Search Results

Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1850. Contemp. marbled boards. Gilt spine, titlelabel with gilt lettering. Light wear to spineends, corners and edges. Stamps on title-page (Gusstahlfabrik Fried. Krupp). In "Annalen der Physik und Chemie", Dritte Reihe, 19. Band (79. Band der ganzen Reihe). IX,(1),580 pp. and 3 folded engraved plates. (Entire volume offered). Endpapers and the first and last few leaves with brownspots. Clausius's paper: pp. 368-397 a. pp. 500-524. Internally clean. First edition of this monumental, famous paper in thermodynamics in which Clausius for the first time states the Second Law of Thermodynamics, one of the most importent laws of Nature having a huge impact on the development of physical theory, cosmology, communications and information theory. The law states that a) the energy of the Universe is constant, and b) the Entropy of the Universe tends to a maximum."Clausius' contribution to thermostatics is comparable to those of Newton and Maxwell to mechanics and electromagnetism, respectively. In the obituary J.W. Gibbs remarked that Clausiu's first memoir "marks an epoch in the history of physics....."" (Chowdhury and Stauffer in "Principles of Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics").In "The Nature of the Physical World" Eddington writes: "The Law that entropy increases - the Second Law of Thermodynamics - holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the Universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the Second Law of Thermodynamics I can give You no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.".Parkinson "Breakthroughs", 1850 P.

Kopenhagen, Nicolaus Möller, 1774-78. 4to. Bound in 2 contemp. hcalf. Gilt spines. Title-and tome-labels with gilt lettering. A paperlabel pasted on upper part of spines. Slightly rubbed. Stamps on title-pages. 2 engraved titlevignettes. Halftitles. XVI,(6),505,(1);(16),479 pp. 1 large folded map, outlinecoloured "Tabula Iteneraria... Terrae Yemen... 1763." and 124 engraved maps and plates (complete). A dampstain on lower part of leaves in volume 2, increasing towards end. Printed on good paper. A few scattered brownspots. Scarce first edition of Niebuhr's great travel account of Arabia. Like his "Beschribung von Arabien", his "Reisebeschreibung von Arabien" "provided a mass of new geographical, regional, and historical information... Among is many exact maps and plans, the map of the Red Sea and of Yemen served as the most reliable information for more than 50 years.""Despite its tragic course, the expedition was a complete success with regard to its scientific and scholarly results. It was especially due to Niebuhr's efforts to preserve and continue his and his collegues' , that the Royal Danish Library was eventually equipped with a host of oriental manuscripts, maps, and drawings, as well as many botanical and zoological specimens... It was Niebuhr who edited and published Forskåll's Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica (1775) and Descriptiones Animalium (1775), together with the drawings of Bauerfeind. In 1772 he had alredy published his systematic and geographically organized beschreibung von Arabien, which was followed between 1774 and 1778 by the first two volume of his three-volume chronologically arranged Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien. (the item offered, the third volume was published many years later, 1837). Both works, written in a clear and sober language and illustrated with numerous precise drawings, maps, and plans, provided a mass of new geographical, regional, and historical information... Among is many exact maps and plans, the map of the Red Sea and of Yemen served as the most reliable information for more than 50 years."(Josef Wiesehöfer).

Basel, Johannem Hervagium & Bernhardum Brand, 1558. Folio. (30,5x21,5). Bound in 19th century brown hmorocco with 5 raised bands. Light wear to back and corners a bit bumped. (2),587 pp.Numerous wood-cut diagrams and initials throughout. First ab. 20 leaves with different degrees of yellowing and occasional with marginal faint dampstaining. 3 leaves with upper right corners repaired without loss of text. The "privilege" at verso of title partly unreadable as a piece of paper is pasted on, some of these letters are faint, just as some letters in "Basiliae" on title are weak. Last leaf with colophon and printers large woodcut-device on verso is mounted, but not hiding the wood-cut. The word "Basiliae" on last leaf recto, is weak or nearly gone. Overall a large good copy as usually without the foreword by Melanchton. A small rubber-stamp on title: "Duplum Bibliothecæ V.E." and in old hand: "Bibliothecæ Conventij Romani S. Andrea de Fratrij (?)" Scarce third printing of the so-called Zambert-Campanus Edition of the Elements, all printed by Johann Herwagen in Basel - this edition printed together with his son-in-law Bernhard Brand. The first of the Herwagen prints was the famous Editio Princeps in Greek from 1533, and in 1537 he published a Latin version, which became the first Euclid-editon to contain also Euclids smaller tracts as "Phenomena"(Spherical geometry), "Katroptik" (Mirror-reflexion), "Optik" und "Data"(Geometrical excersises). The 1537- edition was reprinted 1546 and in 1558 (the present)."The most famous source of Greek geometry is the monumental work of Euclid of Alexandria, called the "Elements" (around 300 B.C.). No other book of science had a comparable influence on the intellectual development of mankind. It was a treatise of geometry in thirteen books which included all the fundamental results of scientific geometry up to his time. Euclid did not claim for himself any particular discovery, he was merely a compiler. Yet, in view of the systematic arrangement of the subject matter and the exact logical procedure followed, we cannot doubt that he himself provided a large body of specific formulations and specific auxiliary theorems in his deductions. It is no longer possible to pass judgement on the authorship of much of this material; his book was meant as a textbook of geometry which paid attention to the material, while questions of priority did not enter the discussion." (Cornelius Lanzos in "Space through the Ages").Max Steck III:57 - Thomas-Stanford: 15 - Riccardi 1558/3 - Adams E:976.

London, Published by William Samt, (1825 ?). Folio. Contemporary red longgrained half-morocco. Richly gilt back, all edges gilt. Top a. bottom of spine professionally repaired. Title, (42) pp. of text to the plates and 21 fine hand-coloured aquatint-plates in fine colouring and condition. Some plates watermarked 1824 a. 1825. Abbey I: 113-14. Tooley: 443.

New Haven, Conn., J.D. & E.S. Dana, 1881. 8vo. Extracted from "The American Journal of Science", Third series vol. XXII, Numb. CXXVIII, pp. (87-) 166. With title-page to the entire volume. Title-page with a faint rubberstamp. The Michelson-paper: pp. 120-129. Two leaves with small tear to the margin. The seminal first edition of the first description of the first version of a series of experiments with the Interferometer, which was built by Michelson and with which he planned to measure the relative speeds of light-waves moving at right angles to each other - an experiment that would ultimately lead to the special theory of relativity. The series of experiments ended with the so-called "Michelson-Morley experiment", the results of which were published 6 years after Michelson's first experiment (the item offered here). The 1887 paper, written together with Morley, constituted an improved attempt of the 1881- version of the experiment. The experiments were designed to calculate the effect of the earth's motion on the passage of light rays through the "luminous ether", which was believed to surround the earth. The experiments were negative and as such led to the introduction of relativity."Michelson tried to determinate the relation of ether drift and the velocity of light, effect of extremely minute values...no drift could be found and the "negative result held revolutionary implications which led directly through Lorentz and Einstein to the acceptance of new standards of reference of time and space from geometry an cosmometry."(Dibner).In 1919 Einstein met Michelson in California. At a dinner given in honor of them both, Einstein said in a speech "You (Michelson) uncovered an insidious defect in the ether theory of light, as it existed, and stimulated the ideas of H.A. Lorentz and Fitzgerald, out of which the Special Theory of Relativity developed. Without your work this theory would today be scarcely more than an interesting speculation..." In an interview in 1842 Einstein said: "It is no doubt that Michelson's experiment was of considerably influence upon my work insofar as it strengthened my conviction concerning the validity of the Principle of relativity...On the other side I was pretty much convinced of the validity of the principle before I did know this experiment and its result. In any case, Michelson's experiment removed practically any doubt about the validity of the principle in optics and showed that a profound change of the basic concepts of physics was inevitable."Michelson was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize "for his optical precision instrument (the inteferometer) and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations he has carried on."Dibner: Heralds of Science: 161 (the 1887-experiment) - Vide PMM: 378,410,408.

