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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

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.

Frankfurt & Leipzig, Renger, 1728. 4to. In a nice contemporary Cambridge-style mirror binding with four raised bands and richly gilt spine. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Light wear to extremities. Internally with occassional heavy toning due to poor paper quality, otherwise a good copy. (16), 866, (19) pp. + 1 plate. The uncommon first edition of one of Wolff’s main work in which he presented his concept of philosophy as a total science following Descartes’ belief that all science could be deduced from simple principles. In the history of logical reasoning, methodology, principles of logical inference, the classification of propositions and the structure of logical arguments it still stands as a highly important work. To reach a broader audience Wolff decided to published his works in Latin, the present being his first Latin-language publication. “Christian Wolff (1679–1754) was a philosopher, mathematician, and scientist of the German Enlightenment. He is widely and rightly regarded as the most important and influential German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant. His scholarly output was prolific, numbering more than 50 (most multi-volume) titles, in addition to dozens of shorter essays and prefaces and nearly 500 book reviews. Through his series of textbooks, published first in German and then in Latin, Wolff made signal contributions to nearly every area of philosophical investigation of his time, including but not limited to logic, metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Wolff is perhaps best known in his role as (co-)founder of the “Leibnizian-Wolffian philosophy”, and while Wolff himself rejected the term, the philosophical system it designates quickly gained broad, if not universal, acceptance within German universities in the first half of the eighteenth century.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Kjøbenhavn, Bianco Luno, 1851. 8vo. In the original giftbinding (blue blank boards). With author's presentation to F. C. Danckwart to front free end-paper. Offprint from "Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger". Scratches and some spoling to boards. Spine with nicks and a bit of loss of paper. Internally with a few brownspots. 57 pp. Presentation copy, offprint, of this foundational work in Scandinavian geoarchaeology, uniting geology, archaeology and natural history in a systematic investigation of Denmark’s prehistoric coastal settlements and shell middens (køkkenmøddinger). It represents the collaborative effort of three leading Danish scholars: geologist J. G. Forchhammer, paleontologist and naturalist J. C. H. R. Steenstrup and archaeologist J. J. A. Worsaae. In 1848, a new source for these studies opened with the. At Steenstrup’s urging, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters appointed a committee consisting of Forchhammer, Steenstrup, and Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae to investigate the shell middens that had been found in several places in Denmark. The results, published here, established the shell-middens as made made structures, proved to be of the greatest significance for the development of archaeological research throughout the world. The present copy was given, and signed, by Forchhammer to F. C. Danckwart, Director in the Foreign Department and known for his close ties to the monarchy. He served under several foreign ministers and retained influence even after his retirement. “Forchhammer participated in the work of the so-called ‘Lejrekomite’, an interdisciplinary committee studying human remains along the shore. This commission gave the first – and now famous – description of the ‘køkkenmødding’ (kitchen midden), a mound consisting of shells of edible molluscs and other refuse, marking the site of a prehistoric human habitation (Hanks 1971). ‘Køkkenmødding’ is one of the few Danish international terms (Forchhammer et al. 1851). The work of the ‘Lejrekomité’ was concentrated on the marine molluscs in order to establish out whether the shell deposits were naturally based – oyster banks – or whether they were formed as waste deposits produced by men living at coastal sites” (Petersen, Late Quaternary environmental changes recorded in the Danish marine molluscan faunas, p.12).

Paris, Claude Jean-Bapt. Bouche, 1757. 4to. Cont. full calf. Gilt boders on covers. Old professional rebacking to style. Back gilt. A few nicks to leather at edges. (8),190;XCVI,275 pp., 1 large folded engraved map (Carte Generale du Senegal) and 19 fine engraved plates, each with many figs of conchs (M.T. Reboul del.et sc.). Broad margins, printed on good paper. Light scattered brownspotting. Scarce first edition of this early, and perhaps the first scientific, travel expedition in Senegal - an example of a new scientific attitude and method in travel litterature. The author was primarely a botanist, and the results of the expedition was planned to be published in further volumes. Only this volume, relating to conchology and molluscs was published. The first part gives an account of the voyage in the years 1749 to 1753, and the second part describes the conchs and molluscs (conquillages) in fine engravings. - Not in Brunet and Graesse. - Nissen ZBI No. 27 - Casey A. Wood p. 180.

