in the Civil War in order to mount the defense of Washington, D.C. The collection of maps was given anonymously to the Maryland Academy of Sciences in January of 1878, though it is generally understood that the donor was the widow of Philip T. Tyson, the State Agricultural Chemist, who in 1859 brought to completion the geological survey that had stopped with Ducatel's death in 1849. The Maryland Academy of Sciences deposit the collection with the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore in 1937; the inkstamps and shelfmarks are from their collection. Papenfuse, Edward C. and Joseph M. Coale III. The Maryland State Archives Atlas of Historical Maps of Maryland 1608-1908. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003; 67-70.

Wandesburg (i.e. Wandsbeck, for the author by Philip Ohrs), 1598. Small folio. In the original blue silk binding with richly gilt ornamentation to boards. Professionally recased in the 1970'es with 90% of the original silk boards preserved over new blue silk. Green silk ties. A small, neat restoration to the border of the title-page, barely noticeable. A4 and H2 restored and at margins with newer paper margins in perceftly matching paper. The restoration touches the outer borders, most significantly on H2, where the inner border is almost covered by the new paper. The lower blank border of A4 cropped. Otherwise in splendid condition. 42 ff. With 22 magnificent full-page illustrations, of which 4 are engraved and the rest are woodcut. Title printed in red and black and all pages, including the title-page, printed within woodcut ornamental border. Large woodcut device to title-page, with spere and compass, and allegorical woodcut to colophon. Title-page (which is printed in red and black) is uncoloured, but all other leaves are in magnificent contemporary handcolouring, and many of the illutstrations are illuminated in gold. All woodcut borders couloured in green and greeninsh blue, and large initials, head-and tail-pieces and devise on colophon are coloured in various colours, as are all illustrations.The word "INGENIOSE" of the imperfectly printed headline on G3 supplied on manuscript (as in most known copies), presumably in Brahe's own hand. Exceedingly scarce first edition, hand-coloured gift-copy in the original gift-binding with a remarkable provenance, of Tycho Brahe?s monumental work, in which he depicts and describes his groundbreaking astronomical instruments as well as his observatory on Hven, gives an account of his contributions to astronomy, and showcases the beginning new astronomy and the invention of modern empirical science.One of presumably 60 copies printed, all produced for private distribution only, as the entire print run of the first printing were meant as presentation-copies, and one of ab. 40 copies known. Almost all surviving copies are ininstitutions. Lauritz Nielsen traced 42 copies, four of which were destroyed by war, and Norlind added a further five copies, plus ab. 9 copies mentioned in contemporary correspondence to have been sent by Brahe toluminaries of the period.This magnum opus of astronomy describes and depicts the astronomical inventions of Tycho Brahe, especially the instruments, through which the stars and planets could be observed and by which distances and ascensionscould be measured. Brahe had invented three types of instruments of monumental importance to the beginning of modern empirical science and crucial to the new astronomy that he invented. He describes three types of these instruments: 1.quadrants and sextants used for determining altitudes and azimuths" 2. armillary instruments for measuring right ascensions and declinations, or longitudes and latitudes with respect to the ecliptic and 3. instrumentsdesigned for the determination of angular distances between celestial bodies (sextants and the bipartite arc). ?The instruments of Tycho Brahe represent a major achievement in astronomical science, because they provided much more accurate readings than previously possible, and on the basis of Tycho Brahe's observations Keplerdetermined the laws of planetary motions and from these laws Newton discovered the law of gravity. Not until the invention of the telescope some years after Tycho Brahe's death was it possible to get more accuratereadings.? (From the Brahe exhibition at the Royal Library of Denmark).?Tycho Brahe?s instruments were at the heart of his contribution to the invention of modern empirical science.? (J.R. Christianson: Tycho Brahe?s Instruments).The instruments were built by Tycho Brahe and his staff between the 1570's and the time he left Hven. All of his instruments are now lost, and the primary source we have to the fountain of knowledge that they represent is the present work containing his own illustrations and descriptions of them.After his death, the instruments were kept in a cellar, where they were destroyed during the uprisings in Prague in 1619. The great globe ended up at the Round Tower in Copenhagen, where it was destroyed in the fire of1728. The building, including the observatories, on Hven are also destroyed and only few remains are left. A replica of the garden of Uraniborg and the foundations for the instruments at Stjerneborg has been created innewer times.The present copy has a remarkable provenance, as it comes from Brahe?s childhood home, Tosterup Castle, where he lived since the age of one, with his uncle and aunt, who had ?adopted? him and were the only parentshe was to know. The book has been at Tosterup for almost four centuries and has only changed hands once before now. The copy bears no markings of ownership, but was presumably sent by Brahe from Wandsbeck to his family at Tosterup Castle in Denmark right after printing. It remained there until ab. 50 years ago, when it was giftedaway by the owners of Tosterup.Tycho Brahe?s birth parents, Beate Bille and Otto Brahe had been married for two years and already had a daughter, when they had Tycho. One year after his birth, in 1547, they had a second son. ?Now, Otto and Beatehad two healthy sons, and ?it happened by a particular decree of Fate? that Tycho was taken away ?without the knowledge of my parents? by ?my beloved paternal uncle Jørgen Brahe, who? brought me up, and thereafter hesupported me generously during my lifetime until my eighteenth year, and he always treated me as his own son? For his own marriage was childless.? Jørgen Brahe of Tosterup was married to ?the noble and wise MistressInger Oxe, a sister of the great Peder Oxe, who later became [Steward of the Realm] of the Danish royal court [and who] as long as she lived regarded me with exceptional love, as if I were her own son?.? (J.R.Christianson: Tycho Brahe and the Measure of the H.

First edition of "certainly the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman), one of 1250 copies. Octavo, bound in original cloth, half-title, one folding lithographed diagram, without advertisements. In very good condition with cracks to inner hinges and a touch of shelfwear. Housed in a custom clamshell box. A fine example of this landmark work. Darwin â revolutionized our methods of thinking and our outlook on the natural order of things. The recognition that constant change is the order of the universe had been finally established and a vast step forward in the uniformity of nature had been takenâ (PMM 344). â Without question a watershed work in the history of modern life sciences, Darwinâ s Origin elaborated a proposition that species slowly evolve from common ancestors through the mechanism of natural selection. As he himself expected, Darwinâ s theory became, and continues to be in some circles, the object of intense controversyâ (American Philosophical Society). â The five years [of Darwinâ s voyage on the Beagle] were the most important event in Darwinâ s intellectual life and in the history of biological science. Darwin sailed with no formal training. He returned a hard-headed man of scienceâ ¦ The experiences of his five years in the Beagle, how he dealt with them, and what they led to, built up into a process of epoch-making importance in the history of thoughtâ (PMM).

Three volumes. Elephant folio. (27 1/4 x 21 1/4 inches). First edition. Three lithograph title-pages, three leaves of letterpress contents. 150 hand-colored lithograph plates by John T. Bown of Philadelphia after John James Audubon and John Woodhouse Audubon, the backgrounds after Victor Audubon. Expertly bound to style in purple half morocco over period purple cloth boards, spine with raised bands lettered in the second and third compartments, the others decorated in gilt, marbled edges and endpapers. Within grey cloth clamshell cases with red morocco lettering-pieces in gilt. [With:] The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. New York: John James Audubon, 1846-1851-1854. 3 volumes, small 4to (10 x 7 inches). Half-titles, list of subscribers. 6 hand-colored lithograph plates. Expertly bound to style uniform to the above in purple half morocco over period purple cloth boards, marbled endpapers. A beautiful set of the first elephant folio edition of Audubon's "Quadrupeds," complete with the rare text volumes with six additional hand-colored plates. This is Audubon's final great natural history work. Unlike the double-elephant folio edition of The Birds of America, which was printed in London, the Quadrupeds was produced in the United States. It was the largest and most significant color-plate book produced in America in the nineteenth-century, and a fitting monument to Audubon's continuing genius. The work was originally published in thirty parts, each containing five plates, and priced at ten dollars per number. The first proofs were ready in 1842, but Audubon was fully employing the services of the lithographer Bowen on the octavo edition of The Birds of America, which was the greatest moneymaker of any of the Audubon family ventures. Instead, Audubon and his sons busied themselves in gathering subscribers, signing up over two hundred by the summer of 1844 (eventually the subscription list reached three hundred). The last part of the octavo Birds appeared in May 1844; publication of the folio Quadrupeds commenced immediately after with the first number being issued in January 1845 and the first volume completed within the year. Audubon's health began to fail dramatically, and responsibility for new artwork fell mainly on his son John Woodhouse Audubon, with some help from his brother Victor. The second volume was completed in March 1847. But as John Woodhouse traveled first to Texas, then to London and Europe, the pace slowed further. The final number was issued early in 1849. By this time the elder Audubon had succumbed to senility ("His mind is all in ruins," Bachman wrote sadly in June 1848). Audubon died in early 1851. In the end, about half of the plates for Quadrupeds were based on the works of John James and half on John Woodhouse. Audubon's collaborator on the text of the Quadrupeds was the naturalist and Lutheran clergyman, Bachman, who was a recognized authority on the subject in the United States. The two began their association when Audubon stayed with Bachman and his family in Charleston for a month in 1831. This friendship was later cemented by the marriage of Audubon's sons, Victor and John, to Bachman's daughters, Maria and Eliza. Audubon knew Bachman's contribution to the Quadrupeds would be crucial, especially because of concerns over his own technical knowledge. By 1840, Bachman had become indispensable to the Quadrupeds project, and as Audubon showed increasing signs of illness, found himself writing most of the text, with some help from Victor who was the project's primary business manager. The text appeared between December 1846 and the spring of 1854. Two issues of the third volume of the text are known, the present being the preferred second issue, with the supplementary text and the six octavo-sized plates issued in 1854, those six images not found in the folio. The elephant folio edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds will always be compared to Audubon's incomparable Birds. It should be judged in its own right, as one of the grandest American works of natural history ever produced, and one of the greatest American illustrated works ever created. Bennett, p.5. Ford, Audubon's Animals, passim. Peck, "Audubon and Bachman, a Collaboration in Science," pp.71-115, in Boehme's John James Audubon in the West. Nissen 162. Reese, Stamped with a National Character 36. Sabin 2367. Tyler, "The Publication of the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America," pp.119-182 in Boehme. Wood, p.208.

