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Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1665. Folio. Contemp. full mottled calf. Richly gilt spine. 6 raised bands. Gilt lineborders on covers. Cracking to leather on hinges, externally repaired with thin leather-strips. Corners reinforced. Engraved title-page and printed (in red/black). (10),208,258,(10) pp., Engraved portrait, large folded engraved map, 2 engraved plates with coat of arms, 34 double-page engraved views, 110 large engraved textillustrations. A faint dampstain to upper margin of the last few leaves. The 2 plates with coat of arms a bit frayed in right margins and a faint dampstain in upper margin. A bit of browning to the first 5 leaves. otherwise internally clean. First edition of Nieuhof's famous travel round China, a trip of 2,400 km from Canton to Peking, in 1655-1657, which enabled him to become an authoritative Western writer on China. He wrote this "An embassy from the East-India Company", the written account of this journey which he undertook for the Dutch-Indian Compagny. He deals with nearly all aspects of Chinese life, folklore, religion, crafts, topography, architecture, zoology, geography, geology etc. etc. The work is one of the first illustrated books to describe China, and it profoundly influenced the Western view on China.Brunet IV, 77. - Cordier, 2344.

Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1773. 4to. 2 nice contemp. full mottled calf. 5 raised bands. Richly gilt spines, tome-and titlelabels with gilt lettering. Neat repairs to top of spines. Stamps on title-pages. Corners a bit bumped. (4),LXXIX,803;(4),622 pp., 5 folded engraved maps, 1 engraved plate and 5 folded tables. Light browning to a few quires. Lower right corners on the last 3 leaves in volume 1 with a mild foxing. First edition of this splendid work, in which the observations from the testing of Berthaud's marine chronometer were presented for the first time. Fleurieu took part in a one-year sea campaign to test Berthoud's first marine chronometer, in an attempt to beat Britain in the race to find a reliable way to calculate longitude. The chronometers he thus refined with Ferdinand Berthoud for their later experiments, were the object of major struggles with the king's horologer, Pierre Le Roy. Finally, Claret de Fleurieu and Berthoud were entrusted with the task, setting out on the testing expedition from autumn 1768 to 11 October 1769 on the frigate Isis under Fleurieu's command. The chronometers almost invariably indicated the hour as accurately after the ship had left port, as if they were still on land. Knowing the actual local time at each present location by astronomy, they could easily determine the ship's exact position and longitude on a chart. The results of their observations were published in 1773 under the title Voyage fait par ordre du roi, pour éprouver les horloges marines ("Voyage made by order of the king, to test marine chronometers").Sabin, 24750.

Napoli, Apud Iosephum Cacchium, 1570. 4to. Bound in 18th century marbled boards. Completely fresh and clean copy. Two small marginal holes to last two leaves, far from affecting text. Good, wide margins. Telesio's woodcut title-device (a beatiful naked woman, all alone, far from the troubles of the world, illuminated by the sun, surrounded by a border carrying the saying in Greek: "mona moi fila" - presumably depicting the goddess of Truth), and 11 lovely, illustrated woodcut initials. 12 ff. The rare first edition of one of Telesio's smaller scientific treatises, his treatise on the sea, which was based on purely empirical knowledge. The work constitutes a corrective to Aristotle and a continuation of his magnum opus on the things of nature, the important second edition of which was printed in the same year, also by Cacchium. The empiricism that Telesio propounds in his novel, empirically based scientific treatises, like the "De Mare", caused him to be to be considered "the first of the moderns" (Francis Bacon),"Bernardino Telesio (1509-1588) belongs to a group of independent philosophers of the late Renaissance who left the universities in order to develop philosophical and scientific ideas beyond the restrictions of the Aristotelian-scholastic tradition. Authors in the early modern period referred to these philosophers as 'novateurs' and 'modern'. In contrast to his successors Patrizzi and Campanella, Telesio was a fervent critic of metaphysics and insisted on a purely empiricist approach in natural philosophy-he thus became a forerunner of early modern empiricism. He had a remarkable influence on Tommaso Campanella, Giordano Bruno, Pierre Gassendi, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes and authors of the clandestine Enlightenment like Guillaume Lamy and Giulio Cesare Vanini." (SEP).Telesio was born in Cosenza "and in a sense he opens the long line of philosophers through which the South of Italy has asserted its Greek heritage, a line that links him with Bruno and Campanella, with Vico in the eighteenth century, and with Croce and Gentile in our own time." (Kristeller, Eight Philosophers, p. 97). He was educated by his uncle, the humanist Antonio Telesio, in Milan and Rome, and he studied philosophy and mathematics at the university of Padua, where he got his doctorate in 1535. He had a great respect for the famous Aristotelian Vicenzo Maggi, with whom he discussed his magnum opus, obtaining his approval before publishing the seminal second version of it in 1570. He was closely connected not only with Maggi, but also with the other leaders of the most intelligent and official Aristotelianism of his age. But Telesio opposes the Aristotelianism of both his own and earlier times, claiming that they all erected arbitrary systems that consisted of a strange mixture of reason and experience. They created their systems without consulting nature, and thus they merely obtained arbitrary ideas of the world. What separates Telesio and his contemporaries from the great Renaissance thinkers that had gone ahead is not merely the passing of a few decades, but the emergence of a completely different intellectual atmosphere. "The tradition of medieval thought, which was still felt very strongly in the fifteenth century and even at the beginning of the sixteenth, began to recede into the more distant background, and it was now the tbroad thought and learning of the early Renaissance itself which constituted the tradition by which the new generations of thinkers were shaped, and against which their immediate reactions were directed." (Kristeller, Eight Philosophers, p. 91). Telesio belongs to a group of thinkers that we call the Renaissance philosophers of nature. They are considered a group by themselves, different from the humanists, Platonists, and Aristotelians that we usually group other Renaissance thinkers into. What distinguished these philosophers of nature, however, was not a different subject matter from that of the Aristotelians and the Platonists (of both contemporary and earlier times), but their clear claim to explore the principles of nature in an original and independent way, tearing themselves loose of an established tradition and authority that kept them in binds. They formulated novel theories andfreed themselves from the ancient philosophical authorities, especially Aristotle, who had dominated philosophical speculation, not least natural philosophy, for centuries. Telesio, of course, did not stand alone in this group of bold, original thinkers that we call the Renaissance philosophers of nature, and whose quest it was to make new discoveries and to attain knowledge unaccessible to the ancients, it also included for instance Fracastoro, Cardano, Paracelsus, and Bruno. But Telesio in particular protrudes, as his thought is distinguished by such clarity and coherence, and his ideas anticipate important aspects of later philosophy and science. "Telesio dedicated his whole life to establishing a new kind of natural philosophy, which can be described as an early defense of empiricism bound together with a rigorous criticism of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Galenic physiology. Telesio blamed both Aristotle and Galen for relying on elaborate reasoning rather than sense perception and empirical research. His fervent attacks against the greatest authorities of the Western philosophical and medical traditions led Francis Bacon to speak of him as "the first of the moderns" (Opera omnia vol. III, 1963, p. 114). He was perhaps the most strident critic of metaphysics in late Renaissance times. It was obviously due to his excellent relationships with popes and clerics that he was not persecuted and was able during his own lifetime to publish his rather heterodox writings, which went on the index shortly after his death." (SEP)."Giordano Bruno speaks of the "giudiciosissimo Telesio" in the third dialog of "De la causa", whilst Francis Bacon based his own speculative philosophy of nature on a blend of Telesian and Paracelsian conceptions (Giachetti Assenza 1980; Rees 1977; 1984). Thomas Hobbes followed Telesio in the rejection of species (Schuhmann 1990; Leijenhorst 1998, p. 116ff.) The physiology of René Descartes in "De homine" shows close similarities to Telesio's physiological theories as they are presented in "De natura rerum" (Hatfield 1992). Telesio also had some influence on Gassendi and on libertine thinkers (Bianchi 1992)." (SEP).Adams: T:291.

