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Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1896. 4to. Near contemp. full cloth. Spine gilt and with gilt lettering. Bookmark, "The Chemists Club" in gold on lower part of spine. Light wear along edges. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome 122 (Entire volume offered).1633 pp. The papers: 420-421, pp. 501-502, pp. 559-564, pp. 689-694, pp. 762-767 and pp. 1086-1088. First appearance of the six landmark papers in which Becquerel documents his discovery of Radio-activity, PROMPTING THE NUCLEAR AGE.Becquerel was an expert in fluorescence and phosphorescence, continuing the work of his father and grandfather. Follwing the discovery of X-rays by Röntgen, Bexquerel investigated fluorescent materials to see if they also emitted X-rays. He exposed a fluorescent uranium salt, pechblende, to light and then placed it on a wrapped photographic plate.He found that a faint image was left on the plate, which he believed was due to the pichblende emitting the light it had absorbed as a more penetrating radiation.. However, by chace, he left a sample that had not been exposed to light on top of a photographic plate in a drawer. he noticed that the photographic plate also had a a faint image of the pechblende. After several chemical tests he concluded that these "Becquerel rays" were a property of atoms. He had, by chace, discovered radio-activity and prompted thee beginning of the nuclear age. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 with Marie and Pierre Curie. The "Becquerel Rays" were later discovered to be a composite of three forms of emanation, distinguished by Rutherford as alpha, beta and gamma rays.Dibner: 163 (the later Mémoire from 1903) - PMM: 393 (1903- Mémoire) - Garrison & Morton: 2001 (only the first paper). - Magie "A Sourve Book in Physics" p. 610 ff. - Norman:157.

Paris, Bachelier, 1825. Contemp. hcalf. Gilt spine. Titlelabel with gilt lettering. A paperlabel pasted on spine. Stamps on title-page. (4),295,(1) pp., 6 folded engraved plates with many figures. A few faint scattered brownspots. Scarce first edition of Montgéry's notable work on the mechanics, chemistry and useability of rockets in warfare."Montgéry’s investigations of pyrotechnics led him to do research into the war rockets of William Congreve and to the production of what may be the first documented history of rocketry, Traité des fusées de guerre (1825). Known throughout Europe, it became the standard work on the subject, appeared in serial form in several official journals, and was republished in 1841. Montgéry’s coverage was exhaustive and analytical, particularly in his treatment of rocket physics."(DSB).

Paris, Chez Fuchs, An X, (1802). Contemp. hcalf. Spine gilt. Top of spine with wear. A few scratches to binding. In: "Annales de Chimie, ou Recueil de Mémoires concernant la Chemie" Tome 43. 332,(4) pp., 2 engraved plates (the entire volume offered). Gay-Lussac's paper: pp. 137-175. The first 20 leaves a bit brownspotted, otherwise with a few marginal brownspots. 1 leaf (pp. 197-98) torn with loss of some letters. Gay-Lussac's paper fine and clean. First printing of this extremely important discovery, in which Gay-Lussac first formulated the law, Gay-Lussac's Law, stating that if the mass and pressure of a gas are held constant then gas volume increases linearly as the temperature rises. This is sometimes written as V = k T, where k is a constant dependent on the type, mass, and pressure of the gas and T is temperature on an absolute scale. (In terms of the ideal gas law, k = n R / P.)."In 1802 he (Gay-Lussac) showed that different gases all expanded by equal amounts with rise in temperature. Charles had made the same discovery some years earlier but had not published it; the credit therefore belongs to Gay-Lussac at least as much, and probably more. This was an extremely importent discovery, which Avogadro was to use within the decade to formulate hid long-neglected hypothesis that equal volumes of different gases at equal temperatures contained equal numbers of particles."(Asimov).Magie "A Source Book in Physics", p.165-172 - Leicester & Klickstein "A Source Book of Chemistry", p. 374-379. - Parkinson "Breakthroughs" 1802 C.The volume contains other importent papers in chemistry by Humphrey Davy (first French translation of his announcement of the finding of "Laughing Gas" (Nitrous Oxide), Parmentier, Vauquelin, Clement et Desormes, Thenard, Guyton, Chenivix

