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Kiöbenhavn, Schultz, 1797. 8vo. Uncut, partly unopened, in contemporary (original?) marbled boards. Part of spine missing and wrappers very loose. Internally with very light occassional brownspotting. 84 pp. + four folded plates, each with the accompanying "Plan"-leaf (complete). First edition of Oxholm's early and important work on the state of the West Indies in which he describes the government loans to planters to buy slaves in the ten years from 1792 until abolition of the trade in 1802 and the effects of British imports on the price and quality of slaves. "Denmark acquired St. Croix from France in 1733. Oxholm was a young Danish officer sent to the Danish West Indies in 1778 to map all the fortifications in the islands, suggest improvements, and estimate their cost. He was also to create topographic maps of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John. He mapped only St. John, but presented numerous drawings and maps at the Danish court where his work was approved and rewarded. Having married into a St. Croix family, he returned there and became a sugar planter. In 1794 he privately published a detailed map of St. Croix that he had created." (John Russell Bartlett Collection)"Lieutenant Oxholm was a promising young man of 24 when he was sent to the Danish possessions in The West Indies. Oxholm’s task was to examine the ability of the colony to defend itself against attack and draw new maps of St. Thomas and St. John. But Oxholm was an enterprising man and he also examined a number of issues that he had not been tasked to deal with at all. The political situation of the colony, conditions for soldiers and enslaved laborers, health care and conditions for prisoners and lepers, organization of the sugar trade and the schools were all described. Oxholm became an advocate of slavery that he believed was necessary for the economy of the colony. But he was critical of the miserable living conditions of enslaved laborers, soldiers, and the sick.Oxholm’s maps were of high quality and impressively accurate. Some have been in use almost up until the present day. Today, his maps and drawings are considered by the Danish Ministry of Culture to be of “unique national importance”. Oxholm also left behind a number of reports and books about conditions in the Danish colony in the West Indies. The most important one is his book on the state of the West Indies, De danske vestindiske Øers Tilstand i Henseende til Population, Cultur og Finance-Forfatning ("The State of the Danish West Indian Islands with Respect to Population, Culture and Financial Condition") from 1797, containing both descriptions and illustrations of plantation operations in the colony. Oxholm also wrote several debate pieces where, among other things, he defended the slave trade as late as 1806. Oxholm’s energy did not diminish, and right up until his death he continued making maps and drawings and suggesting improvements to conditions in the Danish colony in the West Indies." (Danish State Archive, The Danish West-Indies - Sources of history).

London, Peter Elmsly, 1795. 4to. In recent marbled paper wrappers. Extracted from "Philosophical Transactions". Including title-page of volume. Leaves reinforced in margin. Light offsetting from folded plates as usual. Plate depicting the full telescope with professional repair to lower right corner. (4), 347-410 pp. + 19 folded plates. First appearance of William Herschel account of his great 40-foot telescope. It was the largest telescope in the world for 50 years and it was possibly used to discover Enceladus and Mimas, the 6th and 7th moons of Saturn. The plate of the 40-foot telescope fully assembled remains as one of the great icons of astronomy. "It is well known that King George III granted £2,000 for the construction of the 40-foot reflector, and that this was supplemented by a further £2,000 plus other expenses. Only recently has it become evident that the second grant was made in the context of a serious row between monarch and astronomer. Herschel was of course in uncharted territory in attempting the construction of such a monster. The king had understood that the first £2,000 was the total required, and when this proved not to be the case he may well have suspected Herschel of deliberately underestimating the costs involved when making his original application. Although the king acceded-reluctantly-to the second request, from then on Herschel was required to account for every last penny of expenditure, and was told in no uncertain terms that no further grant would be forthcoming.The 40-foot reflector proved cumbersome and its results did not justify the labor and cost of its construction. What has only recently been appreciated is the extent to which it became a millstone around its creator's neck. From Herschel's point of view, it lost its principal raison d'être in 1790 when an observation with the 20-foot convinced him of the existence of "true nebulosity." But to the king it was an enduring symbol of his patronage of science, and visitors to Windsor Castle were invited to make the short journey to Slough to see the world's biggest telescope." (DSB)