First complete edition of "the most important scientific book of eighteenth-century America" (PMM), inscribed by Benjamin Franklin to prominent Pennsylvania Quaker and merchant Thomas Livezey, Jr. Quarto, bound in full contemporary calf with elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, gilt turn-ins. Illustrated with 7 copper-engraved plates, 2 of which are folding. Presentation copy, inscribed by Benjamin Franklin on the front free endpaper, â To Mr. Livesy [sic] From his obliged Friend & humble Servant The Author.â With Thomas Livezey's ownership signature to the second free endpaper, "Thomas Livezey Junior 1810." The recipient, Thomas Livezey Jr. (1723-1790), was a member of the fourth generation of the prominent Pennsylvania Quaker Livezey family. His ancestor, Thomas Livezey, the elder (1627-1691), was among the earliest settlers of Pennsylvania; his land was a portion of William Penn's Pennsylvania colony and was granted to him directly by Penn in an early patent. Thomas Livezey Jr. established one of the largest ï our mills in colonial British North America, the Livezey Mill, and rose to prominence as one of the major suppliers of high quality ï our to the world during that era. Situated on Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia, the Livezey Mill was a major colonial operation, provided flour both domestically and overseas, and fed numerous armies throughout the eighteenth century including those fighting on both sides of the American Revolution. The mill was in continued operation for more than one hundred twenty-ï ve years until roughly 1874. Livezey was elected to the colony of Pennsylvania's legislative body, the Pennsylvania Assembly, in 1765. BenjamÃn Franklin had been elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly 14 years earlier in 1751 and in 1764 (one year prior to Livezey's appointment), Franklin was sent to London by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a colonial agent to protest against the political influence of the Penn family, with whom the assembly was becoming increasingly frustrated. He remained there for five years, striving to end the Penn family's prerogative to overturn legislation from the elected Assembly and their exemption from paying taxes on their land. His lack of influential allies in Whitehall led to the failure of this mission. Franklin and Livezey were warm acquaintances, despite their differences. In late 1767, Livezey sent a case of wine he had made from wild grapes to Franklin in London, writing, â I heartely wish it may arive Safe, and warm the hearts of Every one who tastes it, with a Love for America. And would it Contribute towards bringing about a Change of Government but one month Sooner, I would Gladly Send all I have.â In early 1768, Franklin thanked Livezey in a letter, stating that he â shall apply this parcel as I did the last towards winning the hearts of the Friends of our Country, and wellwishers to the Change of its Government.â PMM 199; Grolier 100 American Books 10; Dibner Heralds of Science 57. Presentation copies of this first collected edition are scarce. This is the only presentation copy to a known recipient to appear on the market over the course of the past century. In very good condition. Housed in custom three quarter morocco clamshell box. "â Franklinâ s most important scientific publication,â Experiments and Observations contains detailed accounts of the founding fatherâ s crucial kite and key experiment, his work with Leiden jars, lightning rods and charged clouds (Norman 830). â The most dramatic result of Franklinâ s researches was the proof that lightning is really an electrical phenomenon. Others had made such a suggestion before himâ " even Newton himselfâ " but it was he who provided the experimental proofâ (PMM). â The lightning experiments caused Franklinâ s name to become known throughout Europe to the public at large and not merely to men of science. Joseph Priestley, in his History of Electricity, characterized the experimental discovery that the lightning discharge is an electrical phenomenon as â the greatest, perhaps, since the time of Isaac Newtonâ ¦ Franklinâ s achievementâ ¦ marked the coming of age of electrical science and the full acceptance of the new field of specializationâ (DSB).

First edition. PMM 25 - the oldest textbook in the history of science. First edition of the "oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today" (PMM), This book "has exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible" (DSB). Euclid's Elements is the only work of classical antiquity to have remained continuously in print, and to be used continuously as a textbook from the pre-Christian era to the 20th century. It is the foundation work not only for geometry but also for number theory. Euclid's Elements of Geometry is a compilation of early Greek mathematical knowledge, synthesized and systematically presented by Euclid in ca. 300 BC. Books I-IV are devoted to plane geometry, Book V deals with the theory of proportions, and Book VI with the similarity of plane figures. Books VII-IX are on number theory, Book X on commensurability and incommensurability, Books XI-XII explore three dimensional geometric objects, and Book XIII deals with the construction of the five regular solids. The text is the standard late-medieval recension of Campanus of Novara, based principally on the 12th-century translation from the Arabic by Adelard of Bath. In fact, Adelard left three Latin versions of Euclid. Campanus's text is a free reworking of earlier Latin translations, mainly Adelard's second version (an abbreviated paraphrase), with additional proofs that make it "the most adequate Arabic-Latin Euclid of all . With an eye to making the Elements as self-contained as possible, he devoted considerable care to the elucidation and discussion of what he felt to be obscure and debatable points" (DSB). This text was printed more than a dozen times in the late-15th and 16th century. The "decisive influence of Euclid's geometrical conception of mathematics is reflected in two of the supreme works in the history of thought, Newton's Principia and Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft" (DSB). Ratdolt's edition is one of the most beautifully printed of early scientific books, and is the first dated book with diagrams (Stillwell). His method of printing diagrams in the margins to illustrate a mathematical text became a model for much subsequent scientific publishing. The method used to is still a matter of scholarly debate: although traditionally described as woodcuts, it is probable that printer's "rules" were used, i.e., thin strips of metal, type high, which were bent and cut and adjusted and set into a substance that would hold them (and pieces of type) in place. Born ca. 300 BC in Alexandria, Egypt, "Euclid compiled his Elements from a number of works of earlier men. Among these are Hippocrates of Chios (flourished c. 440 BC), not to be confused with the physician Hippocrates of Cos (c. 460-375 BC). The latest compiler before Euclid was Theudius, whose textbook was used in the Academy and was probably the one used by Aristotle (384-322 BC). The older elements were at once superseded by Euclid's and then forgotten. For his subject matter Euclid doubtless drew upon all his predecessors, but it is clear that the whole design of his work was his own . "Euclid understood that building a logical and rigorous geometry depends on the foundation-a foundation that Euclid began in Book I with 23 definitions (such as "a point is that which has no part" and "a line is a length without breadth"), five unproved assumptions that Euclid called postulates (now known as axioms), and five further unproved assumptions that he called common notions. Book I then proves elementary theorems about triangles and parallelograms and ends with the Pythagorean theorem . "The subject of Book II has been called geometric algebra because it states algebraic identities as theorems about equivalent geometric figures. Book II contains a construction of "the section," the division of a line into two parts such that the ratio of the larger to the smaller segment is equal to the ratio of the original line to the larger segment. (This division was renamed the golden section in the Renaissance after artists and architects rediscovered its pleasing proportions.) Book II also generalizes the Pythagorean theorem to arbitrary triangles, a result that is equivalent to the law of cosines. Book III deals with properties of circles and Book IV with the construction of regular polygons, in particular the pentagon. "Book V shifts from plane geometry to expound a general theory of ratios and proportions that is attributed by Proclus (along with Book XII) to Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 395/390-342/337 BC). While Book V can be read independently of the rest of the Elements, its solution to the problem of incommensurables (irrational numbers) is essential to later books. In addition, it formed the foundation for a geometric theory of numbers until an analytic theory developed in the late 19th century. Book VI applies this theory of ratios to plane geometry, mainly triangles and parallelograms, culminating in the "application of areas," a procedure for solving quadratic problems by geometric means. "Books VII-IX contain elements of number theory, where number (arithmos) means positive integers greater than 1. Beginning with 22 new definitions-such as unity, even, odd, and prime-these books develop various properties of the positive integers. For instance, Book VII describes a method, antanaresis (now known as the Euclidean algorithm), for finding the greatest common divisor of two or more numbers; Book VIII examines numbers in continued proportions, now known as geometric sequences (such as ax, ax2, ax3, ax4, .); and Book IX proves that there are an infinite number of primes. "According to Proclus, Books X and XIII incorporate the work of the Pythagorean Thaetetus (c. 417-369 BC). Book X, which comprises roughly one-fourth of the Elements, seems disproportionate to the importance of its classification of incommensurable lines and areas (although study of this book would inspire Johannes Kepler [1571-1630] in his search for a cosmological model).

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. THE GOLDEN SET, COLORED, WITH THE PUBLISHER'S WRAPPERS. Four volumes (two text, two plates). Coblenz: J. Hoelscher; 1839-41. Text-volumes: quarto (12 7/16" x 10 1/16", 316mm x 256mm). Vignettes: oblong folio (17" x 22 ¼", 431mm x 563mm). Tableaux: oblong folio (18 1/16" x 24 3/8", 459mm x 619mm). [Full collation available.] With 81 hand-colored aquatint-engraved plates, a lithographed chart and a lithographed map, hand-colored in outline. Bound in modern half black morocco gilt over blue paste-paper. On the text volumes' spine, author, title and number gilt within scrollwork. Top edges of the text-block gilt, fore and lower edges untrimmed. On the two plate volumes, author and title gilt to black morocco on the front boards. On the spines, 7 pairs of gilt fillets. [Full condition report available.] Very good, with scattered faults. Alexander Philipp Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867) was a protégé of Alexander von Humboldt, the all-encompassing man of Enlightenment science, who passed on to the young princeling his own passion for exploration. Indeed, Humboldt's travels through the Americas 1799-1804 sparked Prince Maximilian -- born the grandson of the ruling prince, and his father's fifth son; i.e., with no chance of ruling -- to do the same. Self-funded, Maximilian set off for Brazil 1815-1817, that trip being published from 1820 through 1850. Encouraged by his success, Maximilian made a second trip to America -- this through North America, getting as far west as Ft. McKenzie in Montana -- from 1832 to 1834, and now accompanied by the Swiss painter Karl Bodmer (1809-1893). The combination of the Humboldt-trained prince and the superbly sensitive artist Bodmer produced the best account of the American West, free from jingoism and agenda. Production of the work was lengthy, costly and complex (the Joslyn Art Museum's Karl Bodmer's North American Prints, edited by Brandon K. Ruud, is indispensable for its analysis). The question of coloration is vexatious to collectors, but Ruud corrects the "misinformation" that only the 46 subscribers' sets were fully colored; he estimates in fact that between 100 and 200 sets were colored in the XIXc either by Hölscher or the English (Ackermann) or French (Bertrand) publishers. Earlier cataloguers of the present item have called it "a later compiled set with resulting variance to margins, blind stamps and paper stock." The question of margins (generally about a centimeter along the long edge) is begged by the exceptional size of our set's plates; our set's Vignettes are some 5 ½" taller and wider than the Bobins set's. As with so many XIXc plate-books issued in parts, there was some natural variation in the size of the finished sheets; most were likely trimmed down to a uniform size, but the present set -- especially the large Vignettes -- seems not to have been. The variance in blind stamps is slight; 91% have the C. Bodmer control stamp, 5% have the earlier Ch. Bodmer stamp and only 3 (4%) are unstamped. I cannot detect variation in the paper stock (although some have tanned and others have not). Thanks to Ruud 2004, one can now make definitive study of the states of the plates (a spreadsheet is available). In the present set, 69 (85%) of the plates are in state 1, 11 are in state 2 (Tableaux 1, 18, 22, 42 and 46; Vignettes 1, 2, 4, 10, 12 and 18) and 1 in state 3 (Tableau 17). Crucially, none of the plates has the date, which is the hallmark of a later set. The set was purchased at the Sotheby's New York sale of John Golden (22 November 2022, lot 48), "Book Illustration in the Age of Scientific Discovery." Completely colored sets receive Howes's highest scarcity rating: dd ("superlatively rare books, almost unobtainable"). Abbey 615; Howes M 443a; Sabin 47014; Wagner-Camp 76:1. Ruud, Brandon K. (ed.). Karl Bodmer's North American Prints. Omaha, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press for the Joslyn Art Museum, 2004.

