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Warszawa, March (27th and 31st) 1956. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. With "Wylacznie do uzytku organizacji partyjnych" ("Exclusively for inner-party use") printed to top of front wrapper. Stamped serial number to front wrapper: 12861. A few light creases to wrappers. A A very nice, clean, and fresh copy.Previous owner's name to title-page. 95, (1) pp. Extremely scarce second impression, printed for private circulation only ("exclusively for inner-party use"), of one of the most important documents of the 20th century, namely Khrushchev's so-called "Secret Speech", also known as the "Khrushchev Report". This seminal speech was delivered at an unpublicized closed session of Communist Party delegates, with guests and members of the press excluded, and the present Polish version, which appeard in two different printings, of it was the only one that circulated during the Cold War, the official Russian text being unknown until its 1989 publication. The CIA counterfeit edition [falsely stating Moscow 1959] was in fact a translation into Russian from the present Polish text, which was smuggled out of Moscow and leaked, via Israel, to the USA. There are two impressions of the first edition of Khrushchev's speech, both bearing the date March 1956 and both ordered by the Polish communist party authorities in the span of March 27 - March 31. As opposed to the even scarcer first priting of the text, this second priting of 96 pages was edited to give only Khrushchev's speech (without the recorded interjections and ovations), but containing also a second part, "Unpublished materials" with Lenin's "Testament", Lenin's "On the National Question", and Stalin's notes.The present publication shook the Western world and changed our history for good. "Its consequences, by no means fully foreseen by Khrushchev, shook the Soviet Union to the core, but even more so its communist allies, notably in central Europe. Forces were unleashed that eventually changed the course of history. But at the time, the impact on the delegates was more immediate. Soviet sources now say some were so convulsed as they listened that they suffered heart attacks; others committed suicide afterwards." (John Rettie, in The Observer, Sunday 26 February 2006 ).On February 24, 1956 before assembled delegates at a secret session of the Communist Party's Twentieth Congress, Nikita Khrushchev delivered his so-called "Secret Speech", denouncing Stalin for his transgressions. The public session of the 20th Congress had come to a formal end on 24 February 1956 when word was spread to delegates to return to the Great Hall of the Kremlin for an additional "closed session," to which journalists, guests, and delegates from "fraternal parties" from outside the USSR were not invited. Special passes were issued to those eligible to participate, with an additional 100 former Party members, recently released from the Soviet prison camp network. The speech was thus secretly held in this closed session, without discussion, and it was neither published as part of the congress' proceedings nor reported in the Soviet press. The speech that sent shock waves through the congress participants denounced Stalin, describing him as satanic despot and terrorist who had committed the greatest of crimes. Quoting from correspondence, memoranda and his own observations, Khrushchev gave details of Stalin's horrible actions during the Terror of the late 1930'ies, the unpreparedness of the country at the time of the Nazi invasion in June 1941, numerous wartime blunders, the deportation of various nationalities in 1943 and 1944, and the banishing of Tito's Yugoslavia from the Soviet bloc after the war. Absolving the party itself of these grave actions, Khrushchev attributed them to the "cult of personality" that Stalin encouraged and his "violations of socialist legality". According to Khrushchev's speech, Stalin was a tyrant, a murderer and torturer of party members.Khrushchev gave his grim tale of the obscene crimes committed by his predecessor, Josef Stalin, only three years after the death of Stalin, who was then celebrated as a great leader and whose death was mourned by the great majority of Soviet citizens, who saw him as a divine father. It is no wonder that this lengthy speech from their new leader completely shocked Soviet communists, being told so soon after his death that far from far from being divine, their hero Stalin was actually outright satanic. The leaders who inherited the party from the old dictator had agreed - after months of furious argument - that Khrushchev should make the speech, but on the condition that it should never be published.Khrushchev read from a prepared report and no stenographic record of the closed session was kept. No questions or debate followed Khrushchev's presentation, and it is reported that delegates left the hall in a state of complete disorientation. It is even said that several delegates suffered heart attacks and that some even committed suicide upon listening to the horrifying speech. On the evening of the congress, delegates of foreign Communist parties were called to the Kremlin and given the opportunity to read the prepared text of the Khrushchev speech, which was treated as a top secret state document. Reports of the speech soon reached the West and as early as March the contents were reported in Western media. "The content of the speech reached the west through a circuitous route. A few copies of the speech were sent by order of the Soviet Politburo to leaders of the Eastern Bloc countries. Shortly after the speech had been disseminated, a Polish journalist, Viktor Grayevsky, visited his girlfriend, Lucia Baranowski, who worked as a junior secretary in the office of the first secretary of the Polish Communist Party, Edward Ochab. On her desk was a thick booklet with a red binding, with the words: "The 20th Party Congress, the speech of Comrade Khrushchev." Grayevsky had heard rumors of the speech and, as a journalist, was interested in reading it. Baranowski allowed him to take the document home to read.As it happened, Grayevsky, who was Jewish, and had made a recent trip to Israel to visit his sick father, decided to emigrate there. After he read the speech, he decided to take it to the Israeli Embassy and gave it to Yaakov Barmor who had helped Grayevsky make his trip to visit Grayevsky's sick father. Barmor was a Shin Bet representative; he photographed the document and sent the photographs to Israel. By the afternoon of April 13, 1956, the Shin Bet in Israel received the photographs. Israeli intelligence and United States intelligence had previously secretly agreed to cooperate on security matters. James Jesus Angleton was the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) head of counterintelligence and in charge of the clandestine liaison with Israeli intelligence. The photographs were delivered to him. On April 17, 1956, the photographs reached the CIA chief Allen Dulles, who quickly informed U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After determining that the speech was authentic, the CIA leaked the speech to The New York Times in early June.""In the West, the impact of the speech received a colossal boost from the publication of the full, albeit sanitised, text in The Observer and the New York Times. This was the first time the full text had been available for public scrutiny anywhere in the world. Even local party secretaries who read it to members had to return their texts within 36 hours. (Those texts were also sanitised, omitting two incidents in the speech that Orlov related to me.)According to William Taubman, in his masterly biography of Khrushchev, the full text leaked out through Poland where, like other central European communist allies, Moscow had sent an edited copy for distribution to the Polish party." (John Rettie, in The Observer, Sunday 26 February 2006).The speech sent shock waves throughout the Communist world and caused many Western Communists to abandon the movement. In central Europe, the impact of the speech was enormous. By autumn Poland was ready to explode and in Hungary an anti-communist revolution overthrew the Stalinist party and government, replacing them with the short-lived reformist Imre Nagy."Some may doubt that Stalin's Soviet Union could ever have been reformed, but Khrushchev was not among them - and neither, indeed, was Gorbachev. But after two decades of decay under Brezhnev, even he could not hold the country together. It can well be argued that the 'secret speech' was the century's most momentous, planting the seed that eventually caused the demise of the USSR." (John Rettie, in The Observer, Sunday 26 February 2006).It is the present version of the seminal text that leaked behind the Iron Curtain. Allegedly the CIA offered USD 1.000.000 for a copy, before they came into possession of the text through other channels. Khrushchev himself stated: "It was supposed to have been secret, but in fact it was far from being secret.. our document fell into the hands of some Polish comrades who were hostile towards the Soviet Union. They used my speech for their own purposes and made copies of it. I was told that it was being sold for very little."Like the first impression, almost all the copies of this extremely scarce publication - which were all numbered and strictly registered - were withdrawn and destroyed after 11 April 1956. We have been able to locate no copies of either impression outside of Poland and can find no copies registered in OCLC.

