Search Results

Basel, Brandmylleri, 1683. 4to. In a contemporary Cambridge-style mirror binding with five raised bands and richlt gilt spine. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Head of spine chipped, showing headbands. Small repair to spine. Lower outer corner of back board with large scratch showing the board underneath. Four-line note in contemporary hand to front free end-paper. Previous owner's name in contemporary hand to title-page. Internally fine and clean. (18), 354, 121, (1) pp. + 1 folded plate. First (only?) edition of mathematician Megerlin's work that combines mathematics, history, and theology to create a detailed historical and chronological analysis of divine governance from the creation of the world up to the second half of the 17th century. It is structured around the cycles of significant astronomical events, specifically the conjunctions and oppositions of Saturn and Jupiter, which recur approximately every 800 years. Peter Megerlin (1623–1686) was a German scholar and professor at the University of Basel. He was a theologian and mathematician and his work often reflected an interest in the intersection of these fields, of which this present work if a fine example. Megerlin famously tought Jacob Bernoulli, who later opposed his astrological interpretations of comet appearances. The work is of the utmost scarcity and we have only been able to trace one previous copy in the trade.

Kiøbenhavn, Godiche,1763-81. 4to. Indbundet i 7 ensartede, lidt senere, hldrbd. i flammet kalv. Rygforgyldning og forgyldte skindtitler på rygge. Stempel på titelblade. Spredte brunpletter og spredte svage skjolder især i de første bind. Letter brugsspor. Med samtlige 295 kobberstukne plancher, prospekter, kort etc. Nogle af kortene er opklæbet, enkelte repareret for rifter. En del plancher med bruning i marginer og foldninger. Originaltrykket af Danmarks topografiske hovedværk, her på trykpapir og med det ofte manglende bind 7 som omhandler Slesvig.

Basel, Io. Bebelium, 1534. Folio. Later full vellum. (18th cent.). Some minor cracks to hinge. A few brownspots to title-page and last leaf. Titlelabel with gilt lettering. Fol. (16),189, (1, verso with printers woodcut device) . First leaf of text w. a broad woodcut frame, made after Holbein. Many woodcut initials. Small stamp on titlepage and in one margin. A large exceptional clean copy The rare Basel-edition of Saxo. It is the second Saxo-edition, but it is rarer than the first. Ther present work constitute the first full history of Denmark for posterity and to this day the most important of all Danish historical publications. This magnificent work contains the first known written narrative of the legend of Hamlet and served as the basis for Shakespeare's play. Adams S,631. - Lauritz Nielsen, 241.

Paris, Crochard, 1825. 8vo. 2 contemporary half calfs w. richly gilt spines. Light wear at top of spines. Minor scratches to upper compartments of spines. Small stamps on verso of title-pages and verso of plates. 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). Clean and fine throughout. 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.

Venetia, Pietro Dusinelli, 1586. Folio. Nice later (around 1950) half polished calf, raised bands, 4 compartments gilt. Titlepage with a beautifull renaissance caryatid border in woodcut and with the coat of arms of the Duke of Aragon. Title with 2 small stamps. (4),92 leaves + 2 unnumbered leaves (at sign. T) with illustrations. Having 6 full-page and 29 smaller woodcut-iullustr. and 2 unnumb. plates. Clean and fine, with the illustrations in strong impressions. The opening initial in the preface has been cut out, with a bit of loss of a few letters on verso. The very rare first edition, the only edition in the original form, of Collado's famous work, being "the first really detailed, well-illustrated technical manual on both the theory and practice of artillery" (A.R. Hall in Ballistics in the 17th century)."The greatest interest of this work as far as pyrotechnics are concerned is contained in Chapter 11 which is entitled, "Of...fires which can be adopted for use in times of festivity...The text of the 1586 edition describes these items (a line rocket, a vertical and horizontal wheel, and a device called Spanish 'Las Granadas'), but they are not illustrated. This book contains some of the earliest and fullest descriptions of recreative fireworks." (Chris Philip, C 070.4)."Very rare, and one of the earliest works, if not the earliest, dealing exclusively with artillery. The numerous types of cannon figured are of great interest, while the work itself represents a fine specimen of typography." (Sotheran, Bibliotheca Chemico-Mathematica, vol. I, no 6987.Cockle (No 664) calls it "Very rare; the only ed. of the original form of Collado's famous work, Ayala, nor having seen it, gives the trans. of the Spanish "Platica" as a reprint of it."(Cockle). The "Platica" is a Spanish translation from 1592.

Kiøbenhaffn, Tyge Nielssøn, 1634. 4to. Samtidigt helldrbd. Ophøjede bind på ryggen. Rygforgyldning. Reparationer ved kapitæler. Falsen ved nederste rygfelt med revne og reparation. Indre false med gl. forstærkning således at det ikke helt kan afgøres, om teksten er indsat i et andet bind end det oprindelige. Titelbladet trykt i rødt og sort indenfor en røskenramme. (16),158 pp. (= 1-157, (158) er Errata. Ganske velbevaret og bredrandet. Tekst lettere brunet. Det yderst sjældne originaltryk af Bielckes væsentligste bidrag til revisionen af den norske Lowbog. Eksemplaret her har Errata-bladet, som iflg. Thesaurus kun findes i nogle få eksemplarer af værket. Bielcke blev i 1614 Norges Riges kansler og i dette embede blev han øverste chef for rigets retsvæsen. - Bogtrykkeren Tyge Nielssøn blev Norges første bogtrykker, idet han i 1643 flyttede sit trykkeri til Christiania.Bibl. Danica I,639. - Thesaurus I,383.

