Search Results

Leipzig, S. Hirzel, (1909). 4to. Bound with orig. printed wrappers in fine later hmorocco. (Bound by Anker Kyster Eftf. 1968). Titlelabel in leather with gilt lettering on frontcover. Offprint (Sonderabdruck) from "Physikalische Zeitschrift", 10. Jahrgang. No. 3. Seite 104-111, here paginated as offprint pp. 1-8 and with textfigs. Clean and fine. First edition - in the scarce offprint-issue - of this milestone paper where Minkowski was the first to conceive that the relativity principle formulated by Lorentz and Einstein led to the abandonment of the concept of space and time as separate entities and to their replacement by a fourdimensional "space-time", THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM. In the opening passage Minkowski declared: "Henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fadeaway in the shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality."The work was simultaneously published in "Jahresberichte der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung". Leipzig 1909, in "Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte". Leipzig, 1909 (a shorter version) and as here.The paper was read 20th of September 1908 at a Conference in Cologne only a few months before his death. Here "he introduced the notion that made possible the expansion of the Relativity Theory of Einstein from its specific to its general form. The technical description of Minkowski's hypothesis is the four-dimensional Space-time continuum.... Minkowski's space-time hypothesis was in effect a restatement of Einstein's basic principle in a form that greatly enchanced its plausability and also introduced importent new developments. Hitherto natural phenomena had been thought to occur in a space of three dimensions and to flow uniformly through time. Minkowski maintained that the separation of space and time is a false conception; thet time is itself a dimension, comparable to lenght, breadth and height: and that therefore the true conception of reality was constituted by a space-time continuum possessing these four dimensions. This strongly reinforced Einstein's objections to absolute concepts and supported his view of the relativity of events in nature." (PMM No. 401).

Amsterdam, Leiden, La haye, utrecht, P. brunel, R. Wetstein etc., 1740. Folio. Bound in 8 uniform contemp. hcalf. raised bands, gilt spines, titlelabel in leather with gilt lettering. Marbled covers. One cover with some scratches. Otherwise fine, spines only slightly rubbed. Engraved frontispiece. Small stamp at foot of titlepages "Holstein=Holsteinborg". Internally fine. A fine edition of one of the first modern Encyclopedias. From 1674 to 1750, this important predecessor to modern encyclopedias went through twenty editions, before it finally succumbed to the Encyclopedie ou dictionnaire des sciences, des arts et des metiers. Moreri designed his encyclopedic work partly as a defense of the worldview of the Roman Catholic Church, and that editorial approach prompted competition from a rival encyclopedia, Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, also in this exhibit. Moreri's work is noteworthy for its emphasis on historical and biographical entries, neglected by Bayle as well as by other competitors such as Ephraim Chamber's Cyclopedia. - PMM: 155 (the first edition of 1674).

London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1876. Small8vo. Original blind stamped brown cloth. End papers renewed and first two leaves reinforced in margin. Repair to lower part of title-page affecting year of printing and small label ( "S.L.M.") to p. 128. Extremities slightly rubbed, internnaly fine and clean. Pp. viii, (9)-128, (4). Rare first edition of Maxwell's "masterpiece of natural philosophy, notable especially for introducing into physics the term relativity in a passage that combines strenuous scientific insight with a mystical awareness (...)" (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, p. 209). "Maxwell's Matter and Motion first appeared in 1876 and was reprinted before the year was out. The first American edition was printed in 1878. Following several reprints on both sides of the Atlantic, Sir Joseph Larmor added notes and appendices to produce a new edition in 1920. This edition was reprinted in 1925 and at least half-a-dozen times since 1952" (Flood, McCartney & Whitaker, James Clerk Maxwell: Perspectives on his Life and Work (2014), p. 27). "More light is thrown on Maxwell’s own opinions about the problem of relative and absolute motion and the connection between dynamics and other branches of physics by the delightful monograph Matter and Motion, published in 1876." (DSB)