Paris, Laurent d'Houry, 1690. Contemp. full mottled calf. Richly gilt spine in 6 compartments, raised bands. Titlelabel with gilt lettering. Wear to top of spine. A small nick in leather in middle of front hinge. Fronthinge weakening, but still holding. Engraved portrait. (24),550,(14) pp. and 19 engraved anatomical plates. A few brownspots. Some scattered inkspots. A faint dampstain on foot of portrait. A dampstain to lower right corners of the last 5 leaves. Last leaf and errata-leaf repaired in right margin, no loss of letters. Scarce first edition of this surgical textbook that opened a new era in which French surgical teaching dominated Europe."A native of Paris, Dionis studied surgery at the Confraternity of St. Côme and was first surgeon to Queen Maria Theresa until her death in 1684. When Louis XIV established a demonstratorship in operative surgery at the Jardin Royal in the early 1670s, he appointed Dionis to the position. Dionis remained there until 1680 when he returned to serve as surgeon to the entire royal house. The present work was first published in French in 1690 and soon became a standard work and popular textbook on the subject. It remained in print for over half a century and was even translated into Chinese. The illustrations, limited in number, are rather unimpressive copperplates." (Heirs of Hippocrates, 649 (Latin edition of 1696)). - Wellcome II, 471.

Nice hcalf. Boards with marbled cover paper. Leather title label on front board. Compositor marks in text. Complete autographed manuscript by Jean Richepin (1849-1930) who was imprisoned for the boldness in his writings (Chanson des Gueux, 1876). This story is complete in itself, and is, as far as seen, not published by itself. As it is not a poem, it is not to be found in R.'s poetical works, but the compositor marks do point to printing.

Basle (Basel), Chez Chretien Mechel Graveur, 1778. Queer-folio. Later hcalf w. raised bands and red title-label on back. Uncut. Engr. title-vignette and 30 full-page engr. plates, no text. Nice and clean, excellent condition. First and only edition, containing all 30 beautiful engravings, depicting the five rooms with paintings in the Düsseldorf-museum, "Galerie Électorale". The plates show plans of the rooms as well as how and where the paintings are placed and hung. The catalogue is the first of its kind to have been made for a German museum. It is the first critical and completely illustrated "Verzeichnis" for a German museum.All plates are engraved under the direction of Chr. de Mechel of Basel."Le premier volume de cet ouvrege contient les planches représentant 365 sujets gravés avec beaucoup de délicatesse." (Brunet IV:651).

Potsdam, Johann Georg Bauer, 1756-57. 4to. Bound in one contemp. full calf. Spine richly gilt, gilding faded. Titlelabel with lettering. With the royal crowned monogram of King Frederik V on red background on both covers. Stamp on foot of title-page. XXII,(2),18,302,(7);XLVI,(2),133,(12) pp. and 25 large folded engraved maps and battleplans (each having a descriptive textleaf). Internally clean. A few minor brownspots. First German edition, as a translation of Lancelot Turpin de Crissé: "Essai sur l'Art de la Guerre. 1754."

(New Haven), 1880. 8vo. Modern plain wrappers. In: American Journal of Science", Third series, Vol. XX, No. 118, October 1880. Frontispiece-plate. Pp. 257-352 (entire issue offered). Bell's paper: pp. 305-324 and 11 textillustrations. A small stamp to verso of plate and the first leaf. First printing of this important paper in which Bell describes his and Charles Sumner Tainter's, his assistent, invention of the Photophone or Radiophone, THE PROGENITOR OF MODERN FIBER OPTICS. This invention made possible the world's FIRST WIRELESS TELEPHONE MESSAGE, and the first call was sent from the Franklin Scool to the window of Bell's laboratory, some 213 meter away."On June 3, 1880, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first wireless telephone message on his newly invented "photophone." Bell believed the photophone was his most important invention. The device allowed for the transmission of sound on a beam of light. Of the eighteen patents granted in Bell's name alone, and the twelve he shared with his collaborators, four were for the photophone. Bell's photophone worked by projecting voice through an instrument toward a mirror. Vibrations in the voice caused similar vibrations in the mirror. Bell directed sunlight into the mirror, which captured and projected the mirror's vibrations. The vibrations were transformed back into sound at the receiving end of the projection. The photophone functioned similarly to the telephone, except the photophone used light as a means of projecting the information, while the telephone relied on electricity." (Mary Bellis).The first successful attempts were based upon the properties of selenium: "The electric resistance of which varies with the degree of illumination to which it is exposed. Hence, given a transmitting instrument, such as a flexible mirror, by which the vibrations of a sound could throw into vibrations a beam of light, a receiver, consisting of sensitive selenium, forming part of an electric circuit with a battery and a telephone, should suffice to translate the varying intensities of light into corresponding varying intensities of electric current, and finally into vibrations of the telephone disk audible once more as sound." (Prescott, George. Bell's Electric Speaking Telephone. 313 p.).