Amstelodami (Amsterdam), Johannes Jacobi Schipperi, 1657. Folio. Bound in one later (ca. 1800) hcalf w. marbled boards, uncut. Back w. six raised bands and coloured title-labels. Hinges, capitals and corners w. traces of use. First 12 leaves of "De Piscibus" w. repair to lower margin (ca. 4 x 10 cm. and decreasing) w. waterstaining around it, neither repair nor waterstaining affecting text or illustrations. Otherwise internally nice and clean. Engr. t-p. and 48 engr. plates (most of them depicting between 7 and 20 animals that live in water), 5, (3), 160 pp. (De Piscibus) + woodcut title-vignette and 20 engr. plates (most of them depicting between 10 and 20 shell-fish etc.), 58, (2) pp. Second edition of both works. The "Exanguibus Aquaticis" is in accordance with Nissen's description of the second edition (Nissen 2134), the second edition of the "De Piscibus", however, is described in Nissen without year and as containing 47 plates, as the first edition, whereas this copy has 48 plates (all numbered), place and printer are the same. The first editions were both printed in Frankfurt in 1650. Johnston (1603 - 1675) was born in Poland and of Scottish descend, he was primarily a medic and natural historian. His works are usually seen as compilations of information with no personal judgment accompanying it. None the less his works of natural history were of great importance to the growing interest in this field of the time. "For example four of his dictionary-style works on fish, birds, quadrupeds, and insects -published between 1650 and 1653 with excellent illustrations- were widely read and translated" (D.S.B. VII:164). Though he relied a lot on the writings of others (e.g. those of Aldrovandi), his works became of great importance, first of all because of their new educational approach, but they were also of paramount importance to the development of natural history in Japan. The first collected edition in Dutch of the Historia Naturalis published at Amsterdam in 1660, was presented as a gift to the Japanese ruler Shogun Yoshimune. It was the only source of knowledge of western natural history in Japan, until in 1750. "Jonston's writings were a useful contribution to seventeenth-century thought, although he was not in the forefront of changing concepts of the time." (D.S.B. VII:165).These two works are the separate volumes three and four of Johnston's six-volume work "Historia Naturalis". All the beautifully executed plates are by Merian, who printed the first edition. Wood mentions this 1657-edition as the "editio princeps" (Wood p. 409). Nissen 2133 + 2134.

[Cambridge], Printed for Leonard Greene (+ 2nd part: Cantrell Legge, Printer to the Vniuersitae of Cambridge), 1610. Small folio. Nice contemporary English full calf binding with 6 raised bands to spine, compartments gilt. Blindstamped line-borders and gilt ornamented centre-pieces to boards. All edges of boards gilt. Title-label removed from spine, gilding to edges of boards occasionally worn off. Wear to extremities. Inner hinges open into the cords, binding still tight, but boards don't close properly. 18th century inventory number to verso of fist leaf. Owner's inscription, dated "Ups. 1749" (i.e. Uppsala) to title-page. Old owner's name cut off from top of title-page, far from affecting lettering. Occasional minor browning or soiling, but all in all very nice and clean. Several woodcut ornamental vignettes and initials. 1 (blank, except for signature-mark "A"), 3 ff + pp. 1-196, 2 ff. (separate dated title-page for "The second booke of this commentarie vpon the diuine prophesie of Daniel" + dedication) + pp. 197-520, 8 ff (Table of the questions & Controversies + errata) + final blank. Fully complete. Several mispaginations. The very rare first edition (in the even scarcer variant-version with L. Greene's name as publisher in imprint) of Willet's highly praised commentary on on the prophesies of Daniel, which contains much valuable information and constitutes an important study of these, handling the most difficult questions and knotty controversies and introducing new writers and commentators. According to Lowndes, "This is considered the most valuable of all of Willet's productions."The work is highly praised in all bibliographies and studies on the subject. It seems to be the best work on the the prophesies of Daniel and indispensible for the study of these."A work of much information, as it contains the opinions of many authors on each point of difficulty. The author has written comments on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Samuel, Romans, Jude, and some detached parts of books; but in none does he discover more skill or judgment than in the present work." (Williams's C.P., 5th ed., 290, quoted by Allibone, A Critical Dectionary of English Literature..., Vol III, 1871)."All these works [i.e. the Commentaries and Expositions] of Willet, though somewhat tedious, contain valuable matter. He possessed a very considerable acquaintance with the Scriptures, and with the languages in which they were written. The work on Daniel is considered as the most valuable. " (Orme: Bibl. Bib., 469, quoted by Allibone, A Critical Dectionary of English Literature..., Vol III, 1871).Andrew Willet (1562 -1621), born in Ely, was an important and famous English clergyman and controversialist. A prolific writer, he is known for his anti-papal works and his Calvinist, conforming and non-separatist views. He was very well known in his time, and much admired. He appeared as a witness against Edward Dering before the Star-chamber. Joseph Hall eulogised him in "Noah's Dove", and Thomas Fuller modeled 'the Controversial Divine' of his "Holy State" upon him. - For more information on Willet, please see the 7 column entry on him in the Dictionary of National Biography.Lowndes V:2927.

