Search Results

Stuttgart, J.F. Cast'schen Buchhandlung, 1840. Later red hcloth (ca. 1870). Nice copy w. minor traces of use to capitals and faint brownspotting to a few leaves. Corner of front free endpaper cut away. Rare first German edition (and probably first translation into any foreign language) of one of Pushkin's important prose works. Translated from the Russian Istorija Pugachevskago Bunta, printed in St. Petersburg only six years earlier, in 1834. Pushkin is probably the most important and beloved Russian of writers and is generally accepted as the founder of modern Russian literature. What Shakespeare is to the English and Goethe to the Germans, Puschkin is to the Russians. He is universally accepted as Russia's greatest writer. Early prose works by this great writer are scarce. It is exceedingly rare to find translations printed before 1850. This is probably one of the earliest translations of any of Pushkin's prose works. Pushkin had long been interested in the bloody peasant- and Cossack-rebellion under the surveillance of Pugacóv in the time of Katharina the 2nd. This rebellion was the first organized revolution in the history of Russia and was thus of immense importance to the country and its people. This work is said to be one of the greatest Russian historical novels, as it unites Pushkin's literary abilities with his thorough investigations of the event (he was the emperor's historiographer). Due to the fact that the writing of the novel was so close in time to the actual event, the novel was of high actuality when it appeared. It was thus exceedingly popular on all fronts, as it, apart from it marking the triumph of realism in Russian literature, also clearly reflected the daily life of Russian provinces in the 18th century.The foreword by the translator is interesting, as it gives phonological reasons for altering the usual way of transcribing Russian letters into Latin ones.With the ex-libris of Staehlin/ Stæhlin/ Stählin.

Hafniae, Joachim Moltken, 1640. 4to. Contemp. full calf. Gil t spine. Wear to top of spine. Blindtooled lineborder on covers. Some wear to spine, corners and along edges. Engraved bookmark on inside frontcover "North Library... (1860". (8),111,(1) pp. and 1 engraved plate with 6 illustrations. A bit of browning to one quire. A few annotations in a contemporary hand. Otherwise internally clean. Originaludgaven af en af de allerførste lærebøger udgivet i Danmark vedrørende læren om de hele tal i mathematikken. Bogen var tiltænkt som lærebog i aritmetik for de studerende på Christian den IV's Akademi i Sorø. Bogen er på latin og indeholder 61 opgaver, som han indpakker - for at være pædagogisk og fastholde studenternes interesse - i latinske hexametre med historisk, mytologisk og anekdotisk indhold. De her indeholdte historier giver L. anledning til at fremsætte opgaver som studenterne skulle løse aritmetisk. I forordet fortæller han selv, at han har bestræbt sig på at gøre sin matematik smagelig for den adelige ungdom ved praktiske opgaver og ved anekdoterLauremberg (1590-1658) var både mathematiker, filolog og digter. Han blev af Chr. IV indkaldt til professoratet i matematik ved det adelige Akademi i Sorø, hvor han forlod sin stilling i Rostock som det Filosofiske Fakultets dekan. I Sorø virkede han som professor i matematik og ingeniørvidenskab fra 1623 til sin død i 1658. Han var en ikke ubetydelig matematiker og foregangsmand, særlig kendt er han for sin indførelse af logaritmerne i Danmark. Det er oså velkendt, at Chr. IV havde udset Lauremberg til at udføre det første danske kartografiske værk ved opmåling af landet. Hans virksomhed som korttegner var allerede begyndt i Mecklenburg og det ses, at han i en del år var optaget af denne virksomhed i Danmark. Kortværket blev imidlertid aldrig til noget til kongens store fortrydelse. Herefter overtog Johannes Meyer kortlægningen. Lauremberg er yderligere kendt som en af tidens mest fremragende latinske poeter, således indeholder hans "Satyra" fra 1636 spirene til de senere plattyske "Skjæmtedigte".The very scarce first edition of one of the first textbooks in number theory published in Denmark The work should be used teaching mathematcs at the University in Sorø founded by the king Chr. IV in 1623. In 61 cases, using latin epigrams of historical and mythological content, he proposed 61 mathematical problems to be solved, thus introducing pedagogical means in the teaching of mathemtics in Denmark.Bibl. Danica Supplement spalte 195. - Niels Nielsen. Matematikken i Danmark 1528-1800, p. 127 No. 5.

Kiøbenhavn, Daniel Paulli, 1677 og Uden trykker og år. Sambundet i et 1700-tals helldrbd. med rig rygforgyldning. Skindtitel fornyet. Øverste kapitæl med et indhak. Lettere brugsspor, men ganske velbevaret, trykt på svært trykpapir. 1. Part: (16),134,(2). På bagsiden af smudstitelbladet er trykt "Samtykke til Trykken". II. Part: 134,(2) pp. incl. smudstitelbladet. Yderst sjælden samlingsbind af de tvende parter. "Thomas kingos Aandelige Sjungekor's tvende Parter, som udkom henholdsvis 1674 og 1681, er de første lyriske Digtsamlinger af blivende Værd i det danske Sprog. N.M. Petersen har det kønne og rigtige ord om dem, at fra det Tidspunkt var det "umuligt at Poesi kunne uddø i Danmark."" Her foreligger for første parts vedkommende et eftertryk af 2. udgaven. Ligledes er 2. part et eftertryk af originaludgaven. Som eftertryk har ingen af parterne kobbesrtukket portræt eller kobberstukket titelblad. Blandt de talrige varianttryk og eftertryk (ikke-autoriserede Paulli-tryk) ser dette bind ud til at indeholde det, som bibliografien (Kingos Samledes Skrifter Bd. VI, p. 385 og 387) identificerer som "Pirattryk" (nær samtidige, men efter 1681). Den første part har 2. udgavens sideantal (1677) - den anden part har afvigende sideantal (fra originaludgaven 1681), da piratudgaven udelader dedikationsbladene og privilegiet. Så vidt vi kan konstatere er værket komplet som pirattryk.