(Paris, Imprimerie de Bachelier), 1843. 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Journal de Mathématiques pures et appliquées...Publié par Joseph Liouville", tome VIII. Pp. 273-360. Clean and fine. First appearance of Le Verrier's provisional theory on the motion of Mercury, his studies of which eventually did much to demonstrate the validity of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The planetary orbits should agree with the predictions of the General Theory of relativity, but as Einstein pointed out in his "Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkurs aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie" from 1915, the divergences predicted were too small to be observed, except in the case of the nearest planet Mercury, where the perihelion advance, according to the formula, reaches the value of 43"" per 100 years, being in full agreement with the calculations of Le Verrier, who found this unexplained rest in the perihelion advance of Mercury per century, if the perturbations due to the other planets are deduced.- Einstein tells in a letter to a friend that for several days he was in a 'state of delirious joy' by this wonderful astronomical confirmation of his theory."Le Verrier first began to study Mercury on the suggestion of Arago in 1840. Astronomers realized that Mercury's perihelion (the point at which the orbit of a planet is closest to the sun) advanced along its orbit at a rate of 566 seconds per century. Le Verrier calculated that, even when taking into account the forces exerted by other planets in the solar system, there still existed a discrepancy between calculation and observation. Le Verrier's accurate calculations showed that the planet's perihelion...did indeed advance forty seconds of an arc per century more than could be accounted for by Newton's theory of gravitation, even after the minor pertubing effects of the other planets had been allowed for." (Asimov). - Le verrier published these findings in the present work, carefully as to the mass of the planet, comparison with other orbits of planets and their perihelia. At the time, Le Verrier put down the discrepancy to mis-observation or mis-calculation.- Sparrow, Milestones of Science No. 133.

Stockholm, Kiesewetteri, 1748. 8vo. In contemporary half calf with five raised bands. Previous owner's name to pasted down back end-paper. Wear to extremities, a few stains to spine. Internally with occassional brownspotting. (4), 224, (28) pp. + 8 engraved plates. Sixth i.e. third original and first illustrated edition of Linné’s landmark work which founded modern zooloical nomenclature and changed the science more profoundly than any other work before or after. “This edition was completely re-written by Linné and three times as big as the previous (2nd) edition; illustrations appear here for the first time; the Swedish names are given whenever possible, the animals come first and are followed by the plants. The order in previous editions was, minerals, plants, animals.”(Sandberg 5). "During his lifetime, Linnaeus exerted an influence in his field - botany and natural history - that had had few parallels in the history of science. Driven by indomitable ambition and aided by an incredible capacity for work, he accomplished the tremendous task that he had set for himself in his youth: the establishment of new systems for the three kingdoms of nature to facilitate the description of all known animals, plants, and minerals." (D.S.B. VIII:374). "He compiled this work, consisting only of seven folio leaves, as a first outline of what in its further development became the foundation of botanical and zoological classification systems. Linné was first and foemost a systematist, subordinating all botanical problems to that of classification. He established the principles of class, order, genus and species for all plants and animals...” (Printing and the Mind of Man, p. 114). Sandberg 5 Soulsby 51 Hulth p. 4

[Leipzig, Hirzel, 1902]. Royal8vo, [275 x 195 mm]. Without wrappers, as issued. Offprint from "Physikalische Zeitschrift", 3. Jahrgang, No. 10. Pp. 210-214. With "Ueberreicht vom Verfasser" printed in top right corner of first leaf. Small blue gummed labels (from the library of Becquerel) pasted to top of first leaf. First leaf with brownspotting in inner margin. Traces after having been folded hjorizontally, otherwise fine. Rare offprint, given by the author to Henri Becquerel, of Rutherford's important paper on the transferal of excited radioactivity. British-New Zealand chemist and physicist, Ernest Rutherford, became known as the father of nuclear physics. He discovered the concept of radioactive half life, proved that radioactivity involved the transmutation of one chemical element to another, and also differentiated and named alpha and beta radiation.Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1908 for "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances". Becquerel was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1903 for "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity".