(Colophon:) Kiøbenhaffn (Copenhagen), Matz Wingaardt, 1576. 4to. Pragtfuldt samtidigt hellæderbind af kalveskind over træ med skråtskårne kanter og 2 lukkestroppe med messingbeslag (det ene hængsel løst), antageligt udført af en dansk bogbinder. 3 ophøjede ægte bind på ryggen og med blindtrykte stregbordurer. Permer med dobbelte stregrammer og 2 brede rammer udført med ruller og stempler. Midtfelterne med stort pladetrykt billede af Justitia, på bagpermen et billede af Justinian ?. Kapitæler med mindre reparationer. Titelbladet med en træsnit illustration af den danske konge med rigsvåbnet. Kolofon med Gotfred af Ghemens trykkermærke i træsnit. 111 unummerede blade. Indersiden af forpermen har notater i gl. hænder vedrørende bogens indhold. Fra Oscar Wandels bogsamling med hans exlibris. Da bogen ikke er ombundet foreligger den her i dens opsrindelige størrelse med pænt brede marginer. Få spredte brunpletter. Nogle blade med en svag skjold nederst på siderne. De første 6 blade (incl. titelbladet) er noget restaurerede med senere omkantning. Titelbladet har en smule tab af stregrammen omkring kongen, blad 2 recto har tab af et ord i nederste linie (tagher). Trykt på svært papir. Extremely rare first printing of what is arguably the world's first facsimile, namely Mads Vingaard's 1576 reproduction of the first printing of the Law of Sealand, originally printed by Ghemen in 1505 and here re-issued in exact reproduction. This wonderful print is not merely a "line to line, word to word"-reproduction, but a facsimile making use of the same types and exact reproductions of the woodcuts. It is generally believed that "the first facsimile in the history of the book was a manuscript of Austrian provenance - the Goldene Bulle - reproduced in 1697 by the Frankfurt law historian Heinrich Günther Thülemeyer and Johann Friedrich Fleischer" (from "Imagination, Almanach" 1986-1993, Sammelheft. 1993; 2006). The present reproduction predates that work otherwise hailed as the first "facsimile" in the history of the book by more than a century!Some credit Plantin in the 17th century with being the first to produce a facsimile. This is also about a century after Mats Vingaard's facsimile of the Law of Sealand. Like the laws of Sealand and The Law of Scania, The Law of Jutland" constitutes a law book ("Rechtsbuch" in German) in the sense of a private collection of those common laws pertaining to inheritance, ownership, marriage, measurement of land, murder, theft, vandalism, etc. that were commonly applicable in the region.The medieval Danish regional laws possess an immense importance both linguistically and legally, and the influence is evident even today, both in the development of our legal system and of our written language. At the time of their foundation, the Danish kingdom was divided into jurisdictional areas, lands, that in turn were divided into townships. Each land had a county council, which also served as a judicial court. It quite quickly became standard for the township court to be able to refer verdicts and rulings to the county/land council. In the 13th century, there were three main lands, namely Jutland, Sealand and Skåne. With time, these three lands came to rule over all townships, and thus, we find three ruling legal books from the 13th century, namely the three earliest Danish law books - Jyske Lov, the Sealandic Laws, and Skånske Lov. They were all printed for the first time in 1505 and 1505 respectively. It is not until 1683 (with "Danske Lov") that Denmark gets a law that covers the entire kingdom. The 1576 facsimile is scarce and Thesaurus estimates that only ab. 10 copies still exist on private hands.

Leipzig, Voss u. Compagnie, 1794-1801. 4to. Bound in 4, a little later hcalf, richly gilt backs. Leather along fronthinge with tears, but but not broken and binding tight. 4 engraved titlepages of which the 2 first are handcoloured, and 2 printed titles (to volume 3 a. 4). 154;176;VIII,188;178;62 pp. and 141 fine engraved and handcoloured plates (numb. 1-142, n. 77 lacks). A few repairs to outher margins of titlepage and some plates and textlvs. A few plts. and textlvs. browned in lower margin. First edition of this scarce botanical work which was issued in 28 parts with in all 152 plates. The suite here having 141 of 142 plates in fine handcolouring. - From the Introduction: "Die Zeichnungen sind entweder von mir selbst oder von geschickten Künstlern unter meiner Aufsicht, nach der Natur und der vortrefflichen Abbildungen in Will. Curtis Flora Londinensis (London 1777-94) verfertiget...Die illumination wird unter eines Kunstverständigen in Meissen besorgt". - Nissen BBI: 528.