Paris, Guillaumin et Cie, Victor Masson et Fils, 1862. 8vo. Bound partly uncut with the original wrappers in a very nice later full calf pastiche binding with four raised band and richly gilt spine. Gilt boarders to boards. Small repair to upper right corner of title-page, not affecting text. An exceptionally fine and clean copy. LXIV (incl. half-title), I-XXIII + (24-) 712. pp. and 1 folded plate (between pp.160 a. 161). The scarce first edition of the controversial first French translation - bound partly uncut and with the original wrappers - of Darwin's masterpiece, one of the most important books ever printed. This famed translation - done by self-taught female scholar - ended up causing quite a stir and adding to the theory of evolution some for Darwin quite unforeseen interpretations. Because of this, the translator, Clémence Royer, gained notoriety as one of the leading eugenicists of the time. Darwin was very eager to have his work published in French. It is not known exactly how he happened on Royer as the translator, but as she was familiar with the works of Lamarck and Malthus, immediately realized the importance of Darwin's work and also had close connections to the French publisher Guillaumin, she must have seemed perfect for the job. She had a naturalist help her with the biologically technical parts and made an excellent job of the translation. There was one big problem, however - she went well beyond her role as a translator and added a 60-page preface and numerous explanatory footnotes that Darwin had not seen before publication. In the preface, she challenged the belief in religious revelation, she discussed the application of natural selection to the human race, and she presented a pure eugenic theory, explaining the negative consequences of protecting the weak and the infirm. She also promoted her concept of progressive evolution, which had more in common with the ideas of Lamarck than with those of Darwin. Right after having seen the translation, Darwin wrote in a letter to the American botanist, Asa Gray: "I received 2 or 3 days ago a French translation of the Origin by a Madelle. Royer, who must be one of the cleverest & oddest women in Europe: is ardent deist & hates Christianity, & declares that natural selection & the struggle for life will explain all morality, nature of man, politicks &c &c!!!. She makes some very curious & good hits, & says she shall publish a book on these subjects, & a strange production it will be."After some reflection, however, Darwin began having more serious doubts, and about a month later he wrote to the French zoologist Armand de Quatrefages: "I wish the translator had known more of Natural History; she must be a clever, but singular lady; but I never heard of her, till she proposed to translate my book." He had now also read the footnotes and wrote to Joseph Hooker: "Almost everywhere in Origin, when I express great doubt, she appends a note explaining the difficulty or saying that there is none whatever!! It is really curious to know what conceited people there are in the world."Freeman No 655 (Freeman does not mention the plate, which is present here).

Kjøbenhavn, Bianco Luno, 1848-49 + 1849. 4to. Two volumes, both in the original blue boards with paper title-label to spine. Wear to extremities, hinges and edges of boards with loss of the blue paper, primarily affecting vol. 2. Inner hinge on vol. 2 split. Occassional brownspotting throughout. 3906, LXVI columns. (= 1986 pp.). Scarce first printing of all the minutes of The Danish Constitutional Assembly 1848-49. The Danish Constitutional Assembly of 1848-1849 was a pivotal event in Denmark’s political history, marking the transition from absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, Denmark's first democratic constitution. This assembly was organized in the wake of revolutionary movements sweeping across Europe in 1848 which sparked widespread demands for political reforms – also in Denmark. The assembly’s main achievement was the drafting and adoption of Denmark’s first democratic constitution, known as the Grundlov (The Constitution), on June 5, 1849, thus ushered a new era of constitutional rule and laying the groundwork for the modern Danish state. The constitution applying equally in the Realm of Denmark: Denmark proper, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. ”At the beginning of the 1800s demands for political reform grew around Europe. Inspired by, for example, Norway’s constitution of 1814 and the July Revolution in Paris of 1830, a national liberal movement emerged in Denmark rooted in the middle classes of Copenhagen. The national liberals made demands for representative government guaranteed by a free constitution. The peasantry organised themselves into the Society of the Friends of Peasants, which supported the liberal demands, for instance, through the weekly publication “the Friend of the Peasantry. Originating in Paris, a new wave of revolutions swept across Europe in 1848. Social and democratic reforms were demanded. In many places the calls for democracy became linked to national questions.” (National Museum of Denmark). “In 1848, Denmark was on the periphery of revolutionary Europe. In March, the outbreak of revolution in several European cities inspired Danish liberals and radicals to convene mass meetings that demanded a free constitution and universal suffrage. King Frederik VII and his advisors were equally affected by the European developments and abolished absolutism before the threat of violent conflict could be realised in the capital. The developments of March 1848 initiated a constitutional struggle that ended on 5 June 1849 when Frederik VII signed the country’s first free constitution, which came to be known as the June Constitution. In contrast to the experience in many European states, counter-revolution was absent in the Danish kingdom, and the June Constitution remained in function beyond the revolutionary years. The exception to this picture of a non-violent, almost gentle revolution are of course the developments in the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, where violence erupted in March 1848. Thus, the constitutional struggle in the capital was played out alongside the First Schleswig War (1848–1851) in Jutland and the duchies.” (Nørgaard, A Battle for Democracy The Concept of Democracy in the Constitutional Struggle, Denmark 1848–1849).

Heidelberg, (Druck und Papier von Brede in Offenbach), 1817. 8vo. Nice cont. cardboardbdg. w. title-label to back. Corners and capitals professionally restored. Hinges w. a bit of paper-loss. Occational brownspotting. Front free end-paper w. vast cont. annotations by former owner Fr. Selasinski. The rare first edition of Hegel's immensely important work, the "Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences", by himself and his contemporaries considered his main work, and likewise an absolute main work of philosophy in general. Hegel is considered one of the four greatest philosophers of all times, and his contributions to philosophy are incomparable to other than perhaps those of Aristotle, Plato and Kant. In 1816 Hegel chose the professorship of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, and here he taught his courses with great enthusiasm. He lectured no less than 16 hours a week, mostly over his own system, which is the object of this (chronologically speaking) third main work, generally just called the "Encyclopaedia".Hegel himself considered his "Encyclopedia" to be the most important of his works, and his contemporaries likewise judged it his actual main work. Hegel was considered the epitome of the great systematic thinker of the 19th century, and his "Encyclopaedia" forms the epitome of his work, at the same time as it, to his own mind, constitutes his greatest achievement. Hegel's main aim was to systematically comprise all spiritual and natural knowledge, and thus his philosophy peaks with his all-comprising Encyclopaedia, which remained of the greatest importance to himself throughout his life-time. He kept working on the book, and no less than three different altered editions appeared within his lifetime, the last in 1830, the year before he died, confirming his lasting devotion to this work.The book has belonged to one Friedrich Selasinski (perhaps a midshipman from the aristocracy), who has annotated the entire front free end-paper (ab. 1830).