London, 1914. No wrappers, but stiched. All three papers contained in: "Philosophical Magazine", Sixth Series, Vol. 27. No. 159. March 1914. The whole issue issue offered (=no. 159): pp. 397-540 and 2 plates.Rutherford's paper.pp. 488-498. - Darwin's paper: pp. 499-506. - Bohr's paper: pp. 506-523. All clean and fine. First edition and first printing of all three papers. Rutherford, in this paper for the first time identifies the hydrogen nucleus, and called it the 'positive electron'. He later called it 'the proton' . In his definitive paper of 1911 he estimated the radius of the nucleus, a hundred thousand times smaller than that of an atom. Darwin in his paper (offered here) gave a more precise measure.In the first lines of the paper Rutherford outlines the content "The present paper and and the accompanying paper by Mr. C. Darwin (the second paper offered here) deal with certain points in connection with the "nucleus" theory of the atom which were purposely omitted in my first communication on that subject (Phil. Mag. May 1911). A brief account is given of the later investigations which have been made to test the theory and of the deductions which can be drawn from them. At the same time a brief statement is given of recent observations on the passage of alpha particles through hydrogen, which throw importent light on the dimensions of the nucleus." - Rutherford had studies alpha-particles intensely in the years before 1914 and proved quite conclusively that the individual particle was a helium atom with its electrons removed. The alpha particles were like the positive rays that had been discovered by Goldstein (1886), and now in 1914 (the paper offered) Rutherford suggested that the simplest positive rays must be those obtained from the hydrogen and that these must be the fundamentall positively-charged particle. He names it a 'positive electron'.Darwin, in the paper offered "concluded from the known data:"No force proportional to some power of the distance other than the inverse square can give the dependence (the Rutherford scattering cross section) on (the initial velocity)", and he then calculated the distance of closest alpha-particle-nucleus approach.The paper by Niels Bohr relates to "The Stark effect". In 1913 appeared "an importent new discovery: when atomic hydrogen is exposed to a static electrical field its spectral lines split, the amount of splitting being proportional to thefield strenght (the linear Stark effect). After Rutherford read this news in "Nature", he at once wrote to Bohr:'I think it is rather up to you at the present time to write something on....electric effects.'" (A. Pais). Bohrs paper on The Stark effect appeared in 1914, the paper offered here. - Rosenfeld. Niels Bohr' publications No. 10).

Stuttgart, Verlag von Ferdinand Enke, 1891. 8vo. Near cont. full green cloth w. gilt lettering to spine. Old library marking removed from bottom of spine. Extremities w. traces of wear. Inner hinges reinforced. Old stamps to verso of title-page. VIII, 284 pp + 2 plates. The rare first edition of Weber's influential Habilitationsschrift on Roman law and agrarian history, "Roman Agrarian History and its Significance for Public and Private Law".Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (1864-1920) is one of the most important founders of modern sociology and cultural sciences (together with Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim). His works have been, and are, of the utmost importance to the fields of sociology, corporational-, social-, musical-, political-sciences etc., and the terms and categories coined by him are now part of the normal vocabulary of these fields of study.In his groundbreaking Habilitationsschrift, which he published at the age of 27, Weber examined the economic, social and political developments of Roman society, and thus laid the foundations of his establishing of modern sociology. He examined the methods of land surveying in Roman society, the terms that were used for the resulting land units, and agricultural works written by Roman authors.As opposed to e.g. Durkheim, Weber took part in creating the antipositivist tradition, opposing the scientific methods of the social sciences to those of the natural sciences.Weber began teaching at the University of Berlin, and later he taught at the Universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Vienna and Munich. He greatly influenced German politics at the time, and he was appointed the advisor of the German negotiators at both the Treaty of Versailles and the drafting of the Weimar Constitution.Being without doubt the most important social theorist of the twentieth century and a principal architect of modern social science, Weber's seminal contributions helped form the new academic disciplines of sociology and public administration, and changed the way of perceiving law, economics, political science and religious studies. Most of Max Weber's works were published posthumously with the aid of his wife.