(Paris), Gallimard, (1957). Bound with the original printed wrappers in beautiful, elegant emerald green full morocco binding with gilt line-decoration in various heights and distances to boards and spine as well as vertical gilt lettering to spine. Top edge gilt. Binding signed A. Coutret. Wrapper a bit soiled, mostly the back wrapper. Otherwise very nice and clean. Paper evenly browned due to the paper quality. Gilt super ex-libris to inside of front board. First edition, Service de Presse-copy ("S. P." punctured to bottom of back wrapper) - with signed presentation-inscription for Henry Hell to half-title - of Camus' great collection of stories, which are considered among the best of his works. Together, these stoires cover the entire variety of existentialism - or absurdism. There is general consensus that the clearest manifestation of the ideals of Camus can be found in the present work. Henry Hell, a psudonym for José-Henri Lasry, was a law student in Algiers, where he met Camus and acted for the Théatre du Travail. He was a literary critic for several periodicals, and he reviewed sevearl of Camus' works. He is the author of "Francis Poulenc, musicien francais", and he later worked for a publishing house in Paris.

(Kbh, (Phoenixberg ?), 1720). Smukt senere marmoreret helldrbd. (ca. 1900) i gl. stil m. 4 oph. bd. på ryg og rig tidstypisk rygforgyldn. og rødt forgyldt skindtitelfelt på ryg. Indvendig ganske pæn. Usædvanligt fint ekspl. på tykt papir. m. portr. og alle 14 træskårne plancher, frontispieceportrættet opklæbet og med lille reparation i nederste højre hjørne (med tab af 9 bogstaver, tilføjet i hånden), ellers særdeles nydeligt ekspl. Den uhyre sjældne udgave, som indeholder førstetrykket af fjerde bog, den såkaldte "tredie edition", som tillige udgør den første komplette udgave af "Peder Paars".Retmæssigt må dette siges at være anden udgave af Peder Paars og første samlede udgave. Eftertrykket af de første tre bøger var ikke besørget af Holberg selv, men solgte bedre end originalen og regnedes i forordet til denne udgave af Holberg selv tilsyneladende som anden udgaven, således at denne blev "tredie edition". Den udgave, der af Holberg må regnes som "anden edition" var altså et pirattryk, en ikke autoriseret udgave, og det er således mest rimeligt at regne dette for anden udgave, om ikke andet er det anden autoriserede udgave. Det er ligeledes "den sidste autentiske af Holberg selv besørgede Udgave af Peder Paars." (Ehr.-M. XI:16).Af originaludgaven (som kun indeholder de tre første bøger) fra 1719 findes der sandsynligvis kun to komplette eksemplarer, og ingen eksemplarer kendes i privateje. Af pirattrykket, det såkaldte eftertryk fra 1720, kendes også kun to eksemplarer.Nærværende første komplette udgave med fjerde bog i originaltrykket er med undtagelse af de to ovennævnte udgaver uden tvivl den sjældneste og mest interessante udgave af Peder Paars. Denne udgave er den mest originale udgave af Peder Paars, men kan håbe at få fat på. "Denne 3. Edition blev hurtigt udsolgt og derfor sjælden; det ses saaledes, at da Pragtudgaven skulde udkomme, kunde man ikke faa fremskaffet noget Exemplar, men maatte nøjes med 3. Eftertryk, der helt igennem blev rettet efter denne Holbergs egen retmæssige Edition." (Ehr-M. XI:21).Ehr-M. XI:15-22. P. Johansen 4,2 (p. 22).An excellent copy of the very scarce first complete edition of Holberg's higly famous satirical masterpiece-poem in a beautiful later (about 1900) pastiche binding of full mottled calf with richly gilt back in contemporary style. W. the woodcut frontispiece-portrait (mounted and with small repair) and all 14 woodcut plates.