Warszawa, March (31st) 1956. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. With "Wylacznie do uzytku organizacji partyjnych" ("Exclusively for inner-party use") printed to top of front wrapper. A very nice, clean, and fresh copy. 95, (1) pp. Extremely scarce second impression, printed for private circulation only ("exclusively for inner-party use"), of one of the most important documents of the 20th century, namely Khrushchev's so-called "Secret Speech", also known as the "Khrushchev Report". This seminal speech was delivered at an unpublicized closed session of Communist Party delegates, with guests and members of the press excluded, and the present Polish version, which appeard in two different printings, of it was the only one that circulated during the Cold War, the official Russian text being unknown until its 1989 publication. The CIA counterfeit edition [falsely stating Moscow 1959] was in fact a translation into Russian from the present Polish text, which was smuggled out of Moscow and leaked, via Israel, to the USA. There are two impressions of the first edition of Khrushchev's speech, both bearing the date March 1956 and both ordered by the Polish communist party authorities in the span of March 27 - March 31. As opposed to the even scarcer first priting of the text, this second priting of 96 pages was edited to give only Khrushchev's speech (without the recorded interjections and ovations), but containing also a second part, "Unpublished materials" with Lenin's "Testament", Lenin's "On the National Question", and Stalin's notes.The present publication shook the Western world and changed our history for good. "Its consequences, by no means fully foreseen by Khrushchev, shook the Soviet Union to the core, but even more so its communist allies, notably in central Europe. Forces were unleashed that eventually changed the course of history. But at the time, the impact on the delegates was more immediate. Soviet sources now say some were so convulsed as they listened that they suffered heart attacks; others committed suicide afterwards." (John Rettie, in The Observer, Sunday 26 February 2006 ).On February 24, 1956 before assembled delegates at a secret session of the Communist Party's Twentieth Congress, Nikita Khrushchev delivered his so-called "Secret Speech", denouncing Stalin for his transgressions. The public session of the 20th Congress had come to a formal end on 24 February 1956 when word was spread to delegates to return to the Great Hall of the Kremlin for an additional "closed session," to which journalists, guests, and delegates from "fraternal parties" from outside the USSR were not invited. Special passes were issued to those eligible to participate, with an additional 100 former Party members, recently released from the Soviet prison camp network. The speech was thus secretly held in this closed session, without discussion, and it was neither published as part of the congress' proceedings nor reported in the Soviet press. The speech that sent shock waves through the congress participants denounced Stalin, describing him as satanic despot and terrorist who had committed the greatest of crimes. Quoting from correspondence, memoranda and his own observations, Khrushchev gave details of Stalin's horrible actions during the Terror of the late 1930'ies, the unpreparedness of the country at the time of the Nazi invasion in June 1941, numerous wartime blunders, the deportation of various nationalities in 1943 and 1944, and the banishing of Tito's Yugoslavia from the Soviet bloc after the war. Absolving the party itself of these grave actions, Khrushchev attributed them to the "cult of personality" that Stalin encouraged and his "violations of socialist legality". According to Khrushchev's speech, Stalin was a tyrant, a murderer and torturer of party members.Khrushchev gave his grim tale of the obscene crimes committed by his predecessor, Josef Stalin, only three years after the death of Stalin, who was then celebrated as a great leader and whose death was mourned by the great majority of Soviet citizens, who saw him as a divine father. It is no wonder that this lengthy speech from their new leader completely shocked Soviet communists, being told so soon after his death that far from far from being divine, their hero Stalin was actually outright satanic. The leaders who inherited the party from the old dictator had agreed - after months of furious argument - that Khrushchev should make the speech, but on the condition that it should never be published.Khrushchev read from a prepared report and no stenographic record of the closed session was kept. No questions or debate followed Khrushchev's presentation, and it is reported that delegates left the hall in a state of complete disorientation. It is even said that several delegates suffered heart attacks and that some even committed suicide upon listening to the horrifying speech. On the evening of the congress, delegates of foreign Communist parties were called to the Kremlin and given the opportunity to read the prepared text of the Khrushchev speech, which was treated as a top secret state document. Reports of the speech soon reached the West and as early as March the contents were reported in Western media. "The content of the speech reached the west through a circuitous route. A few copies of the speech were sent by order of the Soviet Politburo to leaders of the Eastern Bloc countries. Shortly after the speech had been disseminated, a Polish journalist, Viktor Grayevsky, visited his girlfriend, Lucia Baranowski, who worked as a junior secretary in the office of the first secretary of the Polish Communist Party, Edward Ochab. On her desk was a thick booklet with a red binding, with the words: "The 20th Party Congress, the speech of Comrade Khrushchev." Grayevsky had heard rumors of the speech and, as a journalist, was interested in reading it. Baranowski allowed him to take the document home to read.As it happened, Grayevsky, who was Jewish, and had made a recent trip to Israel to visit his sick father, decided to emigrate there. After he read the speech, he decided to take it to the Israeli Embassy and gave it to Yaakov Barmor who had helped Grayevsky make his trip to visit Grayevsky's sick father. Barmor was a Shin Bet representative; he photographed the document and sent the photographs to Israel. By the afternoon of April 13, 1956, the Shin Bet in Israel received the photographs. Israeli intelligence and United States intelligence had previously secretly agreed to cooperate on security matters. James Jesus Angleton was the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) head of counterintelligence and in charge of the clandestine liaison with Israeli intelligence. The photographs were delivered to him. On April 17, 1956, the photographs reached the CIA chief Allen Dulles, who quickly informed U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After determining that the speech was authentic, the CIA leaked the speech to The New York Times in early June.""In the West, the impact of the speech received a colossal boost from the publication of the full, albeit sanitised, text in The Observer and the New York Times. This was the first time the full text had been available for public scrutiny anywhere in the world. Even local party secretaries who read it to members had to return their texts within 36 hours. (Those texts were also sanitised, omitting two incidents in the speech that Orlov related to me.)According to William Taubman, in his masterly biography of Khrushchev, the full text leaked out through Poland where, like other central European communist allies, Moscow had sent an edited copy for distribution to the Polish party." (John Rettie, in The Observer, Sunday 26 February 2006).The speech sent shock waves throughout the Communist world and caused many Western Communists to abandon the movement. In central Europe, the impact of the speech was enormous. By autumn Poland was ready to explode and in Hungary an anti-communist revolution overthrew the Stalinist party and government, replacing them with the short-lived reformist Imre Nagy."Some may doubt that Stalin's Soviet Union could ever have been reformed, but Khrushchev was not among them - and neither, indeed, was Gorbachev. But after two decades of decay under Brezhnev, even he could not hold the country together. It can well be argued that the 'secret speech' was the century's most momentous, planting the seed that eventually caused the demise of the USSR." (John Rettie, in The Observer, Sunday 26 February 2006).It is the present version of the seminal text that leaked behind the Iron Curtain. Allegedly the CIA offered USD 1.000.000 for a copy, before they came into possession of the text through other channels. Khrushchev himself stated: "It was supposed to have been secret, but in fact it was far from being secret.. our document fell into the hands of some Polish comrades who were hostile towards the Soviet Union. They used my speech for their own purposes and made copies of it. I was told that it was being sold for very little."Like the first impression, almost all the copies of this extremely scarce publication - which were all numbered and strictly registered - were withdrawn and destroyed after 11 April 1956. We have been able to locate no copies of either impression outside of Poland and can find no copies registered in OCLC.

Kjøbenhavn, Bianco Luno, 1848-49 + 1849. Stor 4to. Indbundet i ét samtidigt brunt halvlæderbind med nydelig ny ryg, under anvendelse af den samtidige nydeligt forgyldte ryg. Permerne er nydeligt forstærket med brun shirt under anvendelse af de samtidige marmorerede permed. Første titlblad brunplettet, men ellers et nydeligt, rent og silidt eksemplar. 3906, LXVI spalter (= 1986 pp.). Den sjældne originaludgave af samtlige trykte forhandlinger på Rigsdagen op til Grundlovens vedtagelse. Idet Grundloven blev vedtaget af Rigsforsamlingen d. 25. maj 1849, blev Enevælden afskaffet i Danmark, og den blev stadfæstet af Frederik Den Syvende d. 5. juni 1849. Scarce first printing of all the minutes of The Danish Constitutional Assembly 1848-49. The Constitution was confirmed by the King June 5, 1849, and the absolute monarchy was hereby abolished.

Hauniæ (Copenhagen), Mölleri, 1775. 4to. Contemp. marbled boards. Small nicks to coverpaper at edges. (1-7)8-32,CXXVI,(2),219,(1) pp., 1 engraved map (Tabula Arabiæ Felicis). A few faint brownspots. Clean and fine, printed on good paper. First edition of Forskål's fundamental description of the plants of Yemen and lower Egypt found on the Danish expedition to Arabia. As Forskål died in Jerim it was Carsten Niebuhr, the leader of the expedition and only survivor, who published Forskål's manuscripts. Many botanical species are here described for the first time. Forsskål was one of the most gifted disciples of Linnaeus.Staffleu & Cowan, 1819. - Pritzel, 2969.