London [recte: Amsterdam, M.M. Rey], 1773. 8vo. Bound in one beautiful contemporary full mottled calf binding with five raised bands to richly gilt spine; triple gilt line-borders to boards and inner gilt dentelles. Edges of boards with single gilt line. All edges gilt. Corners abit bumped and a bit of overall wear. Inner hinges a bit weak. Internally very fine and clean. All in all a very fine copy indeed. (4), 210; 176; 167 pp. With all three half-titles, all three title-pages and all three indexes, as well as the introduction. The rare first edition, first issue (though Tchermerzine mentions an unknown 2-volume-edition form the same year - this edition has never been verified), of one of d'Holbach's most important works, his influential "social" and political continuation of his seminal main work "Systeme de la nature" - the bible of materialism. D'Holbach (1723-1789), who was raised by a wealthy uncle, whom he inherited, together with his title of Baron, in 1753, maintained one of the most famous salons in Paris. This salon became the social and intellectual centre for the Encyclopédie, which was edited by Diderot and d'Alembert, whom he became closely connected with. D'Holbach himself also contributed decisively to the Encyclopédie, with at least 400 signed contributions, and probably as many unsigned, between 1752 and 1765. The "Côterie holbachique" or "the café of Europe", as the salon was known, attracted the most brilliant scientists, philosophers, writers and artists of the time (e.g. Diderot, d'Alembert, Helvetius, Voltaire, Hume, Sterne etc, etc.), and it became one of the most important gathering-places for the exchange of philosophical, scientific and political views under the "ancient régime". Apart from developing several foundational theories of seminal scientific and philosophical value, D'Holbach became known as one of the most skilled propagators and popularizers of scientific and philosophical ideas, promoting scientific progress and spreading philosophical ideas in a new and highly effective manner. D'Holbach was himself the most audacious philosophe of this circle. During the 1760's he caused numerous anticlerical tracts (written in large, but not entirely, by himself) to be clandestinely printed abroad and illegally circulated in France. His philosophical masterpiece, the "Système de la nature, ou des lois du monde physique et du monde moral", a methodological and intransigent affirmation of materialism and atheism, appeared anonymously in 1770" (D.S.B. VI:468), as did the social and political follow-up of it, the famous "Systême social" in 1773. That is to say, Mirabeau whom he had used as the author on the "System of Nature" in 1770 is not mentioned in the "Social System", on the title-page of which is merely stated "By the Author of "Systême de la Nature". As the theories of d'Holbach's two systematic works were at least as anticlerical and unaccepted as those of his smaller tracts, and on top of that so well presented and so convincing, it would have been dangerous for him to print any of them under his own name, and even under the name of the city or printer. Thus, "Systême de la Nature" appeared pseudonomously under the name of the secretary of the Académie Francaise, J.B. Mirabaud, who had died 10 years earlier, and under a fictive place of printing, namely London instead of Amsterdam. "He could not publish safely under his own name, but had the ingenious idea of using the names of recently dead French authors. Thus, in 1770, his most famous book, "The System of Nature", appeared under the name Jean-Baptiste Mirabaud." (PMM 215), and so the next "System" also appeared in the same manner three years later.In his "Systême de la Nature", d'Holbach had presented philosophical materialism in an actual system for the first time and had created a work that dared unite the essence of all the essential material of the English and French Enlightenment and incorporate it into a closed materialistic system; on the basis of a completely materialistic and atheistic foundation, he provided the modern world with a moral and ethic philosophy, the effects of which were tremendous. It is this materialism and atheism that he continues three years later in his next systematic work "Systême social", through which politics, morality, and sociology are also incorporated into his system and take the place of the Christianity that he had so fiercely attacked earlier on. In this great work he extends his ethical views to the state and continues the description of human interest from "Systême de la Nature" by developing a notion of the just state (by d'Holbach calle "ethocracy") that is to secure general welfare. "Système social (1773; "Social System") placed morality and politics in a utilitarian framework wherein duty became prudent self-interest." (Encyclopaedia Brittanica). "Holbach's foundational view is that the most valuable thing a person seeking self-preservation can do is to unite with another person: "Man is of all beings the most necessary to man" (Sysème social, 76; cf. Spinoza's Ethics IVP35C1, C2, and S). Society, when it is just, unites for the common purpose of preservation and the securing of welfare, and society contracts with government for this purpose." (SEP).As the "Systême de la Nature" had been condemned to burning in the year of its publication, so the "Systême social" was on the list of books to be confiscated already in 1773, and it was placed on the Index of the Church in August 1775. As the "Systême de la Nature", the "Systême social" is thus also of great scarcity. Another edition of the work appeared later the same year, in 12mo. Tchermerzine says that "Il ya une édition, que nous ne connaissons pas, en 2 vol. in-8. C'est sans doute l'originale." The present edition was reprinted the following year, in 1774.Tschermerzine VI:246; Graesse III:317; Barbier IV:622 (only listing later editions).

Paris, 1529 (Colophon: 24 Mars 1524 pour Francoys Regnault) - Colophon: 2. Daoust (August) pour maistre Enguillebert de Marnef, 1524. Large 4to. (27 x 20 cm.). Contemp. full calf. Panelled covers with blindtooled rolls, inner panel with cornerpieces and in the middle an oval arabesque medaillon. 5 raised bands. Upper and lower compartments of spine repaired. 2 small nicks at bands on spine. light wear along fronthinge. Corners neathly repaired. Collation (Cronique et Histoire): Title-page with large and broad ornamental woodcut borders consisting of 6 pieces. A large printers woodcut device. Ff (4) + Ff 106. Colophon on folio CVI (106, some misfoliation - signatures correct). - Collation (Croniques Charles VIII): Title-page printed in red and black inside large ornamental woodcut borders. In the middle printers woodcut device.Ff (4) + Ff 54. Colophon on LIIII (54 - many misfoliations - signatures correct). On F (4) Arms of France in a large woodcut. Some annotations in a contemporary hand. - Both work with many large initials in woodcut. Lower margins throughout browned and with some repairs, some leaves in the middle having some heavy wormtracts in lower margins. Some corners at end restored. In the second work a wormtract in outer margins, but decreasing toward end. Upper right corners with a faint dampstain. Scarce early editions of these works that only later obtained the name of "Memoires", and they are a major primary source for 15th century European history. Commines is called "the first critical and philosophical historian since classical times" and "the first truly modern writer"."In 1498 (fifteen years after the death of Louis XI of France), Commines's work was completed (first published in 1524 in Paris), and is considered a historical record of immense importance, largely because of its author's cynical and forthright attitude to the events and machinations he had witnessed. His writings reveal many of the less savory aspects of the reign of Louis XI, and Commines related them without apology, insisting that the late king's virtues outweighed his vices. He is regarded as a major primary source for 15th century European history."The Mémoires are divided into "books", the first six of which were written between 1488 and 1494, and relate the course of events from the beginning of Commines' career (1464) up to the death of King Louis. The remaining two books were written between 1497 and 1501 (printed in 1528), and deal with the Italian wars, ending in the death of King Charles VIII of France."Brunet II,189-190. - Adams 2441 and Adams 2443 (but not quite the same collation). - Tchemerzine III, 452-54 (but differences in collations).

Wittenberg, 1791-1803). 8vo. 3 cont. full calf, gilt borders on covers. Backs formerly richly gilt, gilding now weak. The 3 textvolumes lacks, this is the atlas bound in 3 volumes with all 445 beautiful handcoloured engraved plates, where the details of the plants are cared for. Nissen: 1763. Pritzel: 8202. First edition. The numbering of the plates corresponds with that given by Nissen regarding the "1.Auflage".

Paris, L. Hachette et Cie, 1860-1914. 4to. Bound in 88 uniform contemporary half calf bindings with 5 raised bands (except for two volumes in half cloth). (Each year up to 1894 in 2 parts, 1895-1914 each year in one volume). Some top of spines with wear, some traces of use, otherwise a fine set. Profusely illustrated with large wood-cuts (full-page, half-page and smaller) and maps. A fine set of Eduard Charton's famous weekly magazine dedicated to travel and exploration. He described in detail most of the great expeditions which marked the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the last great period of exploration by Western travelers, including the discovery of the source of the Nile in the early 1860s to the conquest of the South Pole by the end of 1911.