Paris, Jean Boudot et Jean Boudet fils, 1707. 4to. Contemporary full calf. A bit of cracking to front hinges, so that cords are seen, but cover not loosening. Spine with 6 raised bands, richly gilt compartments. Wear to top of spine. Two small old paperlabels, one to upper compartment, one to frontcover. Covers slightly rubbed. (4),459,(5) pp. Large woodcut vignette on titlepage, 2 other vignettes, one engraved , one in woodcut. 32 folded engraved plates and one smaller folded plate (Fig. A). An old owners stamp on flyleaf. Internally clean and fine. A few tiny brownspots. Wide-margined and printed on good paper. Scarce first edition of l'Hôspital's second book - his second successfull textbook - the manuscript of which was left completed at his death in 1704. His first book "Analyse des infiniment petits pour l’intelligence des lignes courbes", 1696 was the first textbook of the differential calculus, and his name lives on in the name of the rule for finding the limiting value of a fraction whose numerator and denominator tend to zero. His mathyematical teacher was Jean Bernoulli.The year in which Newton published the anti-Cartesian "Arithmeticus" there appeared in France a conspicuously successfull textbook on Cartesian geometry along the lines of that of Guisnée. This was the "Traité Analytique des Sections Coniques".... a book which contains less original material than that of Guisnée, but which is more extensive and closer to the modern manner of treatment. The work had been intended for publication at the time the authors famous calculus textbook appeared in 1696, but l'Hospital's illness apparently led to delay and it appeared posthumously in 1707. It is Cartesian in emphasis and although it consists of but one volume, follows generally the tripartite plan of Lahire and Ozanam: first an algebraic quasi-analytic treatment of the Conic Sections along the lines of Apollonian theory; then an analytic study of the loci, and finally a long section on the customary construction by conics of the roots of cubic and quartic polynominal equations... LHospital sometimes used two axes and seems to have recognized the interchangeability of these, but he betrays some hesitation... In general, L'Hospital (like Descartes) was more interested in analytic geometry as a measure of ecpressing loci algebraivcally than as a method of deriving the properties of a curve from its equation." (Carl B. Boyer "History of Analytic geometry", pp. 150-154.

(Københaffn, Hans Vingaard), 1557. 4to. Senere helpergamentsbd. Titelbladet med bred træskåren ramme bestående af fire dele. Flere gl. ejernavne på titelbladet. (7),20 blade. lidt spredte brunpletter. Sidste blad med nogle skjolder i indre og ydre marginer. Den yderst sjældne udvidede udgave af "Pestbogen". De fleste overlevende eksemplarer findes sammen med Smiths andre medicinske værker fra 1557 og er her i selvstændig form af største sjældenhed, da der ifølge Thesaurus kun eksisterer 2 eller 3 eksemplarer i privateje. Ifølge forfatterens egen oplysning på titelbladet, skulle dette tryk være anden udvidede udgave. Imidlertid er den udgave som siges at være udkommet 1535, ikke kendt i noget bevaret eksemplar.Lauritz Nielsen Nr. 1505. - Thesaurus Nr. 264. - Bibl. Danica I:798-99.

(Stockholm, 1816-23). Tvær-folio. (39 x 51 cm.). Samtidigt hldrbd. med rygforgyldning. Lidt slidt ved kapitæler. Ryg med lettere brugsspor. (6, Smudstitel, Dedikation til Kongen,Företal) pp. Graveret titelblad, Innehåll (2 blade) samt 60 plancher i kobberstik eller aquatintetryk, tegnet af Thersner og graverede af S.H. Petersen eller C.F. Akrell. Med 60 blade beskrivende tekst (fra 1-4 pp. pr. planche). Med svensk/fransk parallelltekst. Plancherne forestiller vuer og herregårde. Enkelte blade med kantforstærkninger, 1 blad med repareret revne. Som altid med lidt brunpletter, dog mest marginale. Et ganske udmærket eksemplar af det første bind (omhandlende Skåne) af Thersners stort anlagte topografiske mesterværk, som udkom i 12 dele i årene 1816-67. Inspirationen til værket, som blev fortsat af hans datter Thora Thersner, fik han fra Dahlbergs Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna og fra Skjöldebrands Voyage Pittoresque au Cap Nord.Swedish Books 1280-1967, no.57.

Kiøbenhaffn, Peter Hake, 1648. 4to. Nydeligt hldrbd. i flammet kalv med rygforgyldning og rygtitel i indfarvet skind (fra omkr. 1850). (7),(213)(=pagineret 130-342),(10) pp. Enkelte ark lidt tæt beskåret foroven. Enkelte tilskrifter i gl. hånd. I udmærket stand, men p.g.a. af trykpapiret gennemgående noget brunet. Et bladhjørne repareret uden tab af tekst. 4to. Nice full binding of mottled calf w. coloured leather title-label to spine (ab. 1850). A few leaves a bit shaved at top. A few marginal notes in old hand. In pretty good condition, but due to the paper-quality somewhat brownspotted. One corner of a leaf repaired, without loss of text. (7), (213) (= paginated 130-342), (10) pp. Denne 2. kogebogsudgivelse på dansk indgår i Jørgen Holsts samling "Oeconomia Nova", som indeholder 9 værker med egne titelblade, der hver for sig også blev solgt separat. Den danske udgave er oversat efter den tyske original fra 1598 med titlen "Ein köstlich new Kochbuch.." - Vegenfeldt og Kornerup: 1248 - Bibl. Danica II:232-33 - Thesaurus: 492.First edition of the second cook book to appear in Danish, translated from the German original "Ein köstlich new Kochbuch" from 1598.

London, Taylor and Francis, 1919. Recent full cloth. Titlelabel in leather on spine with gilt lettering. In: "The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science" Sixth Series, Vol. XXXVII. Pp. VIII,616 pp. a. 6 plates. A stamp to top of p. 537. Rutherford's paper: pp. 537-587. First appearance of this seminal paper which contains Rutherford's discovery of artificial transmutation. He here discovered, that the atomic nucleus (discovered by him in 1911) itself had a structure, when, by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, he produced THE FIRST ARTIFICIAL TRANSFORMATION OF AN ELEMENT INTO ANOTHER, and what was left after the bombardment had to be those of oxygen atoms. - Thus thus began the age of nuclear physics."Rutherford was .. the first man ever to change one element into another as a result of the manipulations of his own hands. He had achieved the dream of the alchemists. He had also demonstrated the first man-made "nuclear reaction". By 1924 Rutherford had managed to knock protons out of the nuclei of most of the lighter elements." (Asimov)."A few years before, Marsden had noticed scintillations on a screen placed far beyond the range of alpha particles when these particles were allowed to bombard hydrogen. Rutherford repeated the experiment and showed that the scintillations were caused by hydrogen nuclei or protons. This was easily understood, but when he substituted nitrogen for the hydrogen, he saw the same proton flashes. The explanation he gave in 1919 stands beside the transformation theory of radioactivity and the nuclear atom as one of Rutherford’s most important discoveries. This, he said, was a case of artificial disintegration of an element. Unstable, or radioactive, atoms disintegrated spontaneously; but here a stable nucleus was disrupted by the alpha particle, and a proton was one of the pieces broken off." (DSB).PMM: 411.