(København), 1709. Folio. 53x35 cm. Contemporary full mottled calf. Boards with a bit of wear and a few scratches. Corners and capitals repaired. 19 leaves, all with engraved text and ornamental frames. The broad frames that all differ from each other ornamentally depict animals and plants as well as the different trades of the country. A few leaves with minor weak dampstaining to upper margin. Upper margin slightly soiled. Otherwise a nice and clean copy on thick heavy paper. First edition of this main work of Danish book production and the constitution of the Danish absolute monarchy. The Royal Law established the absolute right of the Monarch to rule, and it defined the line of royal succession. It was more rigorous than the other monarchal laws of Europe at the time.The text which is written by Peder Griffenfeld is engraved in copper throughout, in order to prevent the possibility of re-printing, pirated editions and text-counterfeiting. Frederik Rostgaard, the King's state archivist who was famous for his excellent taste in books, was in charge of the editing and issuing of the work. In front of the actual law text a leaf is inserted with the portrait of King Frederik III on his horse, and everything, except for the head of the king which was engraved after his death-mask, is executed in the beloved flourishing- or scroll- manner of the time. The titles and the text are engraved throughout by Michael Røg.

Paris, de l'Imprimerie de Franc. Amb. Didot l'Ainé. Chez Alexandre Jombert, jeune, 1783. 4to. Nice contemp. red hmorocco with 5 raised bands and richly gilt compartments. Corners restored. Light scratching to boards.Stamps on htitle. A small stamp on titlepage.. (14), 116, 60 pp. + 11 leaves of plate-description, on which the plates are mounted at top, 2 pp. of approbation and privilege. On thick, good paper. A very nice, crisp and complete copy w. clear colours. Apart from the stamps on the htitle, a fine, large and clean copy. The dedication-leaf (A monsieur Le Duc du Chatelet) with his large engraved coat of arms handcoloured. First edition of the main work of the French military engineer Fossé (1734 - 1812). This military work, divided into two sections, one dealing with military strategies concerning defending and attacking, the other dealing with military plans and how to construct maps, is especially renowned for the extraordinary coloured plates by LOUIS MARION BONNET.The plates, depicting plans and maps, show for one of the first times the perfection of the illustrating-process called the CRAYON MANNER adapted to colour-printing, and the work is probably the first book printed using this technique. The technique of printing with colour only began about 20 years before this work was issued; during the first many years, though, many attempts failed, and it wasn't till Bonnet came up with the coloured crayon manner that it was really a success. Bonnet increased the number of plates in order to make it possible to print with several colours. The crayon manner became a great success in Europe and is a fore-runner of the lithography-process. All the plates are signed by Bonnet and are in at least four colours.This work is also renowned for its splendid typography that later on became known as the Didot-style. Graesse II:620. Brunet II:1354.

(Oldenburg, Warner Berendts Erben), 1599 - Strassburg, (Bernhard Jobins Erben), 1599. Folio. One contemp. full limp vellum with ties. Blindtooled borders on covers. On front cover in black printing: "C V D A I G G 1600" Ms titles on spine. (86),494,(18) incl. (2) blank and engraved ornamental title. 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. Some scattered brownspots, a few quires browned, sometimes slight offsetting from engravings. Printed on thick paper.(Spangenberg:) Title printed in red a.black with large wood-engr. coat of arms. (8),287,(18) pp. Last leaf with printers wood-cut device. Some rather heavy browning to the last quires. Some scattered brownspots. Both works in 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.

Leipzig, C.G. Naumann, 1889. 8vo. Bound with the original printed wrappers in a nice near contemporary brown half cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Lovely marbled end-papers. A bit of light soiling and brownspotting to wrappers, which are otherwise very well preserved. A few leaves with some very light brownspotting and a couple of leaves with small closed tears to blank inner margin, far from affecting text. Overall very nice. With the engraved book plate of Adolf Fischer to inside of front board. (8), 144 pp. First edition - with the scarce original wrappers - of the epitome of Nietzsche's final project -a re-valuation of all values ("Eine Umwerthung aller Werthe"), -his hugely interesting "declaration of war" (preface p. (4): "Diese Schrift ist eine grosse Kriegserklärung"), which was written during his last productive year, just before his big breakdown in Turin. "Götzen-Dämmerung" ("The Twilight of the Idols") arguably constitutes the culmination of the production of this giant of philosophy, who turned mad after having finished it.Early in 1889, Nietzsche began to exhibit signs of serious mental illness; in Turin, he finally broke down and was brought back to Basel by his friends. "The Twilight of the Idols" was released merely a few weeks after this collapse, and Nietzsche never wrote again.Nietzsche had 1.000 copies of the work privately printed. The work is considered one of his most popular, and it is here that we find some of the most frequently quoted passages from the works of Nietzsche, e.g. "What does not kill me, only makes me stronger" (p.2.: "Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker").The Twilight was meant as an introduction to, or summary of, Nietzshe's philosophy, and as such it is one of his most interesting works. It is written almost as in a rage of fever - it took him no more than a week to write it -, and he regarded it a world-changing magnum opus. As he states at the end of the preface: "Turin, am 30. September 1888, am Tage, da das erste Buch der Umwerthung aller Werthe zu ende kam." (i.e. "Turin, on September 30. 1888, on the day that the first book on the re-valuation of all value came to an end."). This highly polemical work makes clear reference to Wagner's opera "Götterdämmerung", and it presents us with a sharp critique of the most influential philosophers in history, e.g. Kant and Plato, and of Christianity in general, but also the likes of Rousseau, Hugo, Renan, Mill, Darwin, Dante etc. are attacked as the causes of cultural decadence in Europe. Giants like Caesar, Napoleon, Dostojevski, Goethe, and Thukydides are considered representatives of the opposite.The mental collapse of the author may not come as a surprise to anyone reading the work.Of the 1.000 copies, 659 still remained unsold by October 1893.Twilight of the Idols: Schaberg: 56a

Par-Tout (i.e. Paris or Liège), Chez le vrai Sage, 1755. Small 8vo. Lovely contemporary full mottled calf with five raised bands to richly gilt spine. And excellent nice, clean, and fresh copy, printed on good paper. Old owner's name to title-page and a bookplate to inside of front board (M. Ph. de Planterose). Title-page printed in red and black and with an engraved vignette. 236, (4) pp. First edition of this canonical work of revolutionary utopianism, Morelly's main work, which greatly influenced later socialist and communist thought and which constitutes a forerunner of the works of Marx and Engels. The work was published anonymously and the author Étienne-Gabriel Morelly (1717 - 1778) remains a bit of a mystery about whom very little is known. At first, "The Code of Nature" was attributed to Denis Diderot, but other great authors of the day have also been proposed. "The Code of Nature" constitutes an early example of utopian socialist thought, providing a detailed plan for the establishment of a perfect state. It severely criticized the society of the time and proposed a constitution intended to lead to an egalitarian society without property, marriage, church or police. Based upon the principle that man is by nature good and the view that all social and moral ills were consequences of private property, it argues for an egalitarian society in which almost all private property - and thereby all of its pernicious consequences - is eliminated. Due to these radical views, Morelly is considered a significant forerunner of later socialist and communist thinkers, including Marx, Engels, Fourier, Proudhon, Babeuf, etc."The Code of Nature" had in immense impact on contemporary and later thought because it not only constitutes a theoretical utopia, but rather a sound analytical treatise with utopian elements. It reflects a realistic approach to society and includes a legislative program to return the State to a government in accordance with the natural solidarity and affection of humanity in which Morelly believed so strongly. "The Code of Nature" not only influenced later socialist and communist thinkers, it was also avidly discussed by contemporary Enlightenment thinkers such as Lessing, Wieland, Baumgarten, etc., and the work appeared in numerous editions throughout the 18th century. Einaudi: 4031; Kress: 5457.

