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Berlin, Julius Springer, 1925. 8vo. Contemp. hcloth. In: 'Zeitschrift für Physik', Volume 31. VIII,952 pp., textillustr. A circular stamp to titlepage.(Entire volume offered). Pauli's paper: pp.765-783. A fine and clean copy, internally as well as externally. First edition of the first announcement of Pauli's Exclusion Principle which gives a criterion for the electronic structure of atoms, and explains the periodic table and the combining properties of the elements.Pauli first formulated his exclusion principle in this article in an attempt to explain the structure of the periodic table. By introducing an additional quantum number, namely the spin of an electron, to the already known three quantum numbers in Bohr's atom model, and by postulating that no two electrons can have the same four quantum numbers, Pauli could explain the number of electrons allowed in the outermost shell, e.g., explaining the varying lengths of successive periods in the table. The exclusion principle turned out to be applicable to all fermions, and thus plays a role in a variety of physical phenomena. For example it explains the formation of degenerate matter in white dwarfs and neutron stars. In 1945 Pauli received the Nobel Prize in physics "for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle".This volume also contains a paper by Heisenberg: 'Über eine Anwendung des Korrespondenzprinzips auf die Frage der Polarisation des Floureszenzlichtes' , A. Einstein: "Bemerkung zu P. Jordans Abhandlung "Zur Theorie der Quantenstrahlung"and another paper by Pauli: 'Über den Einfluss der Geschwindigkeitsabhängigkeit der Elektronenmasse auf den Zeemaneffekt' (Zeeman-Effect and the Dependence of Electron-Mass on the Velocity).

Paris, Mondhare et jean, 1793. Small folio. (36x31 cm.). Cont. hcalf. Back somewhat rubbed and with some cracking along first hinges but tight and not loose. Engraved titlepage and engraved Table of maps (bound at end - bottom a little shawed). With 64 double-page engraved maps (the first 7 are hemispheres, world-systems etc), all handcoloured in outline. All maps have engraved text in borders. On good paper with only minor scattred brownspots in margins. (Plates numb. 1-64). Scarce last edition of Clouet's fine general atlas, first issued 1767. Phillips records 2 other editions form 1787 (Phillips No. 661) and 1791 (Phillips No. 673), but not this. - Not in Shirley: Maps and Atlases in The British Library.

Stockholm, Lars salvius, 1751. 8vo. In contemporary half calf with four raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. Ex-libris (Thore Virgin) pasted on to pasted down front end-paper and "Thore Virgin / Stockholm d. 7. dec. 1912." to upper outer corner of front free end-paper. Title-page with marginal browning, otherwise a fine copy. (10), XIV, 434, (34) pp. + 1 folded map and 6 plates. First edition, second issue, here in an interesting interim state with “Gödselen” on p. 26 (indicating the second issue) but with p. 25 misspelled as “52” not called for in neither first nor second issue. “Linnaeus’ research work during his mature years began with trips to various Swedish provinces. By order of the parliament, which wanted an inventory of all the natural resources of the country, during three summers in the 1740’s Linnaeus traveled through selected areas to describe them and to search for dyestuffs, minerals, clay, and other economically useful substances. His reports of these expeditions were published as Ölandska och gothländska resa (1745), Västgöta resa (1747), and Skånska resa (1751), all written in Swedish. Nothing escaped his attention on his travels on horseback—plants and insects, runic stones and other ancient remnants, farmers working in the fields and meadows, the changes in the weather. His prose style was simple and strong, sometimes rising to lyrical outbursts or spiced with effective similes.” (DSB) "Baron C. Hårleman, who had borne the expenses of Linnaeus's expedition to Skåne, had the chance to see the proofs to at least the beginning of the SKÅNSKA RESA. There he read (on p. 26) with indignation that Linnaeus gave his blessing to the old Swedish custom of cleaning the ground by setting fire to the stubble ("svedjande" - a practice that he himself had condemned in print). Linnaeus decided to have a new version printed in which the offended passage would be replaced by some innocuos observation on manure ("Gödselen"). A fold was therefore printed as part of the final sheet of the book with an article on "Gödselen" instead of the article on "Svedjor". The binder was supposed to cancel the fold with the article on "Svedjor" and replace it with the inner fold from the final sheet. In very few copies this was not done." (Björck & Börjesson Cat. 512). Hulth P. 81.Soulsby 210

Cambridge, 1971. 8vo. Original full purple cloth with green lettering to spine, in the original green dust-jacket with purple lettering. A crease to the spine of both binding and dust-jacket, but otherwise just a bit of wear to extremities of dust-jacket and a few small tears to extremities as well. A very nice dust-jacket indeed. Internally fine and clean. XV, (1), 607 pp. First edition of this seminal classic, in which the "justice as fairness"-theory is presented for the first time. The work is now very difficult to come by in the first printing and especially difficult to find in a nice dust-jacket.John Rawls is considered one of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century. "A Theory of Justice" is his first major work and the most influential of all of everything he wrote. He sets out to solve the problem of distributive justice and does so by applying a variant of the "social contract". The result is the famous theory of "justice as fairness", which is presented for the first time in this groundbreaking work. Rawls uses elements of Kantian as well utilitarian philosophy in order to describe a method for the moral evaluation of social and political institutions. The work evoked an immense interest in the philosophical and political world and received a flood of attention from all sorts of legal scholars, i.e. economists, political scientists, sociologists, philosophers, theologians etc. The important and lasting contributions Rawls has provided in this work have revived the study of political philosophy in academic circles, and he is probably the only political philosopher who is frequently cited by the court of law in America and by politicians in Great Britain.