Altona, J.F. Hammerich, 1807. Contemp. hcalf. Gilt spine, titlelabel in leather (letters worn). Light wear to top of spine and corners. Spine rubbed. Some wear to edges of covers. A stamp on title-page. XVI, 368; VIII, 358, (2) pp. A few leaves in the first quire disbound. Scattered brownspots and a few marginal underlinings on the first 20 leaves. Rare first German edition of this political and economic classic, which constitutes Malthus' first major publication and his main work, because of which he is considered the father of demography and one of the main sources of inspiration for Darwin and Wallace. It is the first translation of the "Principle on Population" into any language, and it influenced German politics tremendously.The first edition was printed anonymously in London in 1798, and in 1803 the second edition, which, also according to Malthus himself, can be said to constitute a new work, appeared; -the great quarto edition from 1803 is thoroughly revised and much enlarged, the title has been changed and Malthus' name appears on the title-page for the first time, it is on this edition that all the preceding editions are based, and in consequence also the early translations. All the later editions were minor revisions of the second one. In 1806 the third edition appeared, and as soon as 1807 the first German one, which is translated from the revised third edition ("Die gegenwärtige Uebersetzung ist nach der dritten Ausgabe, Oktav, London 1806. Die Quartausgabe ist minder vollständig", Vorwort, p. V). New revisions of the text kept appearing till the sixth edition in 1826. The book, then as now, is considered highly controversial, and it has influenced all demographers ever since, as well as being of immense importance to the study of economic theory and genetic inheritance. "The "Essay" was highly influential in the progress of thought in the early nineteenth-century Europe.... "Parson" Malthus, as Cobbett dubbed him, was for many, a monster and his views were often grossly misinterpreted.... But his influence on social policy, whether for good or evil, was considerable. The Malthusian theory of population came at the right time to harden the existing feeling against the Poor Laws and Malthus was a leading spirit behind the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834." (PMM 251).Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), called the "enfant terrible" of the economists, was an English demographer, statistician and political economist, who is best known for his groundbreaking views on population growth, presented in his "Essays on the Principle of Population", which is based on his own prediction that population would outrun food supply, causing poverty and starvation. Among other things this caused the legislation, which lowered the population of the poor in England. Malthus actually turned political, economic and social thought upside down with this work, which has caused him to be considered one of the 100 most influential persons in history (Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the most Influential Persons in History, 1978). Of course, he was condemned by Marx and Engels, and opposed by the socialists universally, but the work was of immense impact on not only politics, economics, social sciences etc, but also on natural sciences. "Later in the "Origin of Species" he [Darwin] wrote that the struggle for existence "is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms; for in this case there can be no artificial increase of food, and no prudential restraint from marriage" [p. 63]. Alfred Russel Wallace, who arrived at a worked-out formulation of the theory of evolution at almost precisely the same time as Darwin, acknowledged that "perhaps the most important book I read was Malthus's "Principles of Population" (My Life, p. 232). Although there were four decennial censuses before Malthus' death, he did not himself analyze the data, although he did influence Lambert Quetelet and Pierre Verhulst, who made precise statistical studies on growth of populations in developed countries and showed how the early exponential growth changed to an S curve." (DSB, IX, p. 69). As Malthus realized that his theories were not satisfactorily presented or sufficiently demonstrated in the first edition from 1798, he travelled for three years through Europe gleaning statistics, and then published the second edition in 1803. Among other places he travelled through Northern Germany, and his detailed diaries of these journeys provided him with some of the evidence necessary for the development of his theory on population growth. The observational information that he gathered on his travels in Europe were crucial to the development of his theories, which also means that the work is of great interest for other European countries, and not only Britain. "In 1819 the Royal Society elected Malthus to a fellowship. He was also a member of the French Institute and the Berlin Academy, and a founding member of the Statistical Society (1834)." (DSB, IX, p. 67). Printing and the Mind of Man 251 (first edition).

London, Marcus Ward & Co., 1878. Folio. (49 x 35 cm.). Orig. full pictotial cloth. Richly gilt. Spine-ends repaired. First inner hinge strenghtened. Edges gilt. Halftitle with a stamp. (1-7)8-83 pp. With 16 mounted, fine chromolithographed plates, many textillustrations, 1 map. Title-page printed in red/black. Internally clean fine. First edition. "It is believed by both Artist and Publishers that a much fuller and more vivid idea of Arctic scenery can be produced by careful chromo-lithographic fac-similes of the original drawings made by Dr Edward L. Moss during the Expedition, than by any rendering in black and white. The sketches are not designed to illustrate the progress of the Expedition, or any stirring events in its history, so much as the appearance of the strange and desolate country by the shores of which the ships slowly steamed, the wonderful phenomena of the sky, and the effects of light and shade produced by a midnight sun, or a mid-day moon, on the ice-bound rocks which form the scenery of the region. They are here reproduced ... in order to make them more generally accessible ... It must be added that the sketches are all the work of one hand - Dr Edward L. Moss, who served on board the Alert in the Arctic Expedition which left England on the 29th of May, 1875, and entered the Arctic regions on the 4th of July in the same year. Although the Expedition failed in reaching the Pole - which was among the sailing orders on which it started - it yet achieved results of the highest scientific and geographic value. Of what kind was the life they led - what strange experiences they gained of natural phenomena, and the freaks of light on ice and rock - the accompanying drawings illustrate with a vividness and fullness never before arrived at in sketches of Arctic life." (Scott Polar Research Institute).

(Calcutta, Printed and sold by Manuel Cantopher, and sold at London by P. Elmsly, 1788). 4to. Extracted and bound in a recent vey nice marbled dark blue paper-binding w. matching gilt burgundy leather title-label to front board. A very nice and clean copy. Pp. 415-431 The seminal first edition of this groundbreaking paper which determined the connection between the Indo-European languages and thereby founded comparative philology and Indo-European studies. "This slim paper read to the Bengal Asiatic Society and published in its "Transaction" marks a turning-point in the history of linguistics and signaled the birth of comparative philology." (PMM 235).Sir William Jones (1746-1794) was an English philologist and judge who was stationed in India in 1780. He is the founder of the Asiatic Society and now famous as the discoverer and propounder of the existence of a relationship between the Indo-European languages. As he was stationed in India, he set out to master the ancient Sanskrit language, among other things in order to study native Indian law codes, which were written in this language. Due to his excellent language skills and his already perfect mastering of Greek and Latin, Jones discovered a shocking similarity between the languages in a huge number of words. By this discovery of the connection between Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, Jones had, without realizing it initially, discovered what was to be known as proto-Indo-European, -the lost mother tongue of almost all European, Indian and Russian languages as well as some Middle Eastern ones. And thus, with this breakthrough work, Jones, for the first time in history, presents man with the fact that there exists one single, ancient, prehistoric language that led to the development of numerous languages in Europe, India, Russia and the Middle East. It was to take subsequent scholars almost a decade to uncover what exactly this language was, but because of Jones' founding of comparative philology, the likes of Karl Verner and Jakob Grimm have been able to do this.The passage, for which Jones is most famous comes from the present work and has gone down in history as the single most important passage within the literature pertaining to comparative philology: "The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family." With these words, linguistics had witnessed a turning-point that was to change this science for ever and that was furthermore to point in the direction of a future understanding of the common heritage that much of mankind possesses. "In 1786 Jones made his epoch-making discovery between the Sanskrit, Gothic, Greek and Latin languages -to which he later, erroneously, thought he could add Egyptian. His clear understanding of the basic principles of scientific linguistics provided the foundation on which Rask, Bopp and Grimm built the imposing structure of Indo-European studies." (PMM 235).