Paris, 1851. Contemporary half cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Internally brownspotted (due to the paper quality). A page has been inserted on to the half-title, on which is explained, in a neat late 19th century hand, that the present copy is that of George Sand and that it comes from the sale of her belongings. The rest of the page contains bibliographical information on the work. Nice copy. The extremely scarce first edition, one of merely 84 copies that were not destroyed, of the first work by the Goncourt brothers - the work that laid the basis for their unique joint authorship. The famous brothers Edmond (1822-96) and Jules (1830-70) Goncourt played a unique role in 19th century French intellectual life. Together they developed a distinctive impressionistic style, called "écriture artiste"; their works are furthermore of great importance to the understanding of literary and social life of the period. They seminally influenced the naturalism and realism of 19th century literature - in the words of Émile Zola, they "provided a new sense of nature". The remarkable symbiosis in their collaboration, continuing to write as one until the death of Jules, has gone down in history as one of the most remarkable literary collaborations ever. They are considered aesthetes of the highest rank and were known as great collectors of art. They were also known to be highly neurotic and utterly misogynist. During the Second Empire they frequented the salon of Princess Mathilde and took part in the famous 'dîners Magny', the fortnightly gatherings that brought together leading men (and George Sand!) of letters and science at a Paris restaurant in the 1860'ies. In his will, Edmond left the entire Goncourt fortune to found the "Académie Goncourt", which began in 1903, when the prestigious Prix Goncourt was also founded. Their first work, "En 18..", was printed in 1000 copies, but it was confiscated by the censors and was burnt by the authors. Consequently, a mere 84 copies survived and the work is thus of the utmost scarcity. "Cet ouvrage, qui a été tire à 1000 exemplaires, a été brûlé par les auteurs; il n'existerait dans le commerce que 84 exemplaires donnés ou vendus." (Carteret)."Premiers ouvrage des Goncourt, très rare, dont le manuscrit a subi des suppressions avant l'impression de l'edition de Bruxelles." [the Brussels edition being the second edition, printed in 1884]. (Carteret). George Sand and the Goncourt brothers moved in the same intellectual and literary circles, were invited to the same places, the same salons, and had many friends in common. All three were seminal in determining the course of naturalistic writing of the 19th century. Interestingly, also George Sand began her literary career in as a collaboration, in a liaison with the writer Jules Sandeau. They published a few stories in collaboration, signing them "Jules Sand", before she began writing on her own. Carteret I:349. (listing a copy of the first edition sold in 1918 at 160 fr.).

(Paris), 1919. Folio. With a nice, later paper backstrip. Entire issue 27, 1919 of La Presse Médicale present (pp. 353- 360). Passot's article: 7 columns on pp. 258-261. With one illustration, depicting the ways to reduce wrinkles on a face. Well preserved. The very rare first printing of this pioneering work of plastic surgery - one of the very first - most likely THE first - publication on face lifting, consisting mainly in the elevating and redraping of the facial skin. The first facelift was reportedly done in either 1901 or 1907, but "[n]ot all writers of rhytidectomy spread their innovations through publication; some were teachers instead of writers. Sooner or later, however, those they taught began to write. Giving credit to his masters, Pozzi and Morestin, as well as Mlle. Pertat, Raymond Passot in 1919 described the following technique for eliminating cheek wrinkles and the buccolabial sulcus: First, he began the operation by "withdrawing miniscule amounts of tegument in the preauricular region, using as a limit the lower part of the male's sideburns and the region onto which the mass of the female feair falls...." (Gonzales-Ulloa, The Creation of Aesthetic Surgery, p. 43). The paper is extremely famous, not only due to its great influence, but also because it has come to be regarded as a milestone publication in the history of face lifting, being perhaps the very first publication to describe this now so popular method of rejuvenation. "There is still doubt as to who performed the first facelift, but most sources date it to the first decade of the 20th century.... Hollander... in 1932 stated that his original procedure had been preformed in 1901 for a Polish aristocrat. Lexer, however, reported in 1931 that he had preformed a facelift for and acr´tress in 1906 and that he was unaware of any such operation before that date. Joseph reported in 1921 that he had preformed an operation in 1912 for cerrection of aging cheek tissues in a 48-year-old woman. By the time Hollander, lexer, and Joseph reported their first procedures, a number of other prominent surgeons in Europe, such as Noel, Passot, Morseting... were busy performing cosmetic surgical procedures.... Passot in 1919 published an illustrated article showing sites of elliptic skin excision of the hairline, the forehead, and the temporal and preauricular areas to tighten the skin and an elliptic excision of skin and fat to reduce submental fat deposits." (Neligan, Plastic Surgery, vol. 6, p. 184). "In France, Passot was the first surgeon to describe the submental excision to correct a double chin and multiple facial direct excisions in 1919 in his article "La chirurgie esthétiques des rides du visage". (Panfilov, Aesthetic Surgery of the Facial Mosic, p. 5).

Warszawa, 1933. Small 4to. Orig. printed wrappers, sunned at the edges, but otherwise near mint condition, also internally. An excellent copy. VII, (1), 116, (1, - errata) pp. The exceedingly scarce first printing of Tarski's most important and influential work, "The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages", which founded modern logical semantics.The work appeared in an extremely small number, in Polish, and many copies of the article have later been destroyed, thus, the work is of the utmost scarcity. In this seminal article the Polish-American logician and mathematician Alfred Tarski devotes himself to "the definition of truth". "Its task is to construct -with reference to a given language- a materially adequate and formally correct definition of the term "true sentence"." (Introduction, English translation, 1956). With this work the face of logic was changed forever. The "Concept of Truth" constitutes a landmark event in 20th century analytic philosophy, and it ranks as one of the most important contributions to symbolic logic, semantics and philosophy of language. In this work Tarski develops the semantic theory of truth for formal languages and determines the fact that no language can contain its own truth predicate. Tarski thus concluded that the semantic theory could not be applied to any natural language. -This was later used by e.g. Davidson to construct his truth-conditional semantics, and the problems solved by Tarski are some of the same that Russell and Whitehead struggled to solve in their "Principia Mathematica".Tarski (1901-1983) has contributed seminally to the fields of mathematics and logic in a number of ways, and together with Frege, Russell and Gödel, he now ranks as one of the most important contributors to the field of modern logic. At the time of Franz Brentano (1838-1917), one of the philosophers of the greatest significance for contemporary philosophy and in many ways a forerunner of present-day empiricism, it was very unusual for a metaphysician to acknowledge that philosophical investigation must go hand in hand with an analysis of language. Linguistic analysis has thus been almost totally limited to the pure empiricists of philosophy, who reject all forms of metaphysics. Meanwhile, ontologists and metaphysicians have been satisfied with the ordinary language and asked no questions about its possible limitations, merely dismissing the logical faults and adding the odd neologisms. Today, however, especially within the English speaking tradition, linguistic analysis has reached a degree unheard of at the time of Brentano, and it is now generally accepted that certain logical and epistemological problems can be solved only by forsaking ordinary language and substituting it for artificially constructed language systems that follow certain principles. Thus, difficulties that appeared within earlier philosophical doctrines are meant to disappear if the theory can be formulated more precisely, and one of the most important examples is the "adequacy theory of truth". Tarski shows that the concept of truth of the adequacy theory can be introduced in a perfectly exact way within the formalized language systems that are equipped with precise rules of interpretation, and thus he rids us of the usual misgivings against the concept of truth. And thus he has developed one of the most important theories of modern logic."Tarski's investigations are of singular philosophical significance for another reason as well. Within the framework of semantics, which he founded and which Carnap later developed further, it becomes possible for the first time to introduce the notion of an analytic judgment (or an analytic statement) in a form that is both sufficiently general and of the utmost precision. This notion also plays an exceptionally important role in Brentano's philosophy, especially in his studies in formal logic." (Stegmüller, Main Currents... p. 56). When constructing a semantical system, a vocabulary of the desired object language must be determined as the first. Then formulation rules must be specified, before the rules of interpretation are laid down, and finally the rules of application are supplied. The most important rules here are the rules of truth, and the concept of truth is one of the most important semantical concepts at all, for without them no understanding of the sentences within the system would be ensured. And, of course, the truth definitions must satisfy a condition of adequacy. "...This form of an adequacy condition that must be satisfied by every semantical truth concept goes back to the Polish logician, Stanislaw Lesniewski. But it was the logician Alfred Tarski who above all made use of this notion, and who first studied in detail the possibilities of introducing a formally exact and materially adequate concept of truth into the precise languages of science. Carnap's accounts of semantical systems rest largely on the prior works of Tarski." (Stegmüller, p. 311). Tarski also pointed out that it is necessary for all semantical concepts, and especially for the concept of truth, to strictly separate object language and metalanguage. Otherwise we would put ourselves in the unlucky position of being able to prove both a statement and its negation at the same time. In the English translation from 1956 of Tarski's works, "Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics", the bibliographical information about this article is erroneous.

