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Paris, Chez Treuttel et Würtz, 1824. Lex 8vo. Both volumes bound completely uncut in one near contemporary brown half calf with ornametal spine. A bit of wear to capitals, corners, and hinges. Occasional brownspotting. Overall a very nice copy. (Text-vol.:) (4), XVI, 410, (4, - 1 blank leaf + 1 leaf of book binder instructions) pp. + 16 plates, some folded; (2), 45 pp. + 32 plates (numbered 1-21 and A-K). Complete in two vols. w. all 38 lithographed plates. Very rare first edition of the work in which the deciphering of the hieroglyphs was fully presented for the first time. In 1822 Champollion had read his "Lettre a M. Dacier" before the Academie des Inscriptions, and for the first time presented the key to reading hieroglyphs. His monumental work "Précis du système hiéroglyphique" appeared two years later, and in this richly illustrated work he presents his definitive, expanded analysis, and finally corrects the misleading mistakes of the other Egyptologists, counting also Thomas Young. Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832), the father of Egyptology, is credited with actually deciphering the inscription on the famous Rosetta Stone, translating it, and breaking the mystery of the ancient hieroglyphic script; he is therefore accepted as the founder of Scientific Egyptology, -a title primarily justified with the publication of this work.The Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 by French Troops and was immediately brought to England, where it has been ever since. The stone was (and is) of the utmost importance to the understanding of the Egyptian language, the principles of which were totally unknown up to this point. Because the hieroglyphic inscription on the stone is accompanied by a Greek and a Demotic one with the same contents, Champollion was able to crack the code of the hieroglyphs and to read a language that had not been read for far more than a millennium. Champollion was an extraordinary philologist, who, by the age of sixteen, besides Greek and Latin, mastered six ancient Middle Eastern languages, among these Coptic, the knowledge of which, unlike that of Egyptian, was never lost. As the first, Champollion realized the connection between the Coptic and the Egyptian language, and was able to identify many of the Egyptian words on the Rosetta Stone, as he could read them with their Coptic equivalents. He was the first to believe that both Demotic and hieroglyphs represented symbols, and not sounds as earlier presumed. After that he quickly realized that each single hieroglyph could represent a sign, and he began compiling a hieroglyphic alphabet. In his "Précis du système hiéroglyphique" he could finally, in 1824, prove that the glyphs represented sounds as well as concepts, according to context. Champollion is the constructor of our present code of the hieroglyphic alphabet. "Further study enabled him to discover the values of a number of syllabic hieroglyphic signs, and to recognize the use of hieroglyphs as determinatives. In cases where the Greek text supplied him with the meaning of hieroglyphs of which he did not know the phonetic values, his knowledge of Coptic enabled him to suggest values which he found subsequently to be substantially correct. Further reference to determinatives and the importance of parallel passages and texts will be made later on in his work. Between 1822-24 CHAMPOLLION worked incessantly, and was enabled to modify much of his earlier views, and to develop his Alphabet, -and he evolved some rudimentary principles of Egyptian Grammar. The results of his studies at this period he published in his "Précis du Système Hiéroglyphique", Paris, 1824, wherein he took special pains to inform his readers that his system had nothing whatever to do with that of Dr. YOUNG." (Wallis Budge, The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, pp. 224-25). "... Ces mémoires réunis formèrent le grand ouvrage publié aux frais de l'Etat en 1824 sous le titre "Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Égyptiens", didié au roi." (N.B.G. Vol. 9, p. 650).

London, Edward Griffin [John Haviland, Bernard Norton, and John Bill], Richard Whitaker [& John Norton], 1638. Folio. (Binding: 32x22 cm, leaves: 31,1x20,8 cm.). Contemporary full speckled calf binding with six raised bands and gilt red leather title-label to spine. Boards with blindstamped ornamental border. Scuff marks to boards and hinges worn, so bands showing. Large woodcut head- and tail-pieces, initials, printer's devices, and typographical ornaments (that have been of great significance to the Baconians in their attempts to establish Bacon as the author of the works attributed to Shakespeare). Roman and Italic lettering, and some Greek. Several neat inscriptions to front free end-papers and verso of frontispiece, in Latin, Greek, English, and German, dated 1704, 1740, and 1926, the last being a presentation-inscription for the renowned German Bacon-scholar and noted Baconian George J. Pfeiffer. Neat early 18th century inscription to top of title-page. Old description of the copy (1946) neatly pasted on to inside of front board. Vague minor damp-staining to lower margin throughout, far from affecting text, and mostly barely visible. A vague minor dampstain to margins of a few leaves at the beginning, also far from affecting text. All in all a lovely, clean and crisp copy on large paper. Full page engraved frontispiece-portrait + (14), 386 (pp. 177-78 omitted in pagination); (16), 475, (1) pp. Fully complete, with separate half-titles for the different works. Scarce first edition, first issue, on large paper - THE GREAT BOOK COLLECTOR VOLLBEHR'S COPY, GIVEN TO THE IMPORTANT BACONIAN G.J. PFEIFFER - of the monumental first collected edition of the works of Francis Bacon, containing the seminal first printing in Latin of not only his greatly influential "Nova Atlantis" ("The New Atlantis" - often referred to as "the blueprint for the founding of America"), but also his groundbreaking Essays ("Sermones Fideli") as well as his history of Henry VII ("Historiam Regni Henrici Septimi") and his Dialogue on the Holy War ("Dialogum de Bello Sacro"), published by Bacon's literary executor, his close friend William Ramsey, to whom Bacon bequeathed most of his manuscripts. This first edition of his works in Latin is of the utmost importance to Bacon-scholarship and has played a seminal role in the spreading of his works as well as the understanding of two of his greatest achievements, The Essays and The Nova Atlantis, which is usually referred to with its Latin title instead of the English.This magnificent copy with its wide margins contains several interesting inscriptions in different languages. One of them, 19th century, in German states that "This book is to remind you of the "15th Century Plot". When, in 1926, you showed to scholars his collection of 2000 incunables. He is also known as "Otto H.F. Vollbehr., [...]" - " Dated "N. York City 29/11 26" And in the same hand, the presentation inscription is continued: "This "little book" is being handed over in friendship to Mr. George J. Pfeiffer the famous "Bacon-scholar" in order for him to continue his fruitful studies [...]." -THE PRESENT COPY THUS EVIDENTLY BEING THE GREAT BOOK COLLECTOR VOLLBEHR'S COPY, GIVEN TO THE IMPORTANT BACONIAN PFEIFFER. "Vollbehr was a German industrial chemist turned book collector who at the close of World War I found himself with more assets than most. Either in his own collection or through consignment Vollbehr had control of thousands of incunabula. In 1926 Vollbehr came to the United States, bringing with him a collection of 3,000 incunabula to be exhibited at the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. After the exhibition in Chicago, Vollbehr traveled with the collection by train to several other cities. His last stop was in Washington, and over 100 of the books were exhibited in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. Vollbehr proposed that if a benefactor would step forward to buy the collection for an American institution for half the asking price of $1.5 million, he would donate the other half. In addition, he would include a complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible printed on vellum as one of the 3,000 incunabula.The Gutenberg Bible which crowned Vollbehr's collection had had only three owners. The first owner was said to have been Johann Fust, who took it to Paris and sold it as a manuscript to a representative of the monks of Saint Blasius. It resided with the monks in the Black Forest until they had to move to St. Paul in Carinthia in the face of the Napoleonic army. Finally, in 1926, Otto Vollbehr purchased the three volumes from the monks for $250,000.In December 1929, a bill was presented to Congress proposing that public funds be used to acquire the Vollbehr collection for the Library of Congress. In June 1930 Congress passed the bill and President Hoover signed it into law. Between July 15 and September 3 the Vollbehr books arrived at the Library of Congress. The Bible, one of three known perfect copies printed on vellum, is one of only a few items that are permanently on display in the Library." (from the Library of Congress web-site). George J. Pfeiffer, Ph. D., of New York, graduate of Harvard University, and Vice-president of the Bacon Society of America, is considered one of the most important Bacon-scholars of his time. His thorough scientific studies convinced himself and many others that Bacon was in fact the author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. With THE FIRST PRINTING IN LATIN OF "NOVA ATLANTIS", Bacon's famous theories of his masterly utopian work became widespread and hugely influential. It had originally been printed, posthumously, in English and appeared at the very end of his "Sylva Sylvarum" of 1626, where it was more or less hidden away and quite humbly presented by Rawley, who was responsible for his leftover papers. Rawley's introduction to the Latin edition of the work is quite different from that of the English edition and has had quite an impact upon the reception of the work, a work which came to inspire a totally new philosophical and political genre and which fundamentally changed the way that we view the world. The "Nova Atlantis" occupies a unique place within the works of Bacon; among many other things, it is the only overtly fictional product of his career (if one does not, like Pheiffer, believe that he is actually the true author of the Shakespearean works). The printing of this major work in the history of man's thought is quite interesting and fairly complicated. As mentioned, it appeared at the back of the larger, and much more conform, work "Sylva Sylvarum", which was published by his secretary and friend William Rawley shortly after Bacon's death. It does not, however, seem to have much in common with the "Sylva Sylvarum", and the "New Atlantis" was not even mentioned when that work entered the Stationers' Register on July 4th, 1626.The "Sylva Sylvarum" was being compiled during the last couple of years of Bacon's life, and there is evidence to conclude that "Nova Atlantis" was being translated into Latin at the same time, whereas it seems that the English version of it was written about a year or two earlier. Although the Latin translation was thus left lying around for quite some years before it was finally printed, perhaps due to the fact that it was an unfinished text, Bacon himself seems to have concerned himself a great deal with the Latin translation of the work (as well as the other works). The appearance of them in the "universal language" were, in the words of Bacon himself to be carried out 'for the benefit of other nations', a phrase which is paralleled in the text of "Nova Atlantis", as the father of Salomon's House remarks of his relation of the institution's working that 'I giue thee leave to Publish it; for the Good of other Nations'. And finally does this great work appear to the benefit of all men and all nations, in the universal Latin language, when in 1638 Rawley publishes the "Operum moralium", in which his "Essays" also appear in Latin for the first time, as does the History of Henry VII, and the Dialogue on the Holy War, two other greatly important works. The printed title of the "Operum Moralium" not only informs the reader which texts are included within the volume; Rawley also provides information on the texts themselves, dividing them into two distinct sections (with two separate title-pages). The first section consists of five translations which (apart from De sapientia) had never appeared in Latin translation before; the second section consists in the first part of the "Instauratio" (originally published in 1620). The second issue of the "Operum Moralium" furthermore has the reissued sheets of the last part of the "Novum organum".Rawley's prefatory letter tells us quite a bit about the way that he (and Bacon himself) would like the "Nova Atlantis" to be viewed, and for the first time the work is addressed in a direct and assertive manner, bringing it forth as an important philosophical work, now for the first time properly introduced. Rawley informs the reader that Bacon began the process of translating the Essays and the Nova Atlantis, because he wished his moral and political works not to perish. He goes on to explain the importance of the moral and political works being published in the "universal" Latin and groups the texts in a new way. He now makes a new category of text for the final two works, "De bello sacro" and "Nova Atlantis", calling them 'fragmentary', as opposed to the "Worke Unfinished" that he used for the English "Now Atlantis" of 1626/7, stating that this is at the request of Bacon himself: "And finally he ordered that two fragments be added, the Dialogue of the Holy War, and the New Atlantis: but he said that these were the three kinds of fragments.", giving to them a certain status of their own and a deliberate character that they had not possessed before. For the first time, the "Nova Atlantis", the hitherto hidden-away work that was never properly introduced, is now included in the general preface, which it was not in 1626/27, and the "Nova Atlantis" is given the central position within Bacon's works that it deserved - and that it has possessed ever since. This also explains the great impact of the first Latin version of the "Nova Atlantis" as opposed to the English version, which was far less influential. Not only is "Nova Atlantis" no longer just an unfinished work worthy of no more than being hidden away at the back of a larger work, it is now the central part of a seminal collection of works appearing for the first time in Latin "for the Good of other Nations"."Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. As a lawyer, member of Parliament, and Queen's Counsel, Bacon wrote on questions of law, state and religion, as well as on contemporary politics; but he also published texts in which he speculated on possible conceptions of society, and he pondered questions of ethics (Essays) even in his works on natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning).After his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge and Gray's Inn, London, Bacon did not take up a post at a university, but instead tried to start a political career. Although his efforts were not crowned with success during the era of Queen Elizabeth, under James I he rose to the highest political office, Lord Chancellor. Bacon's international fame and influence spread during his last years, when he was able to focus his energies exclusively on his philosophical work, and even more so after his death, when English scientists of the Boyle circle (Invisible College) took up his idea of a cooperative research institution in their plans and preparations for establishing the Royal Society.To the present day Bacon is well known for his treatises on empiricist natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning, Novum Organum Scientiarum) and for his doctrine of the idols, which he put forward in his early writings, as well as for the idea of a modern research institute, which he described in Nova Atlantis." (SEP). Gibson: 196; Lowndes I:96.