Lugduni [Lyon], Apud Ioannem Thioly, 1670. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with simple gilding to spine. Gilt title-label to spine partly missing. Four tiny worm-holes to upper front hinge, just touching front free end-papers and nothing else. Minor edge-wear, but a nice, clean, and tight binding. Ex-libris stamps to title-page (one being R.D.-E. Gelin's, the other unlegible but probably a theological library). Mostly very faint marginal dampstaining to lower margin thorughout, not touching text. Neat old owner's name to inside of front board (Soldner). Without the two blank leaves between the end of the dedication and the beginning of the text (there is clearly no leaf with any text lacking; there is either a pagination-error, or there has been one or two blank leaves between the end of the dedication and the beginning of the work. In the other copies that we have been able to find collations of, there has been no leaf a4 nor A1 either - there is no doubt that the text is complete), and without the blank leaf after the end of Part One, but with two blanks at the end of Part Two. (8) pp., pp. 3-302; 140 pp. + two blank leaves. Etremely scarce first edition of Jacques de Billy's mathematical magnum opus, known primarily as "Diophantus Redivivus" (i.e. "Diophantus Restored"), in which he gives some of the most important solutions to Diophantine problems, of which he was an expert. The work is highly important within the field of number theory and counts as one of the greatest testimonies to the early development of this branch of mathematics. The copy has belonged to the famous mathematician Johann Georg von Soldner (of the Soldner coordinate system). It was partly due to the rediscovery of Diophantus in the 16th century that Fermat reached his famous "last theorem" in the middle of the 17th century, when reading Diphantus' "Arithmetica" and engaging himself with the problems presented here. Jacques de Billy (1602-1679), a French Jesuit, who taught mathematics and theology and received the first professorship of mathematics at the Collège de Dijon, was highly interested in the problems that Diophantus had presented in his famous work, and some time before 1659, an active correspondence began between himself and Fermat, which led to, among other things, the his important "Diophantus Redivivus". The work includes many of Fermat's discoveries within the field as well as Billy's own take on them.Before a professorship of mathematics had been created at the Collège de Dijon, the mathematical enthusiast Jacques de Billy was master of studies and professor of theology. His love for mathematics meant, however, that he taught the students privately, and one of the most eager students that he thus privately taught was Jacques Ozanan, in whom Billy instilled a profound love for calculus.The only auction-records that we have been able to locate of the present work are that of Macclesfield (2004) and that of Honeyman (1978), both of which are without leaves between a3 and A2, thus lacking these two blanks (if they have ever been there). The Macclesfield-copy has the blank leaf after Part One and the two final blanks at the end of Part Two, but not the other (possible) blanks. The Honeyman-copy lacks all blank leaves, but only these, it seems.Brunet I: 946, stating "Recherché et rare" (collation: 302 et 140 pp.). Not in Poggendorf, not in Graesse.The previous owner Johann Georg von Soldner (1776-1833) was a famous German physicist, mathematician and astronomer, early on renowned for his great talent for mathematics (though almost completely self-taught). The Soldner coordinate system, which was in use until the middle of the 20th century in Germany, was named after him, as was the Ramaunajan-Soldner constant, but today he is probably primarily remembered for the final conclusion of light being diverted by heavenly bodies. It was Soldner that Einstein was accused of plagiarizing, when he calculated and published a value for the amount of gravitational light-bending in light skimming the Sun in 1911."Soldner was simple and reserved in manner, and he valued ral scholarship for its own sake. His painstaiking observational work on the detection of motion among fixed stars could be of value only to future generations of astronomers and illustrates the unselfish spirit of his work. His writings are clear and concise, and he avoided repetionon of what was already common knowledge." (D.S.B. XII:518).

Moscow, Izdanie Vladimira Bonch-Bruevicha, 1896. 8vo. In a later modest black half calf binding with marbled boards. Traces of stamp to verso of front and back board. Title-page slightly rubbed. Occassional underlignings in text and margins. Pp. 145-146 reinforced in margin. Otherwise a fine copy. XII, (4), (1)-160 pp. Exceedingly rare first Russian translation of this groundbreaking work, in which Marx first presents his revolutionizing theories of capitalism. For years, the present work was largely overshadowed by ‘Das Kapital’, and despite being published 8 years earlier (The original being published in 1859, ‘Das Kapital’ in 1867), the present work was not translated, until ‘Das Kapital’ had made Marx a household name in socialist and revolutionary circles, making the present translation comparatively early (the first English translation being from 1904).The Russian censorship cut Marx’ preface in this first translation - the full text did not appear until the revolutionary decade of 1905-1917. This Manuilov/Rumiantsev-translation remained the canonic-translation throughout the Soviet rule. The translation was made by Bolshevik revolutionary Petr Rumiantsev (1870-1924), who left the party in 1907 and emigrated in 1918, but the success of the present translation is primarily due to editor Manuilov. Editor Alexander Appolonovich Manuilov (1861-1929) was a Russian economist and politician, famous not only as one of the founding members of the Constitutional Democratic party (known as the Kadets), but also as the Russian translator of the present work. "Manuilov graduated from the law department of the University of Novorossiia (Odessa, 1883). He began scholarly and pedagogical work in political economy in 1888. In 1901 he became head of a subdepartment at Moscow University, becoming assistant rector in 1905 and serving as rector from 1908 to 1911. He was dismissed by the tsarist government for attacking the "extremes" of Stolypin's agrarian legislation. In the 1890's he was a liberal Narodnik (Populist), later becoming a Constitutional Democrat (Cadet) and a member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party. Manuilov's draft on agrarian reform (1905) was the basis for the Cadets' agrarian program. V. I. Lenin sharply criticized Manuilov, calling him one of "the bourgeois liberal friends of the muzhik who desire the 'extension of peasant land ownership' but do not wish to offend the landlords" (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 11, p. 126, note)."At the beginning of his scholarly career Manuilov accepted the labor theory of value. In 1896 he translated K. Marx' work A Contribution to the Criticism of Political Economy (Zur Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie). During the years of reaction he espoused subjectivist and psychological views in political economy. In 1917 he was minister of education of the Provisional Government. After the October Revolution in 1917 he emigrated but soon returned and cooperated with Soviet power. He participated in the orthographic reform (1918). In 1924 he became a member of the board of Gosbank (State Bank). He taught in higher educational institutions. Changing to Marxist positions and relying on Lenin's works, he criticized the revisionists and neo-Narodniks on the agrarian question." (Encycl. Britt.). For many years, the exclusive focus on "Das Kapital" meant that the "Kritik" was overlooked. Since the beginning of the 1960's, however, scholars have become increasingly aware of its importance as the blueprint for the social and economic theory Marx shall go on to develop (see for example Raymond Aron, "Le Marxisme de Marx", 1962). It is here that Marx outlines the research programme to which he shall devote the rest of his working life. He himself described "Das Kapital" as a continuation of his "Zur Kritik der politischen Oekonomie" (see e.g. PMM 359), in which his primary concern is an examination of capital and in which he provides the theoretical foundation for his political conclusions later presented in "Das Kapital". "I examine the system of bourgeois economy in the following order: capital, landed property, wage-labour; the State, foreign trade, world market. The economic conditions of existence of the three great classes into which modern bourgeois society is divided are analysed under the first three headings; the interconnection of the other three headings is self-evident. The first part of the first book, dealing with Capital, comprises the following chapters: 1. The commodity, 2. Money or simple circulation; 3. Capital in general. The present part consists of the first two chapters." (Preface to the present work, in the translation (by S.W. Ryazanskaya) of the Progress Publishers-edition, Moscow, 1977). Apart from the obvious importance of the work as the foundational precursor to what is probably the greatest revolutionary work of the nineteenth century, the "Kritik" is of the utmost importance in the history of political and economic thought, as it is here, in the preface, that Marx outlines his classic formulation of historical materialism. This preface contains the first connected account of what constitutes one of Marx's most important and influential theories, namely the economic interpretation of history - the idea that economic factors condition the politics and ideologies that are possible in a society. "The first work which I undertook to dispel the doubts assailing me was a critical re-examination of the Hegelian philosophy of law; the introduction to this work being published in the Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher issued in Paris in 1844. My inquiry led me to the conclusion that neither legal relations nor political forms could be comprehended whether by themselves or on the basis of a so-called general development of the human mind, but that on the contrary they originate in the material conditions of life, the totality of which Hegel, following the example of English and French thinkers of the eighteenth century, embraces within the term "civil society"; that the anatomy of this civil society, however, has to be sought in political economy. The study of this, which I began in Paris, I continued in Brussels, where I moved owing to an expulsion order issued by M. Guizot. The general conclusion at which I arrived and which, once reached, became the guiding principle of my studies can be summarised as follows. In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or - this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms - with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure." (Preface to the present work, in the translation (by S.W. Ryazanskaya) of the Progress Publishers-edition, Moscow, 1977). OCLC lists merely three copies, all in the US (Havard, Wisconsin, and Hoover Institute on War).

Venetiis, In Officina Valgrisiana, 1559. Folio. (31,5x22,5 cm) Contemporary full Italian vellum. (100),776 pp. + Apologia (having its own title page) 46,(1) pp. Printers woodcut-device at both titles and on last leaf verso. With more than 700 fine wood-cuts in the text (of animals and plants). Light browning to title page, 2 corners repaired, no loss of text, 6 last leaves strengthened in outer margins, no loss of text. A few scattered brown spots and a few marginal notes. In general fine and clean, printed on good paper. Old name on title, Wolffgangus Hendl, 1564 P.V.Q. Scarce third Latin edition of this, the most famous commentary on the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, having here also the text of Dioscorides, who was the originator of the Materia Medica of antiquity. The first edition was printed 1554 and it had fewer and smaller illustrations in the text. "The use of illustrations to aid in describing and identifying plants was taken up enthusiastically by the Italian botanists. Ghini himself planned an illustrated work which was not carried out, but he helped and encouraged Mattioli to proceed with his Commentarii in VI Dioscoridis Libros which appeared with over 500 mostly excellent figures only a dozen years after Fuchs, and a few years later was reissued with some 1200 figures...his commentaries on Dioscorides became practically a general flora: they were immensely popular in Europe because of their mostly excellent illustrations, and many edition were published in Latin, Italian, German and Czech." (A.G. Morton). In Germany it was published under the title "New Kräuterbuch" and according to Sarton, Mattioli became a magnet of botanical information. - Pritzel 1559. - Choulant p. 80 - Nissen BBI: 1305.