Amsterdam, Marc-Michel Rey, 1769-70 and 1770. Bound in two fine uniform cont. hcalf., raised bands, gilt back, tome-and title-labels gilt. (Chappe in the first volume and Kracheninnikow in the second). 2 htitles, 2 titles. (4),VIII,(4),686 pp. 7 engraved plates (incl. folded frontispiece) and 5 folded tables. - 2 htitles, 2 titles (each with engraved vignette). (4),XVI,439;(4),492 pp. + Avis au Relieur, and 7 folded engraved plates, 2 large folded engraved maps. Printed on fine clean writing-paper. These two separate works were issued by the same printer at the same time, but are independent treatises. They both remain fundamental texts of Siberian scholarship, and both are some of the first descriptions at all of the areas concerned. First issued in Paris 1761 together with an atlas. Chappe: second edition of his work. Kracheninnikow: the third edition, but the first translated directly from the Russian and approved by a member of the Academy in St. Petersbourg. The first French, the first English and the first German editions were only issued in abridged form. The first Russian edition appeared in 1755. Kracheninnikow joined the Russian scientific expedition to East Siberia, lead by Gmelin, and he was the only member of the expedition to penetrate Kamtchatka; he stayed there for four years. The work contains a detailed description of the North-east Coast of America, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands and thus constitutes one of the first descriptions at all of these parts of the world. Sabin 38304. - Brunet I:1798.

(Oldenburg, Warner Berendts Erben), 1599. Folio. Contemp. full calf. Richly gilt spine. Titlelabel gone. Engraved ornamental title-page. (86),494,(18) incl. (2) blank. Profusely textillustrated with engravings and woodcuts among them the full-page portrait of the author, a full-page view of Oldenburg, 3 folded genealogical tables and the double-page engraved elevated plan of Oldenburg. Internally clean and fine. First edition. Hamelmann's Chronicon is the first book to be printed in Oldenburg (Brunet) and it is the historical source work for the "House of Oldenburg" whose descendents became kings of Denmark and emperors of Russia. -Adams H 30.

Dresden und Leipzig, Hilschern, 1736. + Dresden, Zimmermann, 1718. Folio. Bound in one contemp. full calf. Raised bands. Richly gilt compartments. Titlelabel with gilt lettering. Light wear to top of spine. A paperlabel pasted on lower compartment. Stamp on title-page. MIETH: Engraved, double-page frontispiece. (2),192,(2) pp., 32 double-page (or triple) folded engraved plates. Clean and fine. + GEISSLER: Engraved frontispiece. Title-page in red/black. (16),177,(4) pp. (pp. 5-13 a. 119 engraved), 3 engraved plates, 175 larger and smaller engravings in the text. The portrait of Geissler missing (supplied in xerox-copi). A few leaves with light browning. Mieth is third edition of his "Artilleriae Recentior Praxis", 1684. - Sloos. Warfare and the Age of Printing, 7048. - Rumpf, 1300.Geissler is first edition. - Sloos. Warfare and the Age of Printing, 7041. - Rumpf, 1120.

Franckfurt, Jacobi di Zetter, 1620. Folio. Old full vellum made out of manuscript vellum leaves (from 15th century with letters in red and black, 1 coloured initial, 2 columns, a bible-commentary). Re-backed, 3/4 of the old vellum-back preserved. Remains of blue and yellow ties. Fine engraved pictorial title (canons, equipment etc.), (12),145,(3) pp. and 15 double-page engraved plates, 8 showing artillery in function, technical descriptions, and diving equipments shown on plate 14 !!) - Second Part with fine engraved title (showing bombs and fireworks),(8),71,(5) pp. and 9 double-page engraved plates showing different kinds of fireworks. A few, mainly marginal brownspots and some faint browning to leaves. With exlibris from "Comit: Fuggeri 1630 (?)" in old hand on title. On fol. 2 a later rubberstamp: "Fürstliche Fuggersche Bibliothek in Augsburg". First German edition, complete with 24 engraved plates. The first part deals mainly with the artillery and its technical aspects and the second part with fireworks; the constituents and constructions are described on 71 pages and depicted. The diving equipments depicted on plate 14 in the first part consist of an inflated bladder which is attached to a belt and an iron-head with a long snorkel and some air-pumps used for diving activities.The Italian physician, alchemist and cartographer, Alexis of Piedmont or Girolamo Ruscelli, was born in Viterbo, Italy around 1500 (perhaps earlier), and died in Venice, Italy around 1565. He is (probably) the author of the important "Secreti", published in 1555, and the "Secreti Nuovi", published in 1567, the first of which was extremely popular and of considerable influence, the second of which must be said to be of the greatest interest, but apparently not very widely read. He also translated the Geography of Ptolemy into Italian, and his books on war and fire-works are now quite scarce. Most of his works were popular in his life-time and the century to come, and they were translated into Latin, German, French and Welsh. At a very early point he indicated the plan of a scientific academy, and he must be said to be a very interesting 16th century scientist.