Marosvásárhely, Kali Simon, 1843. 8vo. In a simple contemporary half calf with gilt ornamentation to spine forming five compartments. Later paper title-label with gilt lettering pasted on to spine, partly detached in right margin. Light wear to extremities. Stamp to front free end-paper. First leaves evenly lightly browned. An overall fine and clean copy. XLIV, 386 pp. + 2 folded plates, one with 12 folding flaps with partial grey colouring. The rare first edition of Bolyai’s important work on the foundations of mathematics, being his last major work. It is in part based on his ‘Az arithmethica eleje’ (1830), in many aspects a rudimentary and introductory work, and the second volume of his magnum opus ‘Tentamen juventutem studiosam elementa matheseos purae’ (1832-33) – but here, for the first time, expanded and fully expounded. As with Bolyai’s other works, it was unappreciated by his contemporaries: “He can be taken as a precursor of Gottlob Frege, Pasch, and Georg Cantor; but, as with many pioneers, he did not enjoy the credit that accrued to those that followed him” (DSB). His work was considered mathematically incomprehensible by his colleagues and only his students and his son, János Bolyai, understood and appreciated it. Probably because of lack of interest from Bolyai’s contemporaries, all of his works are now rare, the present work being no exception. It has appeared only once at auction the past 30 years.In 1796, Farkas Bolyai (1775-1856) traveled to Germany, first to Jena and then to Göttingen, where he studied until 1799. It was at this time that Bolyai began his lifelong friendship with Carl Friedrich Gauss, also a student at the University Göttingen, who was already intensely engaged in mathematical research. Bolyai’s interest in the foundations of geometry dates from this period, especially in the so-called Euclidean or parallel axiom, to which Kastner and Seyffer, as well as Gauss were devoting their attention. Bolyai maintained a correspondence with Gauss that, with interruptions, lasted all their lives. Bolyai accepted the position of professor of mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the Evangelical-Reformed College at Marosvásárhely in 1804, where he taught until his retirement in 1853. Meanwhile, he continued his research, concentrating on the theory of parallels. He sent a manuscript on this subject, Theoria parallelarum, with an attempt to prove the Euclidean axiom, to Gauss in 1804. The reasoning, however, satisfied neither Gauss nor himself, and Bolyai continued to work on it and on the foundations of mathematics in general. “In 1829 Bolyai finished his principal work, but because of technical and financial problems it was not published until 1832–1833. It appeared in two volumes, with the title Tentamen juventutem studiosam in elementa matheseos purae, elementaris ac sublimioris, method intuitiva, evidentiaque huic propria, introducendi, cum appendice triplici (“An Attempt to Introduce Studious Youth Into the Elements of Pure Mathematics, by an Intuitive Method and Appropriate Evidence, With a Threefold Appendix”). While writing the Tentamen, Bolyai had his first difficulties with his son János. In spite of warnings from his father to avoid any preoccupation with Euclid’s axiom, János not only insisted on studying the theory of parallels, but also developed an entirely unorthodox system of geomentry based on the rejection of the parallel axiom, something with which his father could not agree. However, despite misgivings, Bolyai added his son’s paper to the first volume and thus, unwittingly, gave it immortality. In 1834, a Hungarian version of Volume I was published. The Tentamen itself, the fundamental ideas of which may date back to Bolyai’s Göttingen days, is an attempt at a rigorous and systematic foundation of geomentry (Volume I) and of arithmetic, algebra, and analysis (Volume II). The huge work shows the critical sprit of a man who recognized, as did few of his contemporaries, many weaknesses in the mathematics of his day, but was not able to reach a fully satisfactory solution of them." (DSB) Neverthless, when it is remembered that Bolyai worked in almost total isolation, his works are a most remarkable witness to the sharpness of his mind and to his perseverance. Not in Sommerville

Copenhagen, Peter Haubold, 1673-80. 4to. Bound in four full mottled calf bindings from ab. 1800 with five raised bands to richly gilt spines. All edges of baords gilt. Bindings with some wear, especially to capitals, hinges, and corners. Old owner's inscription "AEM Schleisveig/ Paris 1 Juli 1889" to front free end-papers. Some brownspotting and browned leaves. Woodcut vignettes and initials. All four title-pages (part III & IV have a joint title-page) printed in red and black. (16), 316; (20), 376; (16), 174, 216; (8), 342 pp. With ab. 60 woodcut illustrations in the text, many of them quite large, two of them full-page, and all 62 engraved plates (of which two are on a folded leaf), four of which are folded. Fully complete, with all five volumes and all 62 plates. The very rare first edition of all five volumes of Bartholin's groundbreaking medical journal, which constitutes the first scientific periodical in Scandinavia and one of the very first medical periodicals in the world. Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) was one of the leading physicians of his time, now remembered, among many other things, as the discoverer of the lymphatic system. He "was the most celebrated physician of his period in Denmark and perhaps in all of Europe". (Kronick, p. 81). He is considered "a typical representative of the "Curiosi naturae" of the 17th century with all their learning, diligence and insatiable spirit of curiosity... He belonged with all his heart to the learned period, and yet he made an anatomical-physiological discovery of high mark when he found, and demonstrated, a hitherto entirely unknown vascular system in animals, and later in man - the lymphatic." (Meisen, p. 25). He was a hugely influential and extremely productive man. Apart from his seminal discovery of the lymphatic system, he wrote a number of highly influential treatises, published a series of very influential anatomical papers, published his vast correspondence with other scientists, which has the character of a scientific archive at a time when there were not yet periodicals of natural science, provided us with the most extensive information about medicine in Denmark and about the conditions of the physicians, called attention to the significance of pathological anatomy, etc., etc., and "[y]et the greatest importance is to be attached to his "Acta medica philosophica Hafniensia", in 5 volumes, that was published from 1673 to 1680, when he died. It is a scientific periodical, wide in its scope, one of the first of its kind." (Meisen, p. 28). "The Copenhagen biologists, under the quickening influence of Thomas Bartholin, produced five volumes of transactions known as the Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia, which is now very rare." (Hagenströmer)The leading contributors to the periodical, besides Bartholin himself, was the great Niels Steensen (Steno), Holger Jacobsen (Jacobaeus), Caspar Bartholin, Ole Borch (Borrichius), Ole Worm, Simon Paulli, Johan Rohde, Caspar Kölichen, etc., but the contributions were not confined to Danes or Scandinavians. For instance, the English anatomist Edward Tyson (1650-1708) also published here, as did several other internationally famous physicians and scientists. Interestingly, the "Acta Hafniensia", as it is known, has a great focus on the odd and curious, the astounding and marvelous, the unnatural and abnormal. Thorndike claims that "Monsters and freaks of nature receive perhaps the most attention." (vol. VIII, p. 234). However, the journal was far from limited to this. "Thomas Bartholin describes the male mandrill illustrated by three anatomical plates (Male genitalia) and a figure of the entire animal, which had died of disease in the Royal Menagerie. Holger Jacobsen describes the scorpion, the salamander, snakes, several birds, the heron and the parrot (based on dissections and figures by Steno). He also investigated the fascinating and unique anatomical puzzle of the tongue of the black woodpecker (with plate). He gives an exceptionally interesting account of the mole cricket, Gryllotalpa, which is important as being one of the first in which the elongated segmental heart of insects is described and figured. This memoir is a commendable piece of zootomical research, and it is all the more outstanding because the subject of it was an invertebrate (Cole). The most outstanding contributions in the entire periodical, however, are the 12 by Niels Steensen (Steno), which are all printed here for the first time. Steensen was the most gifted of Bartholin's disciples, and when he returned to Denmark in 1672, he immediately took up anatomical demonstrations and dissections, the fruits of which he published here, in the first three volumes of the "Acta Hafniensia". His contributions constitute important finds in the fields of The Brain, The Heart, The Muscles and General Embryology. "Steno's dissections of the muscles of the eagle, Aquila (1673) is one of the most remarkable essays in zootomy published up to his time, and it is perhaps more detailed and reliable than almost any other." (Cole). (Gosch 24).In the paper "Embryo monsto affinis Parisiis dissectus" (Gosch 15), we have the first known description of the "tetralogy of Fallot" (Garrison & Morton no 2726.1). "Bartholin was the most celebrated physician of his period in Denmark and perhaps in all of Europe. He was professor of anatomy at the University of Copenhagen and later became Dean of its Medical Faculty. The publication seems also to have associated with the activities of a scientific society, although there seems to be little evidence for Neuberger's statement that the "Acta" were the proceedings of this society. The preface to the translation of the "Acta" which are included in the "Collection Académique" gives the following account of its origins: "The Academy of Copenhagen was founded by Frederick III, who was aware how much glory it brought to him and to Denmark by encouraging the sciences and by attracting and holding scientists in his kingdom. One finds little to clarify the history of this academy, even in the five published volumes. The editing of the memoirs was principally under the care of Bartholin, the first Dane to publish medical observations. His aim was first to make a collection which embraced all parts of science; but, deterred by the immensity of the task, he limited himself to the different parts of medicine and to those observations that were offered to him. His sponsor was Count Griffenfeld, the grand chancellor of Denmark, who obtained an edict enjoining all Danish physicians to render exact correspondence with the Dean of the Faculty of Copenhagen and to inform him of all singularities in medicine and natural history observed in different parts of the kingdom. Bartholin had great hopes for this collection and one can truly find in the five volumes which he published many discoveries which would have been lost or perhaps not have existed if this correspondence had not brought them to light and encouraged him." The "Acta" consisted primarily in short original observations on medical and natural scientific subjects, although it also contained a few abstracts of books." (Kronick p. 81). Waller: 712 (listing only 39 plates)Wellcome: II, p. 108 (listing 61 plates)Gosch: III, pp 58-59 & I, pp. 137-38Hagströmer Library has only vols. I-IVBartholin papers: Gosch: Bartholin 30-43Steensen-papers: Gosch: Steno 15-26; Garrison&Morton: 2726.1Cole, F.J.: A History of Comparative Anatomy, pp 369-93Thorndike: History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. VIII, Chapter 30Kronick, David A.: A History of Scientific and Technical Periodical 1665-1790, p. 57 & pp. 80-82Meisen: Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages, pp. 25-28