Amsterdam, Chez Pierre Mortier & Paris, Chez Huart, 1744. 4to. Beautiful cont. full mottled calf with five raised bands and gilt red title-label to richly gilt back. All edges of boards gilt. A very beautiful and well preserved copy with only minor fowing to a few leaves. Half-title, beautiful engraved frontispiece (a bit ahaved at bottom, where half of the last line of text is cut away - thus not disturbing image, and all text still legible), XXVIII, (1), 435, (1, -errata), (8, -contents) pp. First edition of the important first French translation of Cumberland's magnum opus, the highly important and influential masterpiece, which not only criticized Hobbes, absorbing and neutralizing many of his insights, but which thus also created a new political and ethical theory, which came to greatly influence later jurists and philosophers of natural law and ethics, e.g. Locke, Pufendorf, Hutcheson, and Shaftesbury, as well as much philosophy of the French Enlightenment. The present work also greatly influenced the understanding and reception of Hobbes in France and affected the French Enlightenment philosophers. "Traité Philosophique des Loix Naturelles", originally published in Latin in 1672, the same year as Pufendorf's "De jure naturae et gentium", constitutes Cumberland's earliest work, published by him at the age of 40. It was immediately read by the greatest of his contemporaries, exercised a great influence and was soon regarded as one of the three greatest works of the modern natural law tradition, together with Grotius' "On the Law of War and Peace" and Pufendorf's "De jurae naturae". In a later work Pufendorf commended the "De legibus" highly, and with its early utilitarian views and its doctrine of the common good as the supreme law of morality, it anticipated and influenced the direction that much ethical thought was to take in the 18th century. "Some of the earliest utilitarian thinkers were the 'theological' utilitarians such as Richard Cumberland (1631-1718) and John Gay (1699-1745). They believed that promoting human happiness was incumbent on us since it was approved by God." (SEP)."His combination of a strong critique of innate ideas and assertion of the moral community with God was a contributing factor in the formation of the kind of empirically based natural providentialism, or natural religious teleology, which soon became the framework or natural law thinking and, indeed, for the mainstream of Enlightenment moral thought." (Haakonssen, Natural Law and Moral Philosophy", p. 51).At the age of 60, the English philosopher and theologian Richard Cumberland (1631 - 1718) was appointed bishop of Peterborough (without having applied for it). Before that, he had been educated at Magdalen College in Cambridge and at the University of Oxford. He studied medicine for some time and then theology, becoming Doctor of Divinity in 1680. In 1658 he became rector of Brampton Ash in Northamptonshire, and in 1661 he became one of the 12 preachers of the university. In 1670 he became rector of All Saints at Stamford. He was known for the great effort and time that he put into his work, and it was not until his late thirties that he found time to finish the major work that he had been working on. Thus in 1672, he published his first work, his magnum opus "De legibus naturae"( "Traité Philosophique des Loix Naturelles"), which became famous for its vast critique of Hobbes - mainly of that which he saw as his egoistic ethics- and for its propounding of utilitarianism.The main purpose of the "De legis naturae" is to refute Hobbes' theories of the constitution of man, morality, origin of society, etc. and to show that the state of nature is not a state of war. According to Cumberland, man's primary end is not self-advantage, and power is not the foundation of society. He puts forth a new doctrine of morality, which is still based on natural law, but which is accompanied by a running criticism of Hobbes' views, which seem to him subversive of religion, morality, and civil society. He sees the law of nature as capable of pointing out that which will promote the common good, and he believes that the law of nature can be inferred by observing physical and mental phenomena. Thus, Cumberland agrees with Hobbes in the attempt to provide a naturalistic account of the normative force of obligation and in the attempt of establishing a rational dictate, but he opposes Hobbes in the way that these can be derived.Another edition of the present work was published simultaneously at Lausanne and Geneva, and it was published again in 1757 in Leyden. The first English translation of the work appeared in 1727, and a new translation into English followed in 1750.Brunet II:442 (only mentioning the present Amsterdam-edition and the 1757 Leyden-edition).

Kiøbenhaffn (Copenhagen), Henrich Waldkirch, 1599. 4to. Bound in a bit later nice full calf binding with four raised bands with richly gilt spine. Light wear to extremities. Ex-libris pasted on to verso of front board. Upper margin closely trimmed, otherwise a very fine and clean copy. (20), 285, (23) pp. + 1 folded genealogical table. Rare first edition of Huitfeldt’s famous history of Denmark, the present part being on Christian the 1. from 1448 to 1481 – The work is part of a ten volume work published over a period of eight year but each volume constitute a separate work in itself. It is considered the first printed comprehensive history of Denmark and spans from the history from King Dan and up to the death of King Christian III "After publishing his translation of Saxo Grammaticus, Vedel was asked to continue saxo's work and to bring the study of Denmark down to his own time. There were disagreements about how thorough this history should be and which language should be used, Danish or Latin. The project was then given with Vedel's notes to another historian, who accomplished little, and finally to Arild Huitfeldt. Huitfeldt worked quickly, from 1595 to 1603, providing nine volumes of Danish history from King Dan I down to 1559 and the reign of Christian III. He published the ninth volume first (1595)... In 1604 he added a tenth volume, a chronicle of Danish bishops. Huitfeldt had hoped to create a more carefully written version of hist history, but he died before he had the chance. Although roughj in some places, this work provides an invaluable source of information not otherwise available. For example it contains the text of original documents, letters, and description of laws." (Houghton Library, Danish Literature, 1986).Thesaurus 224Lauritz Nielsen 958