Hafniae (Copenhagen), Petrus Haubold, 1674. 4to. Contemporary full mottled calf with five raised bands to richly gilt spine. Upper and lower part of spine worn and restored. Some overall wear and a bit of worming. Internally evenly browned. Contemporary notes in neat hand to front free end-paper and additional information about contents in same hand to title-page. Title-page printed in red/black. (8), 200 pp. + engraved plate depicting snow crystals. Exceedingly scarce first edition of this collection of 13 academic treatises on the wonders of nature. This magnificent work, by one of the greatest Danish polymaths of all time, epitomizes the the range of topics on which Bartholin wrote. Among the essays and lectures collected here, we have "The study of the Danish language" (1657); "The shape of snow" (1660); "The pores of bodies" (1663); "On Cartesian physics" (1664); "On nature" (1666); "On judgement and memory" (1667); "On experiment" (1668); "On physical hypotheses" (1669); "On the shape of bodies" (1671); "Secrets of the sciences" (1673).Rasmus Bartholin (also known in the latinized form Erasmus Bartholinus) (1625 - 1698) was a famous Danish scientist, physician and grammarian, famous primarily for his discovery ) of the double refraction of a light ray by Iceland spar (calcite), for writing the first grammar of the Danish language, and for his work on Descartes' analytic geometry."Erasmus Bartholin's father was Caspar Berthelsen Bartholin... There were six sons in the family, and Erasmus had a brother, Thomas Bartholin, who was nine years older than himself. These two brothers went on to become equally famous. Erasmus received his first education from private tutors, then he attended a Latin school. He entered the University of Copenhagen in 1642, receiving his B.A. in 1644 and an M.A. in 1647. From 1645 he studied mathematics at the University of Leiden, travelling to France in 1651 but then going to Italy where he studied at a number of places including Padua from where he received a medical degree in 1654. From 1656 he was professor of geometry at the University of Copenhagen but transferred to become an extraordinary professor of medicine in the following year. In 1671 he was appointed to an ordinary chair of medicine at Copenhagen, a post to held until his death. In 1667 he was appointed Royal Mathematician.He served the University of Copenhagen as dean of the faculty of medicine, librarian, and rector, and was appointed royal physician and privy councillor.Despite being professor of medicine for a long period, he wrote relatively little on that topic. In terms of the number of publications, mathematics was the largest part of his work, but his work in this area is not of great importance. In fact he is best known for work in yet another area, for he was the discoverer of the double refraction of light. Bartholin edited Introduction to the geometry of Descartes by van Schooten and also translated Optics of Larissa into Latin. Every year between 1664 and 1674 he produced a book Dissertatio de problematibus geometricis. This consisted of theses which he had proposed for his students to defend. In the sixth such book, published in 1672, he gave a proof of what is known as the second problem of Debeaune, formulated in a letter to Mersenne written in 1638. The problem is the first example of an inverse tangent problem which in modern notation results in requiring the solution to the differential equation dy/dx = (x - y)/a, y(0) = 0.This has solution y = x + a(e-x/a - 1). Descartes solved Debeaune's problem in 1639. Bartholin considered the problem in geometric form. Pedersen suggests that Bartholin's proof may actually be Debeaune's original proof which we know he sent to Descartes. Bartholin could well have come across the proof in papers which Debeaune sent him for safe keeping shortly before his death in 1652. To see the range of topics on which Bartholin wrote, consider his book De naturae mirabilibus quaestiones academicae which he published in 1674. This consists of essays and lectures written over a number of years such as: The study of the Danish language (1657); The shape of snow (1660); The pores of bodies (1663); On Cartesian physics (1664); On nature (1666); On judgement and memory (1667); On experiment (1668); On physical hypotheses (1669); On the shape of bodies (1671); and Secrets of the sciences (1673). Bartholin wrote a large number of mathematical works but he is best remembered for his discovery of the double refraction of light through a crystal of Iceland spar which had been gathered in an expedition to Iceland in 1668. He wrote his text Experimenta crystalli Islandici disdiaclastici quibus mira & insolita refractio detegitur on the geometry of crystals in 1669. The two rays he called solita and insolita and he showed that both were produced by refraction. During his experiments, Bartholin also observed that when the crystals of Iceland spar are rotated about their axis, one of the two images moves in a circle around the other. This is strong evidence that the crystals are somehow splitting the light into two different beams. Bartholin's explanation was based on Descartes' theory of light along with his idea that there were two sets of "pores" in the crystal. However, the true explanation is that the crystal splits the light into two plane-polarized beams. He observed the comets of 1664 and 1665, and made other astronomical observations, publishing his descriptions of these events in De cometis anni 1664 et 1665 opusculum (1665). Bartholin also prepared for publication the observations of Tycho Brahe. In both these pieces of work in astronomy he was assisted by Ole Romer. Bartholin is also famed for his medical work, in particular his introduction of quinine in the fight against malaria. Some of his medical contributions were made in conjunction with his brother Thomas Bartholin who was a professor of anatomy at the University of Copenhagen from 1646 to 1661. Thomas Bartholin founded the journal Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia to which Erasmus Bartholin contributed papers." (J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, St. Andrews). Thesaurus: 348.

Oxoniae (Oxford), E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1702. Folio. Contemporary full calf, raised bands, rectangular blindtooled frames and central panel "mirror" on covers, Cambridge-style binding. leather at joints cracked, but cords intact so that covers not loose. Corners a bit bumped. Light wear to spine ends. Spine a bit rubbed. Pastedowns and flyleaves with browning. Title-page with large engraved vignette (Sheldon Theater). (12),494,(2) pp. With numerous textdiagrams. Very light browning to titlepage and a few marginal brownspots to last leaf, a fine clean copy, printed on good paper with wide margins.On the verso of the title-page is pasted the book plate of Sir William Baird of Newbaith. He habitually pasted his armorial bookplate on the verso of the title-pages of the books in his large and fine library. First edition of the first text book of astronomy based on Newtonian principles. Apart from its importance in the remodeling of astronomy in conformity with physical theory, the work is of the utmost importance as a source book - it contains the FIRST PRINTING OF NEWTON'S PAPER ON LUNAR THEORY ("Lunae Theoria Newtoniana", pp. 332-336) as well as the FIRST EXPOSITION OF NEWTON'S CLASSICAL SCHOLIA, which Newton himself considered an important part of his philosophy.Gregory, a Scottish mathematician, who taught at Edinburgh and Oxford, was one of Newton's closest friends and associates. Newton thought highly of his work and communicated for insertion it in his Lunar Theory. He also permitted Gregory to use the material of that which is known as his "Classical Scholia", which are incorporated into Gregory's preface. "Newtonian scholars have long been aware of a set of draft Scholia to Propositions IV to IX of Book III of the "Principia". These were composed in the 1690's, as part of an unimplemented plan for a second edition of the work. Since they describe supposed anticipation of Newton's doctrines in the thought of Greco-Roman antiquity, they have been known as the 'classical' Scholia..... Newton's thoughts on these matters were not, however, kept completely concealed. HE PERMITTED DAVID GREGORY TO USE THE MATERIAL EXTENSIVELY in a long historical preface to his "Astronomiae Physicae & Geometricae Elementa" (1702), IF WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION. (It was also available to Maclaurin for his much later work)." (McGuire & Rattansi in "Newton and the Pipes of Pan", 1966)."It was the first textbook composed on gravitational principles, and remodeling astronomy in conformity with physical theory. Newton thought highly of it, and communicated for insertion in it (p. 332)) his 'lunar theory', long the guide of practical astronomers in determining the Moon's motions. The discussion in the preface, in which the doctrine of gravitation was brought into credit on the score of its antiquity, likewise emanated from Newton." (DNB)."His thick folio text on foundations of astronomy, Astronomiae...elementa (1702) is a well-documented but unimaginative attempt to graft the gravitational synthesis propounded in the first book and especially the third book of Newton's Principia onto the findings of traditional astronomy. While respected as a source book it is now chiefly remembered for the remarks by Newton on the prisca sapientia of the ancients and their "knowledge" of the inverse-square law of universal gravitation and for the Latin version of Newton's short paper on lunar theory which it reproduces." (DSB).Babson No. 71. - Houzeau & Lancaster 9240.