London, Macmillian and Co, 1958 & 1960. Roayl8vo. 2 volumes, bound in contemporary half cloth with gilt lettering to spines. Stamps to front free end-paper and first leaf of each issue. In "Nature", vol. 181 & 185, 1958 & 1960, entire volumes offered. A fine set. [Nature 181, 1958:] pp. 662-666. [Nature 185, 1960:] pp. 422-27. [Entire volumes. CXLII, (2), 936 pp; LXXV, (1), 952 pp.]. First appearance of both papers in which the first three-dimensional model of a protein was presented, essential knowledge for progress in curing human diseases, thus laid the foundation for all structural biology. Kendrew was furthermore one of the first to use a computer in analyzing the data produced by x-ray diffraction. For his essential discovery Kendrew was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962. The discovery is widely regarded as being one the most important in the second half of the 20th century within biology and chemistry. "The first dramatic but hard-won success of the approach [in understanding molecules], the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a protein called myoglobin, was announced in 1958 [in the present paper]. The findings laid the foundation for the age of structure in biology: [.] the paper was the outcome of a truly Herculean task. (Garwin, A century of Nature: twenty-one discoveries that changed science and the world, 2003, Pp. 87-88). The papers they produced (both offered here) are "the outcome of a truly Herculean task. When the project began, there were no automated instruments or digital computers for generating or analyzing the huge amounts of data necessary. Every step had to be carried out by hand. many repeated thousands of times" (A Century of Nature, p. 89) “After the war, John Kendrew, a physical chemist who had occupied high offices in operational research during the war and, while on a common mission in Ceylon, had been convinced by Bernal of the promises of protein crystallography, joined Perutz to do a PhD. (Although working closely with Perutz, Kendrew was officially supervised by William T. Taylor, head of the crystallography division at the Cavendish; like most professional crystallographers Taylor regarded protein crystallography as a hopeless undertaking, but still accepted the formal agreement.) Kendrew first embarked on a comparative analysis of fetal and adult hemoglobin, but later switched to the simpler protein myoglobin, the oxygen carrier in muscle.” (DSB) Perutz now managed to attach a heavy atom (mercury) to the hemoglobin molecule. From the difference produced in the diffraction pattern he was able to deduce the phase of the reflections. The method had been known since the 1930s, but it had only been used for small molecules. Although the suggestion to apply the method to proteins dated from the same period, its applicability had not been proved. “The problem consisted, firstly, in finding a heavy metal compound that could be attached to a specific site without altering the arrangement of the other atoms in the molecule and, secondly, in estimating with sufficient accuracy the overall changes in intensity produced by the heavy atoms. In Bragg’s judgment, Perutz’s skill in this last respect was “probably unique” at the time (Bragg, 1965, p. 12). To this day, the isomorphous replacement method is considered the key method to determine the crystal structure of proteins. Kendrew, working on the smaller myoglobin molecule, was the first to take full advantage of the new method. In 1958, he presented the first model ever of a globular protein derived by direct structure determination. The model showed the general outline of the molecule; a second model at atomic resolution followed two years later. In the same year Perutz presented the first model of hemoglobin at 5.5 Ångstrøm. Its four subunits proved to be closely related to the myoglobin molecule. The white-and-black disk model built of thermosetting plastic is still widely reproduced.” (DSB) The determination of any of these protein structures could not have been contemplated without the use of ever more powerful electronic computers. Perutz initially distrusted the new calculating devices and resisted resorting to the experimental digital computers developed at the nearby Mathematical Laboratory. Eventually he came around to recognize their usefulness, but he freely admitted that he was always hopeless at computing. He never made use of the machine himself and rather left this part of the work to the younger people in his group. Perutz and Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work on the structure of proteins.” (DSB) Garrison & Morton: 6911 & 6912

London, J. Wilkie, 1766. 4to. In the original printed wrappers. Lacking backstrip and with a small stain to back wrapper, otherwise a very fine and clean copy. 119 pp. First edition of Thomas Whately's "important and extremely rare" (Higgs) work on British trade and finance primarily in the New World. This is the first thorough and first full description and defense of the the first direct tax ever levied by Parliament upon the colonies. The implementation of this tax resulted in the Boston Massacre and the formation of the Boston Tea Party and, eventually, in the expulsion of the British in 1776. By publishing the present defense, Thomas Whately earned himself a prominent place in the events that led to the American Revolution."Thomas Whately, the most influential British official in colonial policy in his time, published a work on British trade and finances in 1766 [the present work] with this as his opening sentence: "That the wealth and power of Great-Britain depend upon its trade is a proposition, which it would be equally absurd in these times to dispute or prove". In the same year, Edmund Burke asserted that "liberty and commerce" were "the true basis of its [Britain's] power." (Draper, A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution].This policy eventually became fatal: In 1765 the Stamp Act was the first direct tax ever levied by Parliament upon the colonies. All newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets and official documents had to have the stamps. All 13 colonies protested heavily, as popular leaders like Henry in Virginia and Otis in Massachusetts rallied the people in opposition. Thomas Whately (1726-1772), an English politician and writer, was a Member of Parliament, who served as Commissioner on the Board of Trade, as Secretary to the Treasury under Lord Grenville, and as Under- secretary of State under Lord North. "Important and extremely rare. Reprinted in "Scarce Tracts", 1787, and there attributed to T. Whately." (Higgs)Higgs 3757Goldsmith 10157Sabin 103122 Hollander 1987Kress 2489 (erroneously ascribed to William Knox)