Springer, Berlin, 1935. 4to. (256x186mm). Pages 807-812; 823-828; 844-849 from volume 23 of 'Die Naturwissenschaften'. Bound together in recent attractive marbled boards (Hanne Jensen). Leather title with gilt lettering on front board. A fine and clean copy. First edition and first announcement of Schrödinger's famous reply to the EPR-paradox (also known as Schrödinger's Cat). When in May 1935 Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen published the so-called EPR-paper in "Physical Review", they set out to demonstrate that the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics could not constitute a complete description of nature. The EPR-article prompted a number of responses, e.g. from Bohr, the co-founder of the Copenhagen School, who began writing his response immediately after the publication of the Physical Review article. It is this debate that Schrödinger participates in with his seminal paper on "The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics", in which he presents what is now famously known as Schrödinger's Cat. Schrödinger's Cat is the name of the thought experiment that Schrödinger develops in this article and that was intended as a discussion of the EPR article.After the publication of the EPR article, Einstein and Schrödinger had begun an exchange of letters on the subject of the possibility of quantum mechanics, as interpreted by the Copenhagenists, representing reality. During this exchange of letters, Schrödinger had been inspired by Einstein's view of the problem of applying the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum mechanics to everyday objects. But Schrödinger, in his response, took his illustration of the absurdity of the interpretation and the incompleteness of quantum mechanics a step further; he applied it to a living entity, namely a cat. Schrödinger imagines a sealed box containing a cat, a bottle of poison, a radioactive source, a Geiger counter and a hammer. When the Geiger counter detects radiation, a mechanism is switched on that makes the hammer fall; the hammer breaks the bottle, and the poison kills the cat. Because it is random, when the Geiger counter will detect radiation, and because in Quantum mechanics, physical conditions are described with the aid of a wave-function that explains all possible conditions of the system, Quantum mechanics, according to the Copenhagen interpretation, would come to the conclusion that the cat in the box is both living and dead, at the same time (the wave function is made up of a superposition of the two conditions -the cat being living and the cat being dead-; the two positions collapse into one, as soon as the system is interpreted as consisting of only one condition -either dead or living cat-, with the sole possible conclusion that the cat is both). Due to Heisenberg and Bohr's independent interpretation of Quantum theory (the "Copenhagen interpretation), Quantum theory had in 1927 developed in a direction unforeseen by Schrödinger. "Schrödinger was "concerned and disappointed" that this "transcendental, almost physical interpretation of the wave phenomena" had become the "almost universally accepted dogma."" (D.S.B. XII, p. 221). His most famous and widely used attack on this interpretation was that of "Schrödinger's Cat". This paradox of the dead-and-alive cat vigorously illustrated the absurdity of quantum mechanics and what was necessary to describe the states within this system. The thought experiment of Schrödinger's cat turned out to be hugely influential, and has become a standard paradox within both physics and philosophy.

Kjöbenhavn, Bianco Luno, 1867. Contemp. hcalf. Gilt spine with gilt lettering. In: "Oversigt over det Kongelige danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger... i Aaret 1867". X,273,49,(3) pp., textillustrations and plates. (Entire volume offered). Lorenz's paper: pp. 26-45 and pp. 9-16 (Resumé en Francais). Clean and fine. Scarce first edition of Lorenz' landmark paper, which contains his important studies on the electromagnetic theory of light in which he - less than two years after, but independently of, Maxwell - found that LIGHT MIGHT BE INTERPRETED AS ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES, and that his equations lead to the CORRECT VALUE FOR THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT. "The procedure which Lorenz followed was that of which Riemann had suggested in 1858, namely, to modify the accepted formula of electrodynamics by introducing terms which, though too small to be appreciable in ordinary laboratory experiments, would be capable of accounting for the propagation of electrical effects through space with a finite velocity...The (Lorenz-) equations are, however, the fundamental equations of Maxwell's theory; and therefore the theory of L. Lorenz is practically equivalent to that of Maxwell, so far as concerns the propagation of electromagnetic disturbances through free aether.....he suggested that ALL LUMINOUS VIBRATIONS MIGHT BE CONSTITUTED BY ELECTRIC CURRENTS, and hence that there was 'no longer any reason for maintaining the hypothesis of an aether, since we can admit that space contains sufficient ponderable matter to enable the disturbance to be propagated" (Edmund Whittaker in "A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity I", p. 267-70).

Paris, Vincent, 1763 (- 64). 8vo. Bound in their original state, 2 orig. red boards. Some wear and fading to spines. Some cracks to hinges on part one. Wear to spine ends. Handwritten titlelabels on spines. (4),CCCXXV,190;(2),640 pp., 1 large folded engraved plate. Internally clean, printed on good paper. Scarce first edition of this taxonomic classic in which Adanson established a natural system of plants and challenged the validity of some opinions by Linnaeus and the whole theoretical position expressed by him"In 1761 Adanson was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, and in 1763-1764 he published Familles des plantes. In this book he proclaimed his contempt for "systems" and proposed a natural classification based upon all characters rather than upon a few arbitrarily selected ones, an attempt that brought him into conflict with Linnaeus. Recent historical studies have shown that Adanson’s views were shared by many Parisian botanists and that he was responsible for the maintenance of Joseph Tournefort’s system at the Jardin du Roi until 1774, when A. L.de Jussieu’s system was adopted. Adanson owed much to Bernard de Jussieu’s plant families as they were developed in his manuscript plan for the Trianon garden in which he arranged the plants in beds in an order corresponding to his system of classification. He soon recognized that his Familles des plantes was only an outline of his general conception, and in 1769 he prepared a new edition that was never published." (DSB).Stafleu & Cowan; 26. - Hunt; 577.