Amsterdam, Elzevir, 1648. 4to. In contemporary full vellum over wooden boards with title in contemporary hand to spine. Extremities with wear and soiling, boards spotted and corners bumped. Vellum loosened from edges of boards. Internally with a few occassional marginal annotations in contemporary hand and last blank leaf annotated, but generally internally very fine and clean. [Ortus medicinae:] (32), 88, 87-158, 161-176, 175-382, 373-452, 457-800 pp. + portrait.; [Opuscula medica inaudita:] (8), 110, (2) pp.; [Febrium Doctrina Inaudita:] 115, (1) pp.; [Tumulus Pestis:] 88 pp. First edition of Helmont’s landmark work, in which he discovered gas. His experiment on a willow tree has been considered among the earliest quantitative studies on plant nutrition and growth and constitutes a milestone in the history of biology. "Helmont was one of the founders of gases, and indeed invented the word ‘gas'. He introduced the gravimetric idea in the analysis of urine.” (Garrison & Morton). “In Medicine, he introduced the examination of the specific gravity of urine for diagnostic purposes. He investigated the fluids in the human body and advanced the study of digestion and other physiological changes by discovering acid digestion in the stomach, coming close to identifying gastric acid with hydrochloric acid some two hundred years before the actual discovery of this fact. He also appreciated the significance of bile in the gut digestion. Helmont’s significance in the development of chemistry is perhaps even greater; he was the first to use the term ‘gas’. He realized that ‘gas’ was distinct from air and water vapour, and he distinguished the ‘gases’ derived from various sources, including that which we call carbon dioxide.” (PMM 135). Edited by his son and published posthumously, the present work established his name as one of the founders of biochemistry: “His discovery of digestive juices in the stomach and intestine, and especially his first use of the specific gravity of urine for diagnostic purposes, mark him as a man of no insignificant importance in the history of medicine”. (Heirs of Hippocrates) Johann Baptist von Helmont (1577-1644) was a Flemish chemist, physiologist, and physician known for his pioneering work in early chemistry and medicine. He is often considered one of the founders of modern chemistry and was a significant figure in the transition from alchemy to chemistry: "Helmont devoted his life to exploring the first principles of nature through chemistry. He is best remembered as the discoverer of gas, a term he coined to describe the 'specific smokes' that remain after the combustion of solids and fluids; among the gases he identified were carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, chlorine gas and sulphur dioxide. He denied that metals dissolved in acid were either destroyed or transmuted, stating that such metals were recoverable in their original quantities, and correctly identifying the process of precipitation. Like Paracelsus, he rejected traditional humoral pathology and advocated an ontological concept of disease, regarding each disease as a specific entity caused by a specific pathogenic agent. He demonstrated that acid is the agent in animal digestion and came near to identifying it as hydrochloric acid; he also identified the causes of asthma and correctly described fever as a part of the body's natural healing process.” (Norman 1048) Though separately paginated, 'Opuscula medica inaudita' is considered a part of the whole volume. Originally published as a separate work in 1644, 'Opuscula medica inaudita' contains reprints of Helmont's treatises on the stone, on fevers, on the errors of humoral pathology, and on the plague" (Norman 1048).'Ortus Medicinae' was translated into English by Christopher Packe in 1662. PMM 135 Heirs of Hippocrates 254 Osler 2929 Norman 1048 Garrison & Morton 665 Wellcome III, p. 241

New Haven, Conn., J.D. & E.S. Dana, 1887. 8vo. Contemporary half calf. Gilt lettering to spine. A small stamp to top of title-page. In: "The American Journal of Science. Editors James D. and Edward S. Dana", Third series Vol. XXXIV (July to December, 1887). VIII,500 pp., textillustr. and 10 plates. (Entire volume offered). The joint paper: pp. 333-345 and textillustr. (Apparatus). A few faint brownspots to titlepage, otherwise clean and fine. First appearance of this classic paper which announced one of the most celebrated experiments in the history of physics and eventually led Einstein to his Relativity Theory.The experiment was expected to show the rate of the earth's movement through the ether; they looked in vain for a difference between the speed of light in the direction of the earth's motion around the sun and the direction perpendicular to it. The failure of this experiment was a serious blow to classical scientific theories because it cast doubts on the existance of the universal ether which had been a basic principleof, for example, the Newtonian theories of the universe. (Vide PMM: 378, 401, 408).The paper appeared first in the "American Journal of Science" in November (as offered here), and was published a month later in "Philosophical Magazine" in a slightly modified form."Michelson, trained at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Morley, minister turned chemist, began a series of experiments to determine the relation of ether drift and the velocity of light, effects of extremely minute values. They used a slightly silvered glass set angular to a ray of sunlight so that a part ofthe ray was transmitted, a part reflected out and again returned, thereby providing two paths, one perpendicular to the other. If drift existed, the superimposed rays would produce interference. None was observed, showing that the earth's motion did not affect the light's speed. The negative result held revolutionary implications which led directly thru Lorentz and Einstein to the acceptance of new standards of reference of time and space from geometry and 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 (lising the later version from "Philosophical Magazine") - Norman 1505.- Magee "A Source Book in Physics", pp. 369 ff. (the later paper).The volume contains another paper by Michelson and Morley "On a method of Making the Wave-lenght of Sodium Light the actual and practical Standard of Lenght", pp. 427-430.

Amsterdam, Honore, 1705 (+) Amsterdam, Boeteman, 1704. 8vo. In contemporary full calf with four raised bands and richly gilt spine. Tear to upper part of spine. Bookblock bended but still firmly attached to the binding. Title-page and frontispiece (of 'Voyages Du Baron Lahontan') with tears and chipped in margin, partly detached. With a few occassional brownspots and tears in plates.(18), 376, (2), 5-336, (2) pp. + 26 plates (including the frontispiece); (16), 222 pp. + 2 maps and 4 double-page engraved plates. (collation corresponds to Sabin 38641 & 38634). Second Edition, revised and enlarged, of Lahontan’s most famous work being a mix of travel narrative, geographical and ethnographic description and philosophical reflection, providing an account of Lahontan's experiences in New France and the broader North American continent, both containing personal experiences and fictionalized accounts "Although much of the work has been condemned as over-imaginative, it did influence the subsequent growth of primitivism in France and England, as reflected in the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, and others. For example, he tells of a tribe which he calls Essanapes, who worshiped the sun, the moon, and the stars. Beyond the Essanapes lived the Gnascitares, who lived on the shore of a great lake, and upon this lake were canoes rowed by 200 oarsmen. They had buildings three storeys high and fought battles with the Spaniards in New Mexico. The great king of this country lived in a royal palace waited upon by hundreds of servants. To add weight to this account Lahontan actually drew a map of the region, now located within the boundaries of Nebraska and South Dakota" (Howgego V1-L-54). Louis Armand de Lom d’Arce, Baron de Lahontan (1666–1715), also known as Baron de Lahontan, was a French soldier, explorer and writer. He is best known for his travels in North America and his influential writings, which provide insights into the geography, indigenous cultures and politics of the region during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Sabin 38641 & 38634