Paris, 1898. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with five raised bands, gilt spine. Single gilt lines to boards. Capitals and corners worn. Inner hinges a bit weak. With Eugen Zabel's book plate to inside of front board, a postcard depicting Edmond Rostand's residense at Cambo, obviously posttamped on verso, pasted on to front free end-paper, contemporary newspaper-clipping about the numerous performances of "Cyrano von Bergerac" around the world pasted in to hinge of fly-leaf, where the presentation-inscription (for Eugène Zabel) is written, and finally, the original handwritten address in Rostand's hand, cut out from the envelope in which the book was sent to Zabel, is pased into hinge of half-title. Internally nice and clean. First edition, 136th thousand (same year as the first), presentation-copy "à M. Eugène Zabel/ très cordial envoi, -/ remerciement, -/ et sympathie./ Edmond Rostand/ Octobre 98" of Rostand's masterpiece, which against all odds became one of the most popular plays of the century and an overnight success throughout Europe.At the end of the 19th century in France, as well as in the rest of Europe, the industrialization was the force that dominated almost all aspects of society, i.e. everything from politics and sociology to science, art, philosophy, etc. And thus, also literature and theatre in this period were products of this new power. This meant that the trend that became prevailing within literature and drama was that of realism, which in France soon developed into naturalism. In the midst of this all-encompassing emphasis on objective documentation of everyday life which rejected romance, idealization and dreaming of any kind, emerged suddenly a work that no one could believe would have any success whatsoever, but which against all odds became the hugest dramaturgical success of the period and a theatrical monument that has been remembered ever since and which still stands as thus: Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac", the unlikely play about romantic heroes, fairy-tale like maidens, medieval-inspired sword-fights, about poetry, love, and art. The play had been taken on already in 1897, when the manuscript was finished, but the directors of the theatre regretted their decision immediately, not least due to the public reaction to the "outdated" romantic comedy-drama, which nobody would want to go see, and thus they severely cut the budget so that Rostand had to pay for all the costumes himself. Even the actor playing the main part, a leading actor at the time, regretted having taken the part, and Rostand is reported to have apologized to him for involving him in this "disastrous adventure". "Therefore, when the curtain rose on "Cyrano de Bergerac" for the first time on December 28, 1897, expectations were low. The audience, however, was about to be pleasantly surprised. From the hero's last first majestic entrance to his last farewell, he transfixed his viewers. Theatergoers cheered Cyrano's triumphs, sighed at his suffering, laughed at his witty wordplay, and cried as his fate became known. A full hour after the curtain fell, the audience was still applauding thunderously. It is not easy to explain why Rostand's play confounded everyone by becoming one of the century's greatest smash hits. Perhaps the answer lies in "Cyrano de Bergerac's" stark contrast to the grimly realistic plays of its day, which often focused on modern society's darkest problems. The figure of the swashbuckling Cyrano dueling his way across the stage and stunning his compatriots with his verbal cleverness took Paris by storm. In fact, many critics, both of Rostand's time and later, attributed the play's tremendous success to its romanticism, or emphasis on idealism and heroism." (Glencoe Literature Library, Study Guide for Cyrano de Bergerac).The work immediately became a huge success and within a very short amount of time, it had been translated into almost all European languages and was performed at theatres throughout Europe.Eugen Zabel was a famous literary critic and author, who at the time of "Cyrano de Bergerac" was editor of the "Nationalzeitung". He was born in Königsberg in 1851 and died in Berlin in 1925. In his youth he wrote poems, and after his move to Berlin, he worked as a journalist, critic, and writer. He did a lot of work on Russian themes, both political, historical, topographical, and literary, and he became closely connected to the country. He was highly respected for his liiterary criticism and his opinions, though often controversial, played an important role in public opiniation.

Torino, Bocca, 1887 + 1888. Royal 8vo. Bound uncut w. the original wrappers of both works in one very nice a bit later (ab. 1920) red hcalf w. five raied bands to back. Single gilt lines to raised bands and gilt title on spine. A bit of soiling to wrappers, which have minor lacks to the inner hinges, where they are mounted onto hinge-strips. Front-wrappers w. stamp from "Fratelli Bocca Editori". A bit of brownspotting, mainly to first work. A very fine and attractive copy of these two works, very finely bound together. XII, 334, (2) + X, (2), 170, (2) pp. Two rare and important first editions by the famous Italian mathematician, logical philosopher, pioneer of symbolic logic, and a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, Giuseppe Peano, uniting his first publication in logic with his introduction of the basic elements of geometric calculus. The present "Calcolo geometrico secondo l'Ausdehningslehre de H. Grassmann" contains a twenty-page long preliminary section on the operations of deductive logic, which constitutes Peano' s very first publication on the subject for which he is most famous, namely logic. This work appeared the year before his seminal "Arithmetices Principia...", in which he further improves his logical symbolism, which is introduced in the preliminary section of the present work. "This section, which has almost no connection with the rest of the text, is a synthesis of, and improvement on, some of the work of Boole, Schröder, Peirce, and McColl." (D.S.B. X:442).In the other present work, "Applicazioni geometriche del calcolo infinitesimale", Peano introduces the basic elements of geometric calculus and gives new definitions for the length of an arc and for the area of a curved surface. This important work (in which not only his geometrical calculus is introduced, but in which he also presented several new geometrical discoveries) is based on his lectures on infinitesimal calculus and its application to geometry from 1885. "The treatise "Applicazioni geometriche del calcolo infinitesimal" (1887) was based on a course Peano began teaching at the University of Turin in 1885 and contains the beginnings of his "geometrical calculus" (here still influenced by Bellavitis' method of equipolences), new forms of remainders in quadrature formulas, new definitions of length of an arc of a curve and of area of a surface, the notion of a figure tangent to a curve, a determination of the error term in Simpson's formula, and the notion of the limit of a variable figure. There is also a discussion of the measure of a point set, of additive functions of sets, and of integration applied to sets. Peano here generalized the notion of measure that he had introduced in 1883." (D.S.B. X:443). Peano (1858 -1932) studied mathematics at the University of Turin, where he was employed just after graduating (1880), and where he stayed almost all of his life, devoting this to mathematics. After having graduated with honours, he was employed to assist first Enrico D'Ovidio, and then the renowned Angelo Genocchi, who possessed the chair of Infinitesimal calculus. In 1890 Peano became extraordinary professor, and in 1895 ordinary professor, of infinitesimal calculus at the Unversity of Turin. Cellerino (Guiseppe Peano e la sua scuola. Catalogo monografico): Nr. 2 + 3. 2: "Il più alto raggiunto dai matematici del XIX secolo nell'elaborazione della teoria delle funzioni di insiemi, è il V capitolo del libro di Peano..." F.A. Medvedev."

Brussels, 1712. Folio (512 x 315 mm). In contemporary half calf with seven raised bands. Spine and hindges with wear. Leather brittle and upper and lower 10 cm hindges detached. Two library labels pasted on to pasted down front end-paper. Upper margin of first three leaves blind-stamped. Handwritten (19th century hand) index mounted in on verso of first map and each map numbered. With 75 maps and plans, many double-page or folding: 24 cartes des Pays Bas, Carte générale de Brabant, Carte du Pays de Waes, Carte des Postes d'Allemagne, 48 plans des Villes, Sièges & Batailles (complete). 3 maps with minor marginal tear (outside plate), 2 with minor split to lower part of middle folding. A few maps at end with browning. A few plates (primarily 61, 50, 33, 25) heavily trimmed with slight loss to upper margin. An overall fine and clean copy. First edition of Fricx’s famous atlas consisting of topographical maps, plans of towns, fortresses, sieges and battlefields. Today Fricx is considered one of the most important map publishers in the Southern Netherlands in the 18th century. This collection of maps and plans of fortifications is also known under the title ‘Recueil des cartes des provinces meridionales des Pays Bas et des frontiers de la France. The first 24 maps form together a topographical maps of the Southern Netherlands, scale 1:115.000. Most of the plates were engraved by Jacob Harrewijn. These maps were based on military maps by French engineers and show an accurate representation of the topography. The importance of the map of the Spanish Netherlands is demonstrated by the fact that the 24 sheets were copied in Paris, Augsburg, and Amsterdam. The maps were also published separately. “The bookseller and printer, Eugéne Henri Fricx, was one of the most important map publishers of the Southern Netherlands in the 18th century. He lived in Brussels where he had his shop on Rue de la Madeleine. His activities in the field started in 1706 with the production of military plans of battles and sieges of the War of Succession. In the same year,he also stated the publication of the map of the Southern Netherlands in 24 sheets; it was finished in 1712, apart from the sheet Luxemborg, which was engraved in 1727. He employed Jean Harrewijn of Brussels as an engraver and Cornelis Marke of Middelburg as a contractor for the ‘enluminators’. Although he had children, his business was not continued after his death (about 1740). His map of the Southern Netherlands was copied by Covens & Mortier and sold until ca. 1780, when it was replaced by Ferraris’ Map of the Austrian Netherlands.” (Koeman II, Fri1) Koeman II, Fri1