Paris, Crochard, 1816, 1819. Bound in 2 contemp. hcloth. Gilt lettering to spines. In: "Annales de Chimie et de Physique" Series 2, Tome 1 a. Tome 11. Entire volumes offered.(4),452 pp. a. 3 engraved folded plates. + 448 pp. a. 3 folded engraved plates. Fresnel's papers: pp. 239-281 a. pp. 246-296 a. pp. 337-378. Arago's paper: pp. 5-30. Some scattered brownspots. First appearance of Fresnel's landmark papers on the phenomena of diffraction, presenting Fresnel's first priinted paper on the subject. These two papers won the Academy's prize for 1818 and were later expanded and published as a long memoir in 1826. The first paper offered initiated the attack on the corpuscular theory of light, which was completely owerthrown by a series of succesfull papers by Fresnel the next few years. In the second paper Fresnel summed up all his work prior to this date in completed form. The paper is called "extract", but the longer memoir was not published until 1826. The paper is A CLASSIC IN PHYSICS."In broad context Fresnel's work can be viewed as the first successfull assault on the theory of imponderables and a major influence on the development of nineteenth-centurty energetics." (DSB V, p. 171).Diffraction arises because of the way in which waves propagate; this is described by the Huygens-Fresnel principle. The propagation of a wave can be visualized by considering every point on a wavefront as a point source for a secondary radial wave. The subsequent propagation and addition of all these radial waves form the new wavefront. When waves are added together, their sum is determined by the relative phases as well as the amplitudes of the individual waves, an effect which is often known as wave interference. The summed amplitude of the waves can have any value between zero and the sum of the individual amplitudes. Hence, diffraction patterns usually have a series of maxima and minima. (Wikipedia)-The volumes contains many other importent papers by Arago & Petit, Vaugelin, Humphrey Davy, d'Arcet, Laplace, Gay-Lussac, Alex. v. Humboldt, Thenard, Will. Prout, Stromeyer, Berzelius, Brewster, Theod. de Saussure, Ampère etc.

London, Richard and John Taylor, 1844. Contemp. hcalf. Gilt lettering to spine "Philosophical Magazine" - Vol. XXV. In: "The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. Conducted by David Brewster et al.". Vol. XXV. A stamp to titlepage and a few other pages. Entire volume offered (July-December 1844). VIII,552 pp., textillustr. Hamilton's paper: pp. 10-13, 141-145 and 241-246. First printing of this landmark paper in which Hamilton published his creation of a new algebra of quaternions (a noncommunicative algebra), a turning point in the development of mathematics and a discovery which made possible the creation of the general theory of relativity. His algebra was later to form the basis of quantum mechanics and for the proper understanding of the atom."Gauss had treated imaginary numbers in combination with real ones as representing points on a plane and showed the methods by which such complex numbers could be manipulated. Hamilton tried to extend this to threee dimensions and found himself unable to work out a self-consistent method of multiplication, until it occurred to him that the cummutative law of multiplication need not necessarily hold. It is taken for granted that A times B is equal to B times A... and this is an example of what seems to be an eternal and inescapable truth. Hamilton, however, showed that he could built up a logical algebra for his quaternions only when B times A was not made to equal - A times B. This seems against common sense but, like Lobachevski, Hamilton showed that the truth is relative and depends on the axioms you choose to accept."(Asimov).The creation of quaternions is one of the famous moments in the history of mathematics. "The quaternions came to Hamilton in one of those flashes of understanding that occasionally occur after long deliberation on a problem. He was walking into Dublin on 16 October 1843 along the Royal Canal to preside at a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy, when the discovery came to him. As he described it, "An electric circuit seemed to close."18 He immediately scratched the formula for quaternion multiplication on the stone of a bridge over the canal. His reaction must have been in part a desire to commemorate a discovery of capital importance, but it was also a reflection of his working habits. Hamilton was an inveterate scribbler. His manuscripts are full of jottings made on walks and in carriages. He carried books, pencils, and paper everywhere he went. According to his son he would scribble on his fingernails and even on his hard-boiled egg at breakfast if there was no paper handy."(DSB).Hamilton later developed his invention in his book from 1853 "Lectures on Quaternions" - see PMM: 334 and Grattan-Guiness "Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics 1640-1940", pp. 460 ff.In this volume other importent papers by Gassiot, Sylvester, Joule, Draper.