Paris, Abraham Picard, 1621. Folio. Nice mottled full calf binding (ab. 1850) with richly gilt spine and gilt title-labels. Minor wear to extremities. Lower blank margin of first two leaves repaired, far from affecting text, and very neatly restored wormhols to lower blank margin to a number of other leaves leaves, barely visible and also far from affecting text (apert from the index, where it touches a couple of letters). A bit of very light scattered brownspotting. All in all a very nice, clean, and fresh copy. Engraved title-vignette, woodcut ornamental borders and large woodcut initials to first leaves. (22), 521, (41, -Index) pp. The very rare editio princeps of one of the single most important "opera" in the history of Western thought, namely the first edition of the original Greek text of the collected works of Sextus Empiricus, a body of writing that came to determine the course of much modern thought, influencing the thought of Bruno, Montaigne, Descartes, and many other pivotal thinkers of the modern era. The present collection of writings constitutes one of the the single most important texts in the history of skepticism, determining the course of modern thought. "No discovery of the Renaissance remains livelier in modern philosophy than scepticism". (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p. 338). "The revived skepticism of Sextus Empiricus was the strongest single agent of disbelief". (ibid., p. 346). "As the only Greek Pyrrhonian sceptic whose works survived, he came to have a dramatic role in the formation of modern thought. The historical accident of the rediscovery of his works at precisely the moment when the skeptical problem of the criterion had been raised gave the ideas of Sextus a sudden and greater prominence than they had ever before or were ever to have again. Thus, Sextus, a recently discovered oddity, metamorphosed into "le divin Sexte", who, by the end of the seventeenth century, was regarded as the father of modern philosophy. Moreover, in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the effect of his thoughts upon the problem of the criterion stimulated a quest for certainty that gave rise to the new rationalism of René Descartes and the "constructive skepticism" of Pierre Gassendi and Martin Mersenne." (Popkin, p. 18)."The revival of ancient philosophy was particularly dramatic in the case of scepticism. This critical and anti-dogmatic way of thinking was quite important in Antiquity, but in the Middle Ages its influence faded [...] when the works of Sextus and Diogenes were recovered and read alongside texts as familiar as Cicero's "Academia", a new energy stirred in philosophy; by Montaigne's time, scepticism was powerful enough to become a major force in the Renaissance heritage prepared for Descartes and his successors." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 17-18). The work appeared in two variants, one printed in Paris by the Chouet brothers, and the present printed by Picard, also in Paris. No precedence between the two has been established, but the present Picard-printing is the scarcest.

Paris & Genève, Chez J.J. Paschoud, 1809. 8vo. Bound in three nice uniform cont. hcalfbdgs. w. gilt backs, red leather title-labels w. gilt lettering and gilt round green tome-labels on backs. Capitals w. a bit of wear. Internally nice and clean. W. half-titles in all three volumes and advertisement-leaf in vol. one. XIII, (1), 424, (5); (6), 395, (1); (4), 392 pp. First French 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 the main source of inspiration of Darwin and Wallace.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, 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 1807 the fourth edition appeared, and in 1809 the first French one, which is translated from the revised fourth edition ("A la suite de cette préface on trouve dans la 4.e édition, sur laquelle je traduis, une notice de tous les changements que la 3.e édition a apportés à la 2.e. Le plus considérable est celui qui a rapport à l'estimation de la fécondité des mariages. Il est absolument inutile pour les lecteurs francois de connoître le détail minutieux des autres changemens, qui ne peuvent intéresser que les acquéreurs des précédentes éditions. P.P.p", Préface, p. xxiij). 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 France and Switzerland in 1802, 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

Kjøbenhavn, Philipsen, 1895. 8vo. Bound with the original printed front-wrapper in contemporary half calf with gilt lettering to spine. Front free end-paper with previous owner's name (G. Sarauw). With author's presentation inscription to title-page: "Hr. Cand. Sarauw / med venskabelig Hilsen / fra Forfatteren". Withbound is a 15 line letter from Warming: "19.4.95 / Kære Hr. Sarauw / Medfølgende vilde jeg ikke / blot gjerne have / anmeldt i Bot. Centralblad., men ogsaa kritiseret privat af / Dem (De må også / gjerne gøre det offentligt / det er ikke det jeg mener) / da jeg antager, at De / har meget at indvende / og jeg gjerne vil have Bogen / korrigeret før jeg [?] den. Venligst Hilsen / Eug Warming". (i.e. English: ""19. 4. 1895 / Dear Mr. Sarauw / the enclosed I would not only wish to have reviewed in Botanisk Centralblad, but also privately criticized by you (you are of course also welcome to do so publicly—that’s not what I mean), since I assume that you have many objections and I would very much like to have the book corrected before I [?] it. Kind regards / Eug. Warming").Light wear to extremities, otherwise a very nice and clean copy. VII, (1), 335 pp. A magnificent presentation-copy of the first edition of this milestone in the history of ecology, being the first textbook of ecological plant geography ever published and the work that established ecology as a formal scientific discipline. The present copy is inscribed by Warming to G. Sarauw, a Danish-Swedish botanist and archaeologist known for his pioneering interdisciplinary work. Inserted between the front wrapper and the title-page is furthermore a 1-page autograph letter from letter from Warming to Sarauw asking him to criticize and help correct the work before it is published. The letter reveals Warming’s intellectual humility and his scientific approach of peer engagement prior to more formal discussions - not merely seeking publicity or endorsement, but genuinely inviting criticism from a respected peer. The recipient, Sarauw, was a fellow botanist trained in the natural sciences who would later gain fame for his archaeological work at Maglemose, but at the time he was a close colleague within the Danish scientific community. Warming’s ”Plantesamfund” established ecology as a formal scientific discipline on the interaction between organisms and their environment long before the term “ecology” gained general acceptance. The work summed up decades of Warming’s own field research in Brazil, Denmark and Greenland and articulated a structured and comparative approach to vegetation types, ecological adaptations and habitat conditions. Grouping of plants understood not merely taxonomically, but functionally and in relation to their environment, was groundbreaking, marking a decisive turn in botanical science and laying the groundwork for all modern ecology. Biologist R. J. Goodland wrote in 1975: “If one individual can be singled out to be honoured as the founder of ecology, Warming should gain precedence”. (Goodland, R.J. The tropical origin of ecology: Eugen Warming’s jubilee.p. 240-245). “In "Plantesamfund" (1895) - (the work offered) - he formulated the program of his research: "To answer the question: Why each species has its own habit and habitat, why the species congregate to form definitive communities, and why these have a characteristic physiognomy.". The book created an enormous sensation as a new attempt at grouping and characterizing the plant communities - a new phytogeographical term by which Warming meant a group of species forming a physiognomically well-defined unity, such as a meadow. In all essentials the species of a community are subject to the same external conditions arising from the ecological factors. These factors are of a fundamental importance to the ecology ofthe individual plant and the plant community. Considering water to be the most important factor, Warming divided plant communities into four types: hydrophytic, xerophytic, halophytic, and mesophytic." (DSB XIV, p. 181). In the late 19th century a new interest in nature and the complicated interplay between different species and types arose: “This interest in the influence of the environment on plants gave rise to the new field of ecology, pioneered by the Danish professor Eugen Warming (Warming 1895). Warming’s work had wide-reaching impact. British botanist Arthur Tansley was drawn to ecology after reading Plantesamfund (Warming 1895), commenting: “I well remember working through it with enthusiasm in 1898 and going out into the field to see how far one could match the plant communities Warming had described for Denmark in the English countryside. ….” Tansley would later state that: “Though the organisms may claim our prime interest, when we are trying to think fundamentally, we cannot separate them from their special environments, with which they form one physical system” (1935).” (Mabberly, A Cultural History of Plants in the Nineteenth Century, p99) The work was quickly translated into German, French, English Russian, and Polish, and especially the German translation from 1896 became immensely influential, especially in Britain and North America directly inspiring leading ecologists like Arthur Tansley, Henry Chandler Cowles and Frederic Clements. Even today, Warming’s work continues to be read and is widely regarded as the foundational text of the subject, often viewed as the “bible” of ecological science.