No Binding. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. THE EARLIEST OBTAINABLE DEPICTION OF THE NEW WORLD. [Rome: Bernardinus Venetus de Vitalibus, 1508.] First edition, Shirley state 5/McGuirk 3-C. Two sheets joined (sheet: 17 7/16" x 22 3/4", 443mm x 578mm; framed: 35 9/16" x 30"). Engraved conical-projection map. Float-matted with a window verso, demonstrating water-marks (crossed arrows). Trimmed at the edges, with about an inch added and loss supplied in facsimile. Some losses at the join, filled in facsimile. A little toning in patches. As exploration pushed European knowledge of the world east and south, cartographers built on the framework of Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), a second-century philosopher living in Roman Alexandria in Egypt. In the Greek tradition (Ptolemy wrote in Greek, which was the administrative language of the Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean), philosophy -- the love of wisdom -- bridged what we now divide into the humanities and the sciences; he was a mathematician, natural scientist and geographer-astronomer. No manuscripts of the Geographika Hyphegesis (Geographical Guidance) survive from before the XIIIc, but some XIIIc examples survive with maps that bear some relation to those Ptolemy himself drew. Thus, with the exception of some excavated carved maps, Ptolemy is the source for ancient cartography as well as its culmination. The discovery of the New World in the late XVc -- Columbus assumed he had found the East Indies because of Ptolemy's calculations and assertions about longitude -- provoked a crisis in the understanding of the disposition of the globe; the Ptolemeian skeleton was showing signs of fracture. It is against this background that Johannes Ruysch (Johan(n) Ruijsch, ca. 1460-1533) made his coniform (cone or fan-shaped) projection. Ruysch was a profoundly cosmopolitan figure; he was Flemish or German or Netherlandish by birth, lived in Cologne, Rome, England and finally Portugal. From England, it is claimed, he himself sailed west as far as the American coast; thus he is the first mapmaker to have traveled to America. Due, perhaps, to his first-hand knowledge of the contradictions entailed by a New World adjoining Ptolemy's, Ruysch was visionary in his solutions. (The title translates to "a more universal illustration of the known world made out of new observations;" the comparative makes clear Ruysch's competitiveness.) Newfoundland adjoins Tibet. Japan (Zipangu) is identified with Spagnola (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic), although Ruysch is fairly agnostic in his reasoning. In other ways, however, his map is cutting-edge in its modelling of Asia --here the triangular form of India appears for the first time -- and the Caribbean, largely drawing on Portuguese sources. The map's date is sometimes given as 1507, and indeed it does appear in some examples of the 1507 Rome edition of Ptolemy (colophon 8 September 1507); the vast majority, however, appear in 1508 editions, which have the addition of a commentary of Marcus of Benevento (Marcus Beneventanus) based on the findings depicted in this map. The tacit suggestion of most bibliographies is that the map was not completed until very late 1507 or early 1508, and its inclusion in 1507 editions is the work of owners rather than the publisher. Although the 1506 map of Contarini/Rosselli and the 1507 Waldseemüller are earlier (excluding manuscript maps), each survives in a single example. The Ruysch map is thus the earliest obtainable depiction of the New World. McGuirk's 1989 census counted 64 examples, of which 14 were in private collections (plus one on the market in 1986). The present example was purchased from a private collector in 2008. McGuirk, Donald L. "Ruysch World Map: Census and Commentary." Imago Mundi 41 (1989) 133-141. Peerlings, R.H.J., F. Laurentius and J. van den Bovenkamp. "The Watermarks in the Rome Editions of Ptolemy's Cosmography and More." Quaerendo 47 (2017) 307-327. Burden 3 (p. xxiii); Harrisse 56; Sabin 66476 (Ptolemy); Shirley.

First edition. DIBNER 170: FIRST VERNACULAR EDITION - A SUPERB COPY. First edition in the vernacular, and a superb large copy untouched in its first binding, of one of the finest illustrated books of the Italian Renaissance. "This handbook on classical architecture is the only Roman work inspired by Greek architecture that has come down to us. It is therefore important as a prime source of many lost Greek writings on the subject and as a guide to archaeological research in Italy and Greece. By exemplifying the principles of classical architecture it became the fundamental architectural textbook for centuries. Vitruvius, who lived during the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and probably composed his book prior to 27 BC, was basically a theoretical rather than a practising architect and his only known work is the Basilica at Fano. The 10 books of 'On architecture' deal with principles of building in general, building materials, designs of theatres, temples, and other public buildings, town and country houses, baths, interior decoration and wall paintings, clocks and dials, astronomy, mechanical and military engineering. There are many ingenious devices for dealing with the echo in theatres and ideas on acoustic principles generally; on methods of sanitation - Vitruvius is believed to have been responsible for the new plumbing system introduced when Augustus rebuilt Rome; on correct proportions, proper location of building, town planning, and much on ballistic and hydraulic problems. The classical tradition of building, with its regular proportion and symmetry and the three orders - Doric, Ionic and Corinthian - derives from this book. In recent times Vitruvius's considerable importance in the history of science has also been recognised as he made some valuable contributions to astronomy, geometry, and engineering. Although his influence on practical architecture during the Middle Ages was obviously small, at least 55 manuscripts of the De Architectura are known . It was with the Renaissance that his influence began. Alberti, Bramante, Ghiberti, Michelangelo, Vignola, Palladio and many others were directly inspired by Vitruvius. The first printed edition appeared in Rome (ca. 1483-90), the first illustrated one in Venice, 1511, and French, German, Italian and Spanish translations soon followed, The Como edition of 1521 is the first in Italian - by Cesare Cesariano (1483-1543), a pupil of Bramante. It has splendid new illustrations, some of which are now attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, and is the most beautiful of all the early editions" (PMM). The text by Vitruvius, in the translation by B. Mauro da Bergamo and B. Jovio da Camasco, occupies the center of the page in large letters; Caesarino's commentaries, which stop at chapter VI, are printed around it, in a smaller type. The 117 woodcuts, which form the iconography, mark, according to Roland Recht, an essential moment in Western architecture. Printed alternately on a black and white background, these woodcuts are considered as models of their kind; they were executed according to the designs of Caesarino, Massimo Bono Mauro da Bergamo and Benedetto Giovio (1471-1545). The publication of this work was initiated by Cesariano with the financial support of two sponsors, Augustino Gallo and Aloysio Pirovano, and was to have been carried out in Milan, but the arrival of the French in this city resulted in the work being printed in Como; Gottardo da Ponte was brought specially to Como to carry out the printing, which may have been a print-run of 1300 copies. As recorded in the concluding editors' address to the reader, Cesariano abruptly abandoned the project after quarreling with Gallo and Pirovano in May 1521; his commentary ends at Chapter 6 of Book IX, and the remainder was completed by Giovio and Mauro. The present copy is in the first state, with the error 'tuta lopera' uncorrected in the heading on f. Z8r. Provenance: Christoph Andreas IV. Imhoff (1734-1807), numismatist (ex-libris); Alfred Ritter von Pfeiffer (Cat. I, Leipzig, 4-6 May 1914, No 696, "magnificent copy of Vitruvius, whose well-preserved specimens are the greatest scarcity"), with his 19th century armorial bookplate and what could be his shelfmark accompanied by a crowned label [AP]; Pierre Berès (1913-2008) (Cat. IV, Cabinet books, 2006, No. 7), described as "the king of French booksellers" in his New York Times obituary and as "a legendary figure in the world of art, collecting and publishing" by French culture minister Christine Albanel; Alde, March 6, 2014, lot 6 (â 158,600). "The known facts of Vitruvius' career are that he worked in some unspecified capacity for Julius Caesar; that he was subsequently entrusted with the maintenance of siege engines and artillery by Caesar's grandnephew and adopted heir, Octavianus, later the Emperor Augustus; and that on retirement from this post he came under the patronage of Augustus' sister, Octavia (I, praef., 2). It is often suggested, on the evidence of Frontinus (De aquis urbis Romae, 25), that book VIII of De architectura may have been the fruit of personal experience as a hydraulic engineer during Agrippa's construction of the Aqua Julia in 33 B.C.; but Frontinus is in fact quoting Agrippa and Vitruvius as possible alternative sources for his information, and the relevant passages in Vitruvius contain some surprising technical errors. Vitruvius' only excursion into civil architecture was the building of a basilica at Fanum Fortunae, the modern Fano, on the Adriatic Coast (V, 1, 6-10). This commission, coupled with what appears to be a personal knowledge of many of the Roman cities in the Po valley (for instance, I, 4, 11; II, 9, 16; V, 1, 4), suggests that, like many of those prominent in the culture of Augustan Rome, Vitruvius may have been of north Italian origin. It should be noted that in the first century of the Christian era, a freedman of the same family, Lucius Vitruvius Cerdo, is named as architect of the Arch of the Gavii at V.

Royal 8vo (262 x 194 mm). 2 vols. 710 pp. 620 pp. Printed in Arabic throughout, floral woodcut sarlawh to each volume, text within two-line frame throughout, titles in nasta'liq types. Bound in somewhat later half leather over marbled boards; spine on five raised bands with gilt title, volume number, and edition. Double endpapers. Housed in custom-made, half-cloth modern slipcase. First complete edition in Arabic of the Thousand and One Nights, and the first edition printed in the Arab world. Very rare, with only seven copies located in libraries worldwide (American University Beirut, British Library, Danish Royal Library, Harvard, Huntington, and Yale); none traced in auction records. The Bulaq edition was preceded by another two-volume edition printed at Calcutta between 1814 and 1818, which contained a selection of 200 "Nights" only; the German orientalist Max Habicht began his multi-volume, so-called Breslau edition in 1824, though it remained incomplete on his death in 1839, and at any rate used the Bulaq text as one of its many sources. The Bulaq edition was prepared by one Abd al-Rahman al-Sifti al-Sharqawi, probably from a single manuscript which is now lost. It proved "more correct than the garbled and semi-colloquial renderings given by the manuscripts used in the compilations of Calcutta I and Breslau", and was instrumental in stabilising the Thousand and One Nights corpus (Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, p. 44). It was the main source for Edward Lane s pioneering English translation (1889-41) and for the last of the four historically important Arabic editions, published at Calcutta in 1839-42 (and known as "Calcutta II"). Bulaq and Calcutta II "superseded almost completely all other texts and formed the general notion of the Arabian Nights. For more than half a century it was neither questioned nor contested that the text of the Bulaq and Calcutta II editions was the true and authentic text" (Marzolph, The Arabian Nights Reader, p. 88). - The printing press at Bulaq, Cairo, founded in 1821 by Muhammad Ali Pasha, was the first indigenous press in Egypt and one of the first anywhere in the Arab world, its literary output catering to a keen export market and increased demand among the expanding professional classes of Muhammad Ali s Egypt. For the first few years the press used types cast in Italy, then France. "In 1826 Muhammad Ali sent a delegation to Europe to study printing, and by the 1830s printing had reached a good technical level at Bulaq" (Kent et al., eds., Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science, vol. 24, p. 63). The present edition exhibits the high standards of Bulaq printing, with the main text composed in authentic and legible naskh-style types, interspersed with attractive headings in nasta liq. - Condition report: 19th-century bibliographical notes on a typed vignette mounted on the endpapers of each volume; bibliographical notes in pencil on endpaper of vol. 1. Handwritten tables of contents loosely inserted to both volumes, probably in Barbier de Meynard's hand in ink and pencil. A few marginal notes in Arabic and French written in pen and pencil throughout. Occasional spotting; pages very slightly yellowed due to age. A tiny hole throughout, at the upper inner corner of the framing rules. Vol. 1: Two small holes at the gutter of fol. [157]2 (pp. 627f.) and minute damage to the upper edge of the last 9 ff. Spine rubbed, upper compartment professionally restored. Vol. 2: A larger light stain to the margin of fol. [4]1 (pp. 13f.), moderately touching the text area but not affecting legibility. Insignificant worming to lower margin of the first 10 ff. Spine rubbed, front hinge professionally restored. Interior of both volumes is clean and firm, overall in very good condition. - Provenance: from the collection of the French oriental scholar Charles Barbier de Meynard (1826-1906) with his stamp and ownership inscription "Bibliothéque de Mr Barbier de Meynard" in both volumes. A member of the Société Asiatique and editor of "Dictionnaire Géographique de la Perse", Barbier de Meynard authored several books and articles and co-translated the 9-volume "Moruj al-dahab" ("Les prairies d'or") of Al-Masudi (Paris, 1861-77). His inscription "Donne par A. Dantan" in the first volume probably refers to Antoine Dantan, a member of the renowned French dragoman dynasty. - Chauvin IV, 18, 20K. Brunet III, 1715. Graesse IV, 523. Fawzi M. Tadrus, Printing in the Arab World with emphasis on Bulaq Press (Doha: University of Qatar, 1982), p. 64. Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution. A Cross-Cultural Encounter, Westhofen 2002, p. 184. Heinz Grotzfeld. Neglected Conclusions of the "Arabian Nights": Gleanings in Forgotten and Overlooked Recensions. In: Journal of Arabic Literature, Vol. 16, (1985), pp. 73-87. Ulrich Marzolph (ed.). The Arabian nights in transnational perspective, Wayne State University Press 2007, p. 51.