Leipzig, Grosse & Gleditsch, 1695. 4to. Contemp. full vellum. Faint handwritten title on spine. A small stamp on titlepage and pasted library label to pasted down front free end-paper. In: "Acta Eruditorum Anno MDCXCV". (2), 560, (52) pp. + 10 plates. As usual with various browning to leaves and plates. The entire volume offered. Leibniz's papers: pp. 145-57; 184-185; 310-316; 369-372; 493-495. Jacob Bernoulli's paper: pp. 537-553 + one folding table; 65-66. Johann Bernoulli's: pp. 59-65; 374-376. First printing of a series of influential papers by Leibniz, Jacob Bernoulli and Johann Bernoulli.First publication of Jakob Bernoulli's famous and influential "Bernoulli Equation". In "Notatiuncula Constructiones Lineae" Bernoulli proposed a solution to non linear equations which today is one of the most common used solutions of the general fluid. Bernoulli equations are significant because they are nonlinear differential equations with known exact solutions. In the "Specimen dynamicum" Leibniz presents a conception of body and force which distinct between primitive and derivative forces and between active and passive forces. This article is regarded as being the clearest exposition of Leibniz' dynamics. (DSB VII, 151b)."The first attempt at a detailed account of the dynamics was a long dialogue, the "Phoranomus seu de potentia et legibus naturae," written in July 1689 while Leibniz was in Rome. This was quickly followed be the composition of the massive Dynamica de potential et legibus naturae corporeae (1689-90) [...]. Though it was written with the intention of publication, and though Leibniz work at publishing it, he never considered it entirely finished and it remained unpublished during his lifetime.The later [...] he finally revealed some of the metaphysical foundations of the project in an essay [the present paper]." (Garber, Daniel. Leibniz: body, substance, monad. 2009. 132 p.)"Its title suggests a summary of or a selection from the earlier work [...]. However, it actually contains something in a way rather more interesting: a careful exposition of the metaphysical foundations of the new science, something that is hard to find in the old Dynamica or any of the more Technical pieces." (Garber, Daniel. Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad. 2009. 133 p.)

London and New York, Macmillan and Co., 1871. Royal8vo. In publisher's original red embossed cloth. In "Nature. A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science", Vol. 3, November 1870 - April 1871. Stamp to title-page and ex-libris pasted on to pasted down front end-paper. Binding with considerable wear; spine partly disintegrated and front board bended vertically, but bookblock firmly attached. Internally fine and clean. Darwin's paper: Pp. 502-503. [Entire volume: XII, 520 pp]. First appearance of Darwin’s defense of his Pangenesis-theory. The Pangenesis theory was hypothetical mechanism for heredity, in which he proposed that each part of the body continually emitted its own type of small organic particles called gemmules that aggregated in the gonads, contributing heritable information to the gametes. He presented this 'provisional hypothesis' in his 1868 work The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, intending it to fill what he perceived as a major gap in evolutionary theory at the time. Darwin's half-cousin Francis Galton spent much time conducting wide-ranging inquiries into heredity which led him to refute Charles Darwin's hypothetical theory of pangenesis. In consultation with Darwin, he set out to see if gemmules were transported in the blood. Galton was troubled because he began the work in good faith, intending to prove Darwin right, and having praised pangenesis in Hereditary Genius in 1869. Cautiously, he criticized his cousin's theory, although qualifying his remarks by saying that Darwin's gemmules, which he called "pangenes", might be temporary inhabitants of the blood that his experiments had failed to pick up. In the present paper Darwin challenged the validity of Galton's experiment, giving his reasons in an article published in Nature where he wrote. “Now, in the chapter on Pangenesis in my Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, I have not said one word about the blood, or about any fluid proper to any circulating system. It is, indeed, obvious that the presence of gemmules in the blood can form no necessary part of my hypothesis; for I refer in illustration of it to the lowest animals, such as the Protozoa, which do not possess blood or any vessels; and I refer to plants in which the fluid, when present in the vessels, cannot be considered as true blood." He goes on to admit: "Nevertheless, when I first heard of Mr. Galton's experiments, I did not sufficiently reflect on the subject, and saw not the difficulty of believing in the presence of gemmules in the blood.” (From the present paper) The hypothesis was finally refuted in the 1900ies after Gregor Mendel's theory of the particulate nature of inheritance was accepted. The Pangenesis-theory, however, may be considered an eclectic mix of DNA, RNA, proteins and prions, and can be regarded as being one of the earliest steps toward the modern mechanism for heredity, namely DNA and RNA. Freeman 1751