Paris, 1908. 8vo. Uncut and unopened in the original printed wrappers. Minor wear to extremities. An excellent copy. (2), XLIII, (1), 257, (3) pp. First edition - uncut, unopened and in original wrappers - of one of the most controversial books of the twentieth century. "J. B. Priestley argued that if one could grasp why a retired civil servant had written such a book then the modern age could be understood. It heralded the political turmoil of the decades that were to follow its publication and provided inspiration for Marxists and Fascists alike. Developing the ideas of violence, myth and the general strike, Sorel celebrates the heroic action of the proletariat as a means of saving the modern world from decadence and of reinvigorating the capitalist spirit of a timid bourgeoisie." (Jeremy Jennings, Introduction to the 1999 Cambridge-edition). Sorel's work is written at the cusp of the seismic changes that would transform the twentieth century, putting an end to the ancien Régime in Europe, and to European global hegemony. An unorthodox Marxist, Sorel focused almost obsessively on the question of the agency required to spark revolutionary change, in contrast to Marxist/socialist contemporaries like Jean Jaurès who saw parliamentary politics as the way to leverage the growing power of the workers' unions into political concessions. In choosing of violence as the theme of his work, Sorel wanted to strike a death blow at reform-minded socialism which was, according to him, guilty of extinguishing the revolutionary fervour of the working class. By suffusing Marx's materialism with Bergson's intuitionism, he argued that violence would, in and of itself, create the revolutionary subject (the working class) and the conditions of revolutionary social change. His work departs from Marxism, and points towards twentieth century Fascism (towards which Sorel himself was ambivalent), inasmuch as it strips the idea of political will of the intellectualist trappings that Marxism inherited from German idealism. Instead, Sorel would tie political will to myth as a motivational force, singling out the myth of the nation as the most potent one of all. His synthesis of nationalism, violence, and faceless political agency was instrumental in laying the groundworks for the radical political movements that became the different strains of twentieth century Fascism. "Sorel's conclusion was unambiguous: the workers must maintain divisions within society, distancing themselves from the corrupting processes of bourgeois democracy and forsaking social peace in favour of class struggle and confrontation: 'everything may be saved if the proletariat, by their use of violence, manage to re-establish the division into classes and so restore to the bourgeoisie something of its energy'. This followed from Sorel's account of Marxism as a version of 'Manchesterianism': violence, 'carried on as a pure and simple manifestation of the sentiment of class struggle', would disabuse philanthropic employers of their paternal concern for their employees, teaching them to devote themselves to securing the progress of production and nothing more. This, in turn, would restore the fatalite ´ of capitalist development, thereby allowing capitalism to attain its' historicalP erfection and to establish the material foundations of a future socialist society. On this account, proletarian violence appears 'a very fine and heroic thing', serving 'the immemorial interests of civilization'. (Jennings).

Halis Saxonum (Halle), E Libreria Orphanotrophei, 1795. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with five raised bands and gilt title-and tome-labels. Very neatly rebacked. Very nice and clean. An excellent copy. (6), CCLXXX pp. Scarce first edition of the epoch-making work that founded modern philological scholarship and began the modern debate over the date of writing of Homer's works, creating in turn the two Homeric schools of thought, the Analysts and the Unitarians. Although the work bears on the title-page the words "Volumen I", no second volume ever appeared, and Wolf never made any attempt to compose it. "When Wolf took up his professorship in 1783, a critical point in the history of education had been reached. New ideas derived from Locke and Rousseau were at work and Wolf longed to enter the fray. He found able and enlightened allies in the ministers of Frederick the Great, and with their help and by his enthusiasm he was able to carry out his long-cherished plan to give a new basis to the science of philology. To Wolf this meant philology in the original sense - love of letters, of learning and of language. He defined it as "the knowledge of human nature as exhibited in antiquity"; its matter was everything that remained of ancient culture, to which an equal care and scholarship must be devoted. The "Prolegomena to Homer", the best exposition of Wolf's beliefs, were written in a great hurry to meet the needs of a lecture course, and they have all the merits of good lectures: command of method, the gift of inspiration, penetration and breadth of view. Wolf's thesis is no theory, but a collection of great ideas, which laid the foundations for the dominance of German scholarship in the nineteenth century. They have inspired and given purpose to education ever since." (Printing and the Mind of Man).With the 18th century came major developments in classical scholarship, the greatest of the classic epics being no exception - Homeric scholarship changed dramatically, and the end of the century saw the opening of the discussion which was to dominate the 19th and 20th centuries, namely that of the "Homeric question". The Homeric question is essentially the question of the identity of the poet(s) of the Homeric epics, and the nature of the relationship between "Homer" and the epics. In the 19th century it came to be the fulcrum between two opposed schools of thought, the Analysts and the Unitarians. The issue came about in the context of 18th-century Romantic interest in popular lays and folktale, and the growing recognition that the Homeric epics must have been transmitted orally before being written down, possibly much later than "Homer" himself. The key to determining who Homer was, lay in the answer to the question of when the poems were composed.The modern debate over exactly when they took on a fixed written form, began with the present work by Wolf. According to Wolf, the date of writing is among the first questions in the textual criticism of Homer. He considers the real mode of transmission of the poems and acknowledges that it was oral, arguing that they were composed in the mid-10th century BC. He further concludes that the Iliad and the Odyssey could not have been composed in the form in which we know them without the aid of writing and that they changed considerably over time in the hands of bards performing them orally and editors adapting written versions to contemporary tastes. The apparent artistic unity of the poems must have come about after their transcription.This new form of philological scholarship completely altered the way that philology has been done ever since the appearance of the present work.

London, John Dawson, 1640. Folio. In contemporary full calf with five raised bands. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Extremities with wear, boards with scratches. Inner hinges split. First and last leaves slightly browning but internally generally fine and clean. Previous owner's name to title-page. (16), 448, (2), 449-647, 678-916 pp. (complete). Exceedingly rare first edition of this classic which “stands like a milestone in the history of the English funeral sermons” (Houlbrooke, English Preachers Gathered in the House of Mourning).Patrick Collinson, historian of English puritanism, described it as “a kind of apotheosis” of the genre and is considered one of the most significant contribution to the literature on mourning and spirituality in the 17th century. “Printed funeral sermons grew in popularity in the seventeenth century; between 100 and 200 had been printed by 1647, with only 20 known to have been printed in the Elizabethan era. Their output increased from then until the turn of the eighteenth century. Funeral sermons were usually printed singly, although in 1647 a collection of 47 funeral sermons by eminent preachers was printed, entitled Threnoikos: The House of Mourning , demonstrating the popular place of the funeral sermon in the seventeenth century as a guide to leading an exemplary life, preparing for death, meditating on the next life, and responding to the death of loved ones.6 Funeral sermons thus held an important place in the memento mori tradition, and equally in the literature of exemplary reading for women. A higher proportion of funeral sermons for women were reprinted than those for men, making these interesting sources of conceptions of female piety.” (Molekamp, Femke. “Seventeenth-Century Funeral Sermons and Exemplary Female Devotion: Gendered Spaces and Histories.”) Funeral sermons in 17th century England were integral to the religious, cultural, and social fabric of the time, reflecting the prevailing beliefs, values, and practices surrounding death and mourning. Through their thematic richness, rhetorical eloquence, and pastoral sensitivity, these sermons provided comfort, guidance, and spiritual sustenance to the bereaved while reaffirming the central tenets of Christian faith. As artifacts of religious discourse and cultural expression, funeral sermons offer valuable insights into the diverse ways in which early modern English society grappled with life, death, and the afterlife.