Etat : Fine. First edition. STUNNING LARGE HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPH OF TESLA, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY TESLA TO EDWARD EVERETT BARLETT. Albumen print, signed and inscribed by Tesla on the original gray mount: "To my friend E. E. Bartlett, New York, June 9, 1896, Nikola Tesla." The photograph shows Tesla in profile seated before the spiral coil of his high-voltage transformer at his East Houston St., New York, laboratory. The photograph, in addition to being arguably the most famous and dramatic portrait of Tesla, is scientifically significant, for it served as a demonstration of the power of his new technique of providing illumination with vacuum tubes. A reproduction of the photograph appeared in the May 20, 1896 issue of Electrical Review, alongside an article where a reporter interviewed Tesla about the novel circumstances of the creation of this photo: "As to his continuous efforts to improve his system of lighting by vacuum tubes, with which he has been identified during a number of years, Tesla said that he has been more successful than he had ever dared to hope. His methods of conversion from ordinary to high-frequency currents are rendered simple in the extreme, the devices are thoroughly reliable and require no attention. Last, but most important of all, he has succeeded in increasing the candle-power of the tubes to practically any intensity desired. "A remarkable and most telling result of the advances he has made in the last direction is a portrait, which he has reluctantly allowed us to use, and which was obtained by two seconds' exposure to the light of a single vacuum tube of small dimensions. Tesla stated further that photographs obtained by the light of such powerful tubes show an amount of detail which no picture taken by the sun or flash light is capable of disclosing. This feature is only faintly shown in the reproduction on this page. The photograph was made by Tonnelé & Company, artists' photographers, who aided Mr. Tesla in his attempts to photograph by the light of phosphorescent tubes about two years ago. "When asked, Mr. Tesla said, in explanation of the picture, speaking with deep feeling, that the volume he was reading was one of the 'Scientific Papers,' of Maxwell, given to him as a token of friendship by Professor Dewar; the chair a gift of his warmest friend, Mr. E. D. Adams; and as to the queer coil to his left, Mr. Tesla hesitatingly remarked that it was the object 'dearest of all in his laboratory,' having been a most valuable instrument in his many-sided investigations. "Mr. Tesla added, good humoredly, that, had it not been for the extraordinary manner in which the photograph was taken, he would not have given this explanation even to such an important personage as the representative of the ELECTRICAL REVIEW." Tesla was correct in insisting that the lighting from the vacuum tubes produced a high-level of detail in the photograph; the intricacies of the coil, in particular, appear remarkably sharp. Overall, the photograph has an orange tint, almost certainly the result of his novel lighting technique. Although this is the only signed example of this photograph we are aware of, it has been reproduced in recent years many times, including serving as the cover image for Marc J. Seifer's groundbreaking biography of Tesla, Wizard. Provenance: The recipient, Edward Everett Bartlett (1863-1942) was a celebrated New Yorker (both he and Tesla were featured in Moses King's Notable New Yorkers, 1896-1899), who founded Bartlett & Co., (later Bartlett Orr Press) on lower Broadway, in 1888. Variously described as an artist, illustrator, printer, and engraver, Bartlett was internationally known as "an expert on newspaper type, and he was credited with the development of much of the linotype type used in newspaper offices throughout the country"; additionally he published several works on the art of the book. (New York Times, Obituary, 1942). Size: Image, 7 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches; with mount, 8.5 x 11 inches. Archival matting and framed with UV-.

Hardback. Etat : Good+. First Edition. 21 vols bound in 20 (9 volumes quarto text, 1 volume elephant folio text [bound with Antiquities vol I], 11 elephant folio plate volumes), the complete set of 894 plates of which 40 are wholly or partly printed in colours and or hand-coloured, and 2 printed in bistre, many double-page, and or, folding, plate DD in Etat Moderne II with fore-margin sometime renewed, scattered light foxing, contemporary calf gilt with marbled paper panels to covers (moiré cloth panels to natural history vols.), text volumes rebacked to style, spine gilt lettered and ruled, 1809-1830. ANTIQUITIES - 5 vols: (I) Engraved frontispiece, map, 99 plates numbered 1-97 (plates 79 and 87 each in two states) + 1 unnumbered plate; Bound with folio text; (II). 92 plates numbered 1-92; (III). 69 plates numbered 1-69 ; (IV). 72 plates numbered 1-72 + 2 plates lettered e & f ; (V). 89 plates numbered 1-89. ETAT MODERNE - 2 vols. (I). Engraved map, 83 plates numbered 1-83; (II). 22plates numbered 84-105 + 31 plates numbered I-XXXI + 11 plates lettered A-K + 9 plates lettered AA-II + 4 plates lettered KK-NN + 9 plates lettered a-i + 1 plate lettered k (JJ and j not used). HISTOIRE NATURELLE - 2 vols bound in 3: (I). 62 plates; (II). 105 plates; (II bis). 77 plates. Amongst the artists who contributed to this section are Barraband, Bessa, Redoute, and Turpin. CARTES GEORAPHIQUE ET TOPOGRAPHIQUE - engraved title & 52 engraved plates. Provenance: Bookplate of Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland (1792-1865). Volumes with either the Garter Crest or Ducal bookplate. Percy, the second son of Hugh, the second Duke, was a distinguished naval officer and a man of science and learning, who rose to the rank of Admiral, and was First Lord of the Admiralty in 1852. Percy became Duke of Northumberland in 1847, and a Knight of the Garter in 1852. FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST AMBITIOUS SCIENTIFIC, HISTORICAL, ARTISTIC AND PUBLISHING PROJECTS - A COMPLETE SET WITH FINE ENGLISH PROVENANCE. THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENTAND MODERN EGYPT, THE OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE SAVANTS WHO ACCOMPANIED NAPOLEON'S EXPEDITION TO EGYPT (1798-1801). THE WORK IS THE GREATEST OF A NUMBER OF OUTSTANDING SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT DETAILING THE RESULTSOF EXPLORATION, UNEQUALLEDBY ANY OTHER NATION DURING THE SAME PERIOD. The only flaw in Napoleon s preparations for the invasion of Egypt was a miscalculation when it came to Turkey s reaction to France s unsolicited help in dealing with its mostly unruly vassals, the Mamluks of Egypt. Had it not been for this, Napoleon s plan for following up military conquest by revolutionising the economy and institutions of Egypt might well have created a modern European-style state, controlled by France, at the axis of all the trade routes between Europe, India and the East. Plans to this end involved nearly 500 civilians, the cream of whom were about 150 men drawn from the Institut de France. Once in Egypt their first task was to make a thorough survey of every aspect of the country to assist the planning of its future shape, and this was extended to include Antiquities. The work was co-ordinated by L Institut de l Egypte (later replaced by the Commission des Sciences et Arts d'Egypte), founded in the appropriated house of Hassan Kachef (illustrated in the plates to the Etat Moderne), with Gaspar Monge as president.As early as October 1798 Fourier was entrusted with the task of uniting the reports of the various disciplines with a view to publication. Following the capitulation of the army to Egypt under General Menou (a convert to Islam), the savants returned to France where a commission was set up for the editing and supervision of the work. The first volumes were published by Napoleon s government, and it is a measure of how important this work was considered to be that publication continued following the Bourbon restoration. . never before or since has a study of such scope and thoroughness been accomplished.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. Paris: Levrault Freres (later Levrault, Schoell & Co.), 1801-1805 (illustrateur). 1st Edition. "2 volumes, folio (22 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.; 57.8 x 40 cm). 145 fine stipple-engraved plates after Jacques Barraband, printed in colors and finished by hand by Langlois under the direction of Bouquet, dedication leaf to B.G.E.L. Lacépède in vol. 1, half-titles and single-page indices in each volume; light, scattered or marginal foxing affecting about 15 plates, occasional light foxing to text margins, minor creases to plates 18 and 77, neat repair to marginal tear on pl. 116, WITHAL AN EXCEPTIONALLY BRIGHT AND CLEAN COPY. Contemporary half crimson straight-grain morocco, smooth spines lettered and ruled gilt; board edges a bit worn, top of lower covers of each volume lightly sunned. FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FRENCH ORNITHOLOGICAL BOOKS, FROM THE CELEBRATED LIBRARY OF BERIAH BOTFIELD. Levaillant, one of France's greatest ornithologists, was born the son of the French consul in Paramarimbo, Dutch Guiana. Having studied natural history at Metz, he became one of the first of a new breed of naturalists who observed and recorded their subjects in their natural habitat. In 1781-1784, he collected specimens in South Africa on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. Jacques Barraband (1767/68-1809) worked for the Gobelin factory and was recognized as the best ornithological artist of his time owing to his attention to remarkably accurate detail and use of naturalistically textured color. Langlois' skillful engravings of Barraband's original watercolor and gouache drawings reproduce their delicate modulations of tone and color as well as their fine lines and flawless draftsmanship. "After he had made himself Emperor, it was part of Napoleon's deliberate policy to initiate a series of magnificent publications that would vie with those undertaken on the orders of Louis XIV. These were sent as presented to crowned heads, men of science, and learned bodies, in evidence of the splendours of the Empire The works of Levaillant owe their sumptuous character to this impetus. His Histoire naturelle des perroquets is, unwittingly, a part of the glories of Napoleonic France" (Fine Bird Books, p. 15). REFERENCES: Anker 303; Ayer/Zimmer p. 392; Fine Bird Books (1990), p. 118; Nissen IVB 558; Ronsil 1780 PROVENANCE: Highly Important Books from Beriah Botfield's Library (Christie's London, 30 March 1994, lot 77)".