The Lancet, 1867. 4to. Wrappers blank. Extracted from "The Lancet": I. pp.326-329 (March 16) - II. pp. 357-359 (March 16) - III. pp 387-389 (March 30) - IV. pp.507-509 (April 27) - V. pp. 95-96 (July 27) - VI. pp.353-356 (Sept. 21) - VII. pp. 668-669 (Nov. 30). First editions of these highly important papers (3 works in 7 parts), among which we find Lister's first work on the antiseptic principle in surgery. Lister believed that bacteria could enter wounds and cause suppuration and putrefaction and that it was necessary to kill the bacteria already in wounds and to apply dressings impregnated with some bactericidal substance. He finally hit on carbolic acid for this purpose. When this work was done it had not yet been proved that bacteria were the cause of disease. (Garrison & Morton No 5634). - Having realized the significance of Pasteur's work on fermentation, Lister evolved the idea of the antiseptic prevention of wound infection. This and the preceding papers represent two of the most epoch-making contributions to surgery. (Garrison & Morton, No 5635). Through a presentation of several case studies, Lister illustrates the variations called for in the treatment of specific wounds. - Hundred Books famous in Medicine (Grolier) No. 75 - Sparrow, Milestones of Science No. 138 - Printing and the Mind of Man 316 c - Norman: 1366 - Gedeon:54

Berlin, J. Ladyschnikow, 1908. Contemporary half calf with gilding to spine. Spine with a bit of wear. A bit of light occasional brownspotting, and a marginal marking in red crayon on one page, but overall very nice. First separate edition - appearing almost simultaneously with the version in the "Znaniye"-compilation - of Gorki's highly influential novel "The Confession"/"A Confession", which created quite a stir when it appeared and caused great distress to both the Russian Orthodox Church, to Leo Tolstoy and to Vladimir Lenin, who mentioned the work specifically on the many occasions when he criticized the attempts to unite Socialism and Christianity. "The Confession" tells the story of Matvei - based upon the real life story of a religious sectarian in Nizhny Novgorod - who becomes a wanderer through Russia seeking a philosophy to live by. The work is of great historical importance, as it embodies the philosophy of the "God-building" movement that arose in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century. The novel expresses Gorky's belief in humanity, when strong individuals are connected to each other, and it reflects Gorky's disgust with injustice, hypocrisy, and conditions that degrade human dignity as well as his faith in human potential. Of the work, Gorki himself said: "I am an atheist. In "A Confession" the idea was to show the means by which man could progress from individualism to the collectivist understanding of the world. The main character sees 'God-building' as an attempt to reconstruct social life according to the spirit of collectivism, the spirit of uniting the people on their way to one common goal: liberating man from slavery, within and without."

Kjøbenhavn, Andreas Seidelin, 1820. 8vo. In contemporary half cloth. Wear to hinges, missing some of the cloth, especially to top of spine. Some brownspotting to first leaves, but a good and sturdy copy. Printed on good paper and with good margins. LXXIV, 325 pp. The highly important first translation into any modern language - and overall the second edition to appear - of the seminal Gothic tale that is Beowulf. This monumental work appeared merely five years after the first printing of the text (in Latin, 1815) and 13 years before the first English edition of Beowulf. With this edition, Grundtvig founded the study of Beowulf. "In the British Library there is a manuscript, its edges scorched and brittle, of "Beowulf", one of the very earliest poems in English and its first great literary masterpiece. It exists only in this one vellum codex and has survived for a thousand years, telling of an even earlier time, when the heroic age still was remembered by a Christian audience....In 1786, an Icelandic scholar, came to the [British] Museum, looking for documents relating to Denmark, where the first part of "Beowulf" takes place. He made two complete copies of the manuscript, the first time this had been done, one by a professional copyist and the other, himself, and returned to Copenhagen to study them.But then calamity. Denmark was occupied during the Napoleonic Wars and, in 1807, the English bombarded Copenhagen... [The] manuscript for an edition of "Beowulf", which just had been completed, was destroyed." The two transcripts were saved, however, work on them was begun again, and in 1815 the first printed edition of "Beowulf" appeared, in Latin, printed in Copenhagen.In 1820 the first translation of the seminal poem appeared, that into Danish, translated by the great Danish author Grundtvig, sparking the interest in Beowulf that persists until this day. In 1833, the first English edition of Beowulf appeared.