Lugd. Batav. (Leiden), 1683 & Lugd. Batav. (Leiden), 1683. 12mo. Bound in one cont. full vellum. Title in old hand on back. De Musculis: (4), 111 pp. and 1 folded engraved plate with 4 figs. - Observationes Anatomicæ: (12), 108 pp. and 3 folded engraved plates. Light scattered brownspots, but good copies. Two very scarce works by Steensen describing his exceptional discoveries relating to the Ducts, the Glands and the mechanics of Muscles."De Musculis..." is the Leiden issue, the third publication and the second printed outside Denmark. The first edition was published in Copenhagen in 1664. The work, which is divided into two parts, contains Steensen's famous investigations on the anatomy and physiology of the different types of muscles, in which he classifies them according to fibres and fibre-functions, and concludes that the heart is a muscle with automatic movement, totally against classical and contemporary authorities. The second part deals with the Ducts and Glands giving a survey of his earlier findings, such as Stensen's Duct, which gave rise to the controversy about priority with Blasius. And then he published a long row of new discoveries on the lymphatic glands, in reality he here lists 11 new discoveries. "In this work (De Musculis et Glandulis) Steno laid the foundation of our present conception of muscular mechanics. He "at once grasped the significance of the fibrillar structure of skeletal muscle and realised that the tensile forces developed in each individual fibra became summated into the response of the muscle as a whole" (Fulton). He proved the muscular nature of the heart." (Garrison & Morton)."Observationes Anatomicæ" is the second printing, the first issued 1662, and it contains Stensen's famous findings from his first year in Leiden of the 3 main Ducts, among these the first account of the excretory duct of the parotid gland "STENSEN'S DUCT". The work is divided into 4 parts and describes the findings of the ducts and glands of the eye, the mouth and the nose.Waller Nos 9219 & 9227 - Osler Nos 4020 & 4018 (1662 ed.) - Gosch III: Stensen 4:2 & 2:1 - Garrison & Morton Nos 576 (1664) & 973 (1662).

Paris, Tresse & Stock, 1892. Small 8vo. Original printed red wrappers. A few tears and nicks to extremities. The extremely fragile spine miraculously preserved, very neatly restored. A very fine, completely uncut copy. XV, (1), 297, (1) pp. + (1, contents) f. The very rare first edition of Kropotkin's main work, "The Conquest of Bread", the great constructivist work of the libertarian tradition and the greatest modern work of anarchism. By 1880, Kropotkin had broken with the Bakunist idea of remuneration for labour in the post-revolutionary society. While Bakunin and the Federalist wing of the First International suggested a period of economic transition between Capitalism and Libertarian Communism, Kropotkin believed it necessary to leap from one to the other, from day one of the revolution. Any retention of the wages system in whatever form, such as labour cheques or time coupons, would only result in further exploitation and injustice. The revolution has to consist in the belief that all things are the common inheritance of humanity and should also be held in common; therefore, Kropotkin states in his magnum opus, collectivists merely tinker with the wages system in stead of destroying it, and the only way forward is to get rid of it completely. Kroptkin's groundbreaking "The Conquest of Bread" constitutes a work of anarcho-communist economics and history rather than a mere text book on revolutionary organization. "[I]n "The Conquest of Bread", [h]e doesn't seem to see anarchism as a political ideology on a par with, say Marxism, but rather he sees it as a constantly present tendency within human groups. Anarchism, then, is more of an anthropological category than a political one for Kropotkin... He highlights events from the French revolution where associations of labourers sprang up to till the soil together. He looks at aspects of Russian and Swiss peasant communal land use as well as the English lifeboat crews who voluntarily aid seamen in distress. This is where Kropotkin's real worth is - in the field of history and ethics. Of course some of his historical conclusions can be criticised: medieval cities were not as democratic and peaceful as he would have us believe. But he did illuminate an aspect of human history which had been completely neglected. Academics of the nineteenth century were heavily under the influence of neo-Darwinist ideas which sought to justify both capitalism and imperialism. Kropotkin was one of the very first to attempt to refute the 'survival of the fittest' idea. The basic point that humanity has made most progress under conditions of co-operation runs through the length and breadth of "The Conquest of Bread".The book contains much of interest for present day libertarians. Kropotkin touches on "integral education", agricultural production in cities, international trade, the decentralisation of industry and much else of importance currently. It is, to reiterate, one of the great constructivist anarchist works". (Gary Heyter, A Review of Kropotkin's "The Conquest of Bread"). Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842 -1921) was a Russian activist, scientist, and philosopher, who advocated decentralized government and anarchism. Kropotkin was a proponent of a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between workers. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being his groundbreaking "The Conquest of Bread" from 1892. He also contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition."The Conquest Of Bread" first appeared in Paris in 1892, after having been serialized in the anarchist journals "La Révolté" and "Le Révolte". After the appearance of the book, it became extremely influential and was serialized again, though only in part, between 1892 and 1894 in the London journal "Freedom". It quickly reached an extremely large audience and was translated an reprinted numerous times. It was translated into Norwegian already in 1898, and in Japanese in 1909."The Conquest of bread" came to play an enormous role in the modern development of anarchism and is the most significant modern work of the libertarian tradition.

Berlin, S. Fischer Verlag, 1912. Royal 8vo. Volumes 1 and 2 (i.e. the entire year) of "Die neue Rundschau, 1912" present, in the original half vellum bindings with gilt title to spines, top edge gilt. In remarkably fine condition, with just a bit of soiling to spines and a small crack to upper hinges of volume 1 ("Der Tod in Venedig" is in vol. 2). Small stamp in Hebrew to front boards and to title-pages. Large engraved book plates ("E. Schwabach-Märzdorff") to inside of front boards and to front free end-papers. A very nice and clean set. The true first printing of Thomas Mann's masterpiece, "The Death in Venice". Contrary to what is generally believed, the actual first appearance of "The Death in Venice" was not the extremely scarce de luxe-edition that appeared in 100 numbered copies in 1912. In fact the work originally appeared (and in its entirety) in the October and November issues (i.e. in the second volume, on pp. 1368-1398 + 1499-1526) of "Die Neue Rundschau", 1912. Simultaneusly with this first appearance, Poeschel und Trepte in Leipzig were preparing the luxury edition of the work for Hans von Weber's Hyperionverlag in Munich, as one of his "Hundertdrucke". Probably due to the controversial theme of the work, Thomas Mann was hesitant to immediately handing over the manuscript to his regular publisher S. Fisher for him to publish it directly and had settled on the bibliophile edition already before finishing the work. He did give Fischer the work to publish, though, and thus it came to appear both in Fischer's "Neue Rundschau", over two months, and with Weber's Hyperionverlag. While the first part of the work was being published in "Die neue Rundschau", the luxury edition was being prepared, and in the end, the luxury edition was only issued (shortly) after the second and final part had appeared in "Die neue Rundschau" in November 1912. Shortly after the famous luxury edition, in 1913, Fischer published the first trade edition in book form. By 1924, 50.000 copies of the work had appeared in this form. Thomas Mann's disturbing masterpiece, probably the most famous story of obsession ever written, is considered one of the most important literary productions of the 20th century.

Augsburg, Johann Andreas Pfeffel, 1744-48. Folio. Bound in 4 uniform cont. full calf, 5 raised bands, titlelabels. Compartments richly blindtooled. Lower compartments of spines with a paperlabel pasted on. A stamp on title-pages. A few scratches on covers, corners slightly bumped. Monogram of King Frederik V tooled in blind on red leather on both covers.4 engraved frontispieces (one of which double-page), 1 engraved portrait. (12),164,(5);(22),182,(13);(12),122,(11);(8),102,(9) pp., 4 engraved vignettes and 30+51+70+86 fine engraved plates ( a total of 237, of which many double-page). The two first leaves in volume IV with some dampstaining. A few plates brownspotted. Clean and fine, on good paper. First edition. - Poggendorff II,400. - Graesse V,195.

Leiden, Elzevier, 1624. 4to (194 x 150 mm). Bound in a beautiful contemporary full calf binding with gilt centrepieces blindstamped lines and four raised bands and gilt ornamentations to spine. Spine neatly restored. Old owner's names to title-page, one of them crossed out. Occassional very light browning or soiling. An excellent copy. With the book-plate of Paul Heilbronner to inside of front board. (54), 109, (1) + (2), 62 (being tables), (1 - errata), (1) pp. + 3 engraved plates (one being in the text, on p. 101, but full-page). Woodcut illustrations and tables in the text. Scarce first edition of one of Snell's main works, his important lessons on navigation, in which he coined the term "loxodrome" and foreshadowed the differential triangle of Pascal. "The idea and figure of what is now called the differential triangle had appeared on several occasions before the time of Pascal, and even as early as 1624. Snell, in his "Tiphys Batavus", had thought of a small speherical surface bounded by a loxodrome, a circle of latitude, and a meridian of longitude as equivalent to a plane right triangle." (C.B. Boyer, The History of the Calculus and its Conceptual Development, p. 152). "In 1624 Snel published his lessons on navigation in Tiphys batavus (Tiphys was the pilot of the Argo). The work is mainly a study and tabulation of Pedro Nuñez’ so-called rhumb lines (1537), which Snel named "loxodromes". His consideration of a small spherical triangle bounded by a loxodrome, a parallel, and a meridian circle as a plane right triangle foreshadows the differential triangle of Pascal and later mathematicians." (D.S.B.). Paul Helbronner (1871-1938) was a French topographer, alpinist, and geodosist, who pioneered cartography of the French Alps. Pointe Helbronner in the Mont Blanc massif is named in his honour.