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. 5 volumes. Folio (21 4/8 x 14 4/8 inches). 5-page list of Subscribers. 367 EXCEPTIONALLY FINE hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, Josef Wolf, and H.C. Richter. FINE AND ATTRACTIVE contemporary full maroon morocco, by Riviere for Henry Sotheran, each cover with wide decorative gilt border of floral roll-tools, the Devonshire family cipher and coronet stamped in gilt at each corner, the spines in seven compartments with six raised bands, gilt-lettered in two, the others decorated with a profusion of small gilt tools, inner gilt dentelles, all edges gilt (spines very slightly faded, with discreet repairs at foot of joints, versos of endleaves a little spotted). Provenance: from the library of William Cavendish, seventh duke of Devonshire (1808 1891, Duke from 1858). "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain" ("Fine Bird Books") First edition. The Duke of Devonshire was a keen supporter and patron of Gould, subscribing to all of the artist's works in turn and taking two sets of The Birds of Great Britain, the other of which remains at Chatsworth. The duke "never appeared in society in London, reserving his public life for more serious and uplifting pursuits, notably the support of higher education. He was the first chancellor of the University of London, from 1836 to 1856, and an important influence on its early development. He was chancellor of Cambridge University from 1862 until his death; he was chairman of the royal commission on scientific instruction and the advancement of science, which sat from 1871 to 1874; and as an earnest of his commitment to the cause, he provided for the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge in 1874. He was a considerable benefactor of Owens College, Manchester, and of the Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds; when these colleges became part of the new federal Victoria University in 1880 he was its first chancellor" (F. M. L. Thompson for DNB). Gould found more subscribers for this than any other of his other monographs, and boasted that he employed the services of "almost all the colourers in London". "Many of the public are quite unaware how the colouring of these large plates is accomplished; and not a few believe that they are produced by some mechanical process or by chromo-lithography. This, however, is not the case; every sky with its varied tints and every feather of each bird were coloured by hand; and when it is considered that nearly two hundred and eighty thousand illustrations in the present work have been so treated, it will most likely cause some astonishment to those who give the subject a thought" (Preface). Often referred to as the most sumptuous and costly of all British bird books, the plates depict scenes with more sophisticated subjects than Gould's previous works, including nests, chicks and eggs: "I also felt that there was an opportunity of greatly enriching the work by giving figures of the young of many of the species of various genera - a thing hitherto almost entirely neglected by author's, and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest for science." (Gould "Preface" to "Introduction", 1873). Initially employed as a taxidermist [he was known as the 'bird-stuffer'] by the Zoological Society, Gould's fascination with birds began in the "late 1820s [when] a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum and Gould conceived the idea of publishing a volume of imperial folio sized hand-coloured lithographs of the eighty species, with figures of a hundred birds (A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains, 1830-32). Gould's friend and mentor N. A. Vigors supplied the text. Elizabeth Gould made the drawings and transferred them to the large lithographic stones. Having failed to find a publisher, Gould undertook to publish the work himself; it appeared in twenty monthly parts, four plates to a part, and was completed ahead of schedule. "With this volu.

First edition. 21 vols bound in 20 (9 volumes quarto text, 1 volume elephant folio text [bound with Antiquities vol. I], 11 elephant folio plate volumes), the complete set of 894 plates of which 40 are wholly or partly printed in colours and or hand-coloured, and 2 printed in bistre, many double-page, and or folding, plate DD in Etat moderne II with fore-margin sometime renewed, scattered light foxing, contemporary calf gilt with marbled paper panels to covers (moiré cloth panels to natural history vols.), text volumes rebacked to style, spine gilt lettered and ruled. Antiquities, 5 vols: (I) Engraved frontispiece, map, 99 plates numbered 1-97 (plates 79 and 87 each in two states) + 1 unnumbered plate; Bound with folio text; (II). 92 plates numbered 1-92; (III). 69 plates numbered 1-69 ; (IV). 72 plates numbered 1-72 + 2 plates lettered e & f ; (V). 89 plates numbered 1-89. Etat Moderne, 2 vols. (I). Engraved map, 83 plates numbered 1-83; (II). 22 plates numbered 84-105 + 31 plates numbered I-XXXI + 11 plates lettered A-K + 9 plates lettered AA-II + 4 plates lettered KK-NN + 9 plates lettered a-i + 1 plate lettered k (JJ and j not used). Histoire Naturelle, 2 vols bound in 3: (I). 62 plates; (II). 105 plates; (II bis). 77 plates. Amongst the artists who contributed to this section are Barraband, Bessa, Redoute, and Turpin. Cartes Georaphique et topographique, engraved title & 52 engraved plates. First edition of one of the most ambitious scientific, historical, artistic and publishing projects - a complete set with fine English provenance. The first comprehensive description of ancient and modern Egypt, the outstanding achievement of the savants who accompanied Napoleon's expedition to Egypt (1798-1801). The work is the greatest of a number of outstanding scientific publications by the French government detailing the results of exploration, unequalled by any other nation during the same period. The only flaw in Napoleon's preparations for the invasion of Egypt was a miscalculation when it came to Turkey's reaction to France's unsolicited 'help' in dealing with its mostly unruly vassals, the Mamluks of Egypt. Had it not been for this, Napoleon's plan for following up military conquest by revolutionising the economy and institutions of Egypt might well have created a modern European-style state, controlled by France, at the axis of all the trade routes between Europe, India and the East. Plans to this end involved nearly 500 civilians, the cream of whom were about 150 men drawn from the Institut de France. Once in Egypt their first task was to make a thorough survey of every aspect of the country to assist the planning of its future shape, and this was extended to include Antiquities. The work was co-ordinated by L'Institut de l'Egypte (later replaced by the Commission des Sciences et Arts d'Egypte), founded in the appropriated house of Hassan Kachef (illustrated in the plates to the Etat Moderne), with Gaspar Monge as president. As early as October 1798 Fourier was entrusted with the task of uniting the reports of the various disciplines with a view to publication. Following the capitulation of the army to Egypt under General Menou (a convert to Islam), the savants returned to France where a commission was set up for the editing and supervision of the work. The first volumes were published by Napoleon's government, and it is a measure of how important this work was considered to be that publication continued following the Bourbon restoration. '. never before or since has a study of such scope and thoroughness been accomplished on the basis of field work carried out in so short a space of time and under such inadequate and harrowing circumstances' (J.C. Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt, 1963). Antiquities describes not only the ruins, but also the objects excavated, including the Rosetta Stone, here described for the first time. The quality of the plates was much enhanced by the use of an engraving machine invented by Conte, which is itself illustrated among the plates. Etat Moderne describes the architecture of Egypt subsequent to the Arab invasion in the seventh century, particularly Cairo, as well as sections on Art et Métiers, Costumes et Portraits, Vases, Meubles et Instruments, and Inscriptions, Monnaies et Médailles. Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland was the second son of Hugh, the second Duke, a distinguished naval officer and a man of science and learning, he rose to the rank of Admiral, and was First Lord of the Admiralty in 1852. He became Duke of Northumberland in 1847, and a Knight of the Garter in 1852. Atabey, 343; Blackmer, 476; Brunet II, 616-617; Nebenzahl, Maps of the Holy Land, 60; Nissen, BBI, 2234; Nissen, ZBI, 4608; Wilbour pp178-185.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. 25 ORIGINAL PARTS, folio (22 1/8 x 15 1/4 in.; 56.2 x 38.7 cm). 367 exceptionally fine handcolored lithographic plates, most heightened with gum-arabic, by Gould, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Hart, most lithographed by Richter and Hart, printed by Walter or Walter and Cohn, 2 wood-engraved illustrations, part XXV with title-pages for volumes 1-5, 5-page list of subscribers, dedication leaf, preface, Introduction, list of plates for all 5 volumes, directions to the binder tipped in before front free endpaper; some minor spotting to the last plate of part VI and the first plate of parts XIII and XXV, very occasional isolated spots to other plates, occasional light mostly marginal spotting or foxing to text leaves, faint pigment offset from about 9 plates to accompanying text, bottom margin of Thrush plate in part IX bumped. Original pale green paper boards with wood-engraved vignette of a family of Grouse, dark green cloth spines; boards dust-soiled, some with age discoloration, ink splash on front cover of Part II, a few spines with splits or tears, spine cap of part XXV torn, corners and a few board edges bumped, a hinge or two slightly split. FIRST EDITION, AN EXTREMELY FINE, UNCUT COPY IN ORIGINAL PARTS. The parts were priced at three guineas each and contained 15 plates, except for part XXIV with 14 plates, and part XXV with the final 8 plates. The larger final part also contained the title-pages to each volume (I-V), dedication leaf, list of subscribers, preface, introduction, list of plates for each volume, and the binder's slip. As the work was so clearly intended for binding in five volumes, copies in original parts are scarce: in the past 50 years, only seven such sets have appeared at auction. "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain" (Fine Bird Books), for which Gould found more subscribers than any of his other monographs, compelling him to increase the print run. In the preface Gould notes that some 280,000 plates had to be handcolored-given 367 plates per copy, about 750 copies were therefore produced. Often referred to as the most sumptuous and costly of all British bird books, the plates depict scenes with more sophisticated subjects than Gould's previous works by including nests, chicks, and eggs. In the preface Gould wrote that he "felt that there was an opportunity of greatly enriching the work by giving figures of the young of many of the species of various genera-a thing hitherto almost entirely neglected by authors; and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest for science." The text is longer than in any of his other works, and many of the illustrations were prepared from freshly killed specimens. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, had accompanied Gould on an ornithological tour of Scandinavia in 1856, and was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the illustrations. Catalogued by E. R. Muller REFERENCES: Ayer/Zimmer p.261; Fine Bird Books p.78; McGill/Wood, p. 365; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23; Tree, A Ruling Passion, pp. 194-204 PROVENANCE: WITH THE ORIGINAL RECEIPT FOR THE PURCHASE OF PARTS 9 TO 16 OF THIS SET TO ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBER WILLIAM PETERS, FRAS, FRGS of Ashfold, Crawley, Sussex, for 25 pounds and 4 shillings, SIGNED BY JOHN GOULD ON 1 MARCH 1870; Robert Calvert (engraved armorial bookplate on the front pastedown of each part and his sale, Christie's London, 6 June 2007, lot 21) (L4F15 I-16 I). Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Etat : Very good. First. First Venetian edition. Venice: Iacobus Pentius de Leucho, 20 March 1511 (colophon). Folio in 6s (16 5/16" x 11", 414mm x 281mm). [Full collation available.] With 28 woodcut double-page maps printed in red and black (all recto-verso with the exception of the final world map, which is the inner forme of its own leaf). Bound in (perhaps later?) vellum over boards (the boards recovered in later vellum). On the spine, author and title (PTHOLEM/ TABULÆ/ GEOGRA) gilt to sheep. All edges of the text-block red. Boards recovered in later vellum, coming up at the corners and along the lower edge of the back board. Damp-stain to the lower gutter and to the upper edge, mostly mild but moderate in places. Some shaving to the maps: at the fore-edge of the first world map, the "quinta Europae tabula" and the "tertia Africae;" the lower scale of "prima Europae" and "sexta Europae;" to the upper figural surrounds of "secunda Africae," "prima Asiae," secunda Asiae," "nona Asiae" and "decima Asiae;" and to the upper, lower and fore-edges of the final world map. A little worming to the gutter of the world map, with some splits along the upper fold. Ink marginalia to B1r-B2r, B8v, C3v, C4r, I1r, I8v (a circular diagram without marking to a blank page) and to the maps of France ("tertia Europae tabula") and Italy ("sexta Europae tabula;" pasted correction slips swapping "Obononia" (Bologna) and "mutina" (Modena)). Bookseller's ticket of "Librairie Fl. Tulkens Bruxelles" to the front paste-down. Claudius Ptolemaeus (usually anglicized to Ptolemy) was a second-century philosopher living in Roman Alexandria in Egypt. In the Greek tradition (Ptolemy wrote in Greek, which was the administrative language of the Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean), philosophy -- the love of wisdom -- bridged what we now divide into the humanities and the sciences; he was a mathematician, natural scientist and geographer-astronomer. No manuscripts of the Geographical Guidance survive from before the XIIIc, but some XIIIc examples survive with maps that bear some relation to those Ptolemy himself drew. Thus, with the exception of some excavated carved maps, Ptolemy is the source for ancient cartography as well as its culmination. In the XVc, the Geographia was the core of ancient knowledge of the world, extending from the Canary Islands in the West to China in the East (though not quite to the Pacific), Scandinavia in the North and beyond the Horn of Africa to the South. It was crucial to explorers; Columbus expected to find the East Indies because of Ptolemy's calculations and assertions about longitude. As the world expanded beyond its ancient bounds, discoveries were integrated into the Ptolemaic maps, distinct with their trapezoidal frames. The work is anomalous in a city that was otherwise the cradle of Renaissance printing; Shirley calls it an "isolated example of Venetian cartographic enterprise" (sub 31). That said, La Serenissima has left her mark on the volume; it is the first atlas to print maps in red-and-black, the first to contain a cordiform projection and the first to depict Japan. It is the second edition of Ptolemy to contain a cartographic depiction of the New World. An early reader(s?) has left marks of reading through the volume. There are many glosses of ancient place names, especially of the British Isles, France and Italy. There is a long marginalium at the foot of C4r correcting the placement of various Celtic tribes (and reflected in the corresponding maps of France and Italy) by cross-reference with the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae of Robert Estienne first published 1531. The hand is perhaps XVIIc, judging by the letter-forms; it is perhaps reductive to suggest he lived in Southeast France or Northwest Italy, but there is nothing to supersede that suggestion. Adams P 2218; Alden-Landis 511/8; Nordenskiöld 2.204; Phillips, Atlases 358; Shirley 31 & 32, Stevens, Ptolemy 43.