(Slesvig, Nic. Wegener, 1596). 4to. Samt. helpergamentsbd., antageligt udfærdiget af pergamentet fra et tidligere bind. 141 blade (af 144). Titelbladet mangler og 2 blade af registeret mangler. Blad 2 med Jacob Seefelts store træskårne våben, til hvem bogen er dediceret. Nogle få bladkanter repareret. Lettre brugsspor, lidt brunpletter og nogle svage skjolder. Den yderst sjældne originaludgave. Kun ganske få eksemplarer har været udbudt de sidste 50 år. I første del af bogen redegør Bartskær for medicinens teoretiske fundament, nemlig Galens humoralpatologi efterfulgt af en næsten ordret oversættelse af tyskeren Ortolff von Bayerlaudts tyske medicinkompedium. Anden del bygger for størstedelen på den første danske lægebog ved Christian Pedersen fra 1533, men indeholder også en del originalobservationer og kure, ligesom han introducerer danske navne for medicinske planter hovedsageligt fra Slesvig. - Lauritz Nielsen Nr. 493 - Thesaurus: 273 - Bibl. Danica II: 799-800.

Amsterdam, Louys Elzevier, 1648. Folio. (31 x 22 cm) Contemp. full mottled calf. Raised bands. Gilt compartments. Glit lettering. Upper joint strenghtened, leaving small nicks to leather along joint. Gilt lineborders on covers. Corners neathly repaired. Engraved title-page (depicting the author showing a geometrical drawing to William Prince of Orange). (10),547 pp., 4 unnumb. leaves with tables and 70 double-page engraved plates fortifications, towns etc.). Some leaves in the middle of the book with faint dampstaining in upper margin, otherwise clean. A stamp in right margin of the first leaf. First French edition. This was the largest work hitherto published on fortification, and it is specially interesting for containing 41 plans of European fortresses. It was originally published in Latin the year before (1647) and a German translation appeared the same year as this French edition."Magnifique publication, orné de 29 figures de fortifications et de 41 plans de villes, en tout 70 grandes planches hors texte. L Elzevier a tiré parti de ces planches en publiant dès l'année suivante des traductions de l'ouvrage en francais et en allemand." (Willems, Les Elzevier No 1064). - Sotheran Second Suppl. No 20981 (French edition) - Brunet II:788. - Klaus Jordan No 910.

(Paris), Minuet, 1967. 8vo. Original wrappers. A bit of tanning and soiling to wrappers and usual wear to spine. Internally fine and clean, with pencil notes and underlinings by Gardair. 445, (3) pp. First edition (20 Septembre, 1967, numéro 630) - SIGNED PRESENTATION-COPY FOR JEAN-MICHEL GARDAIR - of Derrida's seminal main work, the foundational text for deconstructive criticism.1967 marks a turning point in the history of modern philosophy, constituting the birth of "Deconstruction". In this one year, Derrida publishes all of his three break-through books, "De la grammatologie", "L'écriture et la difference" and "La Voix et le phenomene", profoundly altering the course of modern thought. Although all three books are responsible for the introduction of Deconstruction, it is primarily "De la Grammatologie", Derrida's magnum opus, that has come to be associated with this groundbreaking concept.Jean-Michel Gardair (1942-2013) was a highly esteemed professor at the Sorbonne and a famous author and translator from Italian into French, who also wrote the prefaces for many of the great classics that appeared at Minuet (where Derrida also published his main works). He is responsible for enriching French Italianism with an original presence, both through his own novels and his critical works, through his numerous translations, and through his highly esteemed prefaces. "Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960's, forever changed the face of European and American criticism. The ideas in "De la grammatologie" sparked lively debates in intellectual circles that included students of literature, philosophy, and the humanities, inspiring these students to ask questions of their disciplines that had previously been considered improper. Thirty years later, the immense influence of Derrida's work is still igniting controversy..." (Review, Spivak's translation of Derrida's "Of Grammatology", 1997).Derrida's concern is to bring to light the binary schema that is hidden in all kinds of texts and ideas of culture. In the present text Derrida brilliantly reveals some of the principles of deconstruction, not through theoretical explication, but, rather, by demonstration, showing that the arguments promulgated by their subject-matter exceed and contradict the oppositional parameters in which they are situated. Put into other words, deconstruction seeks to expose, and then to subvert, the various binary oppositions that undergird our dominant ways of thinking.The ideas that Derrida here present have had an enormous impact on a number of the human sciences, including psychology, literary theory, cultural studies, linguistics, feminism, sociology and anthropology. Due to this work, a whole new world of problematic suppression and marginalisation has become apparent, making "De la grammatologie" one of the most important philosophical works of the later part of the 20th century. "One of the major works in the development of contemporary criticism and philosophy". (J. Hillis Miller, Yale University).

Amsterdam, Bernard, 1715. 8vo. Uniformly bound in two contemporary full calf binding with five raised bands with richly gilt spines. Traces from white paper-label to upper compartment of spines. Light wear to extremities, corners bumped and some of gilting worn off. Plates chipped at edges and maps with a few tears, but generally a nice and clean set. (8), XLIV, (6), 116, 200 pp. + frontispiece, 4 folded maps and 6 plates; (4), 298 pp. + 16 plates. Uncommon first edition (the two first volumes) of this compilation of Northern voyages. A total of 10 volumes was published in the period 1715 – 1738. These first two volumes concentrate on Greenland and Iceland. “Bernard claimed that the ‘science de voyager’ required such a broad range of knowledge that no one individual could hope to encompass all relevant disciplines. Among these, he included natural history, astronomy, geography, hydrography, philosophy, and commerce. He criticized most published travel accounts for their contradictions and lack of precision. His collection of voyages was intended to correct these faults and the list of instructions was supplied to guide the ‘voyageur curieux & philosophe’ in making reliable observations.” (Harris, Rethinking the Mediterranean, p. 239) “Recueil de voyages au Nord was published in ten volumes between 1715 and 1738 and was met with great success. It focused on a variety of territories of the “North”, from Iceland to Japan. Already very familiar with existing travel literature of the time, the editor, in addition to compiling previously published travel literature, produced translations and wrote accounts in which, while seeking to satisfy the reader’s curiosity, he insisted on ways to make each journey useful.” (Muceni, L’apport d’un éditeur des Lumières à la littérature viatique de son temps : Jean-Frédéric Bernard et le Recueil de voyages au Nord). Sabin 4935Leclerc I, 1264: "Collection tres estimee" (Referring to the first 4 volumes).