Wien, Prag und Triest, Trattnern, 1759-60. 4to. Bound in 7 contemp. uniform hcalf. Gilt spines. Tome-and titlelabels with gilt lettering. A paperlabel pasted on upper part of spines. Small tear to two top of spines. Stamps on title-pages. Engraved portrait as frontispiece, Engraved titlevignettes, fine engraved vignettes in the text and 146 engraved plates (mainly double-page and folded, all called for in the plate-index) and 3 folded engraved maps. Some rather faint, mainly marginal, scattered brownspots. Graesse V,396 - Rumpf:237.

St-Pétersburg, Thieblin & Co., 1864-72. 4to., Elephant-folio (82 x 57 cm.) a. folio (54 x 42 cm.). Textvolumes: 4 contemp hcalf. Gilt spines. Gilt lettering. Stamps on title-pages. 6,III,XXXVIII,323,(2);(4),III,324-727,(2) - (4),II,III,448,(2);VIII,546,(2) pp.+ "Anhänge" 129 pp. (in "Erster Theil"). Wide-margined, internally clean and fine. - 2 Atlases in elephant-folio: both with printed title-page and printed leaf: "Erklaerung der Karten un Plaenen". Both in original printed portfolios with ties (wear to extremities). The first having 7 maps (a preliminary atlas ??), the second having 14 (I-XIV) maps and some of the 7 maps from the first are repeated in the second portfolio. The maps and plans numbered XV-XXVII are bound in 2 contemp. hcalf. As some of the maps in the first atlas are not repeated in the second, the whole set of maps and plans exceeds 30. The larger maps are lithographed with toning, some of the plates and plans are engraved. Some of the larger maps are strenghtened in folding on verso. A few plans are handcoloured.A supplementary-volume attached: Atlas der Plaene und Zeichnungen zu der beschreibung der vertheidigung von Sebastopol, nebst Angabe der Geschuetz-Armierung. Sanct-Petersburg, 1864. Folio-oblong. Original printed wrappers. Having 8 (of 27 ??) lithographed plates. Scarce first German edition. During the Crimean War, Totleben was instrumental in organizing the defense of Sevastopol’ (1854-55). Improving on the theories of A. Z. Teliakovskii, he adapted fortifications to the terrain, siting them so as to preclude outflanking; arranged batteries to fire at a single target; made use of lodgments to prepare firing positions; and made extensive use of buried land mines.

Hafniæ, Godiche, N. Möller, 1772-92. - (VIII, 1834 og Registerbind IX, 1878). Folio. Bind 1-7 i samtidige hellædrbind i flammet kalv. Ophøjede bind. Rig rygforgyldning. Forgyldte tome- og titelfelter i skind. Nogle kapitæler slidte. Bind 8, som ikke udkom i samtiden, men først 1834, er i originalt papbd. med shirtryg. Bind 9, som først udkom 1878 er i nyere hfableabd. De 7 første bind indeholder en del foldetabeller, kobberstukne faksimiler af håndskrifter, kobberstukne foldekort etc. Disse 7 bind har tilhørt retshistorikeren J.L.A. kolderup-Rosenvinge. The largest collection of Danish medieval texts. In 1834 - 30 years later - a supplementary volume was published (called Vol. VIII), this is present here together with the Index-volume published more than 100 years after the first volume. - From vol. IV P.F. Suhm was editor, after the death of Langebek.

London, Lockyer Davis and Peter Elmsly, 1783. 4to. In recent marbled paper wrappers. Extracted from "Philosophical Transactions", vol. 73. Including title-page of volume. A few leaves reinforced in margin. (3), iv, (247)-284 pp. + three folded plates. First appearance of Herschel's famous paper in which he documented his discovery of the movement of the sun and of the entire solar system with it. "Between 1780 and 1821 Sir Herschel produced some seventy papers, mostly published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. These were the results of his astronomical observations which have earned him the title of 'Farther of sidereal astronomy'. The present paper is one of the most important in the series." (PMM 227)"Herschel analyzed the individual motions of a small number of stars, showing that most of their observed motions were actually the result of the movement of our solar system through space." (Norman).PMM 227 Norman 1059