Basel, Froben, 1531 + Coloniae, Petrus Quentell, 1536. Folio. Bound together in a beautiful contemporary full calf binding over wooden boards. Blindstamped ornamental frames to boards. Five raised bands to spine. Remains of brass clasps to boards. Brass at corners of boards and brass strips to bottom edges of boards. A tear through the letter at the lower capital, no loss. Some scrathing of leather, mostly to back board and upper part of spine. The titles of the two works written in contemporary hand to the outer edge. The strong vellum cords, which go through the the wooden boards can be seen on the inside of the wooden boards, which also have some initials in red and blue paint, possibly from a painted leaf that has rubbed off? First title-page a bit dusty, otherwise very nice, clean, and crisp throughout. [Eucherius:] Froben printer's device to title-page, to final leaf of the first part, to the half-title of the second part (Episcopi Commentariorum in libros Regum ad Veranium & Salonium) and to the last leaf of that part. Beautiful large woodcut initial at beginning of each new work. (8), 194, (2); 310, (2) pp.[Radulphus:] Woodcut device to title-page. Numerous beautiful woodcut, allegorical initials, both large and smaller, throughout. (4 - title, dedications), (14 - index), (6), 314 pp. First editions of both works, being the first edition of the works ["Several Studies"] of St. Eucharius, most of them printed for the first time here, as well as the first edition of Rodulfus Tortarius' (or Radulphus Flaviacensis) commentaries of Leviticus (the third of the Books of Moses), written in Latin, in 20 books. Saint Eucherius, bishop of Lyon, (ca. 380 - ca. 449) was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian Church of Gaul. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. Henry Wace ranked him "except perhaps St. Irenaeus the most distinguished occupant of that see"."St. Eucherius Bishop of Lyons, theologian, born in the latter half of the fourth century; died about 449. On the death of his wife he withdrew to the monastery of Lérins, where his sons, Veranius and Salonius, lived, and soon afterward to the neighbouring island of Lerona (now Sainte-Marguerite), where he devoted his time to study and mortification. Desirous of joining the anchorites in the deserts of the East, he consulted John Cassian, who, in reply, sent him some of his "Collationes", describing the daily lives of the hermits of the Thebaid. It was at this time that Eucherius wrote his beautiful letter "De laude Eremi" to St. Hilary of Arles (c. 428). Though imitating the virtues of the Egyptian solitaries, he kept in touch with men renowned for learning and piety, e.g. Cassian, St. Hilary of Arles, St. Honoratus, later Bishop of Marseilles, and Valerian, to whom he wrote his "Epistola parænetica de contemptu mundi". The fame of Eucherius was soon so widespread in southeastern Gaul, that he was chosen Bishop of Lyons. This was probably in 434; it is certain, at least that he attended the First Council of Orange (441) as Metropolitan of Lyons, and that he retained this dignity until his death. In addition to the above-mentioned letters, Eucherius wrote "Formularium spiritualis intelligentiæ ad Veranium", and "Institutiones ad Salonium", besides many homilies. His works have been published both separately and among the writings of the Fathers." (Catholic Encyclopedia). His "Epistola paraenetica ad Valerianum cognatum, de contemptu mundi ("Epistle of exhortation to his kinsman Valerian, On the contempt of the world") is an expression of the despair for the present and future of the world in its last throes shared by many educated men of Late Antiquity, with hope for a world to come. Erasmus thought so highly of its Latin style that he edited and published it at Basel in 1520. His commentaries on the work are also included here. His "Liber formularum spiritalis intelligentiae", which is addressed to his son Veranius is a defence of the lawfulness of reading an allegorical sense in Scripture, bringing to bear the metaphors in Psalms and such phrases as "the hand of God" The term anagoge [in Greek] is employed for the application of Scripture to the heavenly Jerusalem to come, and there are other examples of what would become classic Medieval hermeneutics.Rodulfus Tortarius (also known as Raoul of Tourtier, Raoul de La Tourte, Radulphus Flaviacensis) (c.1063 - c.1122) was a French Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire, and a poet writing in Latin. He is known both for his style of writing, his biblical commentaries and religious works, and his literary and comic tales. His commentary on "Leviticus" is considered important and influential. The first edition of the work is rare.

Hermann & Cie, 1939. Royal 8vo. Bound uncut with the original printed wrappers ("Actualités scientifiques et industrielles", no. 838. Essais philosophiques II, Publiés par Cavaillès), also the backstrip (mounted with a little loss). in an exquisite, beautiful black morocco binding with gilt horizontal and vertical lettering to spine. Beautiful silvered paper over boards. Housed in an exquisite silvered marbled paper slip-case with black morocco edges. Binding signed to bottom of inside of front board: "C. et J-P. Miguet". Near mint copy. 52 pp. First printing, presentation-copy, of Sartre's highly important early philosophical work, which is recognized as the best introduction to his "L'Étre et le Néant" (1943). The work was only printed as it is here, as no. 838 of Cavaillè's "Actualités scientifiques et industrielles", and only appeared in a new (not revised) edition in 1960. The large presentation-inscription reads as thus : " A Olivier Briot/ en la remerciant de " Les lignes " qui j'ai/ beaucoup aimé/ JP Sartre "."L'Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions " (" Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions"), although now considered one of Sartre's most important works, was originally written as the first part and introduction to a greater work on psychological phenomenology that was supposed to be entitled "La Psyché". The great psychological project was abandoned due to Sartre's eagerness to finish "Le Mur". "L'Esquisse" thus remains the only part of the work ever published, and perhaps exactly because of its introductory character, it has come to have the effect on modern philosophical thought that it has. Due to being at the same time accessible and rigourous, the work is considered the best introduction to Sartre's fundamental philosophical ideas, an almost indispensible presentation of and introduction to "L'Étre et le Néant", which appeared four years later. "L'Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions " is a phenomenological essay on emotion, in which Sartre ettempts to present a phenomenological psychology, treating emotion as a " phenomenon " and placing it within the realm of signification. The primary presentation of his own phenomenological analysis is essantial to all his later philosophy."Although written fairly early in his career, in 1939, Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions is considered to be one of Jean-Paul Sartre's most important pieces of writing. It not only anticipates but argues many of the ideas to be found in his famous Being and Nothingness. By subjecting the emotion theories of his day to critical analysis, Sartre opened up the world of psychology to new and creative ways of interpreting feelings. Emotions are intentional and strategic ways of coping with difficult situations. We choose to utilize them, we control them, and not the other way around, as has been posited elsewhere. Emotions are not fixed; they have no essence and indeed are subject to rapid fluctuations and about-turns. For its witty approach alone, Sartre's Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions can be enjoyed at length. It is a dazzling journey to one of the more intriguing theories of our time." (Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions, 2nd Edition, By Jean-Paul Sartre, Published October 12th 2001 by Routledge - 80 pages, Series: Routledge Classics)

Kjøbenhavn, Andreas Seidelin, 1820. 8vo. Lovely contemporary half calf with richly gilt spine. Spine with some rubbing, but still very nice, tight, and completely unrestored. Internally remarkably clean and fresh with only the slightest of occasional brownspotting. Old owner's gift-inscription to front free endpaper dated 1858. Printed on good paper (in Danish the so-called "writing paper") and with good margins. An excellent copy. 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.