Berlin, 1842. 4to. Entire volume of "Abhandlungen"... and "Mathamatische Abhandlungen"... 1840 present. Contemporary yellow boards with a vellum-like spine. Handwritten title to spine. A bit of wear and soiling to extremities, and corners bent. Internally fine and clean. Stamp to title-page (Dom-Gymnasium Magdeburg, also stamped out). Pp. (187)- 257 + 6 plates, two of which are folded. Text very nice, bright, and clean, plates with a bit of brownspotting. [Entire volume: (6), XVII, (5), 400 pp. + 10 plates, 4 of which are coloured + (4), 137 pp.]. First printing of this foundational work, which established the acceptance, by the modern world, of Aristotle as the founder of biological science. It is due to the present work that modern encyclopaedias will now conclude that "Aristotle is properly recognized as the originator of the scientific study of life." (SEP). Apart from its importance to the modern view of Aristotle, the present paper was also central to Müller's construction of a natural system of the fishes. For centuries, the authority of Aristotle in matters of science and biology was unrivalled, but with modern science, the advancement of exact knowledge, and modern man's ability to investigate the smallest of details, Aristotle's scientific and zoological works increasingly came to be viewed as not properly belonging to the exact sciences. Many biologists would claim that his observations were fanciful and incorrect, not constituting any real scientific value. This view completely changed with the publication of the present paper, by the renowned zoologist Müller.In his "Historia Animalium", Aristotle had described a phenomenon in a shark, which no modern zoologist believed to be true. Had it been true, our classification among sharks and fish would need to be different, as this fanciful observation would completely alter our view of the shark as such. Müller, in the present treatise, was the first to actually prove Aristotle's observation to be true, thereby altering the modern conception of Aristotle, earning him the respect that he truly deserved as the first scientific biologist and as the originator of the scientific study of life. "Müller placed the Cyclostomata among the fishes. He was thus led to study the sharks... A further product of this investigation was "Über den glatten Hai des Aristoteles" (1842). In "Historia animalium", Aristotle had reported that the embryos of the "so-called smooth shark" are attached to the uterus of the mother by a placenta, as is the case among mammals. Rondelet had described such a shark in 1555 and Steno had observed one in 1673 off the coast of Tuscany, but it had not been referred to in more recent times. Müller was the first who was able to corroborate the earlier testimony.In conjunction with the study of the shark, Müller constructed a natural system of the fishes based on work as painstaking as it was perceptive." (DSB).Johannes Peter Müller (1801-58) was one of the most important physiologists and zoologists of the 19th century. He made a vast number of important discoveries, and his unusual and empirical approach to his subjects made him one of the most influential scientists of the century. "Müller introduced a new era of biological research in Germany and pioneered the use of experimental methods in medicine. He overcame the inclination to natural-philosophical speculation widespread in German universities during his youth, and inculcated respect for careful observation and physiological experimentation. He required of empirical research that it be carried out "with seriousness of purpose and thoughtfulness, with incorruptible love of truth and perseverance." Anatomy and physiology, pathological anatomy and histology, embryology and zoology-in all these fields he made numerous fundamental discoveries. Almost all German scientists who achieved fame after the middle of the nineteenth century considered themselves his students or adopted his methods or views. Their remarks reveal his preeminent position in medical and biological research. Helmholtz, one of his most brilliant students, termed Müller a "man of the first rank" and stated that his acquaintance with him had "definitively altered his intellectual standards"." (DSB).