(Paris), Gallimard, (1957). Bound uncut and with the original printed wrappers, aslo the backstrip, in a magnificent full black morocco binding with more than 100 calf onlays in seven different tones of red/orange, forming three hypnotizing circles on each board. Gilt title to spine, all edges gilt, and bright red suede end-papers within cream calf borders. Housed in a matching black morocco chemise with gilt title and red and grey paper covers, with suede on the inside, and a slipcase of the same paper and with black morocco edges. The binding is signed J.P. Miguet and dated 2003. One of the morocco onlays on the back board, towards the spine, has a tiny tear at the edge. Otherwise the binding is in splendid condition. Also internally, the copy is near mint. Apart from the backstrip, which has been mounted and slightly restored, it is completely clean, fresh, and crisp. Elengant, blindstamped super-exlibris to inside of front board. Nr. 35 out of merely 45 numbered copies on Hollande van Gelder - first paper (premier papier), followed by another 1.145 numbered copies on other kinds of paper - of Camus' great collection of stories, which are considered among the best of his works. Together, these stoires cover the entire variety of existentialism - or absurdism. There is general consensus that the clearest manifestation of the ideals of Camus can be found in the present work.

Ihenae (Jena), Rhodius (Rödinger), 1556. 4to. In contemporary blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards with three raised bands and two clasps. Wear and soiling to extremities. Pigskin partly detached to upper part of boards. Previous two owner's names in contemporary hand to title-page. A few occassional underlignings and marginal annotations in contemporary hand throughout. Small worm-tract affecting last 20 leaves, internally generally fine. (10), 367 pp. Rare first printing of Martin Luther's early letters from 1507 to 1522, spanning the years from the celebration of his first Mass to his removal to Wartburg Castle after the Diet of Worms. Among them is a notable letter Cardinal Albrecht, Archbishop of Magdeberg and Mainz accompanying a copy of the 95 Theses, composed on the very day (October 31st, 1517) when Luther affixed the Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg and Luther's first letter to Erasmus, penned on March 28th, 1519. These letters provide a most interesting perspective into Martin Luther's personal and public reflections on crucial aspects of the early days of the Reformation. The collection encompasses correspondence with figures such as Emperor Charles V, Pope Leo X, King Henry VIII, Georg Spalatin, Philip Melanchthon, Frederick, Elector of Saxony, Andreas Karlstadt, Cardinal Tommaso de Vio Cajetan and many others. The present work was edited by Joannes Aurifaber (1519-1575), Luther’s private secretary, who lived with Luther at the time of his death: “Joannes (Vinariensis; 1519–1575), was born in the county of Mansfeldt in 1519. He studied at Wittenberg where he heard the lectures of Luther, and afterwards became tutor to Count Mansfeldt. In the war of 1544–45 he accompanied the army as field-preacher, and then lived with Luther as his famulus or private secretary, being present at his death in 1546. In the following year he spent six months in prison with John Frederick, elector of Saxony, who had been captured by the emperor, Charles V. He held for some years the office of court-preacher at Weimar, but owing to theological disputes was compelled to resign this office in 1561. In 1566 he was appointed to the Lutheran church at Erfurt, and there remained till his death in November 1575. Besides taking a share in the first collected or Jena edition of Luther’s works (1556), Aurifaber sought out and published at Eisleben in 1564–1565 several writings not included in that edition. He also published Luther’s Letters (1556, 1565), and Table Talk (1566). This popular work, which has given him most of his fame, is unfortunately but a second or third hand compilation.” (Encyclopedia Britannica). A second volume was published as “Secundus tomus epistolarum” in 1565. Adams L1805 BM STC German, 1455-1600,; p. 535

Kbhvn., 1763-81. 4to. Indbundet i 9 samtidige helldrbd., hvoraf de 7 er i pragtfulde spejlbind med rig rygforgyldning. Stort eksemplar på skrivepapir (undtagen bd. 7 som kom senere, og som er på trykpapir). Bd. 2 og 7 afvigende i indbindingen. Med alle 296 kobberstukne prospekter, plancher, grundtegninger og kort samt det store Generalkort over Danmark, som ikke findes i alle eksemplarer. Enkelte kort repareret i foldningen, kun enkelte brunpletter (i bd. 2), ellers frisk og ren. Originaludgaven af Danmarks topografiske hovedværk.

Paris, Iean Roigny, 1556. Folio. In contemporary linp vellum, with three (of four) of the original vellum ties. Binding with wear and inner hinge weak, but in completely original state, with no restorations. Only some light scattered brownspotting and a worm-tract to inner margin, just occasionally touching a few letters. Book-plate to pasted-down front end-paper. A lovely copy. (4), CCXLIII ff. The scarce first edition of Saliat's translation of the complete Histories of Herodotus, being the extremely popular first French edition and arguably the most important French edition of the work ever published. Saliat's monumental 1556-translation of Herodutus was extremely influential end widely used and quoted. It greatly influenced the way that Herodotus was used and understood in Renaissance France. It was used by virtually all contemporary French intellectuals as the main reference - as for instance Sandys points out, it is from this that all of Montaigne's Herodotus-quotations are taken (Sandys, vol. II, p. 197). Pierre Saliat had published a small work in 1552 consisting the the first three books of Herodotus, and in 1556, his monumental translation of the complete work appeared; for the first time, all nine books were accessible in the French language. "Little is known of Saliat's life except that he had produced two previous translations from Latin, Erasmus' "On Methods of Instructing Children" and a collection of Roman speeches. Both translations of Herdotus are dedicated to the king, Henry II, and Saliat notes that the work on the first three books had taken him six years to complete and that it had taken him a further five years to translate the remaining six books. In the preface to the 1556 translation, Saliat compares at length the scale and grandeur of the Persian Wars with Henry's recent invasion of Germany. Henry's deeds are portrayed as greater than those described by Herodotus... [The preface] reads as a salutary encomium of Henry's military and political prowess." (Brill's Companion to the Reception of Herodotus in Antiquity and Beyond, p. 127). In short, Saliat views Herodotus' work as a manual for or collection of examples of warfare that is fully transferable to other times, rather than a mere memoralization of great deeds. Graesse: III:256.

London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1849. Large 4to. (300x231mm). Original blank wrappers. Some small tears. Back strip proffesionally repaired with Japanese paper. With presentation-inscription by Faraday in ink on title page: "William Thomson Esq. | St. Peters College | from the Author." (2),41,(1:blank) pp. First edition, rare offprint-issue, of "one of the great classics of chemistry and physics". With an extremely attractive presentation-inscription from Faraday to William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), who delivered the first mathematical exposition of Faraday's researches in electricity. Thomson provided an important theoretical direction for Faraday's interpretation of his own experiments and the two colleagues motivated and inspired each other to a degree that the research and knowledge of electricity they possessed and published would not have would have been reached until many years later. The paper itself is of the utmost importance, since much of Faraday's groundbreaking research published in 1831-1839 contained many shortcomings and errors which are corrected in this publication. "The corrected second edition of volume 1 is preferred, because the first edition (London 1839) contained many errors". (Neville, Historical Chemical Library)."In June 1849 William Thomson wrote to Michael Faraday suggesting that the concept of a uniform magnetic field could be used to predict the motions of small magnetic and diamagnetic bodies. [...] There had been an important exchange of ideas between the two, who had a common interest in explaining voltaic, electrostatic, magnetic, optical, and thermal phenomena. They meet every year between 1845 (where they became acquainted) and 1849". (Gooding, Faraday, Thomson, and the Concept of the Magnetic Field).In 1845 Thomson gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some imprecise "action at a distance". He also devised a hypothesis of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, or the science which deals with the forces of electricity at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday Effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thereby electric) phenomena were related.Faraday was also the direct cause of William Thomson's work on the transatlantic submarine telegraph cable. In 1854, Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent, which later would be termed the bandwidth. Thomson immediately looked into the problem and published his response the same month Faraday had published his observations. Thomson expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In 1855, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability. Thomson's work on the cable consequently resulted in a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.From 1831 to 1852, Michael Faraday published his "Experimental Researches in Electricity" in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. These papers contain not only an impressive series of experimental discoveries, but also a collection of heterodox theoretical concepts on the nature of these phenomena expressed in terms of lines of forces and fields. He published 30 papers in all under this general title. They represent Faraday's most important work, are classics in both chemistry and physics, and are the experimental foundations for Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light, using Faraday's concepts of lines of force or tubes of magnetic and electrical forces. His many experiments on the effects of electricity and magnetism presented in these papers lead to the fundamental discoveries of 'induced electricity' (the Faraday current), the electronic state of matter, the identity of electricity from different sources, equivalents in electro-chemical decomposition, electrostatic induction, hydro-electricity, diamagnetism, relation of gravity to electricity, atmospheric magnetism, and many others."Among experimental philosophers Faraday holds by universal consent the foremost place. The memoirs in which his discoveries are enshrined will never cease to be read with admiration and delight; and future generation will preserve with an affection not less enduring the personal records and familiar letters, which recall the memory of his humble and unselfish spirit." (Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether & Electricity, p. 197).