"2 volumes folio (22 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.; 57.8 x 40 cm). 145 fine stipple-engraved plates after Jacques Barraband, printed in colors and finished by hand by Langlois under the direction of Bouquet, dedication leaf to B.G.E.L. Lacépède in vol. 1, half-titles and single-page indices in each volume; light scattered foxing to text leaves for plates 64 and 70 and index leaf in vol. 1, negligible toning to plates 103 and 118, light marginal foxing on plates 116 and 128, small faint stain to lower inside corner of plate 103. Nineteenth-century salmon morocco paneled gilt with a double roll-tooled border of acanthus leaves, the spines richly gilt in compartments with slightly raised bands, lettered in the second, third, and final compartments (the last dated "1807" [sic]), marbled endpapers, edges gilt; the spines gently sunned, a few scrapes to board edges with minor loss. FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FRENCH ORNITHOLOGICAL BOOKS, A BRIGHT, CRISP COPY IN A HANDSOME BINDING. Levaillant, one of France's greatest ornithologists, was born the son of the French consul in Paramarimbo, Dutch Guiana. Having studied natural history at Metz, he became one of the first of a new breed of naturalists who observed and recorded their subjects in their natural habitat. In 1781-1784, he collected specimens in South Africa on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. Jacques Barraband (1767/68-1809) worked for the Gobelin factory and was recognized as the best ornithological artist of his time owing to his attention to remarkably accurate detail and use of naturalistically textured color. Langlois' skillful engravings of Barraband's original watercolor and gouache drawings reproduce their delicate modulations of tone and color as well as their fine lines and flawless draftsmanship. "After he had made himself Emperor, it was part of Napoleon's deliberate policy to initiate a series of magnificent publications that would vie with those undertaken on the orders of Louis XIV. Theses were sent as presented to crowned heads, men of science, and learned bodies, in evidence of the splendours of the Empire The works of Levaillant owe their sumptuous character to this impetus. His Histoire naturelle des perroquets is, unwittingly, a part of the glories of Napoleonic France" (Fine Bird Books, p. 15). REFERENCES: Anker 303; Ayer/Zimmer p. 392; Fine Bird Books (1990), p. 118; Nissen IVB 558; Ronsil 1780".

5 volumes plus supplement. List of subscribers, list of plates in each volume; title-page of volume 1 with gutter repair and strengthening. Folio (21 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.; 54.6 x 36.8 cm.). 418 hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, H.C. Richter and W. Hart. Full contemporary green morocco, elaborate gilt border of acanthus and Greek key roll tools and 1 roll of shells in blind. Spine in 6 compartments, richily gilt with gilt dentelles, raised bands with 2 letterering pieces, yellow-coated endpapers, edges gilt; expertly rebacked. PROVENANCE: Red-ink stamp "Property of William and Flora Richardson Library" stamped on the front and rear paste-downs of each volume. First edition. "THE TROCHILIDAE OF GOULD IS HIS MASTERPIECE, AND MUST EVER REMAIN A FEAST OF BEAUTY AND A SOURCE OF WONDER.AN INCOMPARABLE CATALOGUE AND COMPENDIUM OF BEAUTIES" (Fine Bird Books). Gould maintained an obsessive fascination for Hummingbirds: "These wonderful works of creation my thoughts are often directed to them in the day, and my night dreams have not infrequently carried me to their native forests in the distant country of America" (Gould "Preface"). During his lifetime he identified more than 400 species of Hummingbird, Linneaus, by comparison, having only identified 22. Gould famously exhibited his personal collection (from which the plates in this monograph are drawn) at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Zoological Gardens in Regents Park, and one of his revolving displays of these tiny birds with their "jewel-like glittering hues" (Gould "Preface") can be seen currently at the Yale Center for British Art as part of their exhibition "Endless Forms": Charles Darwin and the Natural Sciences. As a result Gould's "masterpiece [is] an incomparable catalogue and compendium of beauties" ("Fine Bird Books"). Initially employed as a taxidermist [he was known as the 'bird-stuffer'] by the Zoological Society, Gould's fascination with birds from the east began in the "late 1820s [when] a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum and Gould conceived the idea of publishing a volume of imperial folio sized hand-coloured lithographs of the eighty species, with figures of a hundred birds (A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains, 1830-32). Gould's friend and mentor N. A. Vigors supplied the text. Elizabeth Gould made the drawings and transferred them to the large lithographic stones. Having failed to find a publisher, Gould undertook to publish the work himself; it appeared in twenty monthly parts, four plates to a part, and was completed ahead of schedule. "With this volume Gould initiated a format of publishing that he was to continue for the next fifty years, although for future works he was to write his own text. Eventually fifty imperial folio volumes were published on the birds of the world, except Africa, and on the mammals of Australia-he always had a number of works in progress at the same time. Several smaller volumes, the majority not illustrated, were published, and he also presented more than 300 scientific papers. "His hand-coloured lithographic plates, more than 3300 in total, are called 'Gould plates'. Although he did not paint the final illustrations, this description is largely correct: he was the collector (especially in Australia) or purchaser of the specimens, the taxonomist, the publisher, the agent, and the distributor of the parts or volumes. He never claimed he was the artist for these plates, but repeatedly wrote of the 'rough sketches' he made from which, with reference to the specimens, his artists painted the finished drawings. The design and natural arrangement of the birds on the plates was due to the genius of John Gould, and a Gould plate has a distinctive beauty and quality. His wife was his first artist. She was followed by Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, William Matthew Hart, and Joseph Wolf" (Gordon C. Sauer for DNB). Anker 177, 182; Diane Donaldson "Pict.