Venegia (Venice), Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1561. Small 8vo. Contemp. full vellum. Covers a bit soiled and with remains of ink-writing on both covers. Small nicks to edges. Endpapers renewed with old paper. Old written owners name on titlepage: Antonio Cappini. 304,(32) pp. A few stains and a few scattered brownspots. Faint browning to lower margin of some leaves. Fine woodcut initials throughout. The extremely scarce first edition of this botanical classic, which still remains an important source for historical nomenclature and floristic studies. "Little is known of Anguillara's early life. In 1539 he became associated with Luca Ghini at the latter's private botanical garden, first in Bologna, then in Pisa in 1544. Two years later, Anguillara became the first director of the botanical garden in Padua, the oldest of its kind in Europe. He remained at Padua, supervising a garden that received favorable notice from many distinguished visitors, until 1561... He became herbalist to the Duke of Ferrara and continued his botanical travels." (D.S.B. I:167). The present work is Anguillara's only known book. The work was written over a long period (1549-60) and is divided into fourteen 'pareri' ("opinions"), each of which is dedicated to a contemporary Italian physician. "(t)he book is principally devoted to the identification of the plants known to Dioscorides and the other ancient writers on materia medica. Because of his travels in Greece, Italy, France, and Asia Minor and his great personal knowledge of plant life throughout the Meditarranean basin, Anguillare was among the best-equipped of sixteenth-century botanists to make such a study.Approximately 1,540 plants are discussed by Anguillara, but in no discernible systematic order. Each plant is described, its classical name established (often with vernacular synonyms appended), and its medical and alimentary uses mentioned, along with its habitat, literary references, and the location where Anguillara found it. The descriptions are sufficiently full and accurate that the majority of his plants have been identified by modern historians of botany. Frequently cited by seventeenth-century botanists, the "Semplici" still remains an important source for historical nomenclature and floristic studies. He is commemorated today by the genus "Angillaria (Liliaceae)" named in his honor by Robert brown (1810)." (DSB, I:167). Greene in his "Landmarks of Botanical History", calls this book "The greatest book of botany which had ever been written in Italy."- Pritzel: 187. - Waller: 430 - Graesse I: p. 131. - Not in Wellcome, not in Hunt, not in Jackson.

Philadelphia & London, 1837-1840. 3 volumes lex 8vo. Bound in three absolutely lovely, contemporary, uniform moiré-impressed dark brown full cloth bindings. The impressed pattern of the cloth varies on the three bindings, contributing to the charm of the set. Gilt lettering to spines. Very neatly and gently re-backed, barely noteceable, laying down the original cloth spines. Some brownspotting, mostly to end-papers and first and last leaves in each volume. (2), XVI, 342; VI, pp. (9) - 466; (6), 270 pp. - Fully complete, collation in accordance with Einaudi. The rare first edition of Carey's extremely influential main work, which was to become the standard representation of the American School of Economic Thought and the dominant theoretical work within political economy - it fact, it dominated the US economic system from the time of its appearance up until 1973. It "made the fundamental departure [from the British economic theorists] of declaring that land derives its value from the capital expended on it," (Dictionary of American Biography) and that the wages of the workers increase faster than the returns of capital, thereby lending towards "a progressive diffusion of wealth among the poorest classes of society." (Dictionary of American Biography). Today Carey is considered the most internationally influential political economist and social scientist produced in nineteenth-century America.In the present work Carey essentially advocates the laissez-faire economic theory which has become a fundamental system of the North American political economy. He controverts the views of Malthus, Ricardo, McCulloch, and Torrens. He rejects Ricardo's rent theory, while he sets forth his own redistribution theory, "which called for progressive dispersal of wealth among the poorest families in society" (Brennan, The Politics of National Capitalism, p. 136)."The scope of Carey's optimistic belief in a harmonious order gradually widened. In his Principles of Political Economy the landowner becomes part of the harmonious order, with his earnings depicted as a return on his capital rather than a gift of nature. Population growth does not disturb the harmony as it is restrained by social conditioning." (The New Palgrave,p. 370). Ironically, Carey later changed his view on political economy, leaning towards a more protectionist stand point, a viewpoint which greatly influenced President Abraham Lincoln.Carey's influence upon the US-economy and the entire North American political establishment cannot be overestimated. Henry Carey emerged as the senior, global strategist among American military and intelligence leaders and - more importantly - he served as chief economic advisor to Abraham Lincoln during his presidency. Carey advocated the continuance of Abraham Lincoln's Greenbacks policy of debt-free, government-issued money as a way of freeing America's economy from British capitalists, who sought to control America's wealth. Lincoln furthermore sought to thoroughly modernize the American economy, including banking and the railroads, by creating cooperation - not conflict as, seen with the socialists in Europe - between labour and capital and Carey became the economic theoretician to support these views. Carey's enormous influence extended across the Atlantic Ocean to several European countries, especially Germany, who rapidly changed into an industrial giant in the 1870'ies and benefitted from Carey's policies. "This German revolution was affected largely through the personal efforts of American economist Henry C. Carey, as Bismarck welcomed Carey's intervention to educate and help shape a German policymaking elite. Carey was world renowned as intellectual leader of the forces backing Abraham Lincoln's agenda: government Library of Congress credit and high tariffs to build railroads, mills, and mines. With the political power and prestige of the Union's Civil War victory behind them, and the amazing success of U.S. industrialization under protectionism, Carey and his allies were taking this nationalist program out to German, Russia, Japan and the rest of the world." (Chaitkin, How Carey and Bismarck Transformed Germany, p. 66)Schumpeter too was sympathetic toward Carey's thinking: "We may feel that the United States would be a happier place and would have attained a higher cultural level by now if a larger part of the country's energies had gone into other than business pursuits and if, in consequence, her industrial development had been slower. This, however, is a matter of personal evaluation and does not excuse us from recognizing that Carey's was a great vision and that, in most respects, this vision expressed adequately both the situation and spirit of the country. Moreover, we cannot excuse ourselves from recognizing that this vision was independent of its deplorable analytic implementation and capable of being implemented more satisfactorily." (Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, pp. 516-7.). "Especially popular in Europe, Principles was translated into Swedish and Italian as well as German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Russian and was reprinted numerous times throughout the nineteenth century" (Brennan, The Politics of National Capitalism, p. 136).Einaudi 888Goldsmith 29768Sabin 10836

Paris, 1880. 8vo. Original printed green wrappers. Spine worn and to small nicks to back wrapper. A (vague) fold down the middle. Overall in excellent condition. 35 pp. The rare first edition thus, being the scarce separate printing from Revue Socialiste, in excellent original condition, of Engel's highly popular Utopian Socialism and Scientific Socialism. With this influential pamphlet, Engels set out to make the definitive introduction to scientific socialism. Basing it on the three chapters from his book "Herr Dühring's Revolution in Science", he here wished to reproduce the most topical excerpt from the theoretical section of the book, that of strictly scientific socialism. Engels put them together himself and asked Paul Lafargue, Karls Marx' son-in-law, to translate the work into French and add some extra remarks. "I put them together for my friend Paul Lafargue for translation into French and added a few extra remarks. The French translation revised by me appeared first in the Revue socialiste and then independently under the title: Socialisme utopique et socialisme scientifique, Paris, 1880." (Engels, from the preface to the German translation, 1882). The French translation proved to be extremely popular and gained a widespread audience. So much so that Engels considered it important to translate it into other languages as well, turning it into a veritable propaganda pamphlet. "The surprising success of the Lafargue translation in the Frenchspeaking countries and especially in France itself forced me to consider the question whether a separate German edition of these three chapters would not likewise be of value. Then the editors of the Zurich Sozialdemokrat informed me that a demand was generally being raised within the German Social-Democratic Party for the publication of new propaganda pamphlets, and they asked me whether I would not apply those three chapters to this purpose. I was naturally in agreement with that and put my work at their disposal. It was, however, not originally written for immediate popular propaganda. How could what was in the first place a purely scientific work be suitable for that, What changes in form and content were required?" (Engels, from the preface to the German translation, 1882). From the original manuscript of the work, we know that Marx too was involved in the coming-to-be of this original pamphlet. The last page of the manuscript contains a postscript in Marx's handwriting: "Dear Lafargue, here is the fruit of my consultation (of yesterday evening) with Engels. Polish the phrases, leaving the gist intact." The three-page introduction to the work, which is written by Lafargue and signed P.L. at the end, is important in itself, as it gives an introduction to the history of Marx and Engels as the founders of socialism, culminating with the present pamphlet that epitomizes scientific socialism. Paul Lafargue (1841-1911), Karl Marx's son-in-law, was a leading member of the French socialist movement and played an important rôle in the development of the Spanish socialist movement. A close friend of Friedrich Engels in his later years, he wrote and spoke from a fairly orthodox Marxist perspective on a wide-range of topics including women's rights, anthropology, ethnology, reformism, Millerandism, and economics. The work became extremely popular and was translated into numerous languages, exercising profound influence upon the theory of socialism throughout Europe. "At the request of my friend, Paul Lafargue, now representative of Lille in the French Chamber of Deputies, I arranged three chapters of this book as a pamphlet, which he translated and published in 1880, under the title: "Socialisme utopique et Socialisme scientifique". From this French text, a Polish and a Spanish edition were prepared. In 1883, our German friends brought out the pamphlet in the original language. Italian, Russian, Danish, Dutch, and Roumanian translations, based upon the German text, have since been published. Thus, the present English edition, this little book circulates in 10 languages. I am not aware that any other Socialist work, not even our Communist Manifesto of 1848, or Marx's Capital, has been so often translated. In Germany, it has had four editions of about 20,000 copies in all. (Englas in the preface to the English translation from 1892).