Paris, L'Imprimerie de la République, AN VIII (1800). 4to. a. Imperial folio. Bound in 4 uniform contemp. blue hcloth with marbled boards. Gilt lettering on spines. Minimal wear to extremities. Atlas with small repairs to spine-ends. (2,= htitle),XII,491;(6, incl. htitle),516;(6, incl. htitle),562 pp. and 7 + 6 + 5 engraved plates (incl. 1 map), all with tissue-guards. Atlas volume (66 x 47 cm.): 4 pp. (incl. htitle) and 10 double-page folded maps and 6 engraved plates (landfalls - profiles). A fine clean copy, wide-margined. 1 leaf a bit brownspotted, 2 leaves a bit frayed in right margin, 2 leaves slightly brownspotted, 2 leaves with loss of a bit of lower corner. Atlas clean and fine, some minor marginal brownspots. First French edition of this classic work in geographical exploration, completing one of the most difficult surveys ever undertaken, that of the Pacific coast of North America, from the vicinity of San Francisco northward to present-day British Columbia. "This voyage became one of the most important ever made in the interests of geographical knowledge". (Hill).Sabin, 98441.Lada-Mocarski 55 (The original English edition).

Berlin, Vossischen Buchhandlung, 1791. 4to. Bound in 3 uniform contemp. hcalf. Riased bands, gilt spines. Tome-and titlelabels on spine with gilt lettering. Very light wear to spine ends. Slightly rubbed. Small stamps on foot of title-pages. Corners lightly bumped. X,130,302;(8),XXII,(2),314,(2);XVIII,74,380 pp. 4 large folded engraved maps and 27 engraved plates (some folding). Maps with closed tear at inner foldings. Scattered brownspots, mainly marginal. Occassionally some offsetting from plates. A few plates with light foxing and some with brownspots. In general fine, printed on good paper. First edition of this scarce and highly important work in the exploration of the north coasts of America. The work constitutes a wide-ranging source-book of important travels in Northwest America and Oceania, with works translated by Georg and Johann Reinhold Foster and supplied with comprehensive introductions and many additions. Sabin, 25126.

Zürich, Verlag des Waysenhauses, 1774 -(77). Folio. Bound in cont. marbled boards. Gilt lettering on back. The marbled paper over boards as well as back and edges in some places torn, especially spine and corners. Kept in a fine morocco-backed box. Title-page with a large engraved vignette. (4), 129, (1) pp., 2 engraved plates (Tab. A+B) with 58 hand-coloured illustrations to Linné (C.L.J. Gesneri delin - Bullinger sculpsit) and 100 wood-cut plates (with 101 illustrations of plants (plate 47 verso with an illustr.). All in fine original hand-colouring. Printed on good paper, internally fine and clean. First (and only) edition of Schinz's reissue of 101 plates from Leonhart Fuch's "De Historia Stirpium", Basel 1542, a work which marks the birth of botanical illustration and perhaps the most celebrated and most beautiful herbal ever published. The selection by Schinz of 101 illustrations from Fuch's work (containing 512 plates) was printed with the original wood-blocks, which Schinz borrowed from Chorherr Gessner, in the possession of whom they were to be found. In talking about the girls and boys from the "Waysenhaus" colouring the plates, Schinz said (in the Vorrede): "Ich freute mich, da mir der Gedanke glücklicher Weise beyfil, dass mein Oheim Hr. Doctor und Chorherr Gessner die ganze Sammlung der Holzformen von den Pflanzenhistorie des Herrn Leonhard Fuchsen besitze, und dass diese zu einem Versuche in dieser projectirten Beschäftigung dienen könnten." In this way the plates are original, the prints taken from the original blocks (Originalstöchen) and hand-coloured in the years 1774-77. "The plates established the requisites of botanical illustration - virisimilitude in form and habit, and accuracy of significent detail." (A.G. Morton)."Fuch's plates in particular played a curious but important part in the development of systematic botany owing to the fact that they were extensively pirated and appeared in very many works during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and even later." (A.G. Morton)."Far more impressive in appearance, though less sensitive in execution, is the great folio herbal, De Stirpium, of Leonhart Fuchs, published in Basle in 1542. With its hundreds of full-page illustrations of plants, it deservedly ranks as the first of that long line of monumental flower-books which during the last four hundred years have poured from the printing-presses of Europe. Many other fine herbals - those for instance of the Italian Matthioli - were issued during the sixteenth century, but none was quite so lavishly illustrated." (Wilfrid Blunt in Great Flower Books p. 27). - Nissen No 1761 - Hunt No 640. Dibner No 19 (Fuchs) - Printing a. The Mind of Man No 69 (Fuchs).

Argentinae (i.e Strassburg], Lazarus Zetzner, 1598. 8vo. Very nice 19th century half calf with richly gilt spine. Some browning and spotting, but overall a nice copy. Many woodcut diagrams in the text. Woodcut printer's device to title-page. (24), 992, (32) pp. Scarce first edition of this seminal publication, which is practically solely responsible for the spreading of both Lullism and Bruno's mnemonic theories in the 17th century. This publication constitutes the standard work on Lull for more than a century and it directly influenced the most significant thinkers of the following century, e.g. Leibnitz, whose dream of a universal algebra was stimulated by the reading of Lull (and Bruno) in the present publication."In 1598, while the philosopher from Nola (i.e. Bruno) was in prison in Rome, Johann Heinrich Alsted together with the printer Lazarus Zetzner in Strasburg, published a great collection of the works by Raymond Lull and the most significant commentaries on Lullism, among them also some treatises by Bruno. Since then, Bruno's mnemonics was a basic component of all attempts made in the seventeenth century to set up a universal science on the basis of a theory of combinations interpreted in terms of Neo-Platonism... It was also Leibniz who was one of the first to assume similarities between Bruno's theory of the infinite and the Cartesian theory of vortices in an undetermined and infinite universe; Leibniz had had the opportunity to read these treatises in his capacity as librarian of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel". (Blum, p. 110). "From another of Pierce's Lists we know that he possessed an important collection of Lullian and Lullist texts, namely the Renaissance edition by the famous Strasbourg editor Lazarus Zetzner: "Raymundi Lulli Opera ea quae ad adinventam ab ipso Artem universalem... pertinent" (printed first in 1598, then 1609, 1617 and, by his heirs, in 1651). This edition, which was very influential - the young Leibniz, for instance, acquainted himself with Llull through this anthology-, contains several works by Llull himself as well as those Renaissance commentaries on his works by Agrippa of Netteshein, Giordano Bruno..." (Fidora, p. 181).This highly influential publication of Lull's "Opera" through which Leibniz and many of his contemporaries got acquainted with Lull and Bruno, contains seven genuine works by Lull (including the two most important works of the last period of the Art, the "Ars brevis" and the "Ars magna"), four works falsely attributed to Lull, Agrippa's "In Artem Brevem" - and Bruno's four highly important commentaries on Lull, being the "De Lulliano specierum scrutinio" (pp. 685-97), "De Lampade combinatoria Lulliana" (pp. 698-755), "De Progressu Logicae venationis" (pp. 756-62) and "De Lampade venatoria logicurum" (pp. 763-806), which constitute Bruno's most important logical treatises and his seminal writings on mnemonics. The four treatises originally appeared separately in 1587 and 1588 respectively, and all appear here for the second time (apart from the "De progressu", which also appeared together with the first printing of the "De Lampade venatoria logicorum" the following year and here thus appears for the third time). The first printings of these works are of impossible scarcity and hardly obtainable. These four groundbreaking works appear together for the first time in the present publication and it is through this second printing of them that 17th century thinkers such as Leibniz got acquainted with them. Raymond Lull (ca. 1232-1315) was one of the most important and influential philosophers and logicians of his time. He is considered a pioneer of several fields of science, now most notably computation theory. His works sparked Leibniz' interest in the field and drove him to his seminal invention. Lull invented an "art of finding truth" (often in Lullism referred to as "The Art"), which centuries later, when read in the present publication, stimulated Leibnitz' dream of a universal algebra. Lull applied this art to basically all subjects studied at the Medieval Universities. "Lull's metaphysics worked a revolution in the history of philosophy" (The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, p. 548). Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) is one of the most significant thinkers of modern times. He prepared the way for the rise of modern philosophy and became a forerunner of modern philosophy and science. His logical commentaries and mnemonic treatises were of special importance to the emerging logic of the 17th century and it is his version of Lullism that comes to dominate this significant strand of thought for more than a century. Having been arrested in 1592 due to alleged heresy, Bruno was subjected to a 6 year long trial that finally condemned him to hanging in 1600, two years after the publication of the four works that came to secure his influence over the following century. "Bruno burned for philosophy; he was killed for moral, physical, and metaphysical views that terrified and angered authorities." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p. 315)."By far the greatest figure of this generation was Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), whose interest in Llull dates almost exclusively from his sojurns in France and Germany. His activities in this field, which he combined with his other aspects of Reniassance philosophy, are too complex to be treated in any detail here. Suffice it to say with Frances Yates that "the three strands of the Hermetism, the mnemonics, the Lullism are all interwoven in Bruno's complex personality, mind and mission"..."Perhaps the most important event of Lulliasm of this period was not the appearance of any new figure or work but the publication of an anthology by Lazarus Zetzner of Strasburg, entitled "Raymundi Lullii, opera ea quae ad adinventam ab ipso Artem universalem", which, for the next century or so, was to become the standard work on Llull. It is therefore instructive in understanding seventeenth-century Lullism... The first edition of this anthology appeared in Strasburg in 1598. It was reprinted in 1609... reprinted in 1617 and again in 1651... This mixture of Llull, pseudo-Llull, and Renaissance commentaries, emphasizing a general art of discourse, constituted the "package" in which Llull was presented to seventeenth-century readers, including Leibniz (note 33: it was apparently the first edition of 1598 that Leibniz read), and it must be kept in mind when discussing their version of Llull." (Bonner, pp. 67-68). Bruno's works, the first editions of which are all of the utmost scarcity, were generally not reprinted in Bruno's lifetime and new editions of them did not begin appearing until the 19th century. For three centuries his works had been hidden away in libraries, where only few people had access to them. One very significant exception is the four treatises that we find in the present publication. They are among the only of Bruno's treatises to be published again before the 19th century, and as they don't appear again on their own, but here, in THE most important publication of Lull's writings for more than a century, it is through this second printing of these four works that Bruno comes to have his primary influence upon 17th century philosophy and science. His separate publications were simply not accessible to thinkers like Leibniz and could thus not be studied. Also therefore, Zetzners' 1598 publication of Lull and Bruno together proved to be of seminal importance, not only to the spreading of Lullism, but just as much to the spreading of Bruno's even more important theories. "Raymond Lull (ab. 1232 - 1315), Majorcan writer, philosopher, memorycian (he was later to become a great source of inspiration for Giordano Bruno), logician, and a Franciscan tertiary. He wrote the first major work of Catalan literature. Recently-surfaced manuscripts show him to have anticipated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is sometimes considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Gottfried Leibniz. He is also well known also as a glossator of Roman Law. Lull taught himself Arabic with the help from a slave. As a result, he wrote his "Ars Magna", which was intended to show the necessary reasons for the Christian faith. To promote his theory and test its effectiveness, he went to Algiers and Tunis. At the age of 82, in 1314, Lull traveled again to North Africa, where an angry crowd of Muslims stoned him in the city of Bougie. Genoese merchants took him back to Mallorca, where he died at home in Palma the following year.". (Thorndyke)Giordano Bruno was born in Nola in Southern Italy in 1548, and entered the Dominican order in Naples at the age of 18. While pursuing theological studies, he also thoroughly studied the ancient philosophers and began doubting some of the teachings of the Catholic Church. When he was in Rome in 1576, these doubts became known to the authorities of his order, and an indictment for heresy was prepared against him. Before he could be arrested, he escaped and began a long journey which took him to many European countries, among these England, where his most important works are published, until in 1592 he was denounced to the Inquisition and arrested. In 1593 he was taken to Rome, imprisoned, and subjected to a 6 year long trial. He firmly refused to recant his philosophical opinions, and in 1600 he was condemned for heresy, sentenced to death, and burned alive.SALVESTRINI NR. 1.See:Anthony Bonner: Doctor Illuminatus. A Ramon Llull Reader, 1993.Paul Richard Blum: Giordano Bruno. An Introduction, 2012.The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy.Alexander Fidora: Peirce's Account of the Categories and Ramon Llull.