First edition. EXTRAORDINARY SAMMELBAND OF SIX RARE WORKS BY KEPLER - INCLUDING SOMNIUM, HIS 'VOYAGE TO THE MOON'. An extraordinary sammelband, with a remarkable provenance, containing six rare works by Kepler, including the first edition of Somnium, Kepler's imaginary voyage to the moon, in which he utilizes the motions of the planets as they would be seen from the moon to argue for the Copernican system, and gives a remarkable description of the appearance of the earth as seen from the moon - this is Kepler's rarest major work. "At Sagan, Kepler finally began to print a short book whose beginnings went back to his school days at Tübingen: his Somnium, seu astronomia lunari. The 'Dream' is a curiously interesting tract for two reasons. First, its fantasy framework of a voyage to the moon made it a pioneering and remarkably prescient piece of science fiction. Second, its perceptive description of celestial motions as seen from the moon produced an ingenious polemic on behalf of the Copernican system" (DSB). In The Dream, a young traveller lands on the Moon to find that lunar beings believe Earth revolves around them - from their cosmic vantage point, the Earth rises and sets against their firmament, something reflected even in the name they have given Earth: Volva. Kepler chose the name to emphasize the fact of Earth's revolution - the very motion that made Copernicanism so dangerous to the dogma of cosmic stability. Kepler suggests that our own certitude about Earth's fixed position in space is just as misguided as the lunar denizens' belief in Volva's revolution around them. The final part of the work is Kepler's translation of, and commentary on Plutarch's fantasy on the face of the moon. Kepler wrote Somnium in 1609, circulating it in manuscript form. Some 20 years later he added the dream framework and wrote the 223 notes, but it was only published after his death in 1630. Most of the book was printed in Sagan, whilst the title and dedication (by Kepler's son) were printed in Frankfurt. Bound here with the Somnium are five other works by Kepler: the first edition of his Letter to Jacob Bartsch, which resulted in their joint production of the Ephemerides - this work is an important biographical source for Kepler's life and final years; the second edition of Admonitio ad astronomos, Kepler's correct prediction of the transits of Mercury and Venus across the face of the Sun in 1631; the second edition of Chillias logarithmorum (differing from the first in only the first two leaves), containing Kepler's original construction of logarithmic tables which enabled him to complete the Tabulae Rudolphionae; and two works devoted to the issue of establishing a correct chronology of events described in the Holy Scriptures, the first edition of Eclogae chronicae and the first Latin edition of De vero anno. Caspar records twenty-two copies of the Somnium in German and Swiss libraries, the smallest number in his census for any major work of Kepler. Only three copies of the Somnium have appeared at auction in the last 40 years, of which only one was in a contemporary binding (the Richard Green copy, Sotheby's, November 17, 1988, lot 12, $92,500). Provenance: Title of the first-bound work, De vero anno, with two notes in ink: 'Ex bibl. Nic. Heinsii / Frid. Ben. Carpzov / Lugduni Bat. 1683' and 'Ex auctione Carpzoviana / JPW A = 1700'. The first identifiable owner of the anthology was the Dutch classical scholar and poet Nicolaas Heinsius the Elder (1620-81), who spent several years in Stockholm at the court of Queen Christina. He assembled one of the largest private libraries in Europe, comprising some 13,000 books. The present sammelband is listed as no. 139 in Heinsiana, sive catalogus librorum . (Leiden, 1682), p. 220. The Leipzig lawyer and councilor Friedrich Benedict Carpzov the Elder (1649-99), who was co-editor of the Acta Eruditorum, assembled a large library which was auctioned after his death. The present sammelband is listed as no. 118 in the auction catalogue Bibliotheca Carpzoviana (Leipzig, 1700), p. 442 - it was sold for 2 talers, 19 groschen. "When Kepler was enrolled at Tübingen University, the students there were required to compose a number of dissertations or disputations. One such composition written by Kepler in 1593 dealt with the following question: How would the phenomena occurring in the heavens appear to an observer stationed on the moon? Kepler had hit upon this ingenious device in an effort to overcome the deep-rooted hostility to the Copernican astronomy. According to Copernicus the earth moves very swiftly. But the people who live on the earth do not see or hear or feel this movement. Yet they can watch the moon perform various motions. These lunar motions, however, will escape detection by an observer located on the moon for the simple reason that he would be participating in those motions. Since the lunar motions would not be apparent to an observer there, by the same token the terrestrial motions are not noticed by observers here. This seems to have been the basic theme of Kepler's 1593 dissertation. "It was never presented as a Tübingen disputation, however, because Veit Müller, the professor in charge of those academic exercises, was so unalterably opposed to Copernicanism that he refused to permit Kepler's theses to be heard. This rebuff did not dishearten the young student to the point of tearing up his work in disgust and throwing it away. On the contrary he kept it and bided his time until he would no longer be under the control of a reactionary and unsympathetic professor. This earliest draft has not survived - it was not mentioned in the first catalogue of Kepler's manuscripts. "That earliest draft was apparently left undisturbed for 16 years, during which all sorts of things happened to Kepler, both good and bad. Among the good things was his appointment as Imperial Mathematician. In this capacity he lived in Prague, which was then the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. T.

First edition. INSCRIBED PRESENTATION COPY OF THE EXTREMELY RARE ABSTRACT. First edition, inscribed presentation copy from Hutton to Matthew Boulton, of one of the great rarities in the history of science, Hutton's first announcement of his revolutionary view that our earth was shaped by slow, steady forces acting over a long period of time - the doctrine of uniformitarianism. According to Victor Eyles, "10 or at most 12" copies of this Abstract exist (photocopy of letter from Eyles to a previous owner laid in; Eyles is the author of a published bibliographical account of the Abstract, and of the DSB article on Hutton). "Hutton's theory, or 'System of the Earth,' as he called it originally, was first made public at two meetings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, early in 1785. The society published it in full in 1788, but offprints of this paper were in circulation in 1787, and possibly in 1786. The theory first appeared in print in condensed form, in a thirty-page pamphlet entitled Abstract of a Dissertation . Concerning the System of the Earth, Its Duration, and Stability, which Hutton circulated privately in 1785. The interest of this pamphlet is that it states all the conclusions which were essential to the theory as a whole. It emphasizes that even at this early date Hutton's thinking was far ahead of that of his contemporaries" (ibid.). "Hutton's most important contribution to science was his theory of the earth, first announced in 1785. Hutton had then been actively interested in geology for fully thirty years. It is known that he had completed the theory in outline some years earlier, and according to Black, writing in 1787, Hutton had formed its principal parts more than twenty years before. In essence the theory was simple, yet it was of such fundamental importance that Hutton has been called the founder of modern geology" (DSB). "The effect of his ideas on the learned world can be compared only to the earlier revolution in thought brought about by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, German astronomer Johannes Kepler, and Italian astronomer Galileo when they displaced the concept of a universe centred on Earth with the concept of a solar system centred on the Sun. Both advances challenged existing thought and were fiercely resisted for many years" (Britannica)."Born in Edinburgh, James Hutton (1726-97) studied medicine at the university there during 1744-47, after which he spent two years in Paris, where he probably first developed an interest in geology. Hutton returned to Edinburgh in 1750, where "he entered fully into the intellectual and social life of the city. Joseph Black became his most intimate friend. Through Black he became a friend of James Watt, in whose work he took much interest . About 1781 he first met [John] Playfair, and later he befriended Sir James Hall, who attained distinction as a geologist and chemist" (DSB). Through Watt, Hutton met the members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a group of scientists, engineers and industrialists from the English Midlands, which included Watt's business partner, Matthew Boulton. Six copies are recorded by ESTC: three in Britain and three in America. ABPC/RBH list one other copy (Sotheby's, 1988). Provenance: Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) (presentation inscription on title in Hutton's hand: 'Matthew Bolton [sic] Esqr from James Hutton'); Henry Faul (d. 1981). Hutton's closest friends included Joseph Black, Adam Smith (who appointed Hutton and Black as his literary executors), and James Watt. It was Watt who introduced him to Matthew Bolton, manufacturer, scientist and entrepreneur, very probably when visiting Birmingham in 1774 as Watt moved to that city to join in partnership with Bolton to develop the steam engine. Hutton was a 'satellite' member of the famous Lunar Society, which included John Whitehurst, Boulton, Josiah Wedgewood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, Watt, William Withering, and others. Henry Faul was professor of geophysics at the University of Pennsylvania and a noted collector of rare geological books. Laid in is a photocopy of a letter from V. A. Eyles to Faul, dated 26 October 1971, discussing the rarity ("10 or at most 12") of the book and the importance of this copy and authenticating the inscription. In the Abstract, "Hutton describes briefly his purpose in carrying out the inquiry, the methods he employed in reaching his conclusions, and the conclusions themselves. His purpose was to ascertain (a) the length of time the earth had existed as a "habitable world"; (b) the changes it had undergone in the past; and (c) whether any end to the present state of affairs could be foreseen. He stated that the facts of the history of the earth were to be found in 'natural history,' not in human records, and he ignored the biblical account of creation as a source of scientific information (a view he expressed explicitly later on). The method he employed in carrying out his inquiry had been a careful examination of the rocks of the earth's crust, and a study of the natural processes that operated on the earth's surface, or might be supposed, from his examination of the rocks, to have operated in the past. In this way, 'from principles of natural philosophy,' he attempted to arrive at some knowledge of the order and system in the economy of the globe, and to form a rational opinion as to the course of nature and the possible course of natural events in the future. "Hutton concluded that rocks in general (clearly he referred here to the sedimentary rocks) are composed of the products of the sea (fossils) and of other materials similar to those found on the seashore (the products of erosion). Hence they could not have formed part of the original crust of the earth, but were formed by a 'second cause' and had originally been deposited at the bottom of the ocean. This reasoning, he stated, implies that while the present land was forming there must have existed a former land on which organic life existed, that this former lan.

First edition. EVANS (49) - THE DISCOVERY OF CARBON DIOXIDE. First edition of one of the greatest rarities in the history of science, the discovery of carbon dioxide and the foundation work of quantitative chemical analysis. "There is perhaps no other instance of a graduation thesis so weighted with significant novelty as Black's 'De humore acido a cibis orto, et magnesia alba' presented to the Faculty, 11 June, 1754" (William Osler in DNB). It "was soon recognised for what it is: a brilliant model, perhaps the first successful model, of quantitative chemical investigation, as well as a classic exemplar of experimental science worthy of comparison with Newton's Opticks . The Dissertatio in its original form is virtually unprocurable" (Guerlac, p. 124). Black's biographer Sir William Ramsay, who was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in chemistry "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air," wrote of "Black's celebrated thesis, which gained for him not merely the degree of Doctor of Medicine, but also brought his name before every 'philosopher' in Europe and America as that of a man who had made a discovery of more fundamental influence on the progress of Chemistry than any which had previously been described" (Ramsay, p. 20). "In the late spring of 1754, the famous Scottish chemist and physician Joseph Black (1728-99) put the finishing touches on his thesis for the doctorate of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Entitled Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de humore acido a cibis orto, et magnesia alba, . it has received unstinted praise as one of the great classics in the history of science . [Black] studied and carefully distinguished the chemical behaviour of the common alkalis (carbonates) and of the two alkaline earths, lime and magnesia. He showed that the changes produced in these substances by roasting and calcining the mother substances (limestone, chalk and magnesia alba) were associated with the loss of an elastic, aeriform constituent, a 'fixed air' [carbon dioxide], and need not be explained by assuming that some hypothetical 'principle' was added during intense heating. Most important of all, Black proved by careful gravimetrical experiments that this elastic fluid was a precise quantitative constituent of these chemical compounds. As is well known, Black's results led directly to the classic studies on gases carried out by Henry Cavendish, Joseph Priestley, and Black's own pupil, Daniel Rutherford" (Guerlac, p. 125). An expanded English translation was published by the Edinburgh Philosophical Society in 1756, and the original thesis was reprinted in 1785 in William Smellie'sThesaurus medicus (Tom. II, pp. 271-304). ESTC lists 11 copies of the Dissertatio worldwide (7 in the UK, 3 in North America, and one in the Netherlands). We have been unable to trace any other copy having appeared in commerce. Joseph Black was born in Bordeaux where his father, who was born in Belfast but was ultimately of Scottish descent, had a wine business. Joseph was sent to school in Belfast in 1740, and around 1745 entered Glasgow University, where he studied languages and natural philosophy, and later, about 1748, anatomy and medicine under William Cullen. After working for three years in Cullen's laboratory, in 1752 Black left Glasgow for the more prestigious University of Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of the physiologist Robert Whytt, and of Charles Alston, a botanist and chemist who lectured on materia medica. "In 1754 Black received the M.D. with his now historic dissertation De humore acido a cibis orto et magnesia alba" (DSB). Black succeeded Cullen as professor of anatomy and lecturer in chemistry in Glasgow in 1756, but exchanged the chair of anatomy with the professor of medicine. He succeeded Cullen as professor of chemistry in Edinburgh on 1 November 1766, and occupied that position, at the same time practising medicine, until his death in 1799. "Black's investigation of alkaline substances had a medical origin. The presumed efficacy of limewater in dissolving urinary calculi ('the stone') was supported by the researches of two Edinburgh professors, Robert Whytt and Charles Alston. It interested Cullen as well, and Black came to Edinburgh as a medical student with the intention of exploring the subject for his doctoral dissertation. "But at this moment Whytt and Alston were at loggerheads: they disagreed as to the best source, whether cockleshells or limestone, for preparing the quicklime. And they differed as to what occurs when mild limestone is burned to produce quicklime. Whytt accepted the common view that lime becomes caustic by absorbing a fiery matter during calcination, and thought he had proved it by showing that quicklime newly taken from the fire was the most powerful dissolvent of the stone. Alston, in an important experiment on the solubility of quicklime, showed that this was not the case, and that the causticity must be the property of the lime itself. Both men were aware that on exposure to the air quicklime gradually becomes mild, and that a crust appears on the surface of limewater. For Whytt, this resulted from the escape of fiery matter; but Alston, noting that the crust was heavier than the lime in solution, hinted that foreign matter, perhaps the air or something contained in it, produced the crust. Yet he was more disposed to believe that the insoluble precipitate formed when the quicklime combined with impurities in the water. Black, although he had criticized Alston as a chemist, was soon to profit from his findings. "Preoccupied at first with his medical studies, Black did not come to grips with his chosen problem until late in 1753. When he did so, he found it expedient to avoid any conflict between two of his professors; instead of investigating limewater, he would examine other absorbent earths to discover, if possible, a more powerful lithotriptic agent. He chose a white powder, magnesia alba, recently in vogue as a mi.