Paris, Bachelier, 1851-52. 4to. 2 uniform full cloth bindings. Gilt spines, gilt lettering. Gil lettering on spines: "The Chemist's Club". Faint marks of earlier paper labels to spine. In "Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences", Vol. 32 and vol. 35. Entire volumes offered. (4),1026 pp. + (4),1010 pp. A stamp on top and verso of title-pages. 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 seminal papers, in which Foucault presented his discovery of the proof of the rotation of the earth by the large pendulum, known as Foucault's Pendulum. The first papr offered here was presented by Arago at the meeting of the Acadey of Scieces on February 3, 1851. In the third paper, "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 and coins the word "gyroscope" (on p. 427), taken from the Greek, meaning "to look at the rotation".Ever 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 Foucault 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).

Cairo, Kütübhane-i Içtihad, 1908. 8vo. In recent full calf with four raised bands. With blind-stamped ornamentation to boards in old Ottoman style. Very light occassional brownspotting, last few leaves a bit frayed, but no loss of text. Otherwise a fine copy. 243 pp The very rare first complete Ottoman-Turkish translation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. "Although Hamlet was performed in Greek in 1842 and in Armenian in 1866 (Silahtaroglu 1989: 7), according to Savas Arslan, "the first complete translation of Hamlet was made from the French by Abdullah Cevdet and published in Cairo" (Arslan 2008: 159). Between 1908 and 1910, Abdullah Cevdet produced a large oeuvre of translations, including four translations of Shakespeare's tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet to Ottoman Turkish. "A Certain Abdullah Cevdet, a doctor of medicine, a polemist, a printer, was also known as a Shakespeare idolator as he always found a way of mentioning Shakespeare in all his talks and in all his writings. Abdullah Cevdet translated and published in his own printing house first in Cairo and then in Istanbul five of Shakespeare's play, beginning with Hamlet in 1908 and ending the series with Anthony and Cleopatra in 1921" (Turhan, Vahit. Shakespeare in Turkish). Although Hamlet was published the same year as The Second Constitutional Era Abdülhamid II seemed to be even less tolerant of the dissemination of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar, all being about unjust rulers who were executed. The performances of these plays were subject to strict censorship in Ottoman dominated countries and they were banned from most of them. (Paker 1986: 91), which is most likely the reason for why Abdullah Cevdet was able to publish the translations of these plays only after 1908, though he had finished translating Hamlet in 1902. "It is necessary to note here that the initial literary import of Hamlet into the Ottoman literary system has been framed within the broader narrative of Hamidian absolutism. For instance, Ýnci Enginün points out that various attempts to perform Hamlet were turned down by Abdülhamid II in his bid to root out any attempt which would debilitate the absolute monarchy. Along similar lines, Sevda Ayluçtarhan highlights that Abdullah Cevdet’s 1908 translation of Hamlet was a "critical text" produced by a prominent culture-planner of the time in opposition to Abdülhamid II’s absolutist regime. Ayluçtarhan further points out that Cevdet’s Hamlet was motivated by his perception of the “parallels between Hamlet’s step-father and Abdulhamid II, who had been brought to the throne (1876) on the condition that he would promulgate the Constitution (Kanun-i Esasi) but did not really keep his promise.Cevdet’s translation was introduced to the Turkish audience at a time when the discourse of westernization was prevalent. The translation coincided with the announcement of a Constitutional Revolution that led to the dethronement of Abdülhamit II and ultimately to the promotion of western-inspired reforms. Since Cevdet was one of the ardent supporters of an Ottoman Renaissance through westernization, his translation has been framed as a symbol of the western canon within the Turkish context. For instance, Demirkol regards Cevdet’s translation as an object of culture-planning which was sought to promote westernization. In the same vein, Paker suggests that Cevdet’s Hamlet plays a "stimulating if not revolutionary role in the intellectual re-awakening of the Ottoman political and cultural milieu"." (Durmus, Discourses on Hamlet’s Journey in Turkey).

Basiliae (Basel), Froben, August 1531. Small 8vo. Very nice later (ab. 1700) full brown morocco, probably Italian, with gilt borders to boards, back richly gilt. Old library-label to lower back, scratch to front-board, white chalk-like staining to back-board. Internally a bit of brownspotting, but overall good condition. Contemporary marginal notes to three pp. Woodcut printer's device to t-p. and last leaf, a few woodcut initials. 144, (6) pp., 1 f. w. printer's device. With the ex-libris of Jeffrey Norton. Very rare Froben-edition of the first work by the Renaissance-historian Paolo Giovio. All early editions of this work are very rare.Giovio was a gifted philosopher, medic and historian. He was born in 1483 in Come (Lombard) and was as controversial a person as he was an author. He died in 1552 in Florence, and this particular edition is thus printed in his lifetime. Three other editions appeared in his lifetime, all printed in Rome, in 1524, 1527, 1528, but the 1531-edition is the only one by as prominent a printer as Froben.Giovio was very strategic and succeeded in connecting himself with the Medici-family, especially Giulio Medici, who was later elected Pope (Clement VIII); when he became Pope, Giovio was assigned chambers in the Vatican and in 1528 he was announced Bishop of Nocera. Giovio wrote historical and biographical works and essays; these works are said not to be taken as authorities, but in their entirety and with proper reservation they do have real value, especially because he gives a rich and lively picture of Italy in his own time. He gives indispensable accounts of the manners and lives of the people of Renaissance Italy. As a writer and clergy he played quite a big role in Renaissance Italy.This his first work is a rarity and plays a special part in his body of writing, as it is neither historical nor biographical. It deals with the types of fish that Romans eat and tells how to prepare them, it is thus of great importance to anyone interested in the lives and customs of the time, and it is sometimes counted among the earliest of cook books. It also provides names of the fish and details of where they can be found, and where the best of each species is most easily found, making it of real value to the ichthyologist; this work is also said to contain the first reference in history to American fish. The work was translated into Italian in 1560, eight years after the death of Giovio.Not in Simon. BMC (NH) only mentions the 1561 edition and the 1560 translation. Wood p. 359: "a very early treatise on Roman ichthyology" ("the rare" 1524 first edition).