Nürnberg, Christoph Riegels, 1697. Folio (355 x 250 mm). In a contemporary full calf binding with six raised bands and gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine, edges of boards gilt. Light wear to extremeties, corner's bumped and some of gilting worn of. Small paper-label to upper compartment of spine (catalogue-number in an estate-library). The large plate depicting the funeral procession with a few repairs and tears as usual. Plates with light occassional marginal brownspotting but overall a very good copy. Engraved titlepage (Boulanger Sculp.). 4 leaves (incl. printed title), 734, (66), 24 pp. 10 engraved portraits and 114 fine double-page engraved plates (1 triple-page), including the 4,5 m. long funeral procession of King Carl X Gustaf, folded 14 times and composed of 7 plates. Scarce first German edition, second overall (the first being in Latin published in 1696), of this profusely illustrated work on the Swedish Wars.The writing of this official history of the Swedish Wars with Poland and Denmark from 1655 to 1660 was entrusted by the King Charles XI to Samuel Pufendorf, the famous and important German jurist, political philosopher, economist, statesman and historian, who was made a baron in 1694, shortly before he died. He has played a great role in the development of the philosophy of law and political history. His famous work on the Swedish Wars is also famed for its impressive and excellent illustrations, -not least the 450 cm. long procession-plate. To illustrate the history, use was made of the original drawings by Erik Dahlberg, the Quarter-Master general of the Swedish Army, who was an eye-witness. The drawings were engraved by the same artists that Dahlbergh employed in Paris and later in Sweden for his "Suecia Antiqua", e.g. Boulanger, Cochin, Jean le Pautre, Perelle etc. etc. It includes views from Poland, Denmark, Germany and Norway. It is easy to trace the influence of Callot, as well as of Rubens in these splendid Cavalry scenes. Swedish Books No 38 Warmholtz: 4840Graesse V, 504

(København, 1835-42). Folio. (32 x 24 cm.). Samtidigt hldrbd. med rig tidstypisk rygforgyldning. False fint restaurerede. (58) pp. med dansk-tysk paralelltekst samt 180 kobberstukne blomstertavler i pragtfuld original håndkolorering. Værket udkom med ialt 306 plancher samt tekst. De foreliggende tavler er numm. 91-270 med tekstblade til alle. Enkelte tavler med ganske lette brugsspor. Sidste tekstblad brunet. Originaltrykket af dette, vel nok det smukkest kolorerede danske blomsterværk. Værket er af største sjældenhed og blev kun trykt i et ganske begrænset oplag. Det ses derfor næsten aldrig i komplet stand. (Heller ikke i Oscar Davidsen's specialsamling, indeholdende illuminerede danske værker). Således anfører Carl Christensen i "Den Danske Botaniks Historie", Bd. 1, p. 212, at "de fleste Eksemplarer har færre tavler (færre end 306), f.Eks. det i K (Det kgl. Bibliotek) kun 204." - Walter var født i Ratzeburg 1799, var maler og kobberstikker, kom til København i 1817 og var en årrække opsynsmand ved den Kgl. Malerisamling. - "Medens Walters akademiske løbebane nærmest må kaldes mislykket, placerede han sig særdeles smukt som naturhistorisk tegner of stikker."(Weilbach).Nissen 2101. - Not in Pritzel. - Not in British Museum (NH). - De Belder, 379: "Of exceptional rarity, this edition is unrecorded in the catalogue of the British Museum (Natural History), Linean Society, Lindley Library, Kew and Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The attractive plates... are conservative in style and reminiscent in both design and colouring of the late eighteenth century."

Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden), Ex Officina Elzeviriorum, 1655. Folio. 18th century full calf with gilt spine. Gilding worn and some overall wear to boards, but fine and tight. Capitals restored. Internally very nice and clean, with just a bit of light brownspotting to the first and last leaves (dedication and index). Generally unusally nice, clean, and crisp. A small discreet stamp (Doublette der L.U. Bibl. Erl.) to title-page and a neat contemporary owner's inscription. Good margins. Bound without the portrait, which is often the case. Otherwise complete, with the magnificent double-page engaved plate showing the interior of the museum by Wingendorp, 11 beautiful engraved illustrations (one of which consisting in two illustrations), two of which are full-page (one being the famous one of the horn), and numerous lovely, and elaborate woodcut illustrations in the text. Woodcut title-vignette, woodcut vignettes and initials. Title-page, (4) pp. of dedication, (6) pp. of preface and index, double-page plate, 389, 3 (index) pp. A lovely copy, rarely seen in such nice condition. The scarce first edition of this monumental work in early modern museum literature, constituting the catalogue of the first Danish museum and one of the most important cabinets of curiosities in Europe. The magnificent double-page engraved plate depicting the interior and outlay of the museum is one of the most well known and famous illustrations from any "Wunderkammer"-book, iconographically summizing what we understand by the genre.The Museum Wormianum was filled with preserved animals, horns, tusks, skeletons, minerals, as well as various man-made objects that Worm found equally fascinating and interesting, either due to their age, their beauty, the wonder of their execution, their being exotic, etc., many of them depicted here in the finest manner. The text of the "Museum Wormianum" is divided into four books, the first three dealing with minerals, plants, and animals respectively. The fourth comprises man-made objects, e.g. archeological and ethnographical items, coins and some original works of art. This, Worm's magnum opus, is not merely a catalogue of the numerous wondrous items in the collection, however, it is a scientifically based scholarly work that also contains references to, and quotations from, other writers. The famous Danish doctor, Ole Worm (1588-1654), who was professor of medicine throughout the last thirty years of his life, had become professor of physics in 1621. Already the year before, in 1620, had he begun the famous collection that would become one of the greatest cabinets of curiosites in Europe (and one of the first museums) and which would earn him the position as the first great systematic collector (within natural history) in Scandinavia. It was his then newly begun collection that enabled him, as professor of physics, to introduce demonstrative subject teaching at the university, as something completely new. He continued building and adding to his magnificent collection, now known as "Museum Wormianum", throughout the rest of his life. Worm used his collection, not only in his teaching (for which he was famous), but also as a starting point for his speculations on philosophy, science, natural history, etc. He is responsible for many great discoveries, e.g. for identifying the narwhal's tusk as coming from a whale rather than a unicorn, as was generally believed at the time. As was also the case with other great cabinets of curiosities, the "Museum Wormianum" greatly served scientific advancement, not least when the images of its content were printed, as they were here, in 1655.As Worm visited other famous cabinets of curiosities, so many foreign visitors came to see his, which was famous throughout Europe. After his death, the collection was bought by the Danish King, Frederik III, and was thus included in Det Kongelige Kunstkammer (The Royal Art Chamber). The collection is now in Statens Naturhistoriske Museum (Natural History Museum), which in November 2011 famously reprodced the "Museum Wormianum", from what they could see it looked like on the great double-page plate in the fabulous catalogue, as a permanent exhibition. The magnificent folio catalogue of the collection was edited and seen through press by Worm's son Willum and was published by the Elzeviers. Willems 772; Paul Grinke: From Wunderkammer to Museum: no. 75.