[Lancaster], American Institute of Physics, 1939. Royal8vo. Bound in contemporary full red cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Entire volume of "The Physical Review", Volume 56, Second Series, July 1 - December 15, 1939. "Development Department" in small gilt lettering to lower part of spine. A very fine and clean copy. [Feynman:] Pp. 340-43. [Bohr & Wheeler:] Pp. 426-50. [Oppenheimer & Snyder:] Pp. 455-59. [Entire volume: X, 1264 pp.]. First printing of three landmark papers, all of seminal importance in history of physics: Feynman's undergraduate thesis at MIT, the intricacies of the fission process, the groundwork for atomic and hydrogen bombs and the forgotten birth of black holes: The first theoretical description of a black hole, the production of a singularity when a sufficiently large neutron star collapses.First printing of "FORCES IN MOLECULES" - know known as Feynman-Hellmann theorem - is Feynman's undergraduate thesis at MIT, published when he was just twenty-one, which helped to establish his name in the world of physics. "This work treated the problem of molecular forces from a thoroughly quantum-mechanical point of view, arriving at a simple means of calculating the energy of a molecular system that continues to guide quantum chemists." (DSB). "As Feynman conceived the structure of molecules, forces were the natural ingredients. He saw springlike bonds with varying stiffness, atoms attracting and repelling one another. The usual energy-accounting methods seemed secondhand and euphemistic: [He demonstrated that] the force on an atom's nucleus is no more or less than the electrical force from the surrounding field of charged electrons-the electrostatic force. Once the distribution of charge has been calculated quantum mechanically, then from that point forward quantum mechanics disappears from the picture. The problem becomes classical; the nuclei can be treated as static points of mass and charge. Feynman's approach applies to all chemical bonds" (Gleick, The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, P. 54).Oppenheimer and Snyder's "ON CONTINUED GRAVITATIONAL CONTRACTION" constitute the very first theoretical prediction of a singularity when a sufficiently large neutron star collapses. This phenomenon was later to be coined as a black hole. "Had J. Robert Oppenheimer not led the US effort to build the atomic bomb, he might still have been remembered for figuring out how a black hole could form." (American Physical Society). The paper has by several physics historians been described as the forgotten birth of black holes. "Oppenheimer and his graduate student George Volkoff presented the first analysis of the formation of a neutron star in a 1939 Physical Review paper titled, "On Massive Neutron Stars". Oppenheimer wondered what would happen to a very massive neutron star. The Schwartzschild analysis of General Relativity has a theoretical limit, called the "Schwartzschild limit", when the ratio of mass-to-radius of a star is 236,000 times greater than the ratio for our sun. When this limit is exceeded, the Schwartzschild analysis does not yield a solution. Oppenheimer believed that a neutron star could have sufficient mass to exceed this limit. What would happen to it? Oppenheimer and his graduate student Hartland Snyder applied General Relativity theory to a star with sufficient mass and density to exceed the Schwartzschild limit. The Schwartzschild analysis assumed that the size of the star stays constant with time. Oppenheimer and Snyder found that they could achieve a real solution from General Relativity when the Schwartzschild limit is exceeded by assuming that the diameter of the star decreases with time. They presented their analysis in a 1939 Physical Review paper, titled, "On Continual Gravitational Contraction," which concluded with: "When all thermonuclear sources of energy are exhausted, a sufficiently heavy star will collapse. Unless fission due to rotation, the radiation of mass, or the blowing off of mass by radiation, reduce the star's mass to the order of that of the sun, this contraction will continue indefinitely." This analysis concluded that when the Schwartzschild limit is exceeded, the star must collapse indefinitely until it reaches a singularity having an infinite density of matter" (Bjornson, Singularity Predictions of General Relativity, P. 4).The Chandrasekhar / Eddington controvery in the mid 30ies did discuss the fate of neutron stars but the first thoroughly theoretical desciption was first published here. "THE MECHANISM OF NUCLEAR FISSION" is the first fully worked out theory of nuclear fission, which laid the groundwork for atomic and hydrogen bombs."Wheeler's technical mastery of physics is best seen in the classic paper of Bohr and Wheeler. Bohr and Wheeler wrote the paper in Princeton, where Bohr was visiting in the spring of 1939, a few months after the discovery of fission. The paper is a masterpiece of clear thinking and lucid writing. It reveals, at the center of the mystery of fission, a tiny world where everything can be calculated and everything understood. The tiny world is a nucleus of uranium 236, formed when a neutron is freshly captured by a nucleus of uranium 235. The uranium 236 nucleus sits precisely on the border between classical and quantum physics. Seen from the classical point of view, it is a liquid drop composed of a positively charged fluid. The electrostatic force that is trying to split it apart is balanced by the nuclear surface tension that is holding it together. The energy supplied by the captured neutron causes the drop to oscillate in various normal modes that can be calculated classically. Seen from the quantum point of view, the nucleus is a superposition of a variety of quantum states leading to different final outcomes. The final outcome may be a uranium 235 nucleus with a re-emitted neutron, or a uranium 236 nucleus with an emitted gamma-ray, or a pair of fission-fragment nuclei with one or more free neutrons. Bohr and Wheeler calculate the cross-section for fission of uranium 235 by a slow neutron and get the right answer within a factor of two. Their calculation is a marvelous demonstration of the power of classical mechanics and quantum mechanics working together. By studying this process in detail, they show how the complementary views provided by classical and quantum pictures are both essential to the understanding of nature. Without the combined power of classical and quantum concepts, the intricacies of the fission process could never have been understood. Bohr's notion of complementarity is triumphantly vindicated" (John Archibald Wheeler, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 154 (2010)).

Berlin, C. F. Henning, 1751. 8vo. Two parts bound in one contemporary half calf binding with four raised bands and blind stamped ornamentation to spine. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Wear to extremities, boards with scratches and lower part of front hinge with loss of leather. Front free end-paper with four line annotation in contemporary hand. Internally nice and clean. (12), 488, (4), 466, (4) pp. First edition of one of Voltaire’s greatest historical works, arguably one of the most important political and cultural histories of this era - a monument of eighteenth-century historiography, paving the way not only for modern historiography but also literary history in general. In accordance with other Enlightenment authors and philosophers, Voltaire saw the age of Alexander the Great and Pericles, the age of Caesar and Augustus and the Italian Renaissance as "great ages". In the present work he presented the age of Louis XIV as the fourth and greatest. “The Age of Louis XIV was the most thoroughly and conscientiously prepared of Voltaire’s works. He had planned it in 1732, begun it in 1734 put it aside in 1738, resumed it in 1750. For it he read two hundred volumes and reams of unpublished memoires, consulted scores of survivors from le grand Siecle, studied the original papers of protagonists like Louvois and Colbert, secured from the Due de Noailles the manuscripts left by Louis XIV, and found important documents, hitherto unused, in the archives of Louvre.” (Durant, The Age of Voltaire: The Story of Civilization, Volume IX). The period covered in this work spans from the later years of Cardinal Richelieu to the aftermath of Louis XIV's death. Voltaire characterized this era as a pinnacle of artistic and philosophical achievement, contrasting it with what he viewed as a decline during the reign of Louis XV. Voltaire's approach to history diverged from traditional accounts focused on great leaders and events. He aimed to capture the essence of the era like a painter, emphasizing broader historical and cultural movements over specific individuals or battles. He valued developments such as artistic progress, the decline of medieval superstitions and the end of sorcery and witch trials as significant markers of advancement.