Milano, Treves, 1932. 4to. Original printed wrappers. Uncut and unopened. With a brindstamped publisher's mark to title-page. A very nice copy, with slight marginal wear. (8), 133, (3) pp. The scarce first edition in book form, fourth thousand (i.e. with mention of "quinto migliaio" on title-page), of the key political document of fascist philosophical thought - the publication in which the ideological cornerstones of The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) are officially established. "The Doctrine of Fascism", the first part of which was actually written by Giovanni Gentile, who is not mentioned as the author, was originally published in the Italian Encyclopedia Vol. 14, 1932, as the first section of a lengthy entry on "Fascismo" (Fascism). Gioacchino Volpe's "History on the Fascist Movement" was also published in that volume, as an appendix to Mussolini's entry, and immediately after the Encyclopaedia-publication, the two pieces were published together, in the first book form of the work, under the title "La Dottrina del Fascismo. Con una Storia del Movimento Fascista di Giocchino Volpe", by the "Biblioteca della Enciclopedia Italiana", which undertook the separate publishing of the most important entries of the Encyclopaedia. Mussolini added a series of notes that appered for the first time in the first publication in book-form. The present copy bears the imprint "Quinto migliaio" at the foot of the title-page. We have been unable to determine whether this actually means that the issues of the first edition were in fact divided into thousands and this thus the fourth thousand, or whether, as would have been common practice with eg. propagandist literature, the "fourth thousand" was a way to boost the public perception of the immediate reception of the work. No matter whther the "Quinto migliaio" was a boosting gimmick or not, the work ended up being published in enormous numbers after its initial publication in 1932. Not only did it appear in several newspapers already in 1932, it was also published again in book form already in 1933 and kept appearing in different versions, with other additions on the subject, throughout the following decades. It was also translated into numerous other languages and came to have a tremendous impact on the spreading of fascist thought. This magnum opus of Italian fascism came to have the greatest impact upon Italian politics and the entire political climate of Europe. A key concept of the work is summed up in Mussolini's own words: "Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State."

Kiøbenh. (i.e. Copenhagen), 1663. 8vo. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten title to spine. Nice and tight with little wear. Einar Christiansen's book plate to inside of front board. (10), 200 pp. With the wonderful engraved illustrated title-page with 11 lovely illustrations allegorically depicting the different chapters. WITH A DATED (1676) ORIGINAL SIGNATURE OF PEDER PEDERSEN SYV INSERTED TO FRONT FREE END-PAPER. The very rare first edition of the first Danish work of comparative linguistics and the first Danish work on comparative history of literature. The work is of seminal importance to the development of the Danish language as the accepted official and written language of Denmark. The seminal philological treatise constituted a programmatic defense of vernacular national languages and Syv is hereby responsible for introducing Danish in a wider spectrum of social domains and to establish a notion of Danish literature as accepted in its own right. Up until Syv, Latin and German were the learned languages of Denmark and the languages used for all matter of official business. But just as Dante had done with Italian, Peder Syv, with the present work, began the quest of making Danish a language also respected for written literature.The Cimbrian language included Scandinavian, Gothic, Slavic, German, and partly English and Russian, and Syv regarded it as one of the oldest tongues in the world, coming from Hebrew and older than Greek and Latin. He refused to view it as originally German. "Peder Syv is sometimes referred to as "the fist Danish grammarian." In this remarkable little book, with its curious illustrated title-page, Syv defends the use of the Danish language in literature. To demonstrate the strength of his native danish tongue, Syv cites the accomplishments of important authors writing in Danish... for example, Huitfeldt, Skonning, Arrebo, Bording, and Pontoppidan." (Reinhardt)Nancy S. Reinhardt: "Danish Literature. An exhibition at the Houghton Library". The Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1986, nr. 10.

Torino, Unione Tipografico-Editrice, 1886. Royal8vo. Bound in a contemporary half vellum binding with red and green title label to spine with gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine, forming six compartments. In "Biblioteca dell'Economista", Third Series, volume 9. wear to extremities and light brownspotting throughout, especially to first and least leaves. e copy. Il Capitale: 685 pp. [Entire volume: (4), 903, (1) pp.]. First full Italian translation of Marx' landmark work, constituting what is arguably the greatest revolutionary work of the nineteenth century. The work proved immensely influential in both communist and fascist circles. Antonio Gramsci, founding member and one-time leader of the Communist Party of Italy (PCI), based much of his theoretical and practical work on the present translation of Marx' work and Ezra Pound read this Italian translation (which is among the most heavily marked annotated volumes in his personal library) and was horrified by the accounts of the exploitation of labor given by Marx which eventually grew into his sympathy for fascism and Mussolini's socialist roots. (Rainey, Textual Studies in the Cantos).The translation was done in nine installments beginning in 1882 but was not published until 1886. The translation, however, remained relatively unknown: "It was difficult in Italy during that period [late 19th century] to obtain Marx's works. With the exception of Cafiero's hard to find summary and some other summarizing pamphlets published by another Southern scholar, Pasquale Martiguetti of Benevent, those Italians who sought to consult Marx were forced (unless they could read the original German) to have recourse to the French translation of the first volume of 'Capital', published in 1875. True, in 1886 Boccardo had published in Biblioteca dell'Economista, an Italian translation of 'Capital', but this was inaccessible to those of modest means." (Piccone, Italian Marxism).The first edition of the work originally appeared in German in 1867, and only the first part of the work appeared in Marx' lifetime.Bert Andréas 154Einaudi (not numbered, between no. 3769 and 3770)Mattioli 2287 (a reprint from 1916).

Hannover, 1599. Small 8vo. Contemporary full vellum. Binding with some wear, especially to extremities. Lower spine restored. Evenly browned throughout. 210 pp. Extremely scarce first edition of Genitili's highly important "Two Disputations", including the first printing of his seminal treatise "On Lying", which is of fundamental importance to Gentili's legal system that was based on practice and experience and became extremely influential. "In his disputation on lying, published in 1599, he defended the use of the "officious lie" in cases of "great necessity", and insisted that the law should be considered in the light of its ultimate aim, citing the maxim, "Salus populi suprema lex esto" (Let the safety of the people be the supreme law)." (Note: Gentili, Disputationum Duae… 1599). (Kingsbury & Straumann, The Roman Foundations of the Law of Nations. Alberico Gentili and the Justice of Empire, p. 142). Alberico Gentili, the "Father of international law" (1552 -1608), was an Italian jurist, tutor of Queen Elizabeth I, and a standing advocate to the Spanish Embassy in London, who served as the Regius professor of civil law at the University of Oxford for 21 years. He was the earliest writer on public international law, and in 1587, he became the first non-English person to be a Regius Professor. Gentili's books are recognized to be among the most essential for international legal doctrines. "A prominent early modern Italian legal theorist and practicing lawyer, Alberico Gentili is regarded, along with Francisco de Vitoria and Hugo Grotius, as one of the founders of the science of the modern law of nations (ius gentium) and a major figure in the development of international relations. He designed a solid and autonomous framework for the law of nations based on three pillars: the Greco-Roman idea of natural law, the Justinian compilation of Roman law, and the-then novel Bodinian notion of sovereignty as supreme, perpetual, and indivisible power. Gentili freed the law of nations from excessive scholastic influences and theological importations, avoiding metaphysical developments and overly subtle dialectics. He tried to build a system based on practice and experience. His legal construction is more inductive from events, episodes, customs, and facts, than deductive from unchanged premises. Providing some new arguments, he removed religion as a valid reason for conflict and war, he advocated for the legitimacy of non-Christian regimes, especially the Ottomans, and he tried to fix the tenuous lines of separation between jurisprudence and theology and between the internal forum and external forum of canon law. Neither the pope nor the Roman Catholic Church has a place in Gentili's systematic account. His world-famous saying - silete theologi in munere alieno! - commands the theologian not to be involved in other people's business and was claimed centuries later by the jurisprudence of European public law to argue in favor of the secularization of the law, beyond the limits Gentili himself intended." (Domingo & Minucci, Alberigo Gentili and the Secularization of the Law of Nations, p. 1). Alberico Gentili was a transitional, erudite, legal thinker and practicing lawyer fully involved in the events of his lifetime and attentive to continuous and profound political and social changes. Educated in the Bartolist method, he gradually evolved to a more integrated jurisprudence, in accordance with the humanist approach. He elaborated a new framework for the law of nations as a part of the law of nature to be applied between and among sovereign states and governed by Justinian Roman law. He also offered a systematic account of two of the most relevant institutions of international relations: diplomacy and war. Gentili's severe critique of religious intolerance; his drawing of a demarcation between the spiritual and the temporal, the internal and the external forum of conscience; his separation of functions between theologians and jurists; his continuous interpretative effort to find principles of natural law-all of these ideas and attitudes, among others, contributed to the establishment of the theoretical basis of the European modern state and to the building up of an international society of sovereign nations. (Domingo & Minucci, Alberigo Gentili and the Secularization of the Law of Nations, p. 17). First editions by Gentili are exceedingly rare on the market.