Berolini, Sander, 1801. 8vo. Bound in two contemporary diced calf, rebacked preserving old spines. LX, 584 pp. with 110 plates by J. F. Hennig, all but 18 handcoloured, 2 folding, a few printed in red or brown ink. Engraved and handcoloured frontispice by J. F. Hennig in second volume. The part of the text, which was unillustrated by the 110 plates, is in this copy supplemnted by the corresponding plates taken from Shaw and Nodder's "Naturalist's Miscellany" (in all 59 handcoloured plates). A few plates with annotations in pencil. Text with slight browning. Plates are in fine condition and excellent handcolouring. First and only edition. Scarce. Published with additions and corrections by Schneider after Bloch's death in 1799. The 110 plates were engraved by Johann Friedrich Hennig, who was one of the engravers on the "Ichthyologie, au histoire ... 1785-97". Nissen 419, BMC I: 176, not in Wood. Nissen & BMC do not mention the engraved frontispiece.

Skalhollt, Hendrik Kruse, 1688. 4to. Bound in a nice newer, simple full limp vellum binding. Very light brownspotting. An excellent, clean, and fresh copy. Title-page with wide woodcut ornamental border, verso with full-page woodcut portrait of Olav Tryggvason. (4), 25, (2) pp. The rare editio princeps of 'Christendoms Saga' or 'Kristni saga', constituting one of the very first sagas printed on Iceland. The printing of 'Christendoms Saga' in 1688 was a significant event in the history of Icelandic literature and culture. The saga is a historical narrative of the introduction of Christianity to Iceland in the 10th century and had been orally transmitted for centuries. The printing of the saga in 1688 allowed for wider dissemination of the story and cemented the saga's place in Icelandic literary tradition. Iceland's first - and, until 1773, only active - printing press was established around 1530 in Holar, the island's northern episcopal, where it operated until the late seventeenth century. The press came into the private possession of Bishop Gudbrandur Thorlaksson (ca. 1542-1627) and his descendants, several of whom became bishops as well.The printing in Holar was solely centered on religious texts and are of the utmost scarcity and are never found in the trade. In 1648, Brynjolfur Sveinsson (1605-1675), bishop of Iceland's southern diocese Skalholt asked the Danish authorities for permission to establish another printing press to print historical texts and sagas alongside religious books. Not wanting the competition, his northern colleague in Holar intervened to halt this initiative, and nothing came of the plan for a second press nor of the printing of historical subject-matter for the time being. After Thordur Torlaksson (1637-1697), great-grandson of Bishop Gudbrandur Thorlaksson, became bishop in 1674, a monopoly from the King was granted, on April 7th, 1688, to print historical books on Iceland. Shortly after, namely the same year that the grant was given, the present work as well as "Landnamabok" and "Islendingabok" was printed - all three works being of the utmost scarcity. The printing press remained the sole press in Iceland until 1773. The "Christendoms Saga" is a significant piece of literature that provides valuable insights into the social, cultural, and religious transformation of Iceland during that period. The saga begins with the arrival of two Christian missionaries, Thorvald Konradsson and Thangbrandur, who are sent to Iceland by the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason. The missionaries face stiff resistance from the pagan chieftains who see Christianity as a threat to their traditional way of life "Whereas many accounts of Iceland's conversion to Christianity occur within the context of longer works, lives of Olaf Tryggvason or Sagas of Icelanders, Kristni saga (i.e. "Christendoms Saga") sets out to tell the history of Icelandic Christianity independently, as its opening sentence explicitly states: Nú hefr þat, hversu kristni kom á Ísland 'Now this is the beginning of how Christianity came to Iceland". (Duke, kristni saga and its sources: some revaluations)"Kristni saga is the only work in which the missions to Iceland form the main subject of the narrative and the organisational principle of the whole; it shares with Bede’s Ecclesiastical History the distinction of being one of the few works in the Middle Ages which can justly be described as ‘missionary’ history"." (Grønlie, Introduction to "Kristni saga, the book of the icelanders"). The present work is based on Jón Erlendsson's copy (AM 105) of Hauksbók (AM 371), a manuscript from the first decade of the 14th century, which is the only version of it preserved, whose main theme is kristnitaka, that is, the beginnings of Christianity in Iceland and the activity of Ísleifur Gissurarson and Gissur Ísleifsson, who were bishops of Skálholt, between 1056-1080 and 1082-1111.Pre-Eighteenth-Century Icelandic prints are in general very rare and are almost never found in the trade. The Skalhollt-prints are of special interest since they were the first in Iceland to print secular and historical works including the sagas thereby making a seminal contribution to preserving the Icelandic cultural heritage. Klose 5485Fiske p. 331, IcF64AA112

Venetia [Venice], apresso gli heredi di S. Gagliani, 1590. [Colophon: In Vintia, appresso Giorgio Angelieri, a instantia de gli heredi di Simon Gagliani de Karera, 1590]. Small folio. 18th century (ab. 1780-90) half vellum with gilt leather title label to spine. Corners a bit bumped and title label a bit worn, otherwise nice and tight. A very nice copy, on thick, crisp paper. A few quires browned and brownspotted, and some occasional lighter browning. Four leaves with a marginal worm-tract, far from affecting text. Beautiful engraved title-page, consisting of a wide architectural border illustrated with large figures, putti, globes, and various symbols. Beautiful large woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces. 47 half-page engraved maps in the text (by Porro, of islands and continents), excellent, crisp impressions. Large woodcut device to colophon. (12) ff., 201, (1) pp. Third, much enlarged edition (with 47 maps as opposed to the mere 30 of the first edition) of Porcacchi's great book of islands, arguably the most famous of all "isolario"s, with the 47 finely engraved maps by the famous map-maker Girolamo Porro, which also include maps of non-insular places, e.g North America and Mexico City, the famous city plan of Venice and that of Constantinople. Porcachhi's great "isolario" represents the culmination of the "book of islands"-genre, both in regards to artistic quality and the information provided. It furthermore constitutes a main work in the history of the published knowledge of farther parts of the world and an important link in the development from what we call the "book of islands" to the modern atlas. As such it is of great value in several respects, both historically, culturally, and cartographically. "The "book of islands," or isolario, a novel form of cartographic book combining maps and narrative-historical chorography, was invented and initially developed in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. According to R.A. Skelton, "like the portolano, or pilot-book, to which it was related, it had its origins in the Mediterranean, as an illustrated guide for travelers in the Aegean Archipelago and the Levant.". The first "book of islands" was authored by a Florentine ecclesiastic [around 1420] named Cristoforo Buondelmonti [...].The "book of islands" was eventually superseded as a cartographic genre, as was the "Geographia" of Ptolemy, by the modern atlas; it persists even after Abraham Ortelius's 1570 "Theatrum orbis terrarium", but at the margins rather than at the center of the history of cartography. While the "isolario", Ptolemy's "Geographia", and the "modern" atlas coexist for some time, the gradual eclipse of the "book of islands" at one level reflected a progressive decentering of the Mediterranean that occurred within the broader context of early modern history, following the Atlantic discoveries. But well before that happened, in conjunction with the culminating moment of the discoveries and exploration period and at the height of the high Renaissance, the second printed "book of islands" appeared in 1528 in Venice published by Zoppino: the "Libro di Benedetto Bordone nel qual si ragiona de tutte l'isole del mondo" [Book of Benedetto Bordone in which are discussed all the islands of the world]. As the title suggests, this "isolario" provided even broader coverage than the Martellus recensions of Buondelmonti and gave special prominence to the islands of the New World [...].Da li Sonetti's translation of Buondelmonti's "book of islands" into a cycle of sonnets in Venice represented in its way an expression of the same desire to reconcile contemporary geographical knowledge to Italian vernacular traditions of geographical poetry that Berlinghieri's poetic Ptolemy expressed. But while the tradition of Tuscan geographical poetry would not survive the Quattrocento, the prose book of islands did, thanks especially to the Venetian print culture that was responsible for da li Sonetti and that produced Bordone's High Renaissance print "isolario". As mentioned, the print genre "book of islands" would endure in fact, albeit at the margins of modern cartography and literature, in multiple editions of Bordone, which were followed by the no less successful Tommaso Porcacchi's "L'isole più famose del mondo" (1572; with copper-plate engravings), a line that continued through the seventeenth century [...] But just as with other major literary fields of endeavor including the political (Machiavelli), the pastoral (Sannazzaro), the courtly-bureaucratic (Castiglione), and the epic-novellistic (Ariosto), the "isolario" produced its masterpieces in the discoveries and travel writing field(alongside Columbus, Vespucci, and Verrazzano) during the High Renaissance." (Cachey, "From the Mediterranean to the World: A Note on the Italian "Book of Islands" ("isolario")", pp. 1-10). Shirley T.POR-1d; Phillips: 50.