Napoli, Dalla Tipografia di Gennaro Palma, 1840. 8vo. In contemporary full blue cloth with blindstamped title to spine. Remains of paper-label to to lower part of spine. Extremities with a few bumps and light soiling. Internally with light brown-spotting throughout. 379, (1) pp. The exceedingly rare first edition of Scialoja's seminal first publication. Scialoja - by Schumpeter characterized as a person of "conspicuous brilliance" - here presents himself as a follower of Say; to a large extend, his work is a tribute to French though. Scialoja published his work at the age of 23 and "I principj" is today being regarded as one of the landmark works of 19th century Italian economics. It anticipated many of the thoughts presented by Keynes in the first half of the 20th century and it was instrumental in the economic development of the Resorgimento. For Scialoja the main cause of underdevelopment and imbalances that prevent a balanced growth of the economy must be sought in the undeveloped agricultural sector and lack of capital. According to Scialoja you can still talk about underdevelopment if economic growth is not used to make further developments in the agrarian sector. Because of the need of continuous development (economic and techinically) Scialoja consider the business owner the most important part in the healthy growth. Public intervention is particularly wanted - and in this regard he anticipates Keynes by almost a century - to correct and guide the country's economy to prevent instabilities. Antonio Scialoja (1817 - 1877) graduated in law at Naples in 1841 and became a professor of political economy at University of Turin in 1846. Antonio Scialoja is considered a leading figure in the economic policy of the Risorgimento. As a close ally of Cavour he was one of the chief archictects of the economic aspect of the Risorgimento and functioned as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in the Liberal government of Carlo Troja, finance minister in the interim government of Garibaldi, Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture in the first Ricasoli Government of the Kingdom of Italy, counselor of the Court of Auditors and senators from 1862, Minister of Finance in the Government of La Marmora, second Government of Ricasoli and finally Minister of Education in Government Lanza and in the second Government Minghetti.In 2006 the work was republished with a new introduction. Goldsmiths 31364Carl-Menger=Bibliothek 720The catalogue of Mattioli holds several later works by Scialoja but not the present. The catalogue of Einaudi lists the second edition (1846) and the first French translation (1844) but not the present first.

Halae Sailcae [i.e. Stockholm]: Apud Io. Gottl. Bierwirth, 1747. 8vo. Contemporary marbled paper binding with handwritten paper label to spine. Occational signs of wear. Overall a very nice copy. [XIV], 124, [8] pp. Second edition of Linnaeus' important "Bibliotheca Botanica" (without the Fundamentorum Botanica, which appeared simultaneously), his highly important, elaborate classification system for his catalogue of books. This significant work constitutes the first botanical bibliography arranged by subject and the work in which the term "methodists" is coined. "The Bibliotheca is a concise history of botany in a dry, enumerative, but very efficient style. Linnaeus describes the development of botanical science by subdividing the authors in various categories and by adding several statements on the main events in human affairs without which the growth of botany as a science cannot be understood. The often enlightening and amusing names for the various categories of botanists show not only a good knowledge of the literature, but also an awareness of the fact that botanical history is human history." (Frans Stafleu).The "Bibliotheca Botanica" is complete in itself. It was contemplated as the first part of a planned Bibliotheca medica (which he never wrote). It first appeared in 1736, and the present second edition constitutes a reprint of the first edition of the text, with the addenda and errata of Linnaeus inserted in their place. The work appeared again in 1751. Soulsby: 251.