Kiøbenhaffn, (Hans Zimmermann), 1562. Lille 8vo. Senere helpergamentsbind. Helt guldsnit. 150 blade, uden de 2 sidste blanke blade. Træstukket portræt af Chr. III trykt på titelbladets bagside. På bagsiden af kolofonbladet rigsvåbnet i træsnit. Velbevaret eksemplar, trykt på godt papir med lettere brugsspor. Dette er det yderst sjældne andet optryk af ordinantsen - det første udkom 1553 - af den reviderede og endelige udgave af Danmark og Norges reformations-ordinans fra 1542. Den var gældende i Norge op til 1607 hvor Norge fik sin egen.Laur. Nielsen, 1217. - Thesaurus, 72.

uden sted, uden år. (København, Joachim Schmidtgen, 1693 ?). Høj 12mo. Samtidigt brunt helldrbd. med rigt forgyldte rammer på begge permer, indvendigt og udvendigt i rammerne forsynet med stiliseret blomsterværk af guldstempler. Ryggen rigt forgyldt, men forgyldningen svag. False og kapitæler fint reparerede. Helt guldsnit. Med 2 intakte lukkestroppe, bronzehængsler. (22),3-261,(1) pp. Indvendig aldeles ren, trykt på svært skrivepapir. I samme indbinding som KB's to eksemplarer, indikerende, at bindet her er udført af Christian V's bogbinder Wolfgang Lamprecht. Yder sjældent re-issue af Frederik den Andens egenhændige udvalg fra Davids Salmer, som først udkom i 1585 og som kun kendes i et eksemplar. Atter i 1586 udkom en ny udgave, men i et helt andet format og udstyr (se Paulli, Lorentz Benedicht nr. 173). Foreliggende udgave er en rekonstruktion af 1586-udgaven da der ikke i Danmark forelå et eksemplar af originaludgaven. Thesaurus anfører, at der af denne 1693-udgave, kun eksisterer 2 eller 3 eksemplarer, måske intet i privateje ud over dette.Bibl. Danica II,29. - Thesaurus I,124.

Lemgo, Meyerischen Buchhandlung, 1766. 4to. Contemp. full sprinkled calf. Raised bands. Richly gilt spine. Wear to top of spine. A small crack in fronthinge at upper compartment. Slightly rubbed. Stamp on title-page. XVI,344 pp., 2 folded engraved maps and 5 engraved plates. A few scattered brownspots, light toning to plates. First German edition of one of the fundamental texts of Siberian scholarship. With detailled accounts of the zoology, geography and botany of the region as well as on the language and culture of the Itelmen and Koryak peoples.

Paris, Henry Le Gras et Edme Pepingvé, 1651. 4to. Contemp. full calf with 5 raised bands, profusely gilt compartments. Covers slightly rubbed. A small nick to lower edge of backcover. Engraved title-page (and printed). (60),420,(1) pp. and 20 engraved plates. Pastedown inside frontcover a bit soiled. Front-free endpaper with some calculations in old hand. Old name in lower right corner of title-page partly erased. A small faint brownspot in upper margin of the first leaves. A few leaves with faint brownspots, otherwise fine and clean. The plates having a brownspot in upper left corners, but outside image. Second French edition (translated from the first edition (Latin) of "Principia philosophiae", 1644 by L'Abbe Picot). Descartes here published his general system of epistemology and physics - including his Vortice-theory, the impossibility of a vacuum, etc. - with its Copernicanism mitigated by the idea that all motion is relative.In Descartes’s letter prefaced to this French translation of the Principles, he writes that two, and only two, conditions determined whether the first principles proposed could be accepted as true: "First they must be so clear and evident that the mind of man cannot doubt their truth when it attentively applies itself to consider them"; and secondly, everything else must be deducible from them. But he went on to admit,"It is really only God alone who has perfect wisdom, that is to say, who has a complete knowledge of the truth of all things." Brunet II:611.