Paris, Steph.Ganeau, 1714. Folio. Bound in one beautiful cont.full mottled calf w. six raised bands, gilt compartments. Hinges, capitals and corners professionally restored. Internally very nice and clean, apart from heavy browning to the smaller woodcut of the second title-page. Engraved title-page, title-page w. woodcut vignette, XXVI, (19), 140 pp., second engraved title-page, and 334 sheets of plates, containing 1327 fine engravings on 334 sheets (being 331 sheets with four engravings on each and three sheets with one large engraving on each; all of these are numbered (the engravings on the first 331 sheets are numbered 1-1324); number 406 has to extras, being 406+ and 406*, number 673 has one extra being 673+, number 674 has one extra, being 674+, numbers 826, 827 and 828 are collected on one engraving, and numbers 1076 and 1256 (would have been within the plates that consist of four engravings each) are omitted), complete. All of the first 331 sheets consist of four illustration, and most of them are made as four separate engravings, but some of them are made frofrom just two engravings, but still depicting four illustrations of axactly the same measure as the rest. First edition of Barrelier's chief botanical work, his famous "Hortus Mundi", for which he was supported financially by Gaston von Orléans but which he never finished due to illness. The text was destroyed in a fire after his death, but the numerous drawings survived and in 1714, ab. 40 years after Barrelier's death, Antoine de Jussieu published the work with the original plates under the title "Plantae per Galliam...".Jacques Barrelier (1606 - 1673) was a French Dominican, botanist and physician. He undertook extensive travels throughout France, Spain and Italy and spent 25 years in Rome, where he founded the botanical garden of the Saint-Xyste convent. During his time in Rome he worked on his magnum opus, which was later to become his "Plantae per Galliam...", for which he had an enormous amount of engravings made after his numerous drawings of plants. When he returned to Paris in 1672, he had stopped working on his great work, and in 1973 he died of an asthma-attack. The text for the work is destroyed in a fire, but the engravings are saved, which makes it possible for Antoine de Jussieu about 40 years later to publish the work the Barrelier never came to finish himself. Antoine de Jussieu (1686-1758) was out of a prominent French family distinguished for ist excellent botanists. He was a physician who also practiced medicine and devoted much of his time to treating the very poor. He studied at the University of Montpellier, and like Barrelier, he travelled through Spain and Portugal. In 1708 he went to Paris, where he succeeded J.P. de Tournefort at the Jardin des Plantes. His main works are his publication of Barrelier's "Plantae per Galliam..." and an edition of Tournefort's "Institutiones rei herbariae", printed in 1719 in three volumes.Barrelier has given name to the flower genus "Barleria", which covers roughly 300 species.Pritzel 423. Nissen I:7-8. (Nissen mentions "334 Kupf. mit 1324 Fig.; this, however seems not to omit the last three full-page engravings that are numbered 1325-27). Hunt II,I:432.

Berlin, Königlich Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1925-1929. 1. Einheitliche Feldtheorie von Gravitation und Elektrizität. Offprint: S. B. preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1925, pp.414-419. Original wrappers. Mint. (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. Original wrappers. Mint. (Weil 162/ Boni 175).3. Zur einheitlichen Feldtheorie. Offprint: S. B. preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1929, pp.2-7. Original wrappers. Mint. (Weil 165/ Boni 183).4. Einheitliche Feldtheorie und Hamiltonsches Prinzip. Offprint: S. B. preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1929, pp.156-159. Original wrappers. Mint. (Weil 166/ Boni 184).5. Über den gegenwärtigen Stand der Feldtheorie. In: Festschrift Dr. A. Stodola, Zürich, Füssli, 1929, pp.126-132. Publishers full cloth. Spine slightly faded. Otherwise mint. (Weil 168 / Boni 178).All in all a very fine set. Offprint of all four papers and first edition of the final essay, constituting Einstein's attempt toward 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 586

Paris, Saillant & Nyon, 1771. 4to. Near contemp. hcalf. Gilt spine with gilt lettering. Very light wear along edges. Stamps on title-page. (8, incl. htitle),417,(1) pp., 20 engraved maps and charts (numb. 1-19 + 16 bis) of which 18 are folded, including the large world map. 2 engraved plates (numb. 1-2). Internally clean and fine, a few leaves with marginal brownspots. First edition of this famous circumnavigation, being the first voyage around the world with professional naturalists and geographers onboard. Bougainville was the first Frenchman to sail around the world. In 1771, Bougainville published his travel log from the expedition under the title "Le voyage autour du monde, par la frégate La Boudeuse, et la flûte L'Étoile". The book describes the geography, biology and anthropology of Argentina (then a Spanish colony), Patagonia, Tahiti and Indonesia (then a Dutch colony). The book was a sensation, especially the description of Tahitian society. Bougainville described it as an earthly paradise where men and women lived in blissful innocence, far from the corruption of civilisation.Bougainville's descriptions powerfully expressed the concept of the noble savage, influencing the utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau before the advent of the French Revolution. Denis Diderot's book Supplément au voyage de Bougainville retells the story of Bougainville's landing on Tahiti, narrated by an anonymous reader to one of his friends. Diderot used his fictional approach, including a description of the Tahitians as noble savages, to criticise Western ways of living and thinking.Sabin, 6864.