Rome, Nicoloò Angelo Tinassi, 1672. Small8vo. In 18th century half calf with red leather title-label to spine and gilt lettering and ornamentation. Lower capital with a bit of wear and corners slightly bumped. Frontispiece mounted and with a closed tear (no loss). Title-page with light soiling and previous owner's name in contemporary hand. Dampstain affecting lower part of outer margin of Pp. 397-432 and Pp. 449-455. Some occasional browning and brownspotting, but overall fine; a nice copy. (26), 455, (1) pp. Engraved frontispiece. The rare first edition of the first book devoted entirely to surgical anatomy. Genga's milestone work founded the discipline of anatomical surgery; it was frequently reprinted and remained a widely used manual for decades after its first appearance. Genga furthermore, in the tract appended to this work (i.e the "Breve Discorso" on the circulation of the blood, pp. 420-448), showed himself to be one of the first Italians to accept Harvey's theory on the circulation of blood. "Though anatomy was hitherto cultivated with much success as illustrating the natural history and morbid states of the human body, yet little had been done for the elucidation of local diseases, and the surgical means by which they may have been successfully treated. The idea of applying anatomical knowledge directly to this purpose appears to have originated with Barnardin Genga, a Roman surgeon, who published in 1672, at Rome, a work entitled "Surgical Anatomy, or the Anatomical History of the Bones and Muscles of the Human Body, with the description of the Blood-vessels". This work, which reached a second edition in 1687, is highly creditable to the author, who appears to have studied intimately the mutual relations of different parts." (Encyclopaedia Britannica). This foundational work, Genga's first work, was extremely influential and widely used. It was reprinted a number of times within the following decades. The first edition of it is of great scarcity. Most of the bibliographies only have later editions, and one of the few copies that are listed on OCLC is incomplete, lacking the title-page. We have only been able to locate one copy at auction within the last 40 years (in 1979). Heirs of Hippocrates: 337 (1687-edition)Wellcome III:102 (only later editions)Garrison-Morton: 387 ("First book devoted entirely to surgical anatomy").

Amsterdam, Salomonem Schouten, 1737. 8vo. Contemporary full mottled calf. Light wear to top of spine. Light wear along fronthinge. Raised bands. Richly gilt compartments. Titlelabel in leather with gilt lettering. Engraved frontispiece. Titlepage in red/black. (40),372,(38) pp. and 12 folded engraved plates. Printed on good paper. Internally clean and fine. Scarce first edition of this highly important work, which is one of the first in which Linné worked out his binomial nomenclature, being of "prime importance for the nomenclature of Arctic-Alpine species".On May 12th 1732, Linnaeus set out on his journey into Lapland, returning to Uppsala on October 10th, after adventures in snow and sleet, discovering 'novelties in all three kingdoms of nature', including many new plants. All this he recorded in diary and catalogue... Linnaeus worked on the present volume during his sojourn in Leyden and at the Clifford estate at Hartecamp in Holland. A Society was formed at Amsterdam to defray the expenses of the plates.., and the 'Flora Lapponica' came forth in 1737, just ahead of the 'Geneve plantarum' and the 'Hortus Cliffortianus'. Botanists had waited for it expectantly, and they received it with accaim. (Hunt No. 502)."The journey was the most adventurous that Linnaeus ever made; it has been assessed by his fellow-countrymen as the most fruitful single scientific expedition ever made in Sweden both for its immediate botanical results and its influence on Linnaeus's later career. It led to the publication in 1737 of his Flora Lapponica which is of prime importance for the nomenclature of Arctic-Alpine species; Linnaeus's Lapland specimens, on which this was based, are in Paris." (The Linnaean Correspondance).Hulth: p. 21 - Soulsby: No. 279.

Venice, Aldus, 1503. Small 8vo. A nice, simple, charming full vellum binding with handwritten title and number to spine. Binding with a bit of soiling, but overall lovely. First leaf with stamp of the Gottholdsche Bibliothek and restored with the lower blank part remade with paper pulp, extremely well done. Second leaf with a vague restoration to the lower part, presumably from the removal of a label. Apart from a bit of occasional brownspotting or thumb soiling, very nice and fresh. Early (16th or 17th century) ink marginalia in Greek and Latin to several leaves as well as ink markings in the margins. A few of the marginal notes, mostly to top and bottom, shaved. Later ink annotation (numbering) to inside of front board. Quire signatures partly supplied in early hand throughout. (190) ff. Last leaf with colophon on recto and Aldus' large printer's device to verso. Extremely important first printings of eight of Euripides’ tragedies – including the Cyclops, which is the only fully extant example of the genre of satyr play -, the publication that ensured the survival of these seminal Greek dramas. In 1503, Aldus issued in Venice a breakthrough publication in two volumes of all the extant plays of Euripides. Four of these had been previously published (ca. 1495), the rest of the eighteen appeared in this two-volume publication for the first time. The first volume contained 10 plays, among them the four previously published ones, whereas the second volume contained 8 plays, all published here for the first time. We have here the second volume, in a lovely copy, of this seminally important edition, containing eight of Euripides’ plays printed for the first time. As Dibdin says, “[t]his is an Aldine publication, which, more frequently than any with which I am acquainted, is found in an imperfect or indifferent condition. The first copy of it on paper that I ever saw, and bound in the Grolier style, had only the first volume… Earl Spencer has a portion of the second volume uncut…” (Dibdin, I:528). The textual transmission of Euripides’ plays, from the 5th century BC, when they were first written, until the era of the printing press, was a largely haphazard process, and much of Euripides' work was lost or corrupted. It was due to Aldus’ immensely important undertaking that these dramas were preserved for posterity. His of the texts remained the most important until the 18th century. The title-page of volume one states that there are 17 plays altogether (including the four previously published), but in fact there were 18. Hercules Furens had only recently been discovered, and Aldus included it at the last minute, at the end of volume two. Electra does not appear in either of the volumes and was only printed for the first time in 1545. The book is beautifully printed in Greek type throughout, with the elegant typeface by Griffo. Each play is preceded by a half-title with the title in both Greek and Latin, whereas the text itself is only in Greek. Not only the contents of the book is of seminal importance to cultural history, so is the format itself. It is a prime example of the portable book ('libellus portatilis' or 'enchiridion') that would come to revolutionize leaning in the modern world and the reding habits of modern man. “It was Aldus Manutius’ editio princeps of the complete extant works of Euripides, printed in Venice in 1503, which established the most enduring model for Euripides in print. He returned to the familiar cursive, using the fourth instantiation of his innovative lower-case Greek type, which had premiered in his Sophocles the previous year. This had been simplified somewhat in comparison to previous versions, and was attractive, clear, and easy to read. Both the Sophocles and the Euripides formed part of one of Aldus’ most famous innovations: the classical library in the portable octavo format. The Aldine octavos were not necessarily cheaper than larger volumes; a catalogue from 1503 with Aldus’ manuscript additions including prices (dated to 1505) indicates that the two-volume Euripides sold for 1 ducat 3 lire, which H. George Fletcher estimates might be a week’s salary for a secretary or teacher, still a luxury item. But the smaller format took books out of the library and into the world; these texts, presented by themselves without learned commentaries, were aimed not at cloistered academics but at the educated gentleman, perhaps holding a political office, and the travelling scholar. Many of these editions are dedicated to teachers of Greek (including the Euripides, to Demetrius Chalcondyles), suggesting that Aldus also envisaged them playing a role in education. Where previously students had been reliant on what a lecturer told them about a text, now they were encouraged to have their own copies, as is reflected in the many references to students in the prefatory materials.” (Shakespeare and the Renaissance Reception of Euripides, p. 63). Lowry:142, 145, 152; Grolier:38 (erroneusly stating 198 ff. leaves instead of 190); Ahmanson-Murphy:69; Dibdin I:524-26; Renouard:43-44.