[Rome, AD 79-80]. 18 mm. diameter. Dolphin entwined around anchor on one side, and Draped bust of Tutus, turning right on the other side. An excellent, near mint specimen. 3,05 g. Obverse: IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M, laureate head rightReverse: TR P IX IMP XV COS VIII P P, dolphin coiled around an anchor.RIC 26a, RSC 309. Good specimen of the beautiful and rare coin that inspired Aldus Manutius' famous printer's device, the dolphin-and-anchor, the most famous logo in the history of book printing and the trademark of the Renaissance. The Aldus coin is the only book- or printing-related ancient coin in existence.Aldus Manutius, the most famous printer of all times, had been given a copy of the Titus coin, with the dolphin-and-anchor logo on the verso, as a gift by Pietro Bembo. He was extremely taken by the magnificent logo, that in Roman times, by Titus Vespasian, had been used to illustrate the proverb "Festina lente" ("make haste slowly"), and was so inspired by it that he began using it as his printer's device at the very beginning of the 16th century. Before it appears as his printer's device for the first time, he used it as an illustration in one of his most magnificent books, Colonna's "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili", 1499.In his "Adagiorum Collectanea", the collection of classical proverbs that he kept revising throughout his life, Erasmus Roterodamus had composed a lengthy essay on the "festina lente" proverb, which intrigued him immensely. Erasmus traced the motto back to the emperor Titus Vespasian, who had minted a coin with the emblem (i.e. the present coin), and had the rare opportunity to inspect that very coin - namely that which belonged to his printer, Aldus Manutius, who had been given it by the great Italian scholar Pietro Bembo. The second edition of Erasmus' "Adagiorum Collectanea" was published by Aldus in Venice in 1508, and Erasmus subsequently praises his printer to the skies in the course of explaining "festina lente". Erasmus explains the motto as such: "the circle as having neither beginning nor end represents eternity. The anchor, which holds back and ties down the ship and binds it fast, indicates slowness. The dolphin, as the fastest and in its motions most agile of living creatures, expresses speed. If then you skillfully connect these three, they will make up some such principle as "Ever hasten slowly", and adds that by claiming it as his own (recognizable and marketable) emblem, Aldus gave "fresh celebrity to the same device that was once approved by Vespasian". Not only is it "most familiar, it is highly popular among all those everywhere in the world to whom sound learning is either familiar or dear." Erasmus seems to also suggest that the device had perhaps become too popular: "the city of Venice, with its many claims to distinction, has none the less become distinguished through the Aldine press, so much so that any books shipped from Venice to foreign countries immediately find a readier market merely because they bear that city's imprint."And he might have been right. In fact, the Aldine press was so successful and renowned, and Aldus' printer's device as taken from the Titus Vespatian coin, so incorporated a symbol of elegant, correct printing and higher learning, that it was imitated by printers all over Europe. By using the dolphin-and-anchor device, other printers, although much inferior, would benefit from the authority and prestige of the Aldine press. In spite of Erasmus' attempts to make the public aware of this by praising the efforts of Aldus and opposing them to "those common printers who reckon one pitiful gold coin in the way of profit worth more than the whole realm of letters", publishers kept using the Aldus device for centuries. Aldus Manutius, Grolier Club: no 129RIC 26a, RSC 309.

Christiania (Oslo), 1885-1985. Lex8vo. Bound up to vol 81 in 52 fine solid hcalf. Vol. 82-100 in clean parts. Incl. Indexes for vol. 1-40 and 41-100.

Kiøbenhavn, Godiche,1763-74. 4to. Indbundet i 7 (idet bind 5 er indbundet i 2) ensartede hldrbd. fra omkr. 1850 med rygforgyldning og skidntitel i guld. Stempler på titelblade. De tre første bind på trykpapir, de sidste på skrivepapir og større i formatet. Med 224 (af 231) kobberstukne plancher, kort, prospekter, grundtegninger m.v. (de 7 manglende plancher er fortrinsvis kortbilag). Enkelte plancher med mindre reparationer, enkelte med brunpletter, flere af de større kort med brugsspor og forstærkninger på bagsiden. Originaltrykket af Danmarks topografiske hovedværk. I 1781 udkom bind 7 som omhandler Slesvig. Dette bind er ikke tilsted her.