Urbini, (D. Frisolini), 1575. Small 4to. Fine recent full vellum in old style with written title on back. Titlepage + 80 leaves (title unnumb. + F 1-80 with 4 leaves misnumb., e.g. F70 instead of 80). The dedicationleaf (unnumb.) after title missing. Text complete, fine and clean with broad margins. One large initial in woodcut and 89 large textillustrations in woodcut. First edition of Heron's main work, being his first publication. The work stimulated and contributed substantially to the interest in pneumatics that arose suddenly in the late 16th century and led to the work of Toricelli and Boyle. The "Pneumatics" was not published in Greek until 1693. It is one of the major sources to our knowledge of the techniques and mechanics of Antiquity, and the many hydraulic and mechanical inventions by Hero are here depicted for the first time in print. The work includes studies of pneumatics and mechanics and include 89 illustrations of different inventions, such as siphons, fountains, engines, an account of a small stationary steam-engine (which is of the form now known as Avery's patent, the double-force pump etc., which "by the union of (compressed) air, earth, fire, and water, and the concurrence of...elementary principles..., supply the most pressing wants of the human life, (or) produce amazement and alarm." The book describes many gadgets and magical tricks and includes the first suggestion of a steam engine (see f. 52). - Sarton, Introduction...Vol. I pp. 208 ff. - Adams H:369 - Poggendorff I: 1084.

Paris, Michel Lévy Frères, 1863. Lex 8vo. Bound uncut with the original printed wrappers in a very nice and elegant half morocco binding with five raised bands and gilt author and title to spine (Trinckvel). Wrappers a bit soiled, and a small repair to margin of front wrapper. Lower right corner of first two leaves repaired, far from afecting lettering. Otherwise a fine copy. Original handwritten and signed letter from Renan inserted between front end-papers. Withe the half-title ("Histoire des Origines du Christianisme. Livre premier"). (4), LIX, (1), 462 pp. + (1) leaf (colophon). True first edition of this seminal classic on the life of Jesus, which caused an immediate scandal when it appeared. Rare with the original wrappers. Renan's masterpiece constitutes the first attempt to write a biography of Jesus the man and strongly puts forth the notion that the Bible too can be subject to historical investigation and critical scrutiny. The 1 full page original handwritten and signed (E. Renan) letter is dated August 1869 is about a certain Mr. Bambal, who, Renan writes, has left made a very good impression on him and has been a great help during his candidacee. He praises him as an intlligent man. Renan furthermore mentions a book that he wishes to give to the brother of the addressee of the letter. The work enraged the Roman Catholic Church but was an immediate success in most of Europe. "In six months sixty thousand copies of the French edition had been sold and edition succeeded edition. Renan regarded the book as the first of a series on the "Origins of Christianity", which he continued with "The Apostles" (1866), "Saint Paul" (1869), "The Anti-Christ" (1873), "The Gospels" (1877), "The Christian Church" (1879) and "Marcus Aurelius" (1881) but none of these emulated the success of the "Life of Jesus"... Immediate success was partly a "succès de scandale" but this would not have kept the book alive. It is Renan's approach to the subject and his beautiful prose that gave it lasting eminence." (PMM 352). This groundbreaking work analyses the personality of the man Jesus, -a figure created by Renan out of his mind, but based on historical sources. "It is a pastoral idyll with the central figure a gentle, albeit oracular visionary, his power to work miracles a part of his unique personality -the son of man, but not the Son of God... In this great work it seems clear that the audience he has found was the one he sought: the general reading public rather than the limited coterie of scholars; and there is no doubt of the fact or the degree of his success." (PMM 352). "C'est le livre plus célèbre d'Ernest Renan (1823-1892) et le premier volume de l'Hisoire des origines du Christianisme"... on peut considérer cette "Vie de Jésus" comme une oeuvre de vulgarisation: l'auteur cherche à déterminer ce qui, au point de vue "scientifique", est de créance dans la vie du Nazaréen?" (Laffont-Bompiani IV:681). Apart from causing a world-wide scandal, the work was also a world-wide success, and no matter how many harsh words can be said about the historical and religious contents of the work, there is no doubt about the fact that it influenced the destiny of Catholicism decisively and that it is a masterpiece of 19th century French literature. It is very elegantly written and is renowned for its description of the historical setting, charming descriptions of sceneries, its penetrating psychological analysis and its overall style and class. "Il faut ajouter que la "Vie de Jésus" compte au nombre des livres les mieux écrits de son temps; le charme de la peinture des paysages, le pittoresque géneralement exact des évocations historiques, l'analyse pénétrante de l'âme des personnages, des seductions du style enfin, n'ont pas été pour rien dans le succès universel de cette oeuvre." (Laffont-Bompiani IV:681). Ernest Renan (1823-1892) was a French philologist, philosopher and historian. His father died when he was aged five, and his mother wanted him to become a priest. Until he was about 16 years old, he was trained by the Church, but due to his investigative and truth-seeking nature as well as his studies (e.g. Hebrew), he was in doubt as to the historical truth of the Scriptures, and with the help of his sister he chose his own path in life. "He studied intensively the languages of the Bible and filled a number of minor academic positions, frequently encountering difficulties because of the heterodoxy and outspokenness of his religious opinions." (Printing and the Mind of Man 352). In 1840 he began studying philosophy and later philology, in 1847 he took his degree as Agrégé de Philosophie and became master at the Lycée of Vendome. After having returned from a mission to Italy in the year 1850 where he gathered material for his historical-philosophical masterpiece, "Averroës et l'Averroisme", he was offered employment at the "Bibliothèque Nationale" (at the manuscript department). In 1861 he was chosen to become professor of Hebrew at the Collège de France, but because the emperor refused to ratify the appointment (inspired by the Clerical party), he was not established in the chair untill 1870. In 1878 he was elected for the Academy. Renan is considered a scholar of the greatest excellence and an impressive writer.