London, Hodgson & Son, 1939. Royal8vo. In a recent nice red full cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine. Entire volume 45 of "Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Second Series". Small white square paper label pasted on to lower part of spine, covering year of publication stating: "A Gift / From /Anna Wheeler". A very nice and clean copy without any institutional stamps. Pp. 161-240. [Entire volume: (4), 475 pp.]. The rare first printing of Turing's Ph.D.-thesis, which "opened new fields of investigation in mathematical logic". This seminal work constitutes the first systematic attempt to deal with the Gödelian incompleteness theorem as well as the introduction to the notion of relative computing. After having studied at King's College at Cambridge from 1931 to 1934 and having been elected a fellow here in 1935, Turing, in 1936 wrote a work that was to change the future of mathematics, namely his seminal "On Computable Numbers", in which he answered the famous "Entscheidungsproblem", came up with his "Universal Machine" and inaugurated mechanical and electronic methods in computing. This most famous theoretical paper in the history of computing caught the attention of Church, who was teaching at Princeton, and in fact he gave to the famous "Turing Machine" its name. It was during Church's work with Turing's paper that the "Church-Turing Thesis" was born. After this breakthrough work, Newman, under whom Turing had studied at Cambridge, urged him to spend a year studying with Church, and in September 1936 he went to Princeton. It is here at Princeton, under the guidance of Church, that Turing in 1938 finishes his thesis [the present paper] and later the same year is granted the Ph.D. on the basis of it. The thesis was published in "Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society" in 1939, and after the publication of it, Turing did no more on the topic, leaving the actual breakthroughs to other generations. In his extraordinary Ph.D.-thesis Turing provides an ingenious method of proof, in which a union of systems prove their own consistency, disproving, albeit shifting the problem to even more complicated matters, Gödel's incompleteness theorem. It would be many years before the ingenious arguments and striking partial completeness result that Turing obtained in the present paper would be thoroughly investigated and his line of research continued. The present thesis also presents other highly important proofs and hypotheses that came to influence several branches of mathematics. Most noteworthy of these is the idea that was later to change the face of the general theory of computation, namely the attempt to produce an arithmetical problem that is not number-theoretical (in his sense). Turing's result is his seminal "o-machines"; he here introduces the notion of relative computing and augments the "Turing Machines" with so-called oracles ("o"), which allowed for the study of problems that could not be solved by the Turing machine. Turing, however, made no further use of his seminal o-machine, but it is that which Emil Post used as the basis for his theory of "Degrees of Unsolvability", crediting Turing with the result that for any set of natural numbers there is another of higher degree of unsolvability. This transformed the notion of computability from an absolute notion into a relative one, which led to entirely new developments and in turn to vastly generalized forms of recursion theory. "In 1939 Turing published "Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals,"... This paper had a far-reaching influence; in 1942 E.L. Post drew upon it for one of his theories for classifying unsolvable problems, while in 1958 G. Kreisel suggested the use of ordinal logics in characterizing informal methods of proof. In the latter year S. Feferman also adapted Turing's ideas to use ordinal logics in predicative mathematics." (D.S.B. XIII:498). A part from these groundbreaking points, which Turing never returned to himself, he here also considers intuition versus technical ingenuity in mathematical reasoning, does so in an interesting and provocative manner and comes to present himself as one of the most important thinkers of modern mathematical as well as philosophical logic."Turing turned to the exploration of the uncomputable for his Princeton Ph.D. thesis (1938), which then appeared as "Systems of Logic based on Ordinals" (Turing 1939). It is generally the view, as expressed by Feferman (1988), that this work was a diversion from the main thrust of his work. But from another angle, as expressed in (Hodges 1997), one can see Turing's development as turning naturally from considering the mind when following a rule, to the action of the mind when not following a rule. In particular this 1938 work considered the mind when seeing the truth of one of Gödel's true but formally unprovable propositions, and hence going beyond rules based on the axioms of the system. As Turing expressed it (Turing 1939, p. 198), there are 'formulae, seen intuitively to be correct, but which the Gödel theorem shows are unprovable in the original system.' Turing's theory of 'ordinal logics' was an attempt to 'avoid as far as possible the effects of Gödel's theorem' by studying the effect of adding Gödel sentences as new axioms to create stronger and stronger logics. It did not reach a definitive conclusion.In his investigation, Turing introduced the idea of an 'oracle' capable of performing, as if by magic, an uncomputable operation. Turing's oracle cannot be considered as some 'black box' component of a new class of machines, to be put on a par with the primitive operations of reading single symbols, as has been suggested by (Copeland 1998). An oracle is infinitely more powerful than anything a modern computer can do, and nothing like an elementary component of a computer. Turing defined 'oracle-machines' as Turing machines with an additional configuration in which they 'call the oracle' so as to take an uncomputable step. But these oracle-machines are not purely mechanical. They are only partially mechanical, like Turing's choice-machines. Indeed the whole point of the oracle-machine is to explore the realm of what cannot be done by purely mechanical processes...Turing's oracle can be seen simply as a mathematical tool, useful for exploring the mathematics of the uncomputable. The idea of an oracle allows the formulation of questions of relative rather than absolute computability. Thus Turing opened new fields of investigation in mathematical logic. However, there is also a possible interpretation in terms of human cognitive capacity." (SEP).Following an oral examination in May, in which his performance was noted as "Excellent," Turing was granted his PhD in June 1938.

London, New York, Melbourne (printed in Great Britain), Published on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (1943). 8vo. Stapled as issued. Title-page printed in red. Stapels with rust, slightly affecting surrounding paper. A very fine, near mint, copy. 16 pp. The scarce first printing of this hugely important publication, which constitutes one of the very first official reports on Holocaust and one of the most accurate accounts that had been presented to the West, changing their knowledge of what was actually going on. This seminal pamphlet consists of 1) Raczynski's account of the ongoing Holocaust, based among other reports, on the eye-witness-report by Jan Karski, a Polish Government emissary in occupied Poland, who bribed his way into a German concentration camp and witnessed the mass extermination of Jews, 2) the seminal "Joint Declaration" by members of the United Nations, in which "The above-mentioned Govenments and the French National Committee condemn in the strongest possible terms this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination. They declare that such events can only strengthen the resolve of all free-loving peoples to overthrow the barbarous Hitlerite tyranny. They reaffirm their solems resolution to ensure that those responsible for these crimes shall not escape retribution, and to press on with the necessary practical measures to this end." (p. 12), 3) an extract of Deputy Prime Minister Mikolajczy's statement on behalf of the Polish Government, and 4) the text of Raczynski's broadcast of December 1942, in which pleaded for action, wishing to make the public and the Allied nations "understand how real is the tragedy which is taking place not so very far from the shores of this island, on the continet of Europe - on the soil of Poland. For more than three years the Germans have consistently done everything they could to hide from the eyes of the world the martyrdom of the Polish nation, the like of which has never been known in the history of humanity. But "when we would keep silence the very stones will cry out"." (p. 15). While the details were neither complete nor wholly accurate, the Allies were aware of most of what the Germans had done to the Jews at a relatively early date. The mass murder of the Jews was of such dimensions, however, that, at first, they could not believe the reports that reached them. This quickly changed, though. In February of 1942 Jacob Grojanowski, an escaped prisoner of the Chelmno extermination camp, provided the Oneg Shabbat group with detailed information about what went on at the Chelmno camp. His report became known as the Grojanowski Report. It was smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto via the Polish underground and reached London in June of 1942. It is not known exactly what happened to the report at that point, but by February of 1942, the United States Office of War Information had decided not to release information about the extermination of Jews (thinking that there was a risk of the public viewing the war as only being a Jewish problem). Thus, the Grojanowski Report was not released. By at least October of 1942 British radio had broadcast news of the gassing of Jews to the Netherlands, and in December 1942, the Western Allies released their Joint Declaration [which is printed in the present publication], describing and condemning in the strongest manner Hitler's violent attempts at exterminating the Jews of Europe. In 1942 Jan Karski (1914-2000), a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter and later professor at Georgetown University gave his first report to the Polish, British, and U.S. governments on what was going on in the German extermination camps in Poland.Karski reported to the Polish government in exile (i.e. Raczynski, who was the Ambassador and one of its most prominent leaders) and the Western Allies on the situation in German-occupied Poland. Karski personally met with Franklin Roosevelt and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden to explain what went on in Poland, and Raczynski wrote up the report. Eventually, the American Government confirmed the reports to Jewish leaders in late November 1942, and shortly thereafter they were publicized [i.e. in the present publication]. Karski's report (through Raczynski) became one of the most important reports in the history of the Holocaust, being a major factor in informing the West. It sparked one of the first official publications from the Allies on the mass extermination of Jews in Poland and resulted in the official reports and condemnations from the Allied countries, i.e. the "Joint Declaration" [also published here]. "The purpose of this publication is to make public the contents of the Note of December 10th, 1942, addresses by the Polish Government to the Governments of the United Nations concerning the mass extermination of Jews in the Polish territories occupied by Germany, and also other documents treating on the same subject. [...] In the hope that the civilized worlds will draw the appropriate conclusions, the Polish Government desire to bring to the notice of the public, by means of the present White Paper, these renewed German efforts at mass extermination, with the employment of fresh horrifying methods." (From the Introductory Note, p. 3). "Most recent reports present a horrifying picture of the position to which the Jews in Poland have been reduced. The new methods of mass slaughter applied during the last few months confirm the fact that the German autorities aim with systematic deliberation at the total extermination of the Jewsih population of Poland and of the many thousands of Jews whom the German authorities have deported to Poland from Western and Central European countries and from the German Reich itself.The Polish Government consider it their duty to bring to the knowledge of the governments of all civilized countries the following fully authentical information received from Poland during recent weeks, which indicates all too plainly the new methods of extermination adopted by the German authorities." (p. 4).

Paris, Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1752. Folio. (47,5 x 32 cm.). Bound uncut in 2 contemp. hcalf. (Text and plates bound separately). Gilt spines. Titlelabels with gilt lettering. Light wear to spine-ends. A few small nicks and minor scratches. A paperlabel pasted on upper part of spines. Stamps on title-page. 2 engraved title-vignettes, 2 large engraved textvignettes. (IV) V-IX,(3),298,(2);(4),164 pp., 307 engravings on 302 engraved sheets (152 and 148 +), many double-page and folding. Some engraved textillustrations. Wide-margined. A few quires with light browning. A few plates with light marginal brownspotting. Printed on good paper. First edition. The first volume concerns Fauburg Saint-Germain, volume II: Luxembourg, Cité, Fauburg Saint-Antoine et Marais."In his clear and rational Architecture françoise, a four-volume work published from 1752 to 1756, he covered the past century and more of French buildings in and near Paris, setting them in their historical context and providing a wealth of detailed information that would otherwise have been lost. In the preface, he remarked, "I have used simple terms and a popular style with the intention of being understood by layman and artist alike; having noticed that recent books about architecture are either badly organised or overlong."He originally planned eight volumes, but only the first four were published. The work brought him to official notice; he was inducted into the Académie Royale d'Architecture in 1755 and appointed architect to Louis XV." (wikiwand.com)."Le grand mérite de ce livre est de nous conserver les dessins de nombre d'édifices qui sont oujourdhui ou entièrement détruits ou tout à fait dénaturés; malheureusement l'ouvrage, qui devait avoir 8 vol. et renfermer 1200 pl., n'a pas été terminé..."(Brunet I,977).