Leipzig, in Verlegung des Authoris, 1693. Folio. In contemporary black silk covered boards. Paper-label pasted on to upper part of spine. Wear to extremities, missing parts of spine. Boards, primarily front board, with holes and tears to the black silk. Front end-papers with miscolouring. With marignal miscolouring throughout. Star, windows and Luther's portrait on the plate highlighted with gold. 16 ff., [1 blank] + 1 double-page plate of Luther's house. The rare first edition of this work on Luther’s birthplace and how it was bult. It quickly became a place of workship but was on private hand up until 1689. By the end of the 17th century the house fell into disrepair and a tavern was opened. The Eisleben magistrate disliked the appearance of the house and decided to have a wooden plaque depicting Luther taken down. Shortly after the building burned down and after a large city fire in 1689, the magistrate forced the owner Marie Friedrich to sell the house to the city by denying her the usual reconstruction loans. Luther was born in this house in 1483 and gave his last sermon and died here in 1546.

Paris, Claude Jombert, n.d. (1680 ?). Folio. Fine later hcalf in old style, gilt back and red titlelabel. 2 engraved allegorical titlepages. 75 engraved plates (both text and images engraved) + 31 engraved plates (of which 15 are double-page). The first part, originally issued 1623 is second enlarged edition, but the additional part seems to be a reissue, but in reality the first edition where all additions and supplements are published together. The work having fine and detailled construktionplans, elevations, exterior and interior of large city houses from the 17th century.

(Copenhagen, 1838). Large8vo (230 x 135 mm). In recent half calf with gilt lettering to spine. 9 leaves of text in Danish and German describing plate 1-54 + 52 beautifully handcoloured plates: Plate 1-53, wanting plate 45. A very fine and clean copy. The exceedingly rare first edition of Walter's famous "Blomster-Museum" or "Blumen-Museum". A total of 11 Hefts, each consisting of 6 plates and 1 leaf of accompanying text was published. As with his "Flora eller colorerede Afbildninger af Pragt-Blomster" it is of exceptional rarity and almost no complete copies are know. The present copy, albeit incomplete containing the first 8 hefts (except for plate 45 and 54), contain a more substantial part of the work than one can expect to find. Nissen BBI, 2102.Christensen, Den Danske Botaniks Historie, Vol. 2, p. 212.

[No place], 1792 & 1802. Folio. 2 volumes uniformly bound in contemporary half calf with five raised bands and with gilt lettering and gilt stamp to spine. Small paper-label pasted on to pasted down front end-papers and stamp to first front free end-paper and two stamps to title-pages. Light wear to extremities. Written of thick paper. Fine and clean. LLXIII, (1), 307, (4) pp.; 15, (6), 344, (4) pp Danish manuscript translation of Tofino's famous description of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. "Vincente Tofiño was a rear-admiral in the Spanish navy. He was a renowned astronomer and mathematician and near the close of his career was the King’s hydrographer. Between 1783-1788, Tofiño charted the ports and coasts of Spain as well as the shore of North Africa. He eventually was elected as correspondent of the Spanish Academy of History and of the French and Portuguese Academies of Sciences." Translator De Løwenørn (Kommandør-Kaptajn Friderich de Løwenørn) n 1784, captain lieutenant Poul de Løwenørn assisted the Danish crown in establishing the Royal Danish Nautical Chart Archive. He was appointed the institution’s first Director. At this time, only France had a similar institute."In the first instance, the Danish Admirality requested Løwenørn to collect all existing nautical charts and navigational details in the country, for both Danish and international waters. He was to develop accurate and reliable charts for both the Navy and Merchant Marine.In addition to these formidable tasks, Løwenørn also took the initiative to establish a Lighthouse Authority, a Buoy Authority and a Pilot Authority as well as improve the country’s harbours." (Danish Geodata Agency).Hansen, Sources of the History of North Africa, Asia and Oceania in Denmark, p. 459.

London, Royal Society, 1888. 8vo (210 x 135 mm). In the original printed wrappers. In "Proceedings of the Royal Society of London", vol. 45, no. 274. New backstrip (presumably from having been extracted from a binding) The entire issue offered, internally fine and clean. Pp. 135-145. [Entire issue: 99-156]. First edition Galton’s landmark paper in which he first presented his invention of the statistical concept of correlation.