Rio de Janeiro, 1946. Uncut in the original printed wrappers. Wear to extremities. Upper part of spine with loss of paper and brownspotting to wrappers. Marginal brownspotting throughout. The rare first edition of Clarice Lispector's enigmatic second novel, her haunting O Lustre (“The Chandelier”), now recognized as a foundational work of modern Brazilian literature and a daring exploration of inner consciousness. In spite of now being considered one of the greatest modern authors, Clarice Lispector is a fairly recent discovery for most, and many of her most famous novels have only recently been translated into English for the first time. "Written in 1946, The Chandelier is a mesmerizing journey into the mind of a young woman struggling to make sense of her inner world. Clarice Lispector’s second novel, long overshadowed by her debut, is finally emerging as a key work in her development." (From the first English translation, 2018) Clarice (1920-1977), as she is usually called by her many fans worldwide, is one of the most intriguing and revolutionizing authors of the 20th century. After having been re-discovered in Europe, she is now compared to the likes of Joyce, Kafka, and Steinbeck. She was born in Ukraine, to Jewish parents, and moved to Brazil as an infant, amidst the disasters following WWI. She grew up in Recife and moved to Rio de Janeiro when she was in her teens. She was merely 23, when she published her first novel, "Near to the Wild Heart", which catapulted her into fame in her own country (Brazil). Following her marriage to a Brazilian diplomat, she left the country in 1944 and spent the next 15 years in Europe and the United States. She continued, however, to publish all of her writings in Brazil. Although immensely famous in Brazil, it was only after the Amrican writer Benjamin Moser published a biography of Clarice Lispector in 2009 that her works have become the object of an extensive project of retranslation, published by New Directions Publishing and Penguin Modern Classics, being the first Brazilian to enter the prestigious series. Moser characterizes Lispector as "the most important Jewish writer in the world since Kafka" and O Lustre—with its stream-of-consciousness narrative, recursive prose, and philosophical intensity—fully supports that claim. It is a novel that resists categorization, one that explores the flickering boundaries between self and world, light and shadow, thought and sensation. First published in Rio de Janeiro in 1946, O Lustre was initially met with bewilderment by critics, who found its nonlinear structure and experimental language difficult to digest. But today it is hailed as a milestone in Lispector’s literary evolution, a raw and luminous expression of her singular voice. "Her second novel is darker, denser, more abstract. But it is also the book in which her voice truly begins to break free, a shimmering, difficult, and uncompromising work." (From the English introduction, 2018) "The legendarily beautiful Clarice Lispector, tall and blonde, clad in the outspoken sunglasses and chunky jewelry of a grande dame of midcentury Rio de Janeiro, met our current definition of glamour. She spent years as a fashion journalist and knew how to look the part. But it is as much in the older sense of the word that Clarice Lispector is glamorous: as a caster of spells, literally enchanting, her nervous ghost haunting every branch of the Brazilian arts. Her spell has grown unceasingly since her death. Then, in 1977, it would have seemed exaggerated to say she was her country's preëminent modern writer. Today, when it no longer does, questions of artistic importance are, to a certain extent, irrelevant. What matters is the magnetic love she inspires in those susceptible to her. For them, reading Clarice Lispector is one of the great emotional experiences of their lives. But her glamour is dangerous. "Be careful with Clarice," a friend told a reader decades ago, using the single name by which she is universally known. "It's not literature. It's witchcraft." The connection between literature and witchcraft has long been an important part of the Clarice mythology. That mythology, with a powerful boost from the Internet, which magically transforms rumors into facts, has developed ramifications so baroque that it might today be called a minor branch of Brazilian literature. Circulating unstoppably online is an entire shadow oeuvre, generally trying, and failing, to sound profound, and breathing of passion. Online, too, Clarice has acquired a posthumous shadow body, as pictures of actresses portraying her are constantly reproduced in lieu of the original. If the technology has changed its forms, the mythologizing itself is nothing new. Clarice Lispector became famous when, at the end of 1943, she published "Near to the Wild Heart." She was a student, barely twenty-three, from a poor immigrant background. Her first novel had such a tremendous impact that, one journalist wrote, "we have no memory of a more sensational debut, which lifted to such prominence a name that, until shortly before, had been completely unknown." But only a few weeks after that name was becoming known she left Rio with her husband, a diplomat. They would live abroad for almost two decades. Though she made regular visits home, she would not return definitively until 1959. In that interval, legends flourished. Her odd foreign name became a subject of speculation-one critic suggested it might be a pseudonym-and others wondered whether she was, in fact, a man. Taken together, the legends reflect an uneasiness, a feeling that she was something other than she seemed. ... New subjects require new language. Part of Clarice's odd grammar can be traced to the powerful influence of the Jewish mysticism that her father introduced her to. But another part of its strangeness can be attributed to her need to invent a tradition. As anyone who reads her stories from beginning to end will see, they are shot through by a ceaseless linguistic searching, a grammatical instability, that prevents them from being read too quickly. ... "In painting as in music and literature," she wrote, "what is called abstract so often seems to me the figurative of a more delicate and difficult reality, less visible to the naked eye." As abstract painters sought to portray mental and emotional states without direct representation, and modern composers expanded traditional laws of harmony, Clarice undid reflexive patterns in grammar. She often had to remind readers that her "foreign" speech was not the result of her European birth or an ignorance of Portuguese. Nor, needless to say, of the proper ways women presented themselves. As a professional fashion writer, she reveled in her characters' appearances. And then she dishevelled their dresses, smudged their mascara, deranged their hair, enchanting well-composed faces with the creepier glamour Sir Walter Scott described. With overturned words, she conjured an entire unknown world-conjuring, too, the unforgettable Clarice Lispector: a female Chekhov on the beaches of Guanabara." (Benjamin Moser in The New Yorker). All of Clarice Lispector's works are scarce in the first editions - which were all printed in Rio de Janeiro - and hardly every appear on the market.

Göteborg (S. Norberg) 1804. 8vo. In contemporary grey blank wrappers. Stamp to front wrapper, verso of front wrapper, title-page and p. 17. Otherwise fine. (12), (1)-51, (1) pp. The exceedlingly rare second part of the Swedish Bodell-translation of Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' book IV. . Bodell published translations of excerpts of Smith's landmark work in 1800 and 1804. A more lengthy translation was made in 1909 - 1911 but to this day a full Swedish translation has not been made.Despite the comparatively late translation into Swedish, it still had a profound influence, not on economists since they were well aware of the original work in English, but upon politics and public opinion in general: "There are few things more striking to the modem student of the history of ideas in Sweden than the negative phenomenon that Sweden was almost entirely uninfluenced by this fact and thus remained almost unaffected by English economic thought during a period when its superiority was most evident. As far as I am acquainted with the Swedish economic discussion and our popular economic literature of the 1860's and 1870's, there is almost no trace of any influence from English writers. [...]Of Adam Smith we have still only one abbreviated translation of his famous work and that was published as late as during this century; and, as far as I know, nothing of Ricardo's or Malthus' exists in Swedish, nor do any of the major economic works of J.S. Mill." (Heckscher, A survey of economic thought in Sweden, 1875-1950).Cheng-chung Lai, A17, 2. Vanderblue p. 33.