Paris, l'Auteur & Desnos (vol. I), Chec l'Auteur (vol. 2-3), 1761-62. Folio. (34x28,5 cm.). 3 cont. hcalf. Backs worn, tears to spine ends, hinges weakening, corners bumped. Vol.I: 57 double-folio leaves, all engraved including engraved ornamental title in rococo-style (leaves numb. 1-57). - Vol. II: 70 double-folio leaves, all engraved including double-page engraved title (different from the title in vol. 1) + Table des Matieres. - Vol. III: 60 double-folio leaves, all engraved including double-page engraved title (the same as in vol. II) + Table des Matieres (numb. 71-130). With in all 119 handcoloured engraved maps and astronomical plates. Further 68 other plates with tables, text etc. All maps and illustrations having engraved text on both sides. On good thick paper. A few brownspots, some dampstains mainly marginal, 2 plates with small tears, no loss. First edition of this atlas, which could be called an Atlas-series, as the different part were sold separately, thus the first volume, having its own title, deals with the historical development of cosmography, geology, astronomy, oceanography, winds, streams etc. and illustrates this in a series of impressive pictures with globes, spheres, continents, world-systems etc.etc. Having many maps of the continents, globe-projections etc. - Volume 2-3 deals mainly with historical geography and mapping, having 84 handcoloured maps. Another volume was issued dealing with contemporary geography, this is not present here. A fitth volume was announced, but is unknown to the bibliographies. - Phillips No. 628. - Shirley: T-buy 1a-2a.

Kiøbenhavn, 1763-81. 4to. (25x21,5 cm.).Stort eksemplar på skrivepapir, undtagen bind 1, som er på trykpapir og som sådant i mindre format. Indbundet i 7 samtidige helldrbd. med rig rygforgyldning. Ikke helt uniforme. Bindene noget slidte og med brugsspor, nogle med revner i false. Med alle 296 kobberstukne plancher, kort, prospekter, grundtegninger m.v. (heraf 15 foldekort, incl. det Generelle Danmarkskort). Enkelte kort og plancher med nogle rifter (uden tab). En planche (København) med tab af sidste foldning. Her og der med brugsspor og brunpletter. Originaltrykket af Danmarks topografiske hovedværk.

Kopenhagen und Leipzig, Heinecke und Faber, 1774-75. 4to. Bound in one contemp. hcalf. Raised bands. Lower compartments with scratches. Gilt lineborders on spine. Light wear to spine ends. Spine a bit rubbed. Titlelabel with gilt lettering. Stamp on title-page. (16),328;XVI,244 pp., 1 large folded engraved map (Nyt carte over Island, ved Erichsen og Schönning, 1771), 51 engraved plates, some folding (numb. I-L, + XXX bis). A few scattered brownspots. Occassional light browning. First German edition of the most important description of Iceland in the 18th century, often called the foundation for all later researches on the island, an expedition initiated by the Royal Danish Society. The authors travelled around Iceland in the years between 1752 and 1757 describing the geology, geography, zoology, botany, archaeology, mineralogy etc. as well as the economic conditions.Fiske I,439 - Klose, 598.

Breslau, Löwe, 1785. 8vo. Nice contemporary half calf with five raised bands, gilt lines, and gilt title-label to spine. A bit of wear to extremities. Internally very nice and clean. Printed on good paper. A stamp to title-page (Holsteinborg). Inscribed by the author on front free end-paper. (8)215, (1, - errata) pp. A magnificent presentation-copy of the rare first edition, first issue (with the "S. das Gedicht am Ende des Briefes"-note on p. 11) of this milestone of 18th century thought, one of the most scandalous books of its time, the work that reintroduced Spinoza to a society otherwise dominated by French Enlightenment thinking, and the work that begain the famous "Pantheismusstreit", one of the most important feuds in German philosophy. Presentation-copies by Jacobi are of the utmost scarcity and hardly ever come on the market. The present copy bears a two-line inscription to the famous physician Philipp Hensler, signed "The Author", on the front free end-paper: "Seinem verehrtesten Gönner und lieben/ Freunde, dem Herrn Hensler in Altona/ Der Verfasser". The city of Altona plays a significant role in late 18th century German thought, as many of the most important thinkers of the period pass through there. In the late 18th century, Altona developed into the centre of Enlightenment in Northern Germany. It is here that Jacobi meets Hensel, who comes to play an important role in his life, as is also evident from the present inscription ("honoured benefactor and dear friend"). Philipp Gabriel Hensler (1733-1805) was a famous German doctor, an outstanding physician, who is still famous today for his pioneering work in hygiene statistics and in pox-inoculation. He was so famous in his time that for a time he was the preferred choice for the position of private doctor to the Danish King Christian VII, right up until that historical moment when Struensee was chosen instead. When Struensee was given the position, Hensler was given Struensee's old position as physician in Altona. With the first edition of "Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza" (1785), Jacobi begins the famous "PATHEISMUSSTREIT", which focused attention on the apparent conflict between human freedom and any systematic, philosophical interpretation of reality. In 1780, Jacobi (1743-1819), famous for coining the term nihilism, advocating "belief" and "revelation" instead of speculative reason, thereby anticipating much of present-day literature, and for his critique of the Sturm-und-Drang-era, had a conversation with Lessing, in which Lessing stated that the only true philosophy was Spinozism. This led Jacobi to a protracted and serious study of Spinoza's works. After Lessing's death, in 1783 Jacobi began a lengthy letter-correspondende with Mendelssohn, a close friend of Lessing, on the philosophy of Spinoza. These letters, with commentaries by Jacobi, are what constitute the first edition of "Ueber die lehre des Spinoza". The work caused great furor and the enmity of the Enlightenment thinkers. Jacobi was ridiculed by his contemporaries for attempting to reintroduce into philosophy belief instead of reason, was seen as an enemy of reason and Enlightenment, as a pietist, and as a Jesuit. But the publication of the work not only caused great furor in wider philosophical circles, there was also a personal side to the scandal which has made it one of the most debated books of the period: "Mendelssohn enjoyed, as noted at the outset, a lifelong friendship with G. E. Lessing... Along with Mendelssohn, Lessing embraced the idea of a purely rational religion and would endorse Mendelssohn's declaration: "My religion recognizes no obligation to resolve doubt other than through rational means; and it commands no mere faith in eternal truths" (Gesammelte Schriften, Volume 3/2, p. 205). To pietists of the day, such declarations were scandalous subterfuges of an Enlightenment project of assimilating religion to natural reason... While Mendelssohn skillfully avoided that confrontation, he found himself reluctantly unable to remain silent when, after Lessing's death, F. H. Jacobi contended that Lessing embraced Spinoza's pantheism and thus exemplified the Enlightenment's supposedly inevitable descent into irreligion.Following private correspondence with Jacobi on the issue and an extended period when Jacobi (in personal straits at the time) did not respond to his objections, Mendelssohn attempted to set the record straight about Lessing's Spinozism in "Morning Hours". Learning of Mendelssohn's plans incensed Jacobi who expected to be consulted first and who accordingly responded by publishing, without Mendelssohn's consent, their correspondence - "On the Teaching of Spinoza in Letters to Mr. Moses Mendelssohn" - a month before the publication of "Morning Hours". Distressed on personal as well as intellectual levels by the controversy over his departed friend's pantheism, Mendelssohn countered with a hastily composed piece, "To the Friends of Lessing: an Appendix to Mr. Jacobi's Correspondence on the Teaching of Spinoza". According to legend, so anxious was Mendelssohn to get the manuscript to the publisher that, forgetting his overcoat on a bitterly cold New Year's eve, he delivered the manuscript on foot to the publisher. That night he came down with a cold from which he died four days later, prompting his friends to charge Jacobi with responsibility for Mendelssohn's death.The sensationalist character of the controversy should not obscure the substance and importance of Mendelssohn's debate with Jacobi. Jacobi had contended that Spinozism is the only consistent position for a metaphysics based upon reason alone and that the only solution to this metaphysics so detrimental to religion and morality is a leap of faith, that salto mortale that poor Lessing famously refused to make. Mendelssohn counters Jacobi's first contention by attempting to demonstrate the metaphysical inconsistency of Spinozism. He takes aim at Jacobi's second contention by demonstrating how the "purified Spinozism" or "refined pantheism" embraced by Lessing is, in the end, only nominally different from theism and thus a threat neither to religion nor to morality." (SEP).The first unpaginated leaves contain the first printings of two of Goethe's famous poems: "Das Göttliche" and "Prometheus"(Hagen 577).