Rome, minted in 82 BC. 18mm. A magnificent specimen, with very clear, sharp imprint and sharp edges. Near mint - the finest copy we have seen. Obverse: Draped bust of Mercury right, wearing winged petasos; caduceus and control letter behind. Reverse: Ulysses standing right, holding staff in left hand and extending right hand to Argus; C•MAMIL to left, LIMETAN to right. Crawford 362/1; BMCRR Rome 2725; RSC Mamilia 6. A denarius of the Roman Republic featuring one of the very few references to Homer's Odyssey in ancient coinage. On the obverse is Mercury, a god very much propitious to Odysseus, easily recognizable by the winged petasos and the caduceus. The reverse depicts one of the most moving passages in literature, hardly matched to this day. In book XVII (290-327) Odysseus returns to Ithaca disguised as a beggar. His faithful dog, Argos, has been waiting for his return for 20 years. Ignored, abandoned by everyone, the dog is ridden with ticks and fleas, lying in a pile of manure. Odysseus is accompanied to the palace by Eumaeus the shepherd, who is unaware of the beggar's true identity. Odysseus recognizes his dog and is forced to hide a single tear that rolls down his cheek. He cannot greet the dog, as that would give away his identidy. Argos, after all those years, recognizes his master as well, but if he were to run to him it would most certainly cause his death by the suitors. Here Homer cannot do anything other than to end the life of Argos, otherwise the entire Odyssey would have been for naught. So Argos dies upon the vision of his master having fulfilled his life purpose: to await his return. It is also the moment that marks the end of the twenty year cycle since Odysseus left for the Trojan War, thus announcing the imminent closing of the Trojan Cycle itself. The denarius' reverse depicts the idealized moment of the scene where master and dog would be just about to meet and greet each other, but as we have seen, the reunion cannot happen. "There lay the hound Argos, full of vermin; yet even now, when he marked Odysseus standing near, he wagged his tail and dropped both his ears, but nearer to his master he had no longer strength to move. Then Odysseus looked aside and wiped away a tear. [...] But as for Argos, the fate of black death seized him straightway when he had seen Odysseus in the twentieth year." Mamilius Limetanus is one of the three moneyers for the year 82 BC. The moneyers, selected every year, were magistrates in charge of the production of coinage, and they were at liberty to determine the design of the coins, which were often deities and characters associated with their personal family history. Like most Roman Patricians, Limetanus claimed to be a descendant of a Homeric character, in this case, Odysseus—Julius Caesar's family, for example, thought themselves to be descendants of Aeneas. A spendid specimen of this magnificent Roman denarius.

Paris, Arnould Seneuze, 1687. 4to. Two contemporary uniform full calf bindings with five raised bands to richly gilt spines. All edges of boards gilt. Hinges and capitals worn, with some loss, but still tight. A damp stain to first and last leaves of both volumes (affecting about 17 leaves in all, mostly marginal). Otherwise a nice and clean copy with just the occassional brownspotting. Engraved frontispiece in vol. 1, engraved title-vignettes, large engraved vignette to verso of title-page of vol. 1, engraved portrait in vol. 1, woodcut vignettes and initials. Printed on good paper and with wide margins. (48), 621, (3) pp. + frontispiece and portrait; (4), 197, (3) pp. The very rare first edition of the first French translation of Grotius' groundbreaking magnum opus, "De Jure Belli ac Pacis", the founding work of international law. The profoundly influential masterpiece - written during the Thirty Years' War, in the hope that rational human beings might be able to agree to legal limits on war's destruction - "made him famous throughout Europe... [t]he questions which he put forward have come to be the basis of the ultimate view of land and society. This was the first attempt to lay down a principle of right, and a basis for society and government, outside Church or Scripture... Grotius's principle of an immutable law, which God can no more alter than a mathematical axiom, was the first expression of the "droit naturel", the natural law which exercised the great political theorists of the eighteenth century, and is the foundation of modern international law." (PMM 125). This magnum opus of legal philosophy played a tremendous role in French law and politics and in the entire development of international law in general. "It is on the DIB (De Iure Bellis) that the bulk of Grotius' reputation rests. It consists of an introduction and three books, totaling more than 900 pages in translation. As with DIP, the introduction or "Prolegomena" holds the greatest interest for philosophers, for it is here that Grotius articulates and defends the philosophical foundations of the DIB. While philosophers are naturally attracted to the "Prolegomena," the body of the DIB is also redolent with themes of philosophical interest. Book One defines the concept of war, argues for the legitimacy of war, and identifies who may legitimately wage war. Book Two deals with the causes of war, the origins of property, the transfer of rights and more, while Book Three is dedicated primarily to the rightful conduct of belligerents in war. After the initial publication in 1625, Grotius ushered several more editions to press during his life, each time adding more references without substantially changing the arguments." (SEP).Living in the times of the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands and the Thirty Years' War between Catholic and Protestant European nations (Catholic France being in the otherwise Protestant camp), Grotius was deeply concerned with matters of conflicts between nations and religions. His magnum opus was a monumental effort to restrain such conflicts on the basis of a broad moral consensus. It was begun in prison and published during his exile in Paris. "In the dedication of his great work, "De Jure Belli ac Pacis", to Louis XIII of France, Grotius addresses the king as "everywhere known by the name Just no less than that of Louis ... Just, when you call back to life laws that are on the verge of burial, and with all your strength set yourself against the trend of an age which is rushing headlong to destruction; ... when you offer no violence to souls that hold views different from your own in matter of religion; ... when by the exercise of your authority you lighten the burden of oppressed peoples."When writing this dedication and the Prolegomena to "De Jure Belli ac Pacis" (originally published in Paris in 1625), Grotius was living in exile. Europe was war-torn and depression and suffering from hunger and cold prevailed in many regions, justifying Grotius' description of international law as such: "in our day, as in former times, there is no lack of men who view this branch of law with contempt as having no reality outside of an empty name." The treaty of peace, embodying many of the universal and permanent principles which Grotius abstracted "from every particular fact" in those dark days of the early part of the Thirty Years' War, was not concluded till 23 years later. The year 1624 was, in the negotiation of the treaty, assumed to be the norm year for restoration of the "Status quo".The more than three centuries since Grotius wrote his magnum opus seem to bear witness to his views upon war peace, in spite of the fact that many a state has not yet realized that the state is "Truly fortunate which has justice for its own boundary line." In 1625 Grotius famously stated: "there is no state so powerful that it may not sometime need the help of others outside itself, either for the purposes of trade, or even ward off the forces of many foreign nations united against it."Grotius's paramount influence upon international law is widely acknowledged worldwide. For instance, since 1999 the American Society of International Law holds an annual series of Grotius Lectures. Because of his theological underpinning of free trade, he is also considered an "economic theologist"."To those desirous of understanding the fundamental principles which have motivated some of the greatest statesmen of modern time and the bases upon which a state which is to remain essentially sound must rest, a reading of Grotius' Prolegomena to the "Law of War and Peace" is commended." (George Grafton Wilson: "Grotius: Law of War and Peace.", p. 1. In: The American Journal of International Law, vol. 35, nr. 2, 1941).

Duisburg, Falk & Lange, 1866. 8vo. Uncut in the original printed wrappers with author's presentation inscription: "Geschenk des Verfassers / Freitag, d. 13. April 1866.". Spine expertly restored and wrappers reinforced on verso. A few light underlignings in pencil, a fine copy. VIII, 256 pp. First edition, presentation-copy given by the author shortly after publication, of Lange's highly influential work, which Karl Marx read extensively. The work served served as a great source of inspiration to Marx, especially in regard to rent theory and soil exhaustion (chapter 4 in the present work).Lange was furthermore seminal in the spreading of Darwinism in Germany. It was through Lange that Nietzsche was introduced to Darwin, an introduction which was to become pivotal in the construction of his theory of the Übermensch. "[Lange], elucidates his critique against the Leibig school in the 1866 book [the present], the title which ironically mocks Dühring's book. Marx made some excerpts from this book in the beginning of 1868 and possessed a copy in his library. These excerpts are important because Marx focused on chapter 4 in which lange criticizes Carey's and Dühring's view on agriculture. Marx documented a passage in which Lange rejects Carey's idea of the harmonious development; especially the latter's treatment of a "protective tariff" as "panacea" which should automatically lead to the establishment of an autarchic." (Karl Marx's Ecosocialism)."Thus in 1868 Marx began reading the work of authors who took a more critical stance toward Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry. He was already familiar with arguments such as Roscher's, which held that the robbery system should be criticized from the point of view of "natural science" but could be justified from an "economic" standpoint insofar as it was more profitable. According to Roscher, it was only necessary to stop the robbery just before it became too expensive to recover the original fertility of the soil - but market prices would take care of that. Adopting Roscher's arguments, Friedrich Albert Lange, a German philosopher, argued against Dühring's reception of Liebig and Carey in his J. St. Mill's Views of the Social Question [J. St. Mills Ansichten über die sociale Frage] published in 1866. Marx read Lange's book at the beginning of 1868, and it is no coincidence that his notebook focuses on its fourth chapter, where Lange discusses the problems of rent theory and soil exhaustion. Specifically, Marx noted Lange's observation that Carey and Dühring denounced "trade" with England as a cause of all evils and regarded a "protective tariff" as the ultimate "panacea," without Lange's recognizing that "industry" possesses a "centralizing tendency," which creates not only the division of town and country but also economic inequality. Similar to Roscher, Lange argued that "despite the natural scientific correctness of Liebig's theory," robbery cultivation can be justified from a "national economic" perspective." (Saito, Marx's Ecological Notebooks).Lange is a significant figure among the mid-nineteenth century German intellectuals who were concerned to digest the impact of developments in natural science on philosophy, pedagogy, and politics."Lange was one of the originators of "physiological neo-Kantianism" and an important figure in the founding of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism. He played a significant role in the German labour movement and in the development of social democratic thought. He articulated a socialist Darwinism that was an alternative to early social Darwinism." (SEP)Die Bibliotheken von Marx und Engels (MEGA IV.32).