1997. Small folio. Entire volume of no. 6619 of Nature, in the original illustrated wrappers, with the cloned sheep Dolly on the front wrapper. Very minor signs of wear to corners and capitals. Original label with address of original buyer to front wrapper. An excellent, clean and fresh copy. Pp. 810-13. [Entire volume: 753-844, 44 pp. (Classified) + 3 subscription-leaves]. Richly illustrated. The scarce volume of Nature, in which the completey groundbreaking article on Dolly the sheep, the first mammal in history successfully cloned fron an adult body cell, appears for the first time. This seminal paper constitutes a milestone in the history of genetics, a spectacular scientific breakthrough, which not only provided the modern world with a wealth of new medical advances and sparked a revolution in our understanding of mammal reproduction, ageing, genetics in general, etc., but also raised a storm of ethical questions, pushing our boundaries of man's abilities to play God. "Dolly was an important milestone, inspiring scientists to continue improving cloning technology as well as to pursue new concepts in stem cell research. The endgame was never meant to be armies of genetically identical livestock: Rather, researchers continue to refine the techniques and combine them with other methods to turbocharge traditional animal breeding methods as well as gain insights into aging and disease." (George Seidel, in The Conversation)."[I]n February 1997, Ian (now Sir Ian) Wilmut and his research team at the Roslin Institute announced Dolly’s birth in the prestigious science journal "Nature". This provoked political and ethical debates that have never truly stopped... issues relating to cloning technology remain crucial to debates over biomedical research and its regulation.The announcement - with a description of the method used to bring Dolly into existence - triggered a feverish worldwide response because of the possible implications for human cloning. It was immediately obvious that SCNT could, in principle, be used to create human babies. Across the world, many countries banned human cloning - often with significant punishments, such as lengthy jail terms, even for attempting such a thing." (Russell Blackford in The Coversation)Dolly is now the symbol of modern medical technology, of our exitement with mankind's ability to create specific kinds of life as well as the symol of the fear of a "brave new world". "It’s been 20 years since scientists in Scotland told the world about Dolly the sheep, the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult body cell. What was special about Dolly is that her "parents" were actually a single cell originating from mammary tissue of an adult ewe. Dolly was an exact genetic copy of that sheep - a clone." (George Seidel, in The Conversation)."Before the decades of experiments that led to Dolly, it was thought that normal animals could be produced only by fertilization of an egg by a sperm. That's how things naturally work. These germ cells are the only ones in the body that have their genetic material all jumbled up and in half the quantity of every other kind of cell. That way when these so-called haploid cells come together at fertilization, they produce one cell with the full complement of DNA. Joined together, the cell is termed diploid, for twice, or double. Two halves make a whole....In contrast, Dolly was produced by what's called somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this process, researchers remove the genetic material from an egg and replace it with the nucleus of some other body cell. The resulting egg becomes a factory to produce an embryo that develops into an offspring. No sperm is in the picture; instead of half the genetic material coming from a sperm and half from an egg, it all comes from a single cell. It's diploid from the start....To date, the most valuable contribution of these somatic cell nuclear transplantation experiments has been the scientific information and insights gained. They’ve enhanced our understanding of normal and abnormal embryonic development, including aspects of aging, and more. This information is already helping reduce birth defects, improve methods of circumventing infertility, develop tools to fight certain cancers and even decrease some of the negative consequences of aging - in livestock and even in people. Two decades since Dolly, important applications are still evolving." (George Seidel, in The Conversation).

Leipzig, Ambrosius Barth, 1916. 8vo. Uncut in the original printed wrappers. Top part of spine loosening, but fully intact and completely unrestored. A bit of dusting to wrappers. Front wrapper with some mild brownspotting to upper part and left margin. Lower right corner has been bent, leaving a crease. A few nicks to extremities. Title-page with light brownspotting to upper margin and an old owner's name across the middle ("Ernst Helmut Klein"). 64 pp. First issue of the first edition in book form, being, not an offprint of the"Annalen der Physik" journal issue as often stated, but a separate edition of the paper, completely re-set and with significant changes and additions, including for the first time in print the "Einleitung" and the "Inhalt".The first issue is distinguished from the later reprints by the printing of "Sonderdruck aus dem "Annalen der Physik" Band 49, 1916", and "Druck von Metzger & Wittig in Leipzig. 314" to the verso of the title-page and "Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig" to the foot of the back wrapper. Furthermore, "This separate edition is printed on good, strong paper, the wrappers are of strong material too, and it is described now as 'the original edition' of this classic paper" (Weil). Einstein's seminal "General Theory of Relativity" has had an immense impact on all science, philosophy, and man's view of the world in general. Few other books of the 20th century can be said to have so basically altered the way that we view the world and our place in it. Determining space and time as being interwoven into a single continuum known as "space-time" and determining that there is no absolute space-time coordinate system - i.e. that there are no absolute positions in time and pace - established the fact that events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another, i.e. all positions in space and time are relative. This general theory of relativity, here presented in its full exposition for the first time, in book form, is now a basic foundation for scientific thought."The theory of relativity has transformed astrophysics, and indeed the whole scientific outlook." (PMM)."Whereas Special Relativity had brought under one set of laws the electromagnetic world of Maxwell and Newtonian mechanics as far as they applied to bodies in uniform relative motion, The General Theory did the same thing for bodies with the accelerated relative motion epitomized in the acceleration of gravity. But first it had been necessary for Einstein to develop the true nature of gravity from his principle of equivalence...Basically, he proposed that gravity was a function of matter itself and that its effects were transmitted between contiguous portions of space-time... Where matter exists, so does energy; the greater the mass of matter involved, the greater the effect of the energy which can be transmitted. In addition, gravity affected light... exactly as it affected material particles. Thus the universe which Newton had seen, and for which he had constructed his apparently impeccable mechanical laws, was not the real universe... Einstein's paper gave not only a correct picture of the universe but also a fresh set of mechanical laws by which its details could be described" (R.W. Clark). "This paper was the first comprehensive overview of the final version of Einstein's general theory of relativity after several expositions of preliminary versions and latest revisions of the theory in November 1915. It includes a self-contained exposition of the elements of the tensor calculus that are needed for the theory. (T. Sauer in Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics). PMM: 408. - Horblit 26 c. - Weil 80. - Boni: 78,1 - Schilpp-Schields: 86.