Tübingen, Heerbrandt, 1795. 8vo. Bound with later blank blue wrapper in recent marbled paper covered boards. Original wrappers or blanks pasted on to the blue wrappers, heavily annotated in contemporary hand. Title-page reinforced and with misolouring to inner margin. Dampstain to upper margin of last two leaves, otherwise internally fine. 62 pp. Rare first edition of Schelling first published work. "When he was 19 years old Schelling wrote his first philosophical work, Über die Möglichkeit einer Form der Philosophie überhaupt (1795; On the Possibility and Form of Philosophy in General), which he sent to Fichte, who expressed strong approval.” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Schelling’s tract was a manifesto for Fichte’s foundationalist programme, an argument for the necessity of founding philosophy of the basis of a single selfevident first principle. There must be one first principle, Schelling argued, because if there were two such principles, there would have to be some higher synthesis of them, which would then be the first principle. Along with J.G. Fichte and Hegel, Schelling ranks as the most influential thinker of German Idealism. He stands in the centre of this most important and influential of philosophical traditions, and with his philosophy of nature, his anti-Cartesian view of subjectivity and his later critique of Hegelian Idealism, Schelling continues to be of the utmost importance to the development of continental philosophy to this day.

Paris, Bachelier, 1838 a. 1840. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome 7, No 19 and Tome 10, No 17/18. With title-ages to vol. 7 and 10. Pp. (769-) 803 a. pp. (671-) 717. (Entire issues offered). Bessel's papers: pp. 785-793 a. pp. 703-710. Stamp on both titlepages. The second titlepage with a fes brownspots, otherwise clean and fine. First appearance of a milestone paper in astronomy, giving the solution of the great problem of distances in the universe which had baffled astronomers ever since the time of Copernicus, announcing the FIRST SUCCESSFUL DISPLACEMENT OR PARALLAX OF A FIXED STAR and hence deducing the FIRST RELIABLE DISTANCE OF THE EARTH TO A FIXED STAR. The parallax observed corresponded to ab. 600.000 times that of the earth from the sun. On these grounds Bessel calculated the distance to about 11 light years, and this was confirmed by fresh investigations by Bessel in 1839-40 (the second paper offered). In 1842-43 it was also confirmed by C.A.F. Peters at Pulkowa. It is the first published instance of the fathom-line thrown into celestial space.Bessel communicated his observations in Comptes Rendus, in a letter to Humboldt (the offered paper dated Nov. 5, 1838), in "Monthly Notices" in letter to J. Herschel, and in "Astronomische Nachrichten" Vol. 16, No 365-66 (pp. 65-96), 1838), where a more detail account was published.Ther paper "Bestimmung der Entfernung des 61sten Stern des Schwans" in "Astronomische Nachrichten" is dated at the end: Altona 1838, Dec. 13.Bessel's investigation was hailed by John Herschel when Bessel was awarded the R.A.S. gold medal "The greatest and most glorious triumph which practical astronomy has ever witnessed". "For determining the parallax of 61 Cygni, Bessel selected two comparison stars of magnitude 9-10 at distances of roughly eight and twelve minutes of arc. 61 Cygni is a physical double star whose components differ in brightness by less than one magnitude. The distance of sixteen seconds of arc between the components favored the accuracy of the determination of the parallax because pointing could be carried out with two star images. After observing for eighteen months, by the fall of 1838 Bessel had enough measurements for the determination of a reliable parallax. He found that p = 0.314? with a mean error of ±:0.020?. This work was published in the Astronomische Nachrichten (1838), the first time the distance of a star became known. Bessel’s value for the parallax shows excellent agreement with the results obtained by extensive modern photographical parallax determinations,..." (DSB).Parkinson "Breakthroughs" 1838 A. - Shapley & Howarth "A Source Book in Astronomy", pp. 216 ff.