[London, Taylor & Francis], 1913. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Excellent, very fresh copy, with only a two small marginal tears to front wrapper, no loss. Spine and cords completely fresh and fully intact. Pp. (1) +506-525. Scarce first edition, off-print issue with presentation-inscription, of Bohr's first paper on the Stark-effect, being the seminal paper in which Bohr for the first time applies his theory to electric effect and expresses his widening interest in quantum theory. The work is inscribed to the famous Danish physicist "Hr. Mag. scient. A.W. Marke/ med venlig Hilsen/ fra Forfatteren" ("Mr. Master of Sciences A.W. Marke/ with kind regards/ from the author"). Axel Waldbuhm Marke (1883 - 1942) was professor of Physics in Copenhagen. His scientific works were originally centred around magnetic investigations, for which he was trained by P. Weiss in Zürich, in 1914. Due to WWI, he had to return, however, and during the difficult journey back, he lost all of his records. In 1916 he published an important work on the thermomagnetic qualities of water, and he has written a number of highly praised text books on physics, optics, meteorology, and climatology. He was renowned for his great skills in popularizing difficult scientific results and was famous for his lectures. The Stark-effect (the shifting and splitting of spectral lines of atoms and molecules due to presence of an external static electric field) is named after Johannes Stark, who discovered it in 1913. Although Stark shortly after having discovered it became and ally of Nazi Germany and rejected the developments of modern physics, his discovery became of the utmost importance to the development of quantum theory."Once again we must go back to November 1913. On the 20th of that month Stark announced to the Prussian Academy of Sciences an important new discovery: when atomic hydrogen is exposed to a static electric field its spectral lines split, the amount of splitting being proportional to the field strength. (the linear Stak effect). After Rutherford read this news in "Nature", he at once wrote Bohr: "I think it is rather up to you at the present to write something on... electric effects."We now encounter for the first time the widening interest in quantum theory [...] Even before Bohr sat down to work on the Stark effect, Warburg from Berlin published an article in which the Bohr theory is applied to this new phenomenon. Bohr's own paper [i.e. the present] on the subject appeared in March 1914. The next year he returned to the same topic." (Pais, Niels Bohr's Times, p. 182). Rosenfeld: No. 10.

Kiøbenhaffn, (Andreas Gutterwitz og Hans Stockelmann), 1576. Folio. (27 x 19 cm.). Senere velbevaret hellæderbind i flammet kalv fra omkring 1850. Ryg med svagt ophøjede ægte bind, smalle forgyldte borter langs bindene. Forgyldt rygtitel: HUUSPOSTIL. Eksemplaret er næsten komplet, idet der kun mangler titelbladet til 1. del og det sidste blanke blad. Del.1: 13 (af 14) unummererede blade + 214 nummererede blade. Del 2: 234 nummererede + 13 unummererede. Med talrige monumentale halvsides træsnit i teksten illustrerende Jesu levnedsløb, hvis kunstner indtil for nylig var uidentificeret. (Se noten neden for). Nogle fejlpagineringer i begge Dele. 2 signaturer (læg) ombyttede (i 1. Del og i registeret). Trykt på svært papir og med lettere brugsspor, mest blandt de første blade i 1. Del. Ca. 20 blade omkantede, ca. 15 blade kantforstærkede i højre margin, 3 blade reparerede med teksttab. Enkelte blade reparerede i kanter med tab af bogstaver i marginalierne. Kolofonbladet repareret i alle kanter, men uden tab af tekst. Enkelte blade med svage skjolder og brunpletter. Et læg i registeret løsnet. Alt i alt et usædvanligt velbevaret eksemplar af dette monumentalværk i dansk teologisk litteratur. Folio. (27 x 19 cm.). Later well preserved full mottled calf binding from ca 1850. Slightly raised real bands to spine, slim gilt borders along the bands. Gilt title to spine. The copy is nearly complete, as its is only lacking the title-page for part 1 and the final blank. Part 1: 13 (of 14) unnumbered leaves + 214 numbered laeves. Part II: 234 numbered leaves + 13 unnumbered leaves. Some paginational errors in both parts. Two quires have been swapped (in part 1 and the index). With numerous half-page woodcuts in the text depicting the life of Jesus. Until recently, the artist had remained unidentified (please see note below for clarification). Printed on thick, heavy paper. Signs of use, mostly to the first leaves of part 1. Ca 20 leaves re-margined, and ca 15 leaves re-inforced at outer margin. Three leaves repaired with loss of text. A few leaves restores at edges with marginal loss of lettering. All edges of colophon repaired, but no loss of text. A few leaves with light damp staining and brownspotting. One quire of the index loose. All in all an unusually well preserved copy of this extremely rare monument of Danish theology. Den uhyre sjældne første danske udgave af Hemmingsens Postil, ja faktisk findes kun 2 komplette eksemplarer på private hænder, nemlig det som var ejet af Tore Virgin indtil 1947 og et eksemplar som for nogle år siden dukkede op i Frankrig, og som nu er i en dansk privatsamling. Lauritz Nielsen anfører, at der alene er registreret 4 komplette eksemplarer i offentlige biblioteker (KB, Linköping, Stifts-og Landsbibliotek, Karen Brahe, Odense og Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel). Universitetsbibliotekets eksemplar er defekt, ligesom KB ejer 3 defekte eksemplarer ud over det komplette, som alle 3 er med mange mangler.Postillen udkom først på Latin i 1561 og blev fortsat med ialt 16 Latinske udgaver - alle i 8vo-, og om alle kan man vist sige, at de er af største sjældenhed. Carl S. Petersen kalder Niels Hemmingsen "den største teologiske Videnskabsmand, der har levet i vor Fædreland", og som elev af Melancton må han nok betegnes som den mest betydelige tænker i Reformationstidens Danmark og Norge. Hans Postil er ikke egentlige prædikener, "men dispositioner til saadanne, udarbejdede med det formål at tvinge præsten til alvorlig gennemtænkning af den hellige Text". Samtiden tildelte ham navnet "Danmarks almindelige Lærer". AN ILLUSTRATIONERNE: En dansk bogsamler og ekspert på danske 1500-tals tryk (Jørgen Jark) har bidraget til opklaringen af de monumentale illustrationers ophav. Han anfører, at signaturen CE (i Thesaurus og Birkelund fejllæst som CF) - ifølge Nagler "Die Monogramisten" - sandsynligvis står for kunstneren, mester Endele. Han var af Wittenbergskolen, og denne serie af billeder var tidligere anvendt i en tysk udgave af Luthers Postil. Et par af billederne er mærket med årstallene 1561 og 1562. Efter lånet til Danmark må de være returneret, da de ikke optræder senere i noget andet dansk tryk. Træskæreren har markeret sig med en træskærerkniv og et 4tals-agtigt tegn, der er et i tiden og tidligere ofte anvendt laugsmærke. Et par af billederne tilhører en helt anden serie, f.eks. Del I, blad 71b. De tilskrives Hans Brosamer og hele denne serie blev brugt af Matz Vingaard i hans Lutherpostil 1577.Lauritz Nielsen: 886. - Thesaurus I, 100. - Bibl. Danica I:499. - Birkelund, 31. The exceedingly scarce first edition of the first Danish edition of Hemmingsen’s Postil. Only two complete copies are known on private hands, one that was owned by Thore Virgin up until 1947, and another copy that appeared in France some years back and which is now in a Danish private collection. According to Lauritz Nielsen, merely four complete copies are registered in libraries world-wide (Royal Library in Danmerk, Linköping’s Stifts- og Landbibliotek, Karen Brahe in Odense, and Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel). The copy in the University Library in Denmark is defective, as are the three other copies that The Royal Library owns, all very incomplete. Hemmingsen’s Postille first appeared in Latin in 1561, followed by another 15 Latin editions, all in 8vo. All 16 editions are considered exceedingly rare. Carl S. Petersen calls Niels Hammingsen ”the greatest theological scientist that has ever lived in our country” (i.e. Denmark). As a pupil of Melanchthon, he is rightfully considered the most significant thinker during the Danish/Norwegian Reformation. His Postil does not cosntitute actual sermons, but ”dispositions for such, prepared with the goal of forcing the priest into serious contemplation of the holy Text.” (Own translation from Danish). By his contemporaries, Hemmingsen was known as “The common teacher of Denmark”. THE ILLUSTRATIONS: A Danish bibliophile and expert on 16th century printings (Jørgen Jark) has contributed to solve the question of the origin of the monumental illustrations. He states that according to Nagler in “Die Monogramisten”, the signature CE (in Thesaurus and Birkelund erroneously read as CF) most likely refers to the artist Master Endele. Endele was part of the Wittenberg School, and this series of illustrations had previously been used in a German edition of Luther’s Postil. A few of the illustrations bear the years 1561 and 1562. After having been lent to Denmark, they must have been returned, as they appear in no other Danish printing. The woodcutter has marked himself with a woodcutter’s knife and a sign resembling “4”, which was a commonly used guild mark of the period. A few of the illustrations belong to a completely different series, e.g. Part 1, f. 71b. They are attributed to Hans Brosamer; his enire series was used by Mats Vingaard in his Luther’s Postil from 1577. Lauritz Nielsen: 886. - Thesaurus I, 100. - Bibl. Danica I:499. - Birkelund, 31.