Petropoli, St. Petersburg, Typis Academiae, 1740. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Classes Tertia continens Historica. Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae", Tomus VII ad Annos 1734 & 1735. The whole section of "Historica"offered. Title-page to Tome VII (with engraved vignette), halftitle (to the section) a. pp. 345-426, 6 engraved plates. Bayer's paper: pp. 362-426 and 5 engraved plates with numerous chinese characters. Clean and broad-margined. First printing (in part) of the first Western translation of any part of Confusius' influential Chun Cieu, being the fourth volume of his works. "The title Chun Cieu (Chunqiu) signifies the Spring and Autumn. He discourses like an historian of the expditions of diversr princes, of their Virtues and Vices, of the fatigues they underwent... The title is an emblematic title, because that states flourish when their Princes are endowed wit Virtue and Wisdom, which is represented by the Spring, and that on the contrary they fall like the leaves and are utterly destroyed when their Princes are dispirated, or are wicked, which is represented by the Autumn."(James Legge).The section also comprises Bayer. Elementa Calmucia. (1) pp. and 1 engraved plate (numerous characters) and Bayer. De Venedis, et Eridano Fluvvio. Pp. 346-361.

Tokyo, Nihon Bijutsu Hanga Kenkyu Kai, 1941, March 10th. Folio (355 x 260 mm). In the original silkcovered sevn boards binding with blue title-label pasted on to front board. 50 woodblock reproduction of Ukiyo-e art all with printed tissueguards describing (in both English and Japanese) the artist and artwork. A very fine copy. A fine work showing the rich tradition Ukiyo-e art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term 'ukiyo-e' translates as "picture[s] of the floating world". Ukiyo-e was central to forming the West's perception of Japanese art in the late 19th century, particularly the landscapes of Hokusai and Hiroshige. From the 1870s onwards, Japonisme became a prominent trend and had a strong influence on the early Impressionists such as Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Claude Monet, as well as having an impact on Post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh, and Art Nouveau artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

London, Printed for the Author by H. Hughs, 1791. Large folio. Later clothbacked marbled boards. Large engraved titlevignette. XIV,198 pp., 23 engraved plates of which 4 are maps/charts. Some dampstaining to upper part of title-page. The first 5 leaves with marginal brownspots. A few plates with light toning. Plates with scattered brownspots. First edition. The building of the Edystone lighthouse represents a new design in lighthouses.The tower was largely dismantled and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe in Plymouth, Devon, where it stands today. - Poggendorff II,943.

Paris, Firmin Didot Frères, (1830) 1831. 4to. Orig. clothbacked boards. Red titlelabel in paper with gilt lettering on spine. Spine faded and with small nicks to titlelabel and spine. Light wear to spine ends. (4),XXIV,258 pp. and 1 folded engraved plate. Htitle a bit browned. A few scattred brownspots. A wide-margined copy. Scarce first edition (with the reprinted titlepage 1831 instead of 1830).Fourier's "Analyse des equations determines" constitutes a highly important work on the theory of equations, a work which occupied Fourier throughout his life and the last thing that he wrote. The work contains numerous theories that had not previously been published, e.g. his method of solution and applications of linear qualities, due to which he actually anticipated linear programming.The work was of great importance to Fourier himself, who had attempted to publish some of his important results on the subject as early as 1789 and who later ended up in a priority-dispute due to the much delayed publication of one of these results (the Fourier-Budan theorem). His final opus constitutes his final preparation of the Fourier-theorem as well as many other important theories and results connected to his theory of equations, and it thus presents us with his final views on this important science. "[H]e had almost finished only the first two of its seven "livres". His friend Navier edited it for publication in 1831, inserting an introduction to establish from attested documents (including the delayed 1789 paper) Fourier's priority on results which had by then become famous. Perhaps Fourier was aware that he would not live to finish the work, for he wrote a synopsis of the complete book which also appeared in this edition. The synopsis indicated his wide interests in the subject, of which the most important not yet mentioned were various means of distinguishing between real and imaginary roots, refinements of the Newton-Raphson method of approximating to the root of an equation, extensions to Daniel Bernoulli's rule for the limiting value of the ratio of successive terms of a recurrent series, and the method of solution and applications of linear inequalities. Fourier's remarkable understanding of the last subject makes him the great anticipator of linear programming." (D.S.B., V:98). - Honeyman IV:1361.