Rouen, Chez Jean-Baptiste Machuel, rue Etoupee, 1723. 12mo. In five uniformly sprinkled full calf bindings with red leather title-label with gilt lettering to spines. Richly gilt ornamentation to spines. Gilt stamp on front board of all five volumes. Small white label pasted on to fop left corner of pasted down front free end-papers and small stamp to title-pages. A fine set. Vol. I: (12), 408, (24, last blank) pp.; vol. II: (4), 396, (10) pp; vol. III: (8), 393, (11) pp.; vol. IV: (8), 9-20; (2), 3-381, (15, last blank) pp.; vol. V: (4), 363, (25), pp. + 3 engraved frontispieces, 15 maps and numerous plates. The not common second printing of the French translation of William Dampier famous "A New Voyage Round the World". After impressing the Admiralty with his book 'A New Voyage Round the World' (First published in 1697), Dampier was given command of a Royal Navy ship and made important discoveries in Western Australia, before being court-martialled for cruelty. On a later voyage he rescued Alexander Selkirk, a former crewmate who may have inspired Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe."Dampier was the best known of the famous group of English bucanneers that tormented the Spaniards in the South Sea from 1680 to 1720. (...) It was on one of [his] trips that the first landing was made by the English on the Australian mainland, at the entrance of King Sound on the northwest coast, in 1688 " (Hill)Sabin, 18383Hill pp 77-78.

Heidelberg, Karl Groos, 1819. Contemp. marbled boards. Title-label with gilt lettering probably of more recent date. A stamp on titlepage. XIV,(2),207 pp. Very light browning to a few leaves and margins, otherwise fine. Scarce first German edition of this ground-breaking work. It is the translation of Laplaces's work from 1814 with the title:"Essai philosophique sur la probabilités" as a separate work of Laplaces introduction to the second edition of his "Theorie analytique des probalités". "It contains the famous passage to the effect that the future of the world is completely determined by the past and that one possessed of the mathematical knowledge of the state of the world at any given instant could predict the future." (Morris Kline)."The long introduction that Laplace added to the second edition (of Theorie analytique...) was also published separately in the same year, as "Essai philosophique sur les probabilités"....This essay was extremely popular and influential, unlike the "Theorie analytique..." it required no guide and was widely read and quoted. The "Essay" was itself the product of years of thought by Laplace; four different versions saw publication even before the first edition appeared !.....it presented the ideas of the "Theorie analytique..." to a broad popular audience while serving as a synopsis of the full treatise, in part mirroring it in organization. (S.M. Stigler in Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics...edited by Grattan-Guiness).

Lipsiae (Leipzig), 1742-1743 . 4to. Bound in three very nice contemporary uniform full calf bindings with raised bands and richly gilt spines. A bit of wear to extremities, especially upper capitals, which lack a bit of leather. Two leaves of the final index with a restoration, otherwise internally very nice and clean. A very nice set. Old owner's names and handwritten quote to front free end-paper of vol. 1. Complete with the engraved portrait in vol. one and all four engraved plates. Engraved illustrataed vignette to all title-pages, some engraved illustrations in text. Portrait, (14), 1357, (35); (8), 1092, (32); (6), 916, (28); (4), 789, (27); (8), 939, (29) pp. The scarce first edition of Brucker's seminal main work, which introduced the historiographical concept "System of philosophy" and established history of philosophy as a philosophical discipline.