K., 1843-1845. 8vo. Smukt lidt senere hldrbd.m. rig rygforgyldn., ophøjet "bind", dannet af heftesnoren. 2. blad (indhold) repareret. Pp 1-50 m. svagt skjold for neden, ellers pæn. (Iv)+52+62+84+59+70+111pp. Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 85.First edition of Kierkegaard's important eighteen upbuilding discourses, which comprise his two, three, and four upbuilding discourses from the years 1843-45, with the joint title-page of all eighteen. The work constitutes Kierkegaard's religious works, which supplement his theological and philosophical ones.The first upbuilding discourses were published the same year as Either-Or, and it is interesting to note that in opposition to his major philosophical works, the religious upbuilding discourses actually bear the name of the author on the title-page, -a fact that was by no means incidental. While the pseudonymous works could make one doubt the religiousness of the author, the parallelly written religious discourses stress the fact that we are dealing with an author, who was religious from the very beginning, -a fact that Kierkegaard also wished to establish himself; in his journals he clearly states that the religious discourses bear as much significance for his work as a whole as do the larger pseudonymous works, "I began with "Either-Or" and two upbuilding discourses..." he says, and explains that he intended the upbuilding, the religious, to advance, and that he wanted to show "that the writer was not an aesthetic author who in the course of time grew older and for that reason became religious" (Journals, IX A 227).The importance of the upbuilding discourses and the close relationship they have with the major works and Kierkegaard's philosophical development also becomes evident with the fact that every pseudonymous work was accompanied by a little collection of "upbuilding discourses" until "Concluding Postscript" appeared.

Germany, Late 18th century. Folio. (32 x 20,5 cm.). 3 contemp. Half calf. (275);(351);(335) pp. (only text on front, not verso of leafs) A few illustrations in the text. A plate seems to be missing as the text refers to one. On fine thick paper. In uniform German gotic hand in brown ink. All 3 volumes are signed "Rosenstand", which must be the author. All three volumes attested with a read wax seal and signed "Haffnery". Extensive manuscript in German on artillery science.

London, Hodgson & Son, 1945. Royal8vo. In a recent nice green full cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine. Entire volumes 48 of "Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Second Series". A very nice and clean copy without any institutional stamps. Pp. 180-197. [Entire volume: (4),477 pp.] First printing of Turing's first published paper devoted to the Riemann-zeta function, the basis for his famous "Zeta-function Machine", a foundation for the digital computer.While working on his Ph.D.-thesis, Turing was concerned with a few other subjects as well, one of them seemingly having nothing to do with logic, namely that of analytic number theory. The problem that Turing here took up was that of the famous Riemann Hypothesis, more precisely the aspect of it that concerns the distribution of prime numbers. This is the problem that Hilbert in 1900 listed as one of the most important unsolved problems of mathematics. Turing began investigating the zeros of the Rieman zeta-function and certain of its consequences. The initial work on this was never published, though, but nevertheless he continued his work. "Turing had ideas for the design of an "analogue" machine for calculating the zeros of the Riemann zeta-function, similar to the one used in Liverpool for calculating the tides." (Herken, The Universal Turing Machine: A Half-Century Survey, p. 110). Having worked on the zeta-function since his Ph.D.-thesis but never having published anything directly on the topic, Turing began working as chief cryptanalyst during the Second World War and thus postponed this important work till after the war. Thus, it was not until 1945 that he was actually able to publish his first work on this most important subject, namely the work that he had presented already in 1939, the groundbreaking "A Method for the Calculation of the Zeta-Function", which constitutes his first printed contribution to the subject."After the publication of his paper "On computable Numbers," Turing had begun investigating the Riemann zeta-function calculation, an aspect of the Riemann hypothesis concerning the distribution of prime numbers... Turing's work on this problem was interrupted by World War II, but in 1950 he resumed his investigations with the aid of the Manchester University Mark I [one of the earliest general purpose digital computers]..." (Origins of Cyberspace p. 468).Not in Origins of Cyberspace (on this subject only having his 1953-paper - No. 938).