[n colophon:] Strassburg, Theodosius Rihel, 1594. Folio. Contemporary full blindstamped pigskin-binding over wooden boards. Five raised bands to spine. Brass clasps to boards. Handwritten title to spine. Richly ornamented blindstamped borders to boards, with portrait of God and Jesus to the centre of front board and Jesus on the cross to back board. Corners and extremities a bit worn, but binding overall in excellent condition. Also internally very well preserved, with light browning to some leaves and a few marginal nicks to title-page, otherwise in very fine condition. Very neat handwritten additions to the "Chronica". Title in red and black within a large woodcut pictorial border, 131 fabulous woodcut illustrations, each measuring 10,8x14,5 cm, one (p. 152) with a small flaw in the paper, stemming from the printing of the work, one (p. 341) with a spot (seems like rust). A beautiful printing, with numerous woodcut initials. 28, 887, (1, blank) pp + 21 pp. of index + 1 p. colophon, with a large woodcut pictorial printer's device. An excellent copy, in a beautiful, very well preserved contemporary Renaissance binding, of this 1594-reprint of the first Strassburg-edition (1574), printed by Theodor Rihel. The excellent woodcut illustrations, all within an ornamental border, are by T. Stimmer, Bocksberger, et al. The translation is that of Zacharias Müntzer (which appeared for the first time in 1562). The work was extremely popolar, not least due to the rich illustrations, and it went through numerous editions throughout the 17th century also. Graesse IV:232.

Paris, Crochard, 1825. 8vo. Bound in 2 uniform later hcloth. Gilt lettering to spines. In: "Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Par MM. Gay-Lussac et Arago.", tome 29 a. 30. - 448 pp. and 3 folded engraved plates + 448 pp. and 2 folded engraved plates. (The entire volumes offered). Ampère's papers: pp. 381-404 (tome 29) + Suite pp. 29-41 (tome 30) + "Lettre à Gerhardi": pp. 373-381 (tome 29). Some scattered brownspots. First appearance of this famous memoir, in which Ampère presented his collected results on electrodynamics to the French Academy, creating the foundation of 19th century developments in electricity and magnetism. In the words of James Clark Maxwell, "We can scarcely believe that Ampère really discovered the law of action by means of the experiments which he describes. We are led to suspect, what, indeed, he tells us himself, that he discovered the law by some process which he has not shown us, and that when he had afterwards built up a pefect demonstration he removed all traces of the scaffolding by which he raised it."The offered memoir was published BEFORE the famous "Theorie mathématique des phénomènes électro-dynamiques uniquement déduite de L'expérience", which did not appear until 1827. That 1827-Memoire incorporates, together with a new presentation of Ampère's results from 1820, 1822, 1823, the offered memoir (1825). (Horblit: 100 - Dibner: 62)."From 1814 until 1820 Ampére did not perform the kind of research that would have made it into the annals of the histrory of science, but on September 11, 1820 when he heard Francois Arago speak about Oersted's work, he got fresh inspiration and started the work that made him famous. Arago related how Oersted had found that a steady electric current influences the orientation of a compass needle. After a weak Ampère had determined experimentally that that two straight, parallel, and current-carrying, wires execute a force on each other. The magnitude of the force is inversely proportional to the distance between the wires and proportional to the strenghts of the current..... During the following years he continued his researches, both experimentally and theoretically. he built an instrument for measuring electricity that later was developed into the galvanometer. Finally in 1825 he presented his collected results to the Academy IN ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED MEMOIRS IN THE HISTORY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY (The paper offered)." (Citizen's Compendium, p. 2). - Norman No 47.The volumes contain many other notable papers by: Wöhler, Fresnel, Marcet, Berzelius, Felix Savart, De la Rive, Braconnet, Boussingault, Magnus, Poncelet, Vaugelin, Poisson, Gay-Lussac, Faraday, Laplace etc.

Paris, Agasse, l'an III de la République, une et indivisible (1795). 8vo. Bound in a very nice newer pastiche-binding in full mottled calf. Five raised bands and gilt title-label to spine. A very nice, clean, fresh, and attractive copy. VIII, 389 pp. The rare first edition of Condorcet's main work, "the most fully developed exposition of the progress of man" (Printing and the Mind of Man, p. 149) and a main work of the Enlightenment as well as of historical thought in general. The author was the creator of what came to found the basis for the modern French system. The great French philosopher, political thinker and mathematician, M.J.A. Condorcet (1743 - 1794), played a seminal role in 18th century France. He was friends with the likes of d'Alembert, Voltaire, Turgot etc., and he greatly contributed to the social and political debates of politically turbulent France. As one of the few, he advocated a liberal economy, equality in public education as well as in gender and race etc. He preached constitutionalism, and his thoughts that are still influential today embody those of the Enlightenment and rationalism."A belief in the ultimate perfectibility of man lies at the root of all progressive thinking about the human condition. The "philosophes" and Godwin had familiarized the reading public with this notion; it was left to Condorcet to give it its finest and most durable expression. It was the gospel of nineteenth century that mankind is destined for indefinite future progress. Condorcet, looking back and then forward, saw proof of this in the growing equality between classes and nations, the intellectual, physical and moral improvement of man; and he prophesied that popular education on correct principles would strengthen and assure this progress." (PMM 246).During the French Revolution Condorcet came to play a dominating role, advocating a rationalist reconstruction of society, and he championed many liberal causes. In 1791 he became secretary of the Legislation Assembly, and the institution adopted his scheme for comprehensive state education, which later became the basis of the modern French system. In the struggle between the two political parties, the Girondists and the Montagnards, Condorcet occupied an independent role, but when he opposed the death penalty under the trial of King Louis XVI (still supporting the actual trial), and the radical Montagnards gained more power, Condorcet was branded a traitor, and in October 1793 a warrant was issued for his arrest. He now went into hiding for several months (almost a year), and it is during these months that he writes the work that was to become his most important, the main work "Esquisse..." ("Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind"), which was published posthumously, the year after his death. In 1794 Condorcet was arrested, and two days later he was found dead in his cell, -it is unknown whether he committed suicide or was murdered because of fear of fierce reactions that would definitely have occurred had the beloved man been officially sentenced to the death penalty."In the Esquisse", published after his death, Condorcet traces the history of man through epochs, the first three covering his progress from savagery to pastoral community and thence to the agricultural state. The next five span the growth of civilizations and knowledge down to Descartes, and the ninth describes the revolution of Condorcet's own lifetime, from Newton to Rousseau. The prophetic view of the tenth epoch shows Condorcet at his most original. He forecasts the destruction of inequality between nation and classes, and the improvement, intellectual, moral and physical, of human nature..., it exercised considerable influence on Comte. But it is as the most fully developed exposition of the progress of man that Condorcet's work is now remembered, and it is this which has given it its lasting appeal." (PMM 246).