København [Copenhagen], 1964. 8vo. Original printed yellow wrappers with green and black lettering. Minor soiling and minor creasing to wrappers. Internally near mint condition. Uncut and unopened. 371 pp. Signed presentation-copy for Michelle Léglise (A Michell/ 11 Janvier 66/ Jean Pauls S") of the first edition of the first Danish translation of "Le Sursis". This is a higly interesting presentation-copy, since Michelle Léglise (or Michelle Vian as she was named at the time), was both the wife of a close friend of Sartre, herself a close friend, and eventually - around the time of this presentation - his lover.In 1940 Michelle Léglise had met the French multi-artist and author Boris Vian, whom she married already in 1941. Boris Vian (1920-1959) is best known today for his novels (many of which were published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan). He was also of great importance to the French jazz-scene and served as liason for Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in Paris. He was also a popular musician in his own time. When he met Michelle, she taught him English and introduced him to American literature. They had a son together in 1942. In the middle of the 40'ies, Vian was struggling to have his novels acknowledged, but those that he published in 1945 were not very successful. He did, however, in 1946 have the luck of meeting, and later befriending Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as Albert Camus, and he began publishing in "Les Temps Modernes". Thus, also Michelle got acquainted with the most famous couple in France at the time - and very well acquainted with Sartre! In fact the two became lovers and began an affair that lasted throughout Sartre's life, in 1980. Michelle and Boris Vian thus divorced in 1951 under messy circumstances. Both Beauvoir and Sartre were very fond of Boris Vian and had promoted him often, but the messy divorce seems to have created spite between the different parties involved - Sartre sided with Michelle, and Simone de Beauvoir with Boris Vian. "Le Sursis" originally appeared in 1945 as part II of "Chemins de la liberté". When the first Danish edition appeared in 1965, Sartre and Michelle were still lovers.

Chicago, (1947). 8vo. Orig. green full cloth w. gilt lettering to spine, minor bumping to extremities. With the ownership-signature of "W.V. Quine" to front free end-paper. A near mint copy. VIII, 210 pp. The not common first edition, of Carnap's important main work on semantics, in which he, as the first logician ever, uses semantics to explain modalities. This led to an interest in the structure of scientific theories, and his main concerns here were to describe the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements and to suitably formulate the verifiability principle; -he thus wishes to find a criterion of significance that can be applied to scientific language. THE COPY HAS BELONGED TO THE GREAT LOGICIAN WILLARD ORMAN VAN QUINE and bears his signature to front free end-paper. Rudolf Carnap and W.O. Van Quine are to of the greatest logicians of the 20th century and a copy like the present must me considered of the greatest interest. In the early 30'ies Quine met Carnap, under whom he studies in Prague, and according to Quine himself, Carnap's work was a great source of inspiration to him.It is in his "Meaning and Necessity" that Carnap first defines the notions of L-true and L-false (Chapter II). A statement is said to be L-true if its truth depends on semantic rules, and L-false if its negation is L-true. Any statement that is either L-true or L-false is L-determined; analytic statements are L-determined, while synthetic statements are not L-determined. As opposed to the definitions he gives in his "The Logical Syntax of Language", these definitions now apply to semantic instead of syntactic concepts. It is also in this work that he gives his interesting explanation of his "belief-sentences"Rudolf Carnap (born 1891 in Ronsdorf, Germany, died 1970 in Santa Monica, California) was an immensely influential analytic philosopher, who has contributed decisively to the fields of logic, epistemology, semantics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of language. He was one of the leading figures of the Vienna Circle, and a prominent logical positivist. He studied philosophy, physics and mathematics at the universities of Berlin and Freiburg, and worked at the universities of Jena, Vienna and Prague until 1935, when he, due to the war, emigrated to the U.S., where he became an American citizen in 1941. In America he became professor of the University of Chicago. In Jena he was appointed Professor of Mathematics, though his main interest at that time was in physics. By 1913 he planned to write his dissertation on thermionic emission, but this was interrupted by World War I, where he served at the front until 1917. Afterwards he studied the theory of relativity under Einstein in Berlin, and he developed the theory for a new dissertation, namely on an axiomatic system for the physical theory of space and time. He thus ended up writing the important dissertation under the direction of Bouch on the theory of space (Raum) from a philosophical point of view. After the publication of his first work, Carnap's involvement with the Vienna Circle began to develop. He met Reichenbach in 1923 and was introduced to Moritz Schlick in Vienna, where he then moved to become assistant professor at the university. He soon became one of the leading members of the Vienna Circle, and in 1929 he, Neurath, and Hahn wrote the manifest of the Circle.According to Hintikka, Carnap came extremely close to possible-worlds semantics in his "Meaning and Necessity", but did not succeed, because he was not able to go beyond classical model theory (see "Carnap's heritage in logical semantics" in "Rudolf Carnap, Logical Empiricist").

Riga, bey Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1783. 8vo. In contemporary full sprinkled calf with gilt lettering to spine. Spine and edges of boards with wear. Small repair to lower margin of first two leaves, not touching text. Small worm-tract to upper margin of first 18 ff. A with marginal underlinings in pencil. 222 pp. The rare first edition, first issue, of Kant's masterpiece, the more popular exposition of the ideas presented in his main work "Critik der reinen Vernunft" (1781). Three variants of the first edition appeared in the same year, distinguishable by head- and tailpieces; this is the first, as described in Warda, 75.This work constitutes a more comprehensible exposition of the main thoughts of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason", and the "prolegomena", being one of the most frequently read and most approachable of his works, also became one of Kant's most influential. It is responsible for spreading his thoughts among a much wider audience than his other works. After having received immense negative critique and having been misunderstood with the first edition of the "Critique of Pure Reason", Kant wrote his "Prolegomena" as a defense and explanation; he later incorporated much of it into the second edition of the "Critique of Pure Reason". It is with the ideas expounded in this work that Kant becomes world-famous. "Kant's great achievement was to conclude finally the lines on which philosophical speculation had proceeded in the eighteenth century, and to open up a new and more comprehensive system of dealing with the problems of philosophy... The influence of Kant is paramount in the critical method of modern philosophy. - No other thinker has been able to hold with such firmness the balance between speculative and empirical ideas... " (PMM 226). Warda 75.