Kjöbenhavn (Copenhagen): S.L. Møllers Bogtrykkeri, 1836. 8vo. Slightly worn contemporary half calf. Wear to upper capital. Previous owner's signature to front free end-paper. Minor brownspotting to titlepage and the last few leaves, otherwise a nice and clean copy. Illustrated. (4), 100 pp. Scarce first edition of this milestone publication, which laid the foundation of modern archaeology and transformed it into an exact science. With this seminal publication, Thomsen was the first to establish an evidence-based division of prehistory into discrete periods, and with it he became the originator of the three-age system (the division into Stone Age - Bronze Age - Iron Age), which is "the basic chronology that now underpins the archaeology of most of the Old World" (Rowley-Conwy: From Genesis to Prehistory, p.1). This foundational work altered our understanding of our world and our place in it and contains the first use of "culture" in an archaeological context."Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, (born Dec. 29, 1788, Copenhagen, Den.-died May 21, 1865, Copenhagen), Danish archaeologist who deserves major credit for developing the three-part system of prehistory, naming the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages for the successive stages of man's technological development in Europe. His tripartite scheme brought the first semblance of order to prehistory and formed the basis for chronological schemes developed for other areas of the globe by succeeding generations of archaeologists." (Encycl. Britt.).Up until the beginning of the 19th century, our understanding of antiquities had been very loose and fumbling. Studying the artifacts, earlier archaeologists had used a great deal of imagination, especially when adapting information from written sources to the objects. Only when Thomsen enters the scene, this approach changes. He is the first to focus the investigation upon the artifacts themselves. Quickly realizing that this approach must be the only way forward, he soon distinguished clearly between objects, both similar and different, and established what belonged together in time and where there were chronological differences. He was among the first to differentiate between history that could be studied through written sources and prehistory which could only be studied through material culture. He realized - as the first - that in order to interpret findings of prehistoric objects, one would have to know their source and the context in which they were found - thus establishing the foundation for modern excavation technique. He trained the great archaeologist J.J.A. Worsaae and sent him on excavation expeditions to acquire artifacts for ethnographic museum that he had founded and thus also founded Danish archaeology. Thomsen was the first to perceive typologies of grave goods, grave types, methods of burial, pottery and decorative motifs, and to assign these types to layers found in excavation, thus combining our different sources of knowledge to establish certainty. When, in 1836, the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries published Thomsen's illustrated contribution to "Guide to Scandinavian Archaeology" (i.e. the present publication), in which he put forth his chronology for the first time, together with comments about typology and stratigraphy, Thomsen already had an international reputation. But this publication gave him more than that - it made him the founder of modern archaeology and arguably the most influential archaeologist of all times. In 1816 Thomsen had been appointed head of "antiquarian" collections, which later developed into the National Museum of Denmark. It was while organizing and classifying the antiquities for exhibition that he discovered how much more sense it would make to present them chronologically, and so he did, using what is now known as the "three-age system". Proposing that prehistory had advanced from an age of stone tools, to ages of tools made from bronze and iron was not in itself a novel idea, but no previous proposals allowed for the dating of artifacts (which Thomsen's system did for the first time) and they were all presented as systems of evolution. Refining the idea of stone-bronze-iron phases, Thomsen turned it into a chronological system by seeing which artifacts occurred with which other artifacts in closed finds. In this way, he was the first to establish an evidence-based division of prehistory into discrete periods. It is this seminal achievement that led to his being credited as the originator of the three-age system.He provided for the first time a solid empirical basis for the system that ever since the present publication has laid at the foot of all archaeological research. He showed that artifacts could be classified into types and that these types varied over time in ways that correlated with the predominance of stone, bronze or iron implements and weapons. In this way he turned the Three-age System from being an evolutionary scheme based on intuition and general knowledge into a system of relative chronology supported by archaeological evidence."His published and personal advice to Danish archaeologists concerning the best methods of excavation produced immediate results that not only verified his system empirically but placed Denmark in the forefront of European archaeology for at least a generation. He became a national authority when C.C Rafn, secretary of the Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab ("Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries"), published his principal manuscript in "Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed" ("Guide to Scandinavian Archaeology") in 1836."This groundbreaking publication was immediately translated into German (published the following year, 1837), in which form it reached a wide audience, influencing the archaeologists of all of Europe. In 1848, it was published in English and became highly influential on the development of archaeology theory and practice in Great Britain and the United States.In 1849 Thomsen founded the world's first ethnografic museum, which continued to contribute significantly to the development of modern archaeology."Throughout the course of the nineteenth century growing amounts of archaeological material were being recovered as the vastly expanding engineering activities of the Industrial Revolution were transforming Central and Western Europe into the "workshop of the world." Indeed, much of the popular appeal of archaeology in early Victorian times lay in its seeming demonstration that this contemporary technological advancement, which both intrigued and delighted the middle classes, was no mere accident but the acceleration of a tendency for "progress" which was innate in humankind. This evidence that cultural evolution as opposed to degeneration from an original state of grace had been a significant feature of human history made archaeology pre-eminently a science of progress. Within the context of the history of the discipline, however, the birth of this "scientific archaeology", as distinct from the antiquarianism of earlier times, is generally associated with the unfolding of the "Three Age System" and the pioneering work of C.J. Thomsen.While in the past a few archaeologists had attempted to subdivide prehistoric materials into various temporal segments, it was Thomsen who first envisaged, and applied, on the basis of archaeological evidence, a systematic classification of antiquities according to the criteria of material use and form which could be correlated with a sequence of temporal periods: the Ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron, familiar to every student of archaeology for the last hundred years. The novelty of this approach, however, did not lie in the concept of technological development gleaned from his familiarity with the conjectural history of the Enlightenment, or in his assumption of a sequence of Stone, Bronze, or Iron Ages, itself a variation of Lucretius' popular model. Rather, it lay in his employment of "seriational principles" acquired from his extensive knowledge of numismatics, which he used to combine evidence concerning technology, grave goods, along with the shape and decoration of various artefacts into an internally consistent developmental sequence. Though Thomsen's Museum of Northern Antiquities in Denmark had arranged its collection of artefacts in accordance with this new system as early as 1819, the first written account of his research was not set out in print until the "Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed" ("Guide Book to Northern/Nordic Antiquities") was published in 1836. While prior to Thomsen's work, thinking about antiquities in both Europe and the United States bas both intellectually fragmented and essentially speculative, the publication of the "Ledetraad" and its translation into German a year later unified archaeological studies by providing scholars with an exemplar or "paradigm". For, while previously antiquarians and indeed classical archaeologists, who were interested in what are now recognized to be prehistoric remains, tended to look to written records and/or oral traditions to provide a historical context for their finds, it was Thomsen who liberated archaeologists from this restrictive assumption through the creation of a carefully controlled chronology which allowed for the comprehensive study of those periods in history for which NO written records were available. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Thomsen's system established itself as THE system, as his basic classification of artefacts, arranged in periods by virtue of an analogy with the form and function of tools in his own day, was modified an elaborated upon by, among others, Worsaae, de Mortillet and John Lubbock." (D.A. Nestor: Cognitive Perspectives on Israelite Identity, pp. 46-48).