Halis Saxonum (Halle), E Libreria Orphanotrophei, 1795. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with a bit of wear, especially to corners and edges. Gilding to title-label worn off. Paper over boards loosening at edges. Overall fine and tight. A light damp stain to upper margin and a few leaves with some light brownspotting. Scarce first edition of the epoch-making work that founded modern philological scholarship and began the modern debate over the date of writing of Homer's works, creating in turn the two Homeric schools of thought, the Analysts and the Unitarians. Although the work bears on the title-page the words "Volumen I", no second volume ever appeared, and Wolf never made any attempt to compose it. "When Wolf took up his professorship in 1783, a critical point in the history of education had been reached. New ideas derived from Locke and Rousseau were at work and Wolf longed to enter the fray. He found able and enlightened allies in the ministers of Frederick the Great, and with their help and by his enthusiasm he was able to carry out his long-cherished plan to give a new basis to the science of philology. To Wolf this meant philology in the original sense - love of letters, of learning and of language. He defined it as "the knowledge of human nature as exhibited in antiquity"; its matter was everything that remained of ancient culture, to which an equal care and scholarship must be devoted. The "Prolegomena to Homer", the best exposition of Wolf's beliefs, were written in a great hurry to meet the needs of a lecture course, and they have all the merits of good lectures: command of method, the gift of inspiration, penetration and breadth of view. Wolf's thesis is no theory, but a collection of great ideas, which laid the foundations for the dominance of German scholarship in the nineteenth century. They have inspired and given purpose to education ever since." (Printing and the Mind of Man).With the 18th century came major developments in classical scholarship, the greatest of the classic epics being no exception - Homeric scholarship changed dramatically, and the end of the century saw the opening of the discussion which was to dominate the 19th and 20th centuries, namely that of the "Homeric question". The Homeric question is essentially the question of the identity of the poet(s) of the Homeric epics, and the nature of the relationship between "Homer" and the epics. In the 19th century it came to be the fulcrum between two opposed schools of thought, the Analysts and the Unitarians. The issue came about in the context of 18th-century Romantic interest in popular lays and folktale, and the growing recognition that the Homeric epics must have been transmitted orally before being written down, possibly much later than "Homer" himself. The key to determining who Homer was, lay in the answer to the question of when the poems were composed.The modern debate over exactly when they took on a fixed written form, began with the present work by Wolf. According to Wolf, the date of writing is among the first questions in the textual criticism of Homer. He considers the real mode of transmission of the poems and acknowledges that it was oral, arguing that they were composed in the mid-10th century BC. He further concludes that the Iliad and the Odyssey could not have been composed in the form in which we know them without the aid of writing and that they changed considerably over time in the hands of bards performing them orally and editors adapting written versions to contemporary tastes. The apparent artistic unity of the poems must have come about after their transcription.This new form of philological scholarship completely altered the way that philology has been done ever since the appearance of the present work.

(Paris, Bachelier, 1851-52). 4to. Later blank wrapper. Extracted from "Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences", Vol. 32 and vol. 35. Foucault's papers: pp. 135-138 (1851, vol. 32), pp. 421-424 (1852, vol. 35), pp. 424-427 (1852, vol. 35), pp. 469-470 (1852, vol. 35) and p. 602 (1852, vol. 35). First appearance of the papers in which Foucault presented his discovery of the proof of the rotation of the earth by the large pendulum, called FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM. It was presented by Arago at the meeting of the Acadey of Scieces on February 3, 1851 (the first paper offered). In the third paper offered, "Sur les phénoménes d'orientation des corps tournant entraînés par un axe fixe...", Foucault presents his invention of the GYROSCOPE, a freely spinning flywheel, which constitutes a different method of demonstrating the rotation of the Earth; he furthermore correctly predicts the use of the gyroscope as a compass. The word "gyroscope" was coined by Foucault (on p. 427 of the third paper), taken from the Greek, meaning "to look at the rotation".Since Léon Foucault's public demonstration of his pendulum experiment, it has played a prominent role in physics, physics education, and the history of science. The Foucault pendulum is a long pendulum suspended high above the ground and carefully set into planar motion. The phenomenon described by Foucault1 concerns the orientation of the plane of oscillation of the pendulum. "The experiment (with the pendulum) caused great excitement at the time. Heracleides had first suggested twenty-two centuries before that the earth was rotating and Copernicus had renewed the suggestion three centuries before. Since the time of Galileo two and a half centuries before, the world of scholarship had not doubted the matter. Nevertheless, all evidence as to that rotation had been indirect, and not until Foucault's experiment could the earth's rotation actually be said to have been demonstrated rather that deduced." "Continuing to experiment on the mechanics of the earth's rotation, Foucault in 1852 invented the gyroscope, which, he showed, gave a clearer demonstration than the pendulum of the earth's rotation and had the property, similar to that of the magnetic needle, of maintaining a fixed direction. Foucault's pendulum and gyroscope had more than a popular significance (which continues to this day). First, they stimulated the development of theoretical mechanics, making relative motion and the theories of the pendulum and the gyroscope standard topics for study and investigation. Second, prior to Foucault's demonstrations the study of those motions on the earth's surface in which the deflecting force of rotation plays a prominent part (especially winds and ocean currents) was dominated by unphysical notions of how this force acted. Foucault's demonstrations and the theoretical treatments they inspired showed conclusively that this deflecting force acts in all horizontal directions, thus providing the sound physical insight on which Buys Ballot, Ferrel, Ulrich Vettin, and others could build. (DSB).PMM: 330 lists the offprint with the title "Sur Divers Signes Sensibles du Mouvement Diurne de la Terre" - Barchas Collection, 738 (the periodical version, but only the first paper) - Dibner, No. 17 (offprint version).