Coloniae, Ioannem Gymnicum, 1591. 4to. Bound in a very nice contemporary full calf with five raised bands, rebacked with the contemporary spine. Richly gilt spine and gilt lines to edges of boards. Contemporary handwriting to top of pasted down front free end paper. Pp. 777-798 with wormholes in margin, not affecting text. A very fine and clean copy. (76), 798 pp.(As usual with the typopgraphical errors: pp. 139, 234, 267,353, 685, 768 are numbered as 339, 202, 263, 343, 645, 778. These errors are to be found in all published copies. See Einaudi 737). Scarce first edition of one of the earliest - and most important - works on coinage, dealing with weight and measure, as well as the value and devaluation of money. Apart from the seminal original contribution of Budel, this extensive work contains 29 contributions by earlier philosophers and theologians on the subject, - "a compilation of almost every earlier treatise on the subject" - which, in a true Renaissance spirit, makes it the very first compilation in economic history." "De Monetis et re numaria" remained the standard work on the subject for almost two centuries". (Nussbaum, A Note on the Idea of World Money). During the Renaissance, international banking saw a rise, which eventually resulted in a demand for one uniform European coinage. Budelius' thesis can be read as an ideological response to this demand, as he argued for precisely that: a unified market with one universal coinage. In this sense, his work anticipates by several hundred years many of the economic thoughts presented by the Classical economists during the second half of 18th century. Budelius discusses the metallic view and the abuse of adulteration and falsification, and then attempts an exposition of how money may be coined in the most practical way. He then goes on to deal with the problem of how a debtor will meet his obligations if the coinage has been debased since the time the debt was contacted or the loan received. He maintaind that the same bullion value must be repaid although the coin may be depreciated - a view that was generally accepted at the time.The third part of the work consists of a "compilation of almost every earlier treatise on the subject. In nearly all of them, the central problem is the same as the one discussed in the second book of Budelius' work". (Mariana ,The political economy of Juan de Mariana).The general thesis of Budelius' work is that the trading partners should seek to use only one currency and that the law of coinage and money's "natural state" (an early reference to how money behave in the market) should be unified. In the period of the Cologne War, Germany had several different currencies and laws in relation to coinage and minting of coins. This not only restrained the domestic trade in Germany, it also lead to armed conflict which again resulted in a more fragmented economy. Budelius's work can be read as an attempt to unify Germany (and the rest of Europe) under one currency, which also would serve the purpose of stabilizing the highly volatile curriencies during this period: "The widely cited Rene Budel (1591) held it "to be indubitable that a Prince in the midst of costly wars, and therefore in great necessity, can order that money be made out of leather, bark, salt, or any material he wants, if he is careful to repair the loss inflicted thereby on the community with good and better money". (Cambridge Companion to Economic Thought). In the sense of unifying Europe under one currency, Budelius seperates himself from not only Medieval monetary thinkers, but from his contemporary mercantilists as well: "The medieval literature on money is characterized by nascent nationalism, with the imagery of the body applied to the kingdom, and of money as the blood moving through its parts. Nicole Oresme’s De Moneta pointed out that if money is accumulated in the king’s treasury and withdrawn from circulation, it constitutes an abscess in the body." (Cambridge Companion to Economic Thought). His comments represent the synthesis of two traditions, one uncovering the theoretical possibility of fiat money, the other uncovering its practical usefulness, as means of raising revenues in emergencies, from examples taken from history. Budelius cites examples of copper petty coinage in Germany and the Low countries, and gives examples of siege money. From Maastricht in 1579 (copper), Vienna in 1529 (lead), tin in Neuss, and even paper siege money in Leyden in 1574. He then writes: "I hold this to be indubitable, as I recall a little earlier, that a Prince in the midst of costly wars, and therefore in great necessity, can order that money be made out of leather, bark, salt, or any material he wants, if he is careful to repair the loss inflicted thereby on the community with good and better money." The insights of Budel about token money were to be tested by some experiments in the coming years and were carried further by important theorists in the Renaissance and later. Budelius (1530-91), was a practitioner, a jurist by training, who worked as diplomat for the archbishop of Cologne, and later as mint-master in Westphalia for the duke of Bavaria. This is reflected in his practical and empirical approach to the economic challenges the Renaissance society was subjected to, unlike the more often seen theoretical and moral approach. Goldsmith 254Mattioli 451 Einaudi 737 Adams 3153; Smith, Rara Arithmetica 396: "A monumental work".