[On the final colophon:] Venice, Bartholomeus de de Zanis for Octavianus Scotus, 1499. [at the end of first leaf and of each section: Vale. Venetiis. 1480, except for the second last (de Insoniis, which says: Vale. Venetiis. 1478). Small folio. Nice, elegant late 18th century half calf. Binding with a few traces of wear. A very nice, clean, and fresh copy with just a bit of light dampstaining to upper margin of about 20 leaves. Numerous pretty, woodcut initials throughout. Woodcut printer's devise to colophon. Last leaves with tiny, barely noticeable wormhole. Contemporary handwritten inscription to title-page: "Ex libris advocati Dunis = 1480". (1), 115 ff. (pagination erroneous at end: 113, 116, 114). Without final blank. The very rare second printing of Ermolao Barbaro's seminal Latin translation of Themistios' paraphrases of Aristotle's "Posterior Analytics", "Physics", "De Anima", "On Memory", and "On Dreams", a groundbreaking key text of the Renaissance, "which opened a new period in the interpretation of the Greek philosopher [i.e. Aristotle]" (Lohr, p. 25). The work was partly responsible for the development of Renaissance Aristotelianism and thus Renaissance thought in general. The combination of the fact that we here have the paraphrases by one of the greatest ancient Greek commentators of the key texts of the most significant philosopher of all times, rendered into Latin by perhaps the most significant translator of the period and printed at the most crucial time for the development of early modern thought, makes this one of the most significant philosophical publications of the Renaissance. There can be no doubt as to the influence that the present publication came to have on the development Renaissance philosophy. "The publication of Barbaro's translation of Themistius inaugurated a new period in the study of Aristotelian philosophy. In his version of Themistius' "Paraphrases" we encounter not simply a translation occasioned by contemporary controversies, as was often the case in the Middle Ages. Rather, Barbaro's version brings together a corpus of the commentaries of Themistius on Aristotelian philosophy: the "Posterior Analytis", "Physics", "De anima" and "Parva naturalia". (Lohr, p. 26).The first printing of the work appeared in 1480 (the same year stated at the end of each section in the present edition), and in 1499 this second printing appeared. Both printings are of the utmost scarcity and almost impossible to find. After these two incunable-editions, at least 9 new printings appeared before 1560, bearing witness to the great impact of the text, and in 1570 Hieronymus Scotos printed a new edition. "With reference to those works of Aristotle which were and remained the center of instruction in logic and natural philosophy [i.e. The Posterior Analytics, Physics, etc.], the most important changes derived from the fact that the works of the ancient Greek commentators became completely available in Latin between the late fifteenth and the end of the sixteenth centuries and were more and more used to balance the interpretations of the medieval Arabic and Latin commentators. The Middle ages had known their works only in a very limited selection or through quotations in Averroes. Ermolao Barbaro's complete translation of Themistius and Girolamo Donato's version of Alexander's "De Anima" were among the most important ones in a long line of others. When modern historians speak of Alexandrism as a current within Renaissance Aristotelianism that was opposed to Averroism, they are justified in part by the fact that the Greek commentators, that is, Alexander and also Themistius, Simplicius, and many others, were increasingly drawn upon for the exposition of Aristotle." (Kristeller, p. 45)."Equally important [as the recovery of Aristotle's "Mechanics" and "Poetics"] for the continued growth of the Peripatetic synthesis was the recovery and diffusion of the Greek commentaries on Aristotle... The most important of the two dozen commentators were Alexander of Aphrodisias, Ammonius, Simplicius, Themistius, and John Philoponus. Of these five, only Alexander and Themistius were Aristotelians..." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p.68).Already in the Middle Ages, scholars had been aware of and used commentaries on and paraphrases of the key texts of Aristotle, but their knowledge of this was primarily based on some Latin translations and allusions, fragments, and summaries in the writings of the Muslim philosophers, e.g. Averroes. But with the emergence and translations into Latin of the ancient Greek commentators [Alexander and Themistios being the primary ones] and their paraphrases of Aristotle's texts, the Renaissance came to discover an Aristotle that would influence almost all thought of the period. The ancient Greek commentators not only had a much more thorough knowledge of classical Greek thought than would have been possible for a medieval writer, but they also had access to works that were later lost and through these ancient commentators rediscovered in the Renaissance. By the middle of the 16th century, almost all of these texts had been printed in both Greek and Latin, and these publications were of the utmost importance to the development of almost all Renaissance thought. "Their recovery, publication, and translation took some time, but almost all circulated in Greek and Latin by the 1530'ies. They do not cover all of Aristotle, but several treat such key texts as the "Organon", the "Physics", and "De anima", thus making them useful ammunition in such controversies as the immortality dispute provoked by Pietro Pomponazzi and his colleagues." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p. 69).Among the most important texts in this tradition that influenced all thought of the era, were Themistios' paraphrases of Aristotle's seminal texts, in particular "De Anima", "Posterior Analytics", and Book Lambda (XII) of the "Metaphysics". "We possess part of his [Themistios'] early work, his "Paraphrases of Aristotle", the portion still extant being a somewhat prolix exposition of the "Later Analytics", the "Physics", the "De Anima", and some minor treatises." His paraphrase of the "Metaphysics", Book "lambda" [i.e. XII], was translated into Arabic (in century IX), and hence into Hebrew (1255), and Latin (1576)." (Sandys, I:352).There can be no doubt about the groundbreaking character of Hermolao Barbaro's translation into Latin of almost all of Themistios' paraphrases of Aristotelian texts. Not only was Themistios considered one of the most important renderers of Aristotle's text, but Barbaro was perhaps the most influential translator of the time. His translation of Themistios' paraphrases came to dominate, directly or indirectly, almost all Aristotelian thought of the high Renaissance (from late 15th century) and he was responsible for many of the most important and influential positions on the seminal question of the immortality of the soul that dominated philosophical thought at the time. "Through the first two-thirds of the fifteenth century, Pomponazzi's predecessors at Padua seem not to have used the ancient commentators, but philosophers of the next generation - most notably Nicoletto Vernia and Agosto Nifo - began to consult them in new translations by Ermolao Barbaro and others. Barbaro's charge that Averroes had lifted his doctrines of the soul from the commentators surely helped excite interest in them." (Copenhaver & Schmitt p. 69). See: Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and its Sources, 1979; Copenhaver & Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy, 1992; Charles C. Lohr, "Latin Translations of the Greek Commentaries on Aristotle", in: Humanism and Early Modern Philosophy, Edt. byKraye and Stone, 2000.Graesse VII:112 (erroneously stating 1491 in stead of 1499); Brunet V:778; Hain-Copinger: 15464.

Lahde, (1806 - ca. 1814) + (ca. 1818-20 for the final three plates). Small folio (binding: 31,7 x 20,6 cm). Bound in an elegant pastiche half calf by Anker Kyster, with lovely gilt spine, old marbled paper boards and beautiful hand-made patterned end-papers. Bound with four of the exceedingly scarce title-pages/front wrappers for issues one, one/two three, and five, stating which plates were in the issue in question. Complete with all 34 magnificent engraved plates of costumes, all on large, good paper and in exquisite, precise original handcolouring. Most of the leaves measure 31 x 20,2 cm, one (En Brand Officer) measures 28x19,5. At the end are withbound the three final plates that were issued a bit later, with the complete ediiton of 1820. Thus making the final plate count 37. The three final plates all measure 28x20 cm. The two first plates have been neatly restored at upper right corner, far from affecting image. Otherwise, the copy is in magnificent condition. With the ex-libris of Oskar Davidsen to verso of front free end-paper. The exceedingly scarce first edition of Senn and Lahde’s (with the possible collaboration of Eckersberg) magnificent ”Klædedragter i Kjøbenhavn” (Costumes in Copenhagen), which is the first work devoted to costumes of the Danish capital and thus of seminal historical importance to the understanding of Copenhagen folklore at the brink of the golden age. The magnificent plates are of unusually high quality and differ from those of other works of this kind in being more artistically ambitious. The plates show attempts at depicting action and movement and portraying a certain situation. They are much less stiff than other costume plates of the period, and the features of the persons in the pictures show an intentional individualization. In short, they are much more closely related to the genre painting than would be expected. This highly important and extensive collection of Copenhagen costumes was made in Denmark, by foreigners and with an international aim. The Swiss painter and engraver Johannes Senn (1780-1861) spent 15 years in Denmark, from 1804 till 1819, and the German-born Gerhard Ludvig Lahde (1765-1833) came to Copenhagen in 1787 in order to attend the Art Academy and later became a Danish citizen. The two artists find themselves at the beginning of a period, in which national feeling, the strengthened sense of nationality, and a romantic view of nature are rapidly growing; a period in which the interest in “common” man and the people of a nation are becoming the centre of attention. Out of this grows the need to represent the people, the “real” population, to the rest of the world and to claim a specific sense of what it is to be, in this case, a Copenhagener. “Klædedragter i Kjøbenhavn” began appearing in 1806, and we know that by 1810, three issues with six plates in each (i.e. 18 plates) had appeared. The following three issues appeared shortly after, though not all containing six plates (the fifth issue, as is evident from the exceedingly scarce title/wrapper bound in the present copy, only contained four plates), amounting to 34 plates in all. These plates later appeared in Lahde’s “Elementarværk I Tegnekunsten (1817-18), and a selection of 12 plates were issued separately under the title “Karakteristiske Figurer eller Det daglige Liv i Hovedstaden” (1812). A further three plates were issued later (these three plates have been added to the present copy), and in 1820, all 37 plates appeared together. In 1830, the work appeared again, this time with 35 plates, under the title “Kjøbenhavns Klædedragter eller Det Daglige Liv i Hovedstaden”. Provenance: Oskar Davidsen, one of the most significant Danish book collectors, whose collection included virtually all illuminated and coloured Danish books. (Colas: 1721 for the later edition, not having the original)

London, Taylor and Co., 1804. - Atlas: (Paris, Didot, 1802). 4to (30x24 cm.) and folio (54x42 cm.). Two contemporary half calf. Gilt spines and titlelabels with gilt lettering. Spines a bit rubbed. XVI,198,(2);(2),131,(8) pp. Wide-margined. A few scattered brownspots. Atlas-volume, bound in contemporary half calf with wear to spine and spine-end as well as corners, is complete and contains 143 engraved plates (numb. 1-141 + 20bis a. 54bis), some large and folded. The plates with views, antiquities, architecture, maps etc. etc. A few scattered brownspots, some plates with faint marginal dampstaining. Scarce first complete work in English of Denon's magnificent travel to Egypt, accompanied by the original French atlas of 1802 - not to be confused with the English translation of 1802, which reduced the plates to 60 instead of 140. "The object, therefore, of the present translation is to amend this defect (i.e. the reduction of the plates), and supply the reader with these celebrated Travels as they were published by M. Denon himself, consisting of one hundred and forty Copper-plate Prints (the fac-similes of his own original designs), with the different notes and illustrations, - and corrected from the last French edition, in which many improvements have been made." (The translator's advertisement). "Dominique-Vivant Denon was a lover of the Empress Josephine, a compulsive collector, the first director of the Louvre museum and Bonaparte's adviser on artistic matters. Indeed, Denon was known as 'Napoleon's eye'. But the man who impressed the emperor with his courteous manners and his talent for pornographic drawing was also the primary force behind revealing Egypt's civilisation to an astonished Europe. Invited to accompany Bonaparte during the French Expedition to Egypt - a staging post in Napoleon's campaign to wrest India from the British - Denon was forcibly struck by Egypt's architecture. With often only a few minutes to record the scene before him, he would sketch under fire. On one occasion he worked for sixteen hours, while the windblown sand caused his eyelids to bleed. Upon his return to France, Denon published "Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt". His insightful and deeply humane volume became an instant bestseller. Hitherto no one had suspected that Egypt's rich and mature civilisation existed... Denon was the first to present to Europe a true and honest image of ancient Egypt and the first European traveller to spend months exploring the desert and recording the monuments he found there." (Terence M. Russel, Discovery of Egypt). Denon had been invited by Napoleon to join the expedition to Egypt as part of the arts and literature section of the Institut d'Égypte and thus found the opportunity of gathering the materials for this, his most important literary and artistic work. He accompanied General Desaix to Upper Egypt, and made numerous sketches of the monuments of ancient art, sometimes under the very fire of the enemy. Denon was thus the first artist to discover and draw the temples and ruins at Thebes, Esna, Edfu, and Philae. Up until that time, most of the known Egyptian antiquities were pyramids and scattered pieces of sculptures and stelae. The results of Denon's efforts were published in this truly splendid work "Journey in Lower and Upper Egypt", originally appearing in French in 1802. The work crowned his reputation both as an archaeologist and as an artist, and sparked the Egyptian Revival in architecture and decorative arts.