Amsterdam, Jacques Desbordes, 1706. 12mo. Uniformly bound in three nice contemporary Cambridge-style mirror binding with four raised bands and richly gilt spines. Small paper-labels pasted on to upper compartments of spines. Boards with wear and with some loss of leather. Title-page in vol. 2 with red underlignings. Small worm-tract to first 20 ff. in vol. 1. Upper margin closely trimmed in vol. 1, occassionally touching header, otherwise internally nice and clean. (10), 405, (3) pp.; (2), 402, (30) pp.; (2), 388, (20) pp. + 3 frontispieces, 1 portrait, 5 maps and 26 plates. A fine copy of the first French translation of this seminal work on the Maluku and Philipine Islands: "Few narratives are written with so much judgment and elegance (…) One of the most important works for the history of the Philippine islands (…) The book also contains matter relating to Sir Francis Drake and American voyages, and to the history of Spanish and Portuguese exploration in the Indies" (Cox). This present French translation, although being comparatively late, is considered superior to the Spanish original (1609) containing much more material than the original. “Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola [1562-1635] had a brilliant ecclesiastic career which he complemented with valuable forays into the literary field. One of his most outstanding works was the Conquista de las Islas Malucas [...] (The Discovery and Conquest of the Molucco and Philippine Islands […]), written at the request of the president of the Conselho de Indias de Espanha (Indian Council of Spain) and published in Madrid in 1609. In it the author describes the complicated relationship between the Moluccas [presently Maluku Islands] and Europe in a period prior to 1606, giving special attention to the geography and ethnography of the people in this archipelago. Bartolomé Leonardo thoroughly investigated the royal archives in Seville, paraphrasing even texts of several Portuguese chroniclers, mainly of João de Barros (See: Text 9 & João de Barros), António Galvão and Diogo do Couto.Conquista [...] (The Discovery and Conquest [...]) was the first work printed in Europe on the Moluccas, the distant Oriental archipelago which, from 1512, was regularly visited by Portuguese ships, and was the object of an intense dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese Crowns for many decades. This work, which was prepared with abundant recourse to sources of Portuguese origin, was little known in Spain even among those specialised in the subject, and not even the date survives of any partial of full translation. The period written about here refers to China in an artificial way, one of the oriental regions which never stopped appearing in the sights of Spanish conquistadors, especially after the colonisation of the Philippines.” (Rui Loureiro, Review of Culture, no 32) Sabin 1947

Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1854. Contemp. marbled boards. In: "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg. von J.C. Poggendorff", Vierte Reihe Bd. 3, (= Poggendorff Bd. 93,). Entire volume offered. Two stamps to titlepage. X,632 pp. and 4 folded engraved plates. Clausius's paper: pp. 481-506. Internally clean and fine. First printing of this milestone paper in thermodynamics, which together with his paper from 1850, established the second law of thermodynamics. In the offered paper Clausius introduces the symbol T for the universal function of temperature (a + 1) and he introduces the concept of "entropy" (the greek word for 'transformation'), but without using the word (Clausius introduced the word later in 1865), he calls this new theorem "the principle of the equivalence of transformations". This principle paints a dramatic picture of the end of the world, the so-called "heath-death of the universe"."Entropy, on the other hand, of the complementary experience of water seeking its own level, of hot bodies cooling, of springs untensing, of magnetism wearing off and electrical charges leaking away, of a destiny suchThat no life lives forever; - That dead men rise up never; that even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea: a world getting old and running down."(Gillespie in "The edge of Objectivity" p. 400-01.)."Clausius discovered that if he took the ratio of the heat content of a system and its absolute temperature, this ration would always increase in any process taken place in a closed system. (A closed system is one that loses no energy to the outside world and gains no energy from it.) With perfect efficiency, which is never realized in the real world, of course, the ratio would remain constant, but i would never, under any circumstances, decrease."(Asimov). - Parkinson: Breakthroughs 1854 C.

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.

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."

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.

Kbhvn., 1940. Hvert ark måler 28 x 23 cm.. 5 af akvarellerne med alternativ udgave på bagsiden. Alle signerede. Vedlagt "Bogen om Lasse og Dyrene" af Detleff Boolsen. Kbhvn. 1941. Knud Kyhn, 1880-1969, dansk maler og keramisk billedhugger, uddannet 1900-04 på Kunstakademiet og Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler. Kyhn hører til 1900-t.s betydeligste danske dyreskildrere. Han fortsatte traditionen fra Fynboerne, ikke mindst Johannes Larsen, og koncentrerede sig om dyrenes bevægelser og lysets spil i malerier, akvareller, tegninger og keramiske arbejder. Gennem samarbejde fra 1904 med Den Kgl. Porcelainsfabrik, Bing & Grøndahl og Herman A. Kähler nåede hans dyrefigurer, overvejende i glaseret stentøj, ud til et stort publikum. Han illustrerede bl.a. værker af Achton Friis. Fra 1908 udstillede Kyhn med Den Frie Udstilling (afbrudt 1915-17 af Grønningen). Hans bopæl og værksted (fra 1934) i Farum åbnedes 1993 for offentligheden. (Store Danske). På akvarellerne er motiverne forårspløjning, rådyr, harer, ræve, egern, grævling, storke, råger og lappedykkere.

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