Paris, Crochard, 1819. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with raised bands and gilt spine. Very light wear along edges. Small stamps on verso of title-page and on verso of plates. In "Annales de Chimie et de Physique", Tome X, 2. Series. 448 pp. a. 2 folded engraved plates. (Entire volume offered). Arago and Fresnel's paper: pp. 288-306. First appearance of this seminal paper in which Arago and Fresnel described the experiments which demonstrated that light vibrates transversely to its direction of forward movement."In a further letter to Arago, dated 29 April 1818 Young recurred to the subject of transverse vibrations, comparing light to the undulations of a cord agitated by one of its extremities. This letter was shown by Arago to Fresnel, who at once saw that it presented the true explanation of the non-interference of beams polarised in perpendicular planes, and that the latter effect could even be made the basis of a proof of the correctness of Young's hypothesis; for if the vibration of each beam be supposed resolved into three components, one along the ray and the other two at right angles to it, it is obvious from the Arago-Fresnel experiment that the components in the direction of the ray must vanish; in other words THAT THE VIBRATIONS WHICH CONSTITUTE LIGHT ARE EXECUTED IN THE WAVE-FRONT." (Edmund Whittaker in "A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity I", p. 115). - Parkinson, Breakthroughs 1819 P. - Magie "A Source Book in Physics, p. 325 ff.The volume contains another groundbreaking paper, in which THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ATOMIC WEIGHT AND ATOMIC HEAT WAS ESTABLISHED - THE "LAW OF DULONG AND PETIT".DULONG, (PIERRE) & (ALEXIS) PETIT. Recherches sur quelques points importans de la théorie de la chaleur. Vol. X, pp. 395-413. (In the volume offered)."They (Dulang and Petit) were concerned with the specific heats of elements; but if these elements really existed as atoms, it seemed possible that there might be a connection between the weight of the atom and the amount of heat acquired to raise the temperature of a given weight of that element by a certain amount." (DSB). - "One of his (Dulong) most important researches was made in collaboration with Alexis Thérese Petit (1791-1820), with whom he announced the law that the product of atomic weight and specific heat is constant (1819). It rendered a distinct service in fixing atomic weights, especially when these were in question, and enabled Berzelius and later Cannizzaro to arrive at correct atomic weights and the correct number of atoms in molecules." (Leicester & Klickstein, A source Book in Chemistry 1400-1900, p. 273). Magie "A Source Book in Physics", p. 178 ff. - Parkinson, Breakthroughs (1819).

Paris, Arthus Bertrand, 1857-1859. Royal8vo. Bound completely uncut with all the original printed wrappers in four fully contemporary full cloth bindings with gilt titles to spines. Dampstain affecting inner magin of vol. 1, Pp. 32-46. Light brownspotting throughout. Overall an excellent copy. (4), XCII, 440 pp.; (4), 616 pp.; (4), 692 pp. + 1 folded map.; (4), VI, 851 pp. Scarce first edition of Bourbourg's famous account of the culture and the indigenous people of Central-America, one of the most important works on that area's people and language. Due to his discoveries of important texts and codes of ancient Mexico, Bourbourg was one of the pioneers of archeology and pre-Columbian history: "He studied on the spot the primitive Mexican civilizations, collected important material on the geography, antiquities, and ethnology of Mexico and Central America, edited numerous curious texts such as the Manuscrit Troano [...], and published works which, like the 'Lettres' [...] , but especially [the present work], assured him of a fine reputation as a scholar of America." (Dictionary of Canadian Biography).Several sections of the present work deal with the languages of Mexico. The work contains an introduction by Bourbourg's fellow-archaeologist, Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin, in which Aubin demonstrates how Mexican pictographs were used not only to represent objects, but also to stand for the syllables forming a word. Having spent much of his time trying to decipher the Mayan hieroglyphs, the present work, with its ingenious introduction, paved the way for Bourbourg's announcement in 1863 of his discovery of a key to the Mexican hieroglyphs. The key difference between the Mayan script and other logosyllabic Mesoamerican writing systems that allowed for its linguistically more precise decipherment was a large corpus of inscriptions and its continued use into the Colonial period. In 1862 Bourbourg discovered Bishop Diego de Landa's redacted manuscript Relación de las Cosas de Yucatan (Tozzer 1941), which contained a rudimentary Mayan "alphabet." Following this discovery and his equally important find of a section of the Madrid Codex, Bourbourg attempted a phonetic approach to glyphic decipherment. Sabin:7429.

(Nürnberg, 1696). The large engraving of the procession through Stockholm being composed of 13 engraved plates joined together, measuring 30x450 cm. (Plates numb. 1-13). Some mostly marginal dampstains, some marginal tears, some brownspots mainly marginal. Upper margin of plate 3 partly gone. Margins strenghtened at verso with brown paper. Some variation to paperquality, but in general in good strong impressions. The procession gives a panoramic view through Stockholm with the Swedish battleships, salute-firing in the harbour. The engraving was published together with Pufendorf's work, De rebus a Carolo Gustavi gestis...Nürenberg, 1696. The procession was drawn by Erik Dahlberg who was an eyewitness and engraved by different engravers.