Kbhvn., C.F. Holm, 1786. Samt. hldrbd. Ryg med lettere brugsspor. Papiretikker pålimet ryggen. XVI,414 pp. samt 7 kobberstukne foldeplancher. Ganske velbevaret eksemplar, men lettere aldersgulnet. Fiske p.402. Originaludgaven. Det i Fiske anførte eksemplar mangler 1 planche. Mohr blev oprindelig sendt til Island med det formål at søge efter Kaolin; han vendte tilbage allerede det følgende år og udgav dette værk med en anseelig zoologisk afdeling, hvori han meddeler nye bidrag, navnlig til Fuglenes levemåde (Gosch).

Paris, Lacombe, 1766. 8vo. In two contemporary full sprinckled full calf bindings with five raised bands and richly gilt spines. Corners and spines with wear, and waterstain affecting lower half of the last third of volume 1, otherwise a fine set. XXVI, (2), 616 pp.; (4), 686, (2) pp. First edtion of this landmark work "which may be regarded as the first scientific work of its class." (Ferguson I:p.60) and is considered the "first modern dictionary of chemistry" ."An ecnyclopedia of all that was then known about chemistry, the Dictionnaire is Marcquer's most important work and a milestone of chemical literature. Begun in 1763, Macquer published it anonymously bacause he was concerned that his reputation might suffer as he had not been able to make it as perfect as he wished. He need not have worried, as the work received very favorably reviews shortly after it appeared. Containing more than five hundred articles in alphabetical order, it was preceded by a brief pattern for many later chemical dictionaries." (Neville, vol2. p. 112)."By far the most important of Macquer's works: there had been technical dictionaries before but this was the first dictionary of theoretical and general chemistry; its success soon produced many imitators". (Duveen).Blake 282; Cole 862; Coleby 22; Duveen 377; Edelstein 1509; Ferchl 332

København, Godiche, 1777-79. 4to. 3 samt. helldrbd., ophøjede bind på rygge, rig rygforgyldning. Titelfelter i skind, forgyldt. Rygge med lettere brugsspor. Kapitæler slidte. et par revnedannelser ved false. Bagpærm på bind 3 løs. Kobberstukket portræt af Hofman som frontispiece. 3 store kobberstukne titelvignetter. XX,193;(8),342;(12),401 pp. Rigt illustreret med kobberstukne portrætter, store vignetter, prospekter, våbenskjolde og genealogiske foldetavler. Et af portrætterne opsat på sværere papir. Indvendig frisk eksemplar med brede marginer og trykt på svært skrivepapir. Enkelte spredte brunpletter. Første danske udgave, der udkom som en oversættelse af forfatterens "Portraits Historiques des Hommes Illustres... fra 1746. - Hofmans omgang i Paris med tidens fornemste bogkunstnere gav ham smag for den nye franske bogkunst og han knyttede mange af disse kunstnere til udgivelsen af værket med dets pompøse udsmykninger, således blev hans eget portræt, som indleder værket, stukket af den fremtrædende franske kunstner J.G. Wille. I værket redegøres for over 40 danske adelsslægter, Friis, Skeel, Rantzau, Thott m.v. samt fremtrædende personligheder så som Tordenskjold, og særligt må fremhæves afsnittet om Tycho Brahe, der ud over hans stukne portræt, indeholder kortet over Hven, prospekt af Uranienborg m.v.This fine work describes 40 nobleDanish families and renowned Danes, among these Tycho Brahe and his family. There is a chapter on him, with his engraved portrait (1 engraved plate), a map of Hven (in the text) and illustrations of his observatories at the island Hven (2 engraved plates).