(Paris), Gallimard, (1949). Uncut and unopened in the orig. printed wrappers, excellent copy + original handwritten manuscript-leaf in ink, 2pp., 4to, for the pages 134-138 in the first edition, containing numerous corrections and emendations as well as a burnt hole from one of Sartre's cigarettes. The paper is watermarked "Herakles". Both items are placed in a very beautiful custom-made red full-morocco box, internally broadened to fit both items, w. single gilt line-borders to boards and back, beatifully gilt titles on back. The manuscript-fragment is placed in a red morocco-backed plastic-folder. First edition of this splendid and important novel, without doubt the best of the novel-cycle, one of three copies out of commerce printed on "vergé antique blanc", numbered "C". The manuscript-fragment greatly varies from the printed leaves, and is probably part of Sartre's very first notes to the manuscript, which were written several years before the publication of the work. The work was announced already in 1945 under the title "La Dernière Chance", and was supposed to appear in "Les Temps modernes" in November 1947, but because the work grew to great, Sartre let it become part three of the novel-cycle "Les chemins de la liberté", instead of setting free the characters in the already printed novels (I and II) and casting them as main characters in new independent novels. This work represents one of Sartre's best literary works, and in it he presents us with the existentialist moral sentiments that were philosophically outlined in his main philosophical work, L'être et le néant, but this time in literary form."Le volume - qui est sans doute le meilleur de la série - fut écrit en 1947-1948 en même temps, notons-le que l'ébauche de la morale de l'existentialisme promise à la fin de L'ÊTRE ET LE NÉANT. Le première partie couvre chronologiquement la période du 1 au 18 juin 1940 et se termine en laissant Mathieu dans une situation particulièrement despérée; la deuxième partie décrit le début de captivité d'un groupe de soldats francais qui comprend le militant communiste Brunet et un certain Schneider que l'on soupconne d'être un indicateur." (Contat & Rybalka, p. 207).The first edition of the work appeared in 2163 copies , out of which 8 were on "vergé antique blanc", numbered I-V and A-C (the last three being "hors commerce"), 105 were on "vélin pur fil Lafuma Navarre", numbered VI-CV and D-H (the last five being "hors commerce"), and 2.050 on "alfa Navarre", numbered 1-2050 (the last 50 being "hors commerce"). Contat & Rybalka 49/179.

(Geneva), Henricus Stephanus (Estienne), H. Fugger (typogr.) 1562. 8vo. Near contemporary full calf with richly gilt spine. All edges of boards gilt. Wear to extremities and hinges, but overall tight and fine. Old owner's name to title-page and a stamp to blank margin ("Teres etque Rotundus")). A few early underlinings. Two leaves with a damp stain, otherwise unusually nice and clean. Title-page slightly soiled. Woodcut printer's device to title-page and woodcut initials. 288 pp. The very rare hugely influential first edition of one of the single most important printings in the history of Western thought, namely the very first appearance in print of any of Sextus Empiricus' works, his great "Hypotyposes". This seminal printing inaugurated a new era in the history of Western thought. Together with the second edition of the work (by Hervet, 1569, with which the "Adversos Mathematicos" also appeared), the first appearance of Sextus Empiricus' work profoundly influenced the thought of Bruno, Montaigne, Descartes, as well as many other pivotal thinkers of the modern era, and caused Sextus to be viewed as "the father of modern philosophy"."The printing of Sextus in the 1560s opened a new era in the history of scepticism, which had begun in the late fourth century BCE with the teachings of Pyrrho of Elis. [...] Before the Estienne and Hervet editions, Sextus seems to have had only two serious students, Gianfrancesco Pico at the turn of the century and Francesco Robortello about fifty years later." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 240-41). Apart from being of seminal importance to the development of modern thought, the work is of the utmost scarcity and constitutes one of the rarest of all Estienne books. "The first printed edition was by Henri Estienne (Stephanus) in 1562 of Sextus' "Hypotyposes". A second printed Latin edition of the "Hypotyposes" plus "Adversus Mathematicos" appeared in 1569. The text of the "Hypotyposes is that of Estienne, the translation of "Adversus Methematicos" was done by French counter-reformer and theologian, Gentian Hervet... The Greek text was not published until 1621 by the Chouet brothers." (Popkin, p. 18).Having been almost completely neglected throughout the entire Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, the first printing of Sextus' work in 1562 is almost solely responsible for the inauguration of a new skeptical era that came to profoundly influence almost all thinking of the centuries to follow. "As the only Greek Pyrrhonian sceptic whose works survived, he came to have a dramatic role in the formation of modern thought. The historical accident of the rediscovery of his works at precisely the moment when the skeptical problem of the criterion had been raised gave the ideas of Sextus a sudden and greater prominence than they had ever before or were ever to have again. Thus, Sextus, a recently discovered oddity, metamorphosed into "le divin Sexte", who, by the end of the seventeenth century, was regarded as the father of modern philosophy. Moreover, in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the effect of his thoughts upon the problem of the criterion stimulated a quest for certainty that gave rise to the new rationalism of René Descartes and the "constructive skepticism" of Pierre Gassendi and Martin Mersenne." (Popkin, p. 18).The discovery and dissemination of these foundational texts was nothing less than a epiphany. Scepticism was immediately absorbed into Renaissance thinking and quickly became a dominant strand of thought. "The revival of ancient philosophy was particularly dramatic in the case of scepticism. This critical and anti-dogmatic way of thinking was quite important in Antiquity, but in the Middle Ages its influence faded [...] when the works of Sextus and Diogenes were recovered and read alongside texts as familiar as Cicero's "Academia", a new energy stirred in philosophy; by Montaigne's time, scepticism was powerful enough to become a major force in the Renaissance heritage prepared for Descartes and his successors." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 17-18). "No discovery of the Renaissance remains livelier in modern philosophy than scepticism". (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p. 338). "The revived skepticism of Sextus Empiricus was the strongest single agent of disbelief". (ibid., p. 346). Our knowledge of ancient scepticism comes almost solely from Sextus, who is introduced to the Renaissance in 1562 with this first printing of any of his works. From then on, skepticism grew rapidly, determining the course of much modern thought."Ancient Scepticism had a number of followers in the renaissance, especially in the sixteenth century, when the writings of Sextus became more widely known. [...] Scepticism in matters of religion is by no means incompatible with religious faith, as the example of Augustine may show; consequently this position had many more followers during the sixteenth century than is usually realized. The chief expression of this sceptical ethics is found in some of the essays of Montaigne, and in the writings of his pupil, Pierre Charon." (Kristeller, p. 36).Adams: 1027. See:Kristeller: "Renaissance Thought II. Papers on Humanism and the Arts", 1965.Popkin: "The History of Scepticism. From Savonarola to Bayle", 2003.Copenhaver & Schmitt: "Renaissance Philosophy", 1992.

Sorøe, Jonas Lindgrens, 1772. 4to (260 x 214 mm). 2 volumes, uniformly bound in two nice contemporary half calf bindings with five raised bands and gilt title- and tome-labels to spines. Ex-libris (Hjalmar Hartmann) pasted on to pasted down front end-paper in both volumes. Previous owner's stamp (Hvedholm Castle) to upper part of title-page in both volumes and two small paper-labels (stating respectively 1592 and 1593 - indicating the booknumber in Hvedholm Castle's catalogue) to lower compartment on spines. A few leaves in vol. 1 with brown stripe in upper margin. An excellent and wide-margined copy. (12), 618 pp.; Pp. (2), 519-1042, (62), 20, (2) + 51 engraved plates (numered I-L, with 2 plates numbered XXX) and 1 large folded map. First edition of Olafsson’s landmark work, which is considered the foundation for all later researches on Iceland. The authors travelled around Iceland between the years 1752 and 1757 describing the geology, geography, zoology, botany, archaeology, mineralogy, etc. as well as the economic conditions - an expedition initiated by the Royal Danish Society. “His account is characterized by a certain independence from external references or foreign images; he points out differences and yet confers equal value. This emancipation from a world view that exalts uniformity and homogeneity rather than difference and alterity is demonstrated in the auto references Eggert uses. Instead of continuously comparing Iceland to Denmark or other “civilized” cultures, he compares one part of the island with another Icelandic region or the Icelandic status quo with the situation in the past.” (Schaer, From Hell to Homeland, Eggert Olafsson’s Reise igiennem Island and the Construction of Icelandic Identity). Unlike earlier travel accounts, Eggert structures his description in accordance with his actual travels. Thus, he does not give general statements about the land or the people, but he divides his work into four chapters which correspond to the four districts of the country and treats them according to his travels. The survey is generally characterized by a wish to note everything remarkable and does not discriminate between strange and easily-explainable phenomena.“In his detailed description of a natural environment profoundly different from the European one, Eggert does not in any way deny or dismiss the immense effect Icelandic nature must have had on the foreign visitor. But he discovers that discussion of hetero stereotypes, rather than adoption of these foreign views, is necessary to create an auto image. When examining the Icelandic glaciers on behalf of the Danish Academy of Sciences, he does not underestimate the impression these glaciers would have on a foreign spectator. He explicitly states that somebody who sees them for the first time in their life must be more impressed than the native Icelander. The intimidating effect of Icelandic nature thus becomes an attribute dependent on the recipient’s cultural background. Finally, Eggert states that one “does not need the poetic terms of speech of the older days to imagine those effects of nature.” (ibid., p. 101) It is neither necessary to stress the Icelandic nature’s intimidating and terrifying aspect nor to defend the glaciers variance from European or Danish nature by declaring them something more valuable, or even supernatural.” (Schaer, From Hell to Homeland, Eggert Olafsson’s Reise igiennem Island and the Construction of Icelandic Identity). In Iceland, Eggert Ólafsson is also known for his moralist poems, some of which even today enjoy considerable popularity, and he is still considered one of the earliest founders of Icelandic nationalism. The work was later translated into German, French and English. An appendix on Icelandic plants (Flora Islandica) by Johan Zoega is at the end of vol. II.Fiske I 439.Klose 598.Biblioteca Danica III, 613.Regarding the map see Hermansson: The Carthography of Iceland p. 53.