Istanbul, Nietzsche Hayatý ve Felsefesi, 1329 [1913]. 8vo. In later embossed full cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine. Last 10 leaves with a brown spot. Frontiespiece repaired with tape, otherwise a fine and clean copy. 127, (1) pp. + portrait of Darwin. Rare first edition of the first book on Darwinism, printed in Istanbul. The work in Ottoman language is a translation of "Wahrheit und Irrthum im Darwinismus" (The Truths and Mistakes of Darwinism) by Eduard von Hartmann (1842 - 1906), first published in 1875. The translator Memduh Süleyman, who also commented the book, considered the natural evolution the biggest mistake of the Darwinism. Memduh Süleyman (1889?-1920) was an important author and translator of the last years of the Ottoman Empire. His most famous work is a book on Nietzsche, "Nietzsche Hayat? ve Felsefesi", from 1912, which he co-wrote in together with Ahmet Nebil-Baha Tevfik-Memduh.The book was published amidst the Ottoman debate on the Darwinism. The first mentioning of the term was made in 1863 in a magazine Mecmua-i Fünun by Münif Pasha, who was at the time serving as a minister of education and did not believe, that the development of science would or should affect the religion. In the time of the publication of the present work, Darwin's works were not yet translated into Ottoman. The first translation of On the Origin of Species in the Muslim world, was only issued in Arabic in 1918 in Cairo. Translated were only the first six chapters. For more chapters were subsequently added in 1928.OCLC list three institutional examples (Leiden University Library, Library of Congress, Huntington Library, Art Museum, & Botanical Gardens).

London, Nicholas Okes, 1622. Folio. In contemporary full calf with five raised bands to spine. Boards with triple blind rule to boarders. Traces from paper-label to upper compartment of spine. Title-page soiled and with waterstain throughout, primarily affecting first and last leaves. (XXXVI), 68, 99-362 pp. First and only edition, posthumously published, of this important work in which Fotherby refuted atheism. Fotherby's approach involves using natural reasoning and secular authorities rather than relying solely on Scripture and Church Fathers, as was common, to convince skeptics of Christian truths. He understood the limitations of appealing only to divine revelation and therefore added arguments with references from classical literature and early modern travel accounts, aiming to persuade through credible sources rather than religious dogmatic authority. “Fotherby, Martin (1549?–1619), bishop of Salisbury, son of Maurice Fotherby, a resident at Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was born about 1549. He entered at Cambridge, and eventually became a fellow of Trinity. He became prebendary and archdeacon of Canterbury in 1596, and in 1615 was presented to the deanery. He had married some years before his first promotion; for on 9 Sept. 1609 Lady Cooke wrote to Lord Salisbury asking him to promote the marriage of her eldest daughter with the archdeacon's eldest son, to which Fotherby objected, and in the following year, after the marriage had taken place, begged for a knighthood at the creation of the Prince of Wales for her son-in-law, because her daughter's worth and birth had been much disgraced by the match. Three years afterwards, being chaplain to James I, he was appointed to the bishopric of Salisbury. He was consecrated by Abbot, assisted by the bishops of London, Coventry, and Lincoln, 19 April 1618, and protested at his consecration that he had given nothing for his promotion. He died 29 March 1619, aged 70, and was buried in Allhallows Church, Lombard Street. In the epitaph on his tomb he is described in very high-flown terms of praise. He left an imperfect work against atheism, which was published after his death in 1622 in folio, under the title ‘Atheomastix: clearing foure Truthes against Atheists and Infidels.’ Four sermons were published together in 1608 in quarto, having been written in 1604. Copies of both these works are in the British Museum.” (DNB) Not in Lowndes.

Stuttgart und Tübingen, Cotta, 1827. 4to. In the original patterned paper boards, with contemporary handwritten paper-title to spine and old handwritten library paper-label to lower spine. Wear to extremities and lacking some paper at spine. Stamp to first title-page (general title-page for the wntire year) and stamp to verso of title-page for the front wrapper of the January-issue. A damp stain to the first two leaves, otherwise internally quite good. Bound with the general title-page for the entire year and with some of the original wrappers for the individual months (among these that of January). 1856 colomns (i.e 928 pp.). The extremely rare first printing of all twelve issues, constituting the entire first year, of the seminal organ for the philosophical school that developed around Hegel, namely the "Yearbooks for Scientific Critique", issued by Hegel himself, constituting the starting-point of this greatly influential journal of the Hegelian right. This entire first year, with its 12 issues, contains a wealth of highly important contributions, one being Hegel's own highly important review of Humboldt's lectures on the Bhagavad-Gita (delivered in June 1825 and 1826), "On The Episode of the Mahabharata Known by the Name Bhagavad-Gita", in which Hegel puts this Indian work in his large context of world history. Hegel's review, which appeared in two parts in the present publication for the first time (Jan., nos. 7-8, pp. 51-63 + Oct., nos. 181-88, pp. 1441-92) is now considered an extremely important document dealing with India. Humboldt's lectures had praised the Gita as the greatest, most beautiful, and presumably, the only real philosophical poem of all known literatures; Hegel's review was meant as a critical assessment of the Hindu world-view in toto in a comparison with European Weltanschauung.In 1818 Hegel took over Fichte's chair at the University of Berlin. With his great lectures on the different fields of philosophy, he soon became widely famous and an important school formed around him. This Hegelian school grew to be extremely influential from the 1820'ies and onwards. From 1827, "the Jahrbücher", founded by Hegel himself, began appearing, working as the official organ for this seminal school.