Lancaster, American Institute of Physics, 1956. Lex8vo. Volume 104, October 1, No. 1, 1956 of "The Physical Review", Second Series. Entire volume offered. In the original printed blue wrappers. Minor bumpings to extremities and two small tears to bottom and right side of front wrapper. Otherwise a fine and clean copy. Pp. 254-58. [Entire issue: (2), 272 pp.]. First printing of Yang and Lee's seminal and topic-creating paper which proved that parity is not conserved in weak interactions. "The discovery of parity nonconservation contributed to a general change in the intellectual climate of fundamental physics, leading to a tendency to question the absolute validity of other conservation laws as well." (Kragh, Quantum Generations, pp. 318-9). Before 1956, the general belief was that parity conservation is never violated in nature, a firm paradigm that was not challenged until the publication of the present paper. Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles". Lee is the youngest Nobel laureate after WWII. It had earlier been suggested that parity might not be conserved but noone had been able to put forth compelling evidence. A careful review by Lee and Yang went further, showing that while parity conservation had been verified in decays by the strong or electromagnetic interactions, it was untested in the weak interaction. They proposed several possible direct experimental tests.When Lee and Yang's paper appeared in 1956, physicists were not immediately swept away by their ground breaking conclusions. The physicist Freeman Dyson wrote of his reaction to the paper: "A copy of it was sent to me and I read it. I read it twice. I said, `This is very interesting,' or words to that effect. But I had not the imagination to say, `By golly, if this is true it opens up a whole new branch of physics.' And I think other physicists, with very few exceptions, at that time were as unimaginative as I." Wolfgang Pauli wrote to Weisskopf after reading the paper: "Now after the first shock is over, I begin to collect myself. Yes, it was very dramatic. I am shocked not so much by the fact that the Lord prefers the left hand as by the fact that He still appears to be left-right symmetric when he expresses Himself strongly." (Kragh, Quantum Generations, pp. 319).The presented theory paved the way for a reconsideration of physical theories and led to new, far-reaching discoveries regarding the nature of matter and the universe. The removal of the restrictions imposed by parity law brought order to the theoretical chaos that existed with regard to subatomic particles elementary particles seen in cosmic rays and particle accelerator experiments were understood to be manifestations of the strong and weak nuclear interactions. Eventually the better understanding of their characteristics has led to a more unified theory of the fundamental universal forces of nature.

Berlin, Julius Springer, 1929 u. 1930. Bound in 2 contemp. uniform hcloth. Spine ends a bit worn, cloth broken on fronthinge to vol. 56. (binding not loose).. In: "Zeitschrift für Physik. Herausgegeben von Karl Scheel", 56. und 59. Band. VII,867 pp. u. VII,874 pp. (2 entire volumes offered). Heisenberg & Pauli's paper: pp. 1-61 a. pp. 168-190. Internally clean. First appearance of these two papers of seminal importence as Heisenberg and Pauli here laid the foundation, by using a new method, for the quantum field theory, and gave the "relativistic formulation of quantum electrodynamics in the presence off charges and currents"(Pais). They were the first to attempt a general formulation of quantum electrodynamics by setting up a general scheme for the quantization of fields which they hoped would be applicable to the Maxwell field.In the papers they also introduced what is today called "gauge fixing", which from then on are among the precious tools of field theory."Heisenberg and Pauli thus established the basic structure of QFT which can be found in any introduction to QFT up to the present day" (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy).

København, Gyldendal, 1930. Indbundet i et samtidigt rødt halvlæderbind. Med dedikation fra forfatteren: "2 Juni 1945 - / Kære Løfler og P. W. / Da I har set og oplevet / den kære Kristensen / i nogle Hærværks - / Situationer / maa i forstaa / at denne Bog / er sand / jeres Ven / Tom". Ryg med en del ridser, indvendig pæn og ren. Den ikke almindelige originaludgave med egenhændig dedikation på halvtitlen til Poul Westermann: "2 Juni 1945 - / Kære Løfler og P. W. / Da I har set og oplevet / den kære Kristensen / i nogle Hærværks - / Situationjer / maa i forstaa / at denne Bog / er sand / jeres Ven / Tom"."Hærværk" er ikke alene Tom Kristensens hovedværk, den udgør tillige kulturradikalismens og expressionismens hovedværk i dansk litteratur og regnes for nok det største psykologiske skønlitterære værk skrevet i Danmark.

(Loire, Saint-Chamond, 1891). Folio. 45 technical drawings, most printed and hand-coloured on blue paper. All plates depicts the "Tourelle à éclipse pour canon 1 Canon de 75 m/m á tir rapide". Sizes vary from 75x36 cm to 101x73 cm. All housed in contemporary portfolio, front board detached. All plates with stamp and nubering in contemporary hand. Plates fine and clean. Collection of techincal drawings of Saint-Chamond's fast 75 mm canon. The Compagnie des forges et aciéries de la marine et d'Homécourt (FAMH) (Company of marine forges and steelworks and of Homécourt) was a French industrial enterprise that made iron and steel products for the French navy, army and railroads. It is often known as Saint-Chamond from its main location in Saint-Chamond, Loire.