Hamburg: Otto Meissner, 1885. 8vo. Very nice contemporary black half calf with gilt spine. A bit of wear to extremitoes. Inner front hinge a little weak. Title-page a littel dusty, but otherwise very nice and clean. Book-plate (Arnold Heertje) to inside of front board. XXVII, (1), 526 pp. + 1 f. With pp. 515-16 in the first state ("Consumtionsfonds" with a C) and with the imprint-leaf at the end. Scarce first edition of the second volume of "The Capital", edited from Marx's manuscripts by Friedrich Engels and with a 20 pages long preface by Engels. The second volume constitutes a work in its own right and is also known under the subtitle "The Process of Circulation of Capital ". Although this work has often been to as referred to as "the forgotten book" of Capital or "the unknown volume", it was in fact also extremely influential and highly important - it is here that Marx introduces his "Schemes of Reproduction", here that he founds his particular macroeconomics, and here that he so famously distinguishes two "departments" of production: those producing means of production and those producing means of consumption - "This very division, as well as the analysis of the relations between these departments, is one of the enduring achievements of Marx's work." (Christopher J. Arthur and Geert Reuten : The Circulation of Capital. Essays on Volume Two of Marx's Capital. P. 7).The work is divided into three parts: The Metamorphoses of Capital and Their Circuits, The Turnover of Capital, The Reproduction and Circulation of the Aggregate Social Capital, and it is here that we find the main ideas behind the marketplace - how value and surplus-value are realized. Here, as opposed to volume 1 of "The Capital", the focus is on the money-owner and -lender, the wholesale-merchant, the trader and the entrepreneur, i.e. the "functioning capitalist", rather than worker and the industrialist. "[i]t was here, in the final part of this book [i.e. vol. II of Das Kapital], that Marx introduced his "Schemes of Reproduction", which influenced both Marxian and orthodox economics in the first decades of the twentieth century." (Arthur & Reuten p. 1).The first volume of "Das Kapital" was the only one to appear within Marx' life-time. It appeared 1867, followed by this second volume 18 years later, which Engels prepared from notes left by Karl Marx.

Paris, Guillaumin, 1839. 8vo. In contemporary half calf with gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine. With author's presentation inscription to half title: "de la part d. l'auteur / á son ami M. Philip Taylor / H. S." (i.e. English: "From the author to his friend Mr. Philip Taylor, H. S. (i.e. Horace Say)). A few scratches to spine and internally with light occassional brownspotting, but overall a nice and clean copy. 333, (3) + 5 plates of which 2 are folded. Uncommon first edition – with author’s presentation inscription to English industrialist Philip Taylor - of Say’s seminal work in which he analyzes Brazil not just descriptively but analytically, treating it as a case study for how free trade, open markets and liberal institutions can foster economic development and growt. This embodies the classical liberal belief in progress through commerce - linking Enlightenment ideals to the economic realities of the 19th century. In the present work Say reflects and extends the liberal economic philosophy of his father famous Jean-Baptiste Say, celebrated for "Say’s Law" and his advocacy of free markets. While Jean-Baptiste laid the theoretical foundation for classical economics in France, his son Horace applied these ideas to real-world contexts - analyzing Brazil as a proving ground for liberal trade principles. The work bridges theory and practice showing how the younger Say carried forward and globalized his father’s economic legacy. Say identifies Brazil as a model for future French colonial economics - not in terms of conquest but through integration into global trade networks. This early liberal vision contrasts sharply with later exploitative imperial models and shows how economists like Say envisioned colonialism as an economic partnership shaped by industrial and technological exchange. He anticipates the country's economic take-off and presents it as a promising model for France’s emerging colonial ambitions, especially in the tropics. The book is deeply informed by the liberal economic thought of the time and offers a fine insight into the global economic thinking of 19th-century France. The present copy was given by Say to Philip Taylor (1786–1870), an English industrialist and engineer. He was a pivotal figure in Franco-British industrial exchange during the 19th century. A Protestant like Say, Taylor settled in Marseille, where he played a crucial role in advancing industrial technologies, especially in the sugar refining sector. His connection with the Say family was not only personal but also professional - he collaborated closely with Horace Say’s uncle, founder of the Say sugar refinery (later Béghin-Say), to introduce British-designed machinery into French industry. The friendship between Say and Taylor reflects a broader internatioanl network of liberal thinkers, industrialists and reformers who were shaping the global economy during the first half of the 19th century. This dedication documents a personal and ideological alliance at the heart of early industrial globalization linking two pivotal figures at the intersection of theory and industry. Kress III, C.4986 Not in Einaudi or Mattioli.

Paris, Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1923. 4to. Bound in one contemp. full buckram. Spines gilt and with gilt lettering. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome 177. Bound with orig. printed front-wrapper to No. 1, half-title and title-page to vol. 177. 1513 pp. (Entire volume offered). De Broglie's papers: pp. 507-510, pp. 548-551 a. pp. 630-32. Clean and fine. A punched stamp on foot of title-page. First edition of these papers which ESTABLISHED A NEW ERA IN PHYSICS by introducing the epochal new principle that particle-wave duality should apply not only to radiation but also to matter and thus CREATING QUANTUM MECHANICS. These 3 papers were extended to form his doctoral thesis of 1924 "Recherches sur la Théorie des Quanta."De Broglie relates "After long reflection in solitude and meditation, I suddenly had the idea, during the year 1923, that the discovery made by Einstein in 1905 should be generalized by extending it to all material particles and notably to electrons" (Preface to his PhD thesis 1924)."He made the leap in his September 10, 1923, paper: E=hv should hold not only for photons but also for electrons, to which he assigns a 'fictitious associated wave'. In his September 24 paper, he indicated the direction in which one 'should seek experimental confirmations of our ideas': a stream of electrons traversing an aperture whose dimensions are small compared with the wavelenght of the electron waves 'should show diffraction phenomena' ."(Pais "Subtle is the Lord", pp. 425-436).In the third paper (October 8) he discusses "The interplay between the propagation of the particle and of the waves could be expressed in more formal terms as an identity between the fundamental variational principles of Pierre de Fermat (rays), and Pierre Louis Maupertuis (particles) as de Broglie discussed it further in his last communication . Therein he also considered some thermodynamic consequences of his generalized wave-particle duality. He showed in particular how one could, using Lord Rayleigh’s 1900 formula for the number of stationary modes for phase waves, obtain Planck’s division of the mechanical phase space into quantum cells.Louis de Broglie achieved a worldwide reputation for his discovery of the wave theory of matter, for which he received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1929. His work was extended into a full-fledged wave mechanics by Erwin Schrödinger and thus contributed to the creation of quantum mechanics. After an early attempt to propose a deterministic interpretation of his theory, de Broglie joined the Copenhagen school’s mainstream noncausal interpretation of the quantum theory."(DSB)."This idea [i.e. de Broglie's that matter might behave as waves] was tested and confirmed by Davisson and Germer in 1927... Thus the duality of both light and matter had been established, and physicists had to come to terms with fundamental particles which defied simple theories and demanded two sets of 'complementary' descriptions, each applicable under certain circumstances, but incompatible with one another." (Printing and the Mind of Man, 417).