Berlin, Königlich Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1925-1929. 1. Einheitliche Feldtheorie von Gravitation und Elektrizität., 1925, pp. 414-419. Uncut, unopened n the original printed wrappers. missing small parts of spine and upper part of front wrapper detached, otherwise fine. (Weil 147 / Boni 155).2. Neue Möglichkeit für eine einheitliche Feldtheorie von Gravitation und Elektrizität. Offprint: S. B. preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1928, pp.235-245. In the original yellow wrappers. Very fine and clean. (Weil 162/ Boni 175).3. Zur einheitlichen Feldtheorie. Offprint: S. B. preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1929, pp.2-7. In the original yellow wrappers. Very fine and clean. (Weil 165/ Boni 183).4. Einheitliche Feldtheorie und Hamiltonsches Prinzip. Offprint: S. B. preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1929, pp.156-159. In the original yellow wrappers. Very fine and clean. (Weil 166/ Boni 184). Fine collection, three in offprint and one in the original printed wrappers, of the four papers that together constitute Einstein's attempt towards creating a unified field theory: "a new theory of space with a view to unification of all forms of activity that fall within the sphere of physics, giving them a common explanation" (PMM416). The task of unifying nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational force is nowadays by many considered the holy grail of theoretical physics.Maxwell was the first to develop such a theory when he described the forces of electricity and magnetism as the single force electromagnetism. After Einstein had completed his general theory of relativity (a field theory for gravitation), he turned his attention towards generalizing his theory even further to include Maxwell's theory. Even though Einstein never succeeded in completing this task, in the way that he finished his earlier theories, he pioneered and explored many areas of this subject."It had been repeatedly observed that Einstein's general theory of relativity necessitated a pluralistic explanation of the universe. In 1925 he announced that he had resolved this difficulty but the announcement was premature. In 1928 he attacked the problem once more, only to find that Riemann's conception of space, on which the general theory was based, would not permit of a common explanation of electromagnetic and gravitational phenomena. In a series of papers [the present] devoted to the development of 'A Uniform Theory of Gravitation and Electricity' he outlined a new theory of space with a view to unification of all forms of activity that fall within the sphere of physics, giving them a common explanation. All that would then remain to complete a scientific unison is the correlation of the organic and inorganic".PMM 416Barchas 586Weil 147, 162, 165 & 166.

Istanbul, Devlet Matbaasi, 1927 8vo. In the original printed wrappers. Spine with repair and a few nicks to wrapper with minor loss to lower part of both front and back wrapper. Discolouring to inner upper part of back wrapper. Very light brownspotting throughout. An overall fine copy. 71 pp. The exceedingly rare first Turkish translation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet published in the recently founded Turkish Republic. Published by the Ministry of Education as part of “Examples from World Literature” series for schools, this translation is not only abridged but also employs a thoroughly simple language in line with the plain language movement that was initiated in the late 19th century. Written Ottoman Turkish had developed into a convoluted and tortuous language only a minor educated elite mastered and the present publication is one of the earliest and finest examples of this bourgeoning movement. This movement “is a reflection of the attempt to educate masses and common people during the birth of a new nation after the War of Independence. However, only a year after the publication of Serif’s Hamlet translation, a grand change effects literature as well as communication and daily life in Turkey. Following the official proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, as the successor of the Ottoman Empire, the Parliament took new measures to westernise the newly established republic. One of the most visible distinctions between the western culture and that of the Ottoman Empire was the Ottoman language, which was written in the Arabic script. Although the first two attempts to replace the Arabic script with the Latin alphabet were rejected in 1923 and 1924, the law establishing the new Turkish script – employing the Latin alphabet – passed in November 1928.” (Bilge, History of Hamlet Translations in Turkey).

London, Printed by Th. Harper for Philip Nevil, 1642. Folio (295 x 200). In contemporary full calf with five raised bands. Title in contemporary hand to upper compartment. Small paper label pasted on to upper part of spine indicating the inventory number in an estate library. Light wear to extremities and first leaves with marginal miscolouring, an overall nice copy. (16), 898 pp. + erratta leaf/commentary leaf inserted between p. 12 and 13. Pages 110, 121, 262, 519, 873, 897 incorrectly numbered 111, 221, 260, 59, 874, 896, respectively. No. 76-77 omitted in the paging. Rare first edition of Roger’s exposition of the biblical story of Naaman the Syrian, which is found in the Old Testament, second part of the Book of Kings, fifth chapter. Naaman was a commander of the army of the king of Aram (Syria), and he is notable for being healed of leprosy through the prophet Elisha. According to the biblical narrative, Naaman was highly regarded by the king of Aram because of his military prowess. However, he suffered from leprosy, a serious skin disease. A young Israelite girl, who was captured and served Naaman's wife as a maid, informed them that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal Naaman. Naaman traveled to Israel with a letter from the king of Aram to the king of Israel, seeking a cure for his leprosy. The king of Israel, feeling powerless to heal Naaman, sent him to the prophet Elisha. Initially, Naaman was offended by Elisha's simple instructions to wash seven times in the Jordan River. However, at the urging of his servants, Naaman followed the instructions, and miraculously, he was cleansed of his leprosy. This story is often cited as an example of faith, humility, and the unexpected ways in which God works. Naaman's healing is attributed to his willingness to humble himself and follow the instructions given by the prophet Elisha. Daniel Roger (1573–1652) was the firstborn son of Richard Rogers from Wethersfield, Essex, born to his initial wife. Ezekiel Rogers, his younger sibling, was born in the same town. He pursued his education at Christ's College, Cambridge, under the guidance of William Perkins. Graduating in 1599, he served as a fellow from 1600 to 1608. After leaving the university, Rogers served as a minister in Haversham, Buckinghamshire. When Stephen Marshall, his father's successor in Wethersfield, relocated to Finchingfield, Rogers returned to Wethersfield as a lecturer, working alongside Daniel Weld or Weald, another Puritan. Despite personal discussions with William Laud and acknowledgment of his scholarship, he faced suspension by the archbishop in 1629 due to nonconformity. Although conforming clergy in North Essex petitioned on his behalf, he seemingly left Essex for a period. Rogers spent the latter part of his life in Wethersfield. During the fast day following Charles I's execution, he joined Giles Firmin, his neighbor and the vicar of Shalford, in mourning the king's death. In 1649, when the army's petition for tolerance, known as 'the agreement of the people,' reached Essex, Rogers, representing the Presbyterians, drafted and was the first to sign the Essex Watchmen's Watchword. This document protested against the tolerance of those who refused to sign the Solemn League and Covenant.

Paris, Jean Jombert, 1694. 8vo. 2 contemp. full calf. Raised bands. Richly gilt spines with gilt lettering. Light wear to spine top of spines. 2 very small nicks to lower compartment of volume 2. Small crack to one hinge on volume 2, but in no way loosening. (32),400;(16),303,(1) pp. + "Horloges" separately paginated (8),163,(5) pp. With in all 84 engraved plates, some with many figs. Internally clean and fine. Scarce first edition and the first work of its kind, "Recreational Mathematics".Qzanam's "contributions consisted of popular treatises and reference works on "useful and practical mathematics," and an extremely popular work on mathematical recreations; the latter had by far the more lasting impact. Ozanam’s Récréations may be regarded as the forerunner of modern books on mathematical recreations. He drew heavily on the works of Bachet de Méziriac, Mydorge, Leurechon, and Daniel Schwenter; his own contributions were somewhat less significant, for he was not a particularly creative mathematician. The work was later augmented and revised by Montucla and, still later, was translated into English by Hutton (1803)."(DSB).