Paris, The Olympia Press, (1958). Original printed green wrappers. Green border on title-page. Spine a bit worn, with minor loss of upper layer of paper to hinges and capitals. Light wear to extremities. Lower corner of front wrapper slightly bent. Internally nice and clean. The scarce first edition, first issue (Traveler's Companion Series, number 64, printed October 1958, with the Francs 1.200 to back wrapper, not overstamped. - N.B. the 1.200 has been crossed out by hand, with a pen, but it is NOT stamped over) of Southern and Hoffenberg's greatly scandalous novel, which was confiscated by the Brigade Mondaine (i.e. "La Brigade de répression du proxénétisme" (BRP)) and officially banned in France. "Candy" not only caused an inevitable furor for its vulgar take on contemporary culture, but brought about landmark changes in how the First Amendment applied to erotic literature. The work, which constitutes the unison of three greatly provocative and time-changing minds (Southern, Hoffenberg, and Girodias), quickly gained classic status and is now one of the most famous "Beat"-novels. It was famously made into an all-star film (starring Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, Charles Aznavour, John Huston, Ringo Starr, Walter Matthau, John Astin, and Ewa Aulin) by Christian Marquand in 1968, and in 2006 Playboy Magazine listed it among the "25 Sexiest Novels Ever Written", describing the story as a "young heroine's picaresque travels, a kind of sexual pinball machine that lights up academia, gardeners, the medical profession, mystics and bohemians."The work was published pseudonymously by Maurice Girodias, owner of the scandalous "Olympia Press", in October of 1958. Almost immediately noticed by the BRP, who seized copies of it in the Paris bookshops, "Candy" was officially banned in France in May of 1959 (under a statute called the "1939 Decree", an amendment to the law of 1881, which gave the French government more power to ban offensive publications in foreign languages).In December of 1958, Maurice Girodias changed the title of "Candy" and reissued it as "Lollipop" in order to fool sensors and sell the remaining copies of the work. This supposedly work quite well and many copies of the book survived thus, leaving the first edition with the original title quite a scarcity, both in the first (not-overstamped) issue and the second issue. Later on, "Candy" was published in North America, by Putnam, under the authors' own names, those being Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. In an interview, Terry Southern explains the origin of the pseudonym as thus: "Yeah. And the name of the author was Maxwell Kenton. A name I first used with David Burnett, of all people. He was the son of Martha Foley and Whit Burnett of The Best American Short Stories fame. We were collaborating on some short detective stuff, and even sold a couple to Argosy Magazine, and we used the pseudonym 'Maxwell Kenton'. So when Mason at one point had an attack of conscience and said, "Man, I've decided I don't want my mother to know about this book," we took the name Maxwell Kenton so his mother would be spared anguish at her Mah-Jong parties." (Smoke Signals).Terry Southern, though mostly famous for his bestseller "Candy", which greatly influenced popular culture of the 1960'ies, was known for a lot of things, including writing much of the film dialogue of the landmark films "Dr. Strangelove" and "Easy Rider". In his "The Candy Men. The Rollicking Life and Times of the Notorious Novel "Candy"", Nile Southern tells the story of the book, the men behind it, and the furor that it caused: "When I was in grade school in 1967, one of my six-year-old classmates, Daisy Friedman (now a writer), turned to me and said, "Your father is a dirty old man!" I asked how she knew that, and she said, "He wrote a book called "Candy" - and it's a dirty, dirty book!" Again, I asked how she knew all this, and she said, "Because my parents told me - they have it on their bookshelf." Not knowing what a "dirty old man" was, I came away with the impression that whatever my father was, he was a great Upsetter. I would later learn that young, literate New Yorkers had no issue about having a copy of "Candy" in their libraries, but this was certainly not the case across the country - censorship and prudishness were in fact still alive and well, not only in the United States but abroad.I first got the idea for "The Candy Men" after reading a letter in Terry's files from a British barrister advising how (even in 1968) the only way "Candy" could appear in England would be to undergo a "pornectomy" - eliminating about eighty instances of what was considered "indecency," which the barrister had handily indexed in a kind of blueprint for the operation. The assessment featured page after page of cryptic references to offending words and passages to be excised or modified: Page 60 line 7 "COME" amend to "come to you" without capitals; Line 15 "jack-off" amend to "liberate"; Page 93 line 2 "exactly like an erection." Delete.(...)There were three men responsible for bringing the erotic fantasy Candy to fruition - and they could not have been more different. The first, Maurice Girodias, was Europe's most infamous publisher and indefatigable survivalist. Girodias put out otherwise unpublishable works of (mostly) erotic literature in English when the English-speaking world needed them most: Lolita, Naked Lunch, Henry Miller's The Tropics, the Marquis de Sade. As Girodias wrote of himself, "The connecting link is clear enough: anything that shocks because it comes before its time, anything that is liable to be banned by the censors because they cannot accept its honesty." Girodias was also a seasoned gambler. "A day out of court is a day wasted," he used to quip.Mason Hoffenberg, the second of the three, was one of the smartest, hippest, most undisciplined poets on the scene - whether it be Joe's Dinette, the Riviera bar in the Village, or the Old Navy on the Left Bank of Paris. A "permanently kicking junkie" as William Burroughs once described him, Mason the writer never really got started - though Terry, his best friend, described him as a "Nobel Prize-type genius."And Terry Southern, a writer with a destiny and a killer ear for dialogue. Terry's mandate was to take things as far out as they could go - with absolute credibility. A prose stylist gone Hollywood - his Texan, Irish, and Native American roots made him Trickster and Taurus bull - oblivious to the rules of the Game."

London, Hodgson & Son, 1945. Royal 8vo. Entire volume 48 of "Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Second Series" bound WITH ALL THE SIX ORIGINAL FRONT-WRAPPERS for all six parts of the volume (bound in at rear) in a very nice contemporary blue full cloth binding with gilt lettering and gilt ex-libris ("Belford College. Univ. London") to spine. Very minor bumping to extremities. Overall in excellent, very nice, clean, and fresh condition in- as well as ex-ternally. Small circle-stamp to pasted-down front free end-paper and to title-page ("Bedford College for Women"). Book-plate stating that the book was presented to the Library of Bedford College by "Professor H. Simpson./ 1945" + discreet library-markings to upper margin of pasted-down front free end-paper. Pp. 180-197. [Entire volume: (4),477, (1) pp + 1 plate (balance sheet)]. The very rare 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).

Nürnberg Johann Hofmann, 1688-89. (The engraved allergorical title having: Amsterdam, Beÿ Jacob von Meursen nachgelassene Witve, 1681). Folio. Cont. full calf, raised bands, old repairs to top and bottom of spine. Richly gilt compartments. Crowned royal monogram on covers inside gilt frames, gilt stamps at corners. Some wears to covers, scratches. Engraved allegorical title, printed title in red/black. 200,(4) pp; titlepage,400,(8) pp., 10 double-page engraved maps and plans, 29 engraved plates (of which 21 are double-page) and 29 half-page engravings in the text. The first ab. 35 leaves with a small wormtract in outer margin. A few scattered brownspots, otherwise clean. Dappers well-known work on Asia Minor (here in the second German edition) was originally issued in Dutch. This German edition was translated and edited by Jacob von Meursen, who also engraved the plates. It partly depends on the older texts by Josephus, Eusebius, Hieronymus and Adricom's work on the Holy Land from 1589.