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 French edition of the Constitution of the United States of America, inscribed by Founding Father Benjamin Franklin who had the translation published and personally distributed each of the 600 copies produced. Octavo, bound in one quarter calf with gilt ruling to the spine, burgundy morocco spine label lettered in gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by Benjamin Franklin on the front free endpaper, "A Madame, Madame la Presidente de Manieres [sic] de la parte du. B. Franklin." The recipient, Madame Durey de Meinires was a a French writer best known for her translations of Samuel Johnson, David Hume, and Sarah Fielding. On March 24th, 1783, Franklin wrote to the Comte de Vergennes, "I am desirous of printing a translation of the Constitutions of the United States of America, published at Philadelphia, by Order of Congress. Several of these Constitutions have already appeared in the English and American newspapers but there has never yet been a complete translation of them." At Franklin's suggestion, the Duc de La Rochefoucault produced the first French translation, and FranklinÂis believed to have contributed the fifty-plus footnotes.ÂFranklin had 600 copies of Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis de l'Amerique privately printed by Philippe-Denis Pierres, first printer ordinary of Louis XVI, which were not made available for sale. Franklin distributed them himself, and was happy to fulfill the request of Madame Durey de Meinires, who wished to receive a copy. On August 31, 1783, Franklin sent a copy of the newly published volume to Madame Durey de Meinires, along with a letter, "I send with great Pleasure the Constitutions of America to my dear & much respected Neighbour, being happy to have any thing in my Power to give that she will do me the honour to accept, and that may be agreeable to her." The inscribed page included in the present volume was previously sold as a loose flyleaf by Charles Hamilton in 1959, and it has since been professionally tipped into an edition of the book with which it was originally sent. The book contains the Constitutions of each of the thirteen States of America, the Declaration of Independence of the 4th of July 1776, the Friendship and Commerce Treaty, the Alliance Treaty between France and the United States, as well as the treaties between the United States and the Netherlands and Sweden. The title page contains the first appearance of imprint of the United States seal in a book. Franklin's grand gesture in publishing and distributing these constitutionsâ about which there was intense interest and curiosity among statesmenâ was one of his chief achievements as a propagandist for the new American republic. In good condition. Benjamin Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklinâ s contributions to science and politics were immense and his passion for making books more available to a broader audience prompted him to establish North Americaâ s first subscription library. In 1731, Franklin convinced the members of his Junto (a mutual improvement club he founded) to pool their money to purchase books they would collectively share. The collection became the Library Company of Philadelphia and is now regarded as the predecessor to the public library. Franklin was also instrumental in the establishment of the Library of the Pennsylvania Hospital (North Americaâ s first medical library), the Pennsylvania State Library, The Library of the American Philosophical Society, and the Library of the University of Pennsylvania.

First edition. PMM 129 - THE INVENTION OF ANALYTIC GEOMETRY. First edition, a fine, large copy, of Descartes' first and most famous work. Following the Discours, now celebrated as one of the canonical texts of Western philosophy, are three 'Essais', the last of which, La Géométrie, contains the birth of analytical or co-ordinate geometry, "of epoch-making importance" (Cajori, History of Mathematics, p. 174), designated by John Stuart Mill as "the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences". It "rendered possible the later achievements of seventeenth-century mathematical physics" (Hall, Nature and nature's laws (1970), p. 91). The first of the Essais, La Dioptrique, contains Descartes' discovery of 'Snell's law' of refraction of light (earlier than Snell); the second, Les Météores, contains Descartes' explanation of the rainbow, based on the optical theories developed in the first Essai. "It is no exaggeration to say that Descartes was the first of modern philosophers and one of the first modern scientists; in both branches of learning his influence has been vast . The revolution he caused can be most easily found in his reassertion of the principle (lost in the middle ages) that knowledge, if it is to have any value, must be intelligence and not erudition. His application of modern algebraic arithmetic to ancient geometry created the analytical geometry which is the basis of the post-Euclidean development of that science. His statement of the elementary laws of matter and movement in the physical universe, the theory of vortices, and many other speculations threw light on every branch of science from optics to biology. Not least may be remarked his discussion of Harvey's discovery of the circulation of blood, the first mention of it by a prominent foreign scholar. All this found its starting point in the 'Discourse on the Method for Proper Reasoning and Investigating Truth in the Sciences'. Descartes's purpose is to find the simple indestructible proposition which gives to the universe and thought their order and system. Three points are made: the truth of thought, when thought is true to itself (thus cogito, ergo, sum), the inevitable elevation of its partial state in our finite consciousness to its full state in the infinite existence of God, and the ultimate reduction of the material universe to extension and local movement" (PMM). Provenance: Lessing J. Rosenwald (small morocco monogram bookplate); given to the Library of Congress (bookplate and duplicate stamp); Richard Green (Christie's NY, 17 June 2008, The Richard Green Library, lot 87, $116,500). In October 1629 Descartes began work on The World, which included not only his Treatise on Light, first published as Le Monde in 1664, and the Treatise on Man, first published two years earlier as Renatus Descartes de Homine, but also the material on the formation of colours in the Meteors and the material on geometrical optics in the Dioptrics, both subsequently published in 1637 along with the Discourse and the Geometry. Descartes sets out the details of the treatise he was working on from mid-1629 to 1633 in part 5 of the Discourse: "I tried to explain the principles in a Treatise which certain considerations prevented me from publishing, and I know of no better way of making them known than to set out here briefly what it contained. I had as my aim to include in it everything that I thought I knew before I wrote it about the nature of material things. But just as painters, not being able to represent all the different sides of a body equally well on a flat canvas, choose one of the main ones and set it facing the light, and shade the others so as to make them stand out only when viewed from the perspective of the chosen side; so too, fearing that I could not put everything I had in mind in my discourse, I undertook to expound fully only what I knew about light. Then, as the opportunity arose, I added something about the Sun and the fixed stars, because almost all of it comes from them; the heavens, because they transmit it; the planets, comets, and the earth, because they reflect light; and especially bodies on the earth, because they are coloured, or transparent, or luminous; and finally about man, because he observes these bodies" (quoted in Gaukroger (ed.), Rene Descartes: The World and Other Writings, p. xi). But The World was never published in Descartes' lifetime. "During the years immediately following the condemnation of Galileo, Descartes held fast to his initial view that the cardinals had made a mistake, though one that was potentially dangerous for himself. His fundamental idea was that the decision involved a misunderstanding of the role of the Bible as a source of scientific knowledge. He also argued that he was not bound to accept the Roman decision as a matter of faith, and he hoped that it would be reversed in due course so that he could publish his World without fear of censure. He had to concede, however, that as long as there was no change of mind about Galileo by the church, the World would remain 'out of season' . In these circumstances, the next-best option was to consider ways in which parts of his work that were not theologically sensitive could be released to the public. Accordingly, during the years from 1633 to 1637, Descartes spent most of his time on this project. His efforts came to fruition with the publication of the Discourse on the Method for Guiding one's Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences, together with the Dioptrics, the Meteors, and the Geometry, which are samples of this Method (1637) . [It] omitted what Descartes called the 'foundations of my physics', that is, the controversial view of the universe that included heliocentrism. He offered instead some examples of the results that one could expect from his basic theory when applied to specific areas such as dioptrics. For good measure, he made sure that the book appeared anonymously. "The standard practice among scholars.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. 5 volumes. Folio (21 4/8 x 14 4/8 inches). 367 hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, Josef Wolf, and H.C. Richter (4 plates at end of volume IV with some spotting). Contemporary green morocco gilt, all edges gilt, by Bickers and Son. Provenance: 19th-century engraved bookplate of the Barons Egerton of Tatton on the front paste-down of each volume; 20th-century bookplate of C.J. Coldeway on the front paste-down of each volume. "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain" ("Fine Bird Books") First edition. Often referred to as the most sumptuous and costly of all British bird books, the plates depict scenes with more sophisticated subjects than Gould's previous works, including nests, chicks and eggs: "I also felt that there was an opportunity of greatly enriching the work by giving figures of the young of many of the species of various genera - a thing hitherto almost entirely neglected by author's, and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest for science." (Gould "Preface" to "Introduction", 1873). Initially employed as a taxidermist [he was known as the 'bird-stuffer'] by the Zoological Society, Gould's fascination with birds began in the "late 1820s [when] a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum and Gould conceived the idea of publishing a volume of imperial folio sized hand-coloured lithographs of the eighty species, with figures of a hundred birds (A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains, 1830-32). Gould's friend and mentor N. A. Vigors supplied the text. Elizabeth Gould made the drawings and transferred them to the large lithographic stones. Having failed to find a publisher, Gould undertook to publish the work himself; it appeared in twenty monthly parts, four plates to a part, and was completed ahead of schedule. "With this volume Gould initiated a format of publishing that he was to continue for the next fifty years, although for future works he was to write his own text. Eventually fifty imperial folio volumes were published on the birds of the world, except Africa, and on the mammals of Australia-he always had a number of works in progress at the same time. Several smaller volumes, the majority not illustrated, were published, and he also presented more than 300 scientific papers. "His hand-coloured lithographic plates, more than 3300 in total, are called 'Gould plates'. Although he did not paint the final illustrations, this description is largely correct: he was the collector (especially in Australia) or purchaser of the specimens, the taxonomist, the publisher, the agent, and the distributor of the parts or volumes. He never claimed he was the artist for these plates, but repeatedly wrote of the 'rough sketches' he made from which, with reference to the specimens, his artists painted the finished drawings. The design and natural arrangement of the birds on the plates was due to the genius of John Gould, and a Gould plate has a distinctive beauty and quality. His wife was his first artist. She was followed by Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, William Matthew Hart, and Joseph Wolf" (Gordon C. Sauer for DNB). Anker p. 60; "Fine Bird Books"; Nissen 372; Sauer 23; Tree "The Ruling Passion of John Gould", p. 207; Wood p. 365; Zimmer p. 261. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.