Amsterdam, David Mortier, 1719-18. 4to. Contemp. full calf. Spine defective, lacking leather at upper and lower compartment and frontcover detached from spine. Front free endpaper gone. The first two title-pages printed in red/black and both with an engraved vignette with a portrait of Erasmus. (4),82;(2),94;(2),24,(12) pp. Vol I: 1 large folded engraved plate and 1 textengraving. - Vol. II: 34 textengravings (1/2-page a. full-page) + 21 engraved plates (4 large and folded). - "Les Pavillons": 90 engraved plates of flags. The first flag "Pavillon de George I" is handcoloured. (Last printed leaf numbered 101 because the 90 engraved plates is counted as pages !). Complete. Light marginal browning, a few leaves with small closed tears. A classic on shipbuilding, finely illustrated with construction drawings and nautical instruments and equipment. It is the first edition in French of Allard's "Nieuwe Hollandse Scheeps-bouw", first published in 1695. Polak notes that, though known as 'L'Allard français', it was more than a straightforward translation, being augmented with chapters by Witsen and van Eyk, and with plates representing vessels and nautical instruments as well as the flags of the maritime nations.

London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1806. 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1806 - Part II. Pp. 239-268. Having also the titlepage to the volume (Part II, 1806). A faint bit of soiling to outer right margin of the first 2 leaves, otherwise clean and wide-margined. First printing of this important paper relating Flinder's observations on the ship "Investigator" when exploring the coast of Australia. IN THE PAPER THE NAME "AUSTRALIA" APPEARS PROBABLY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A SCIENTIFIC MEMOIR (p. 247).The name Australia was popularised by Matthew Flinders, who pushed for the name to be formally adopted as early as 1804. When preparing his manuscript and charts for his 1814 A Voyage to Terra Australis, he was persuaded by his patron, Sir Joseph Banks, to use the term Terra Australis as this was the name most familiar to the public. Flinders did so, but allowed himself the footnote:"Had I permitted myself any innovation on the original term, it would have been to convert it to Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth." In the paper offered he used the name "Australia" as early as 1806."Captain Matthew Flinders RN (16 March 1774 - 19 July 1814) was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been known as New Holland. He survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned for violating the terms of his scientific passport by changing ships and carrying prohibited papers. He identified and corrected the effect upon compass readings of iron components and equipment on board wooden ships and he wrote what may be the first work on early Australian exploration A Voyage to Terra Australis."(Wikepedia)

Uppsala, Eschillus Matthiæ, 1637. Small 4to. Cont. full vellum over wood. Spine ends worn, tears to hinges, but not broken, lower edges of boards with old repairs. Some old ink annotations on boards. Inside frontcover and on title many old owner names, small wholes cut in titel without loss of letters. First ab. 20 leaves with a faint dampstain in upper margin, inkspots on last page. Internally clean. (24),350,(2) pp., numerous geometrical diagrams in the text. Scarce first edition of the first Swedish edition of Euclid's Elements (Book I-VI) with Gestrinius' commentaries to the axioms and porpositions and with his attempt of a proof of the "Parallel-axiom" (The Fifth Postulate). In the preface he discusses the use of plane-geometry in the theories of Aristoteles, Eudoxus, Ptolemy and Kepler. - Gastrinius (1594-1648) became professor of mathematics in Uppsala in 1621 after studies in Greifswald.Collijn (1600-Talet) I:310. - Riccardi p. 436 (1637,2) - Poggendorff I:889. - Not in Max Steck.

London, Harrison and Sons, 1928. Royal8vo. In the original printed wrappers. In "Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Vol. 117, No. 778". Black cloth backstrip pasted on to spine, otherwise a fine copy (without institutional stamps). [Dirac's paper:]Pp 610-624. [Entire issue:] Pp. 541-730, (2), XXXVI, X + 6 plates. First printing of Dirac's landmark paper in which he unified quantum mechanics and relativity and implied the existence of antimatter now known as the Dirac Equation; one of the great triumphs of theoretical physics which brought him on a par with the works of Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein before him. In 1933 he was awarded the Nobel Price in Physics "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory", a direct consequence of the present paper. "[The Dirac Equations] ranks among the highest achievements of twentieth-century science" (Pais, Inward Bound, p. 290)."In the Dirac equation not only quantum mechanics and the special theory of relativity were married, but also the spin of the electron is contained in it without any ad hoc assumption. But the equation not just beautifully described known phenomena, it did more. It predicted the existence of electrons with negative energy. This was at first held to be a severe problem of the theory but was finally understood as great progress, because negative-energy electrons could be interpreted as hitherto unknown particles. Thus, the existence of new particles was predicted which had all properties of the electron except for the electric charge. These particles were indeed found four years after the equation. Dirac is often quoted to have said that his equation 'contains most of physics and all of chemistry'." (Brandt, The Harvest of a Century)."Even with the many successful applications of quantum mechanics to spectroscopy and other areas of physics, the theory was not without problems. There was, for example, the question of the relationship between relativity and quantum mechanics. If quantum mechanics was really a fundamental theory of the microcosmos, it ought to be consistent with the fundamental theory of macroscopic bodies, the (special) theory of relativity. Yet it was obvious from the very beginning that this was not the case. It was not too difficult to construct a relativistic quantum wave equation, such as Schrödinger had already done privately and as Oskar Klein, Walter Gordon, and several other physicists did in 1926-27. Unfortunately, this equation, known as the Klein-Gordon equation, did not result in the correct fine structure of hydrogen and it proved impossible to combine it with the spin theory that Pauli had proposed in 1927. The solution appeared in January 1928, when Dirac published his classical paper on 'The Quantum Theory of the Electron', which included a relativistic wave equation that automatically incorporated the correct spin. Dirac's equation was of the same general form as Schrödinger's equation [...] and included matrices with four rows and four columns; correspondingly the Dirac wave function had four components. Most remarkably, without introducing the spinning electron in advance, the equation contained the correct spin. In a certain, unhistorical sense, had spin not been discovered empirically, it would have turned up deductively from Dirac's theory. The new theory was quickly accepted when it turned out that the Dirac eigenvalue equation for a hydrogen atom resulted in exactly the same energy equation that Sommerfeld had derived in 1916. Dirac's relativistic wave equation marked the end of the pioneering and heroic phase of quantum mechanics, and also marked the beginning of a new phase" (Kragh, Quantum Generations, p. 167)