Paris, Baptiste Loyson, 1662 (+) Paris, Coube, 1657 (+) Cologne, Pierre Marteau, 1687. 8vo. In contemporary ful calf with four raised bands and gilt ornamentation to spine. Super ex-libris to boards. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Light wear to extremities, parts of gilting on spine worn off. Internally lightly browned and closely trimmed, occassionally touching letters. (10), 82, (12), 94, (4), 52 pp. Three early French plays, all first editions, from what is widely regarded as being the golden age of French playwriting. All are of the utmost scarcity and we have only been able to trace one auction-record, namely that of “Le Riche Mecontent” (Sold at “Early English Literature and Americana duplicates and selections from the Library of Henry E. Huntington”, 1920 - described as "Very scarce"). These plays are all examples of French comedy from the 17th century, a period marked by the flourishing of theater in France, particularly in Paris. This era witnessed the development of a distinct French theatrical tradition with an emphasis on comedic works. These plays incorporate satire, using humor, irony, or ridicule to criticize and mock societal norms, behaviors or specific social groups “Le Riche Mecontent” was written for Hôtel de Bourgogne, a theatre, built in 1548 for the first authorized theatre troupe in Paris, the Confrérie de la Passion. It was considered the most important French theatre until the 1630s, it continued to be used until 1783. Nicolas de Péchantré (1638 – 1708), author of 'Les Engagement' and 'Les Yvrongnes' obtained three times the laurel at the Academy of Floral Games, and acquired great popularity by his tragedy of Greta. Georges Vicaire, French bibliophile and bibliographer, attributed “Les Yvrongnes” to Péchantré. Brunet 1, 1800 (Le Riche Mecontent). Not in Graesse, Barbier or Tchemerzine.

London, W. Richardson, 1793. Cont. hcalf, professionally rebacked in old style with raised bands. orig. gilt title-label preserved. XVI,208 pp. Light yellowing to leaves, scattered brownspots. Front-and end-papers brownspotted. First edition of Dalton's first book. In chemistry Dalton was the founder of "The Atomic Theory" (A New System of Chemical Philosophy 1808-27) and with his "Meteorological Observations" and supplementary lectures he laid the foundation of modern meteorology, establishing the cause of air's homogeneity and formulating the law of partial pressures. In the attempt to give solid experimental bases for his studies, Dalton laid the foundation of future atomic theory, beginning an experimental inquiry into proportions of different gases in the atmosphere. (PMM p.157). - A.L. Smyth No. 1.

Washington, The Smithsonian Institution, 1936. 8vo. In recent red full cloth with gilt lettering to front board. Published as part of "Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Volume 95, Number 3, Publication 3381". A fine and clean copy. (2), 10 pp. + 11 photographic plates. First edition of Goddard's paper on liquid-fueled rocket development. Goddard is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket and is often referred to as the man who ushered in the Space Age (Pendray, Rocket Development). By temperament and training Goddard was not a team worker, yet he laid the foundation from which team workers could launch men to the moon" (DSB). Goddard was secretive about his research and only published two papers; "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" (1919) and the present. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket on 16 March 1926 near Auburn, Mass. The ten-foot rocket, nicknamed "Nell" reached an altitude of 41 feet, traveled a distance of 184 feet and landed 2.5 seconds after lift-off in a cabbage patch. "Although his list of firsts in rocketry was distuguished, Goddard was eventually surpassed by teams of rocket research and development experts elsewhere, particularly in Germany." (DSB)."Like the Russian hero Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the German pioneer Hermann Oberth, Goddard worked out the theory of rocket propulsion independently [...] Having explored the mathematical practicality of rocketry since 1906 and the experimental workability of reaction engines in laboratory vacuum tests since 1912, Goddard began to accumulate ideas for probing beyond the Earth's stratosphere. His first two patents in 1914, for a liquid-fuel gun rocket and a multistage step rocket, let to some modest recognition and financial support from the Smithsonian Institution [...] With an eye toward patentability of demonstrated systems and with the aid of no more than a handful of technicians, Goddard achieved a series of workable liquid-fuel flights starting in 1926. Through the patronage of Charles A. Lindbergh, the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation, and the Carnegie and Smithsonian institutions, the Goddards and their small staff were able to move near Roswell, New Mexico. There, during most of the 1930s, Goddard demonstrated, despite many failures in his systematic static and flight tests, progressively more sophisticated experimental boosters and payloads, reaching speeds of 700 miles per hour and altitudes above 8000 feet in several test flights" (DSB).

Copenhague, 1876. Folio-oblong. In contemporay half calf. White paper label pasted on to upper right left corner of front board. Title-page a some maps with marginal repairs and reinfocements, otherwise fine. Two title-page + 203 maps. Rare first printing of Meteorologist Niels Hoffmeyer's massive work depicting surface synoptic observations in Europe and the North Atlantic - At the time considered one of the most ambitious meteorological undertakings. "Starting in 1876, Hoffmeyer began to collect all available observations from the North Atlantic (Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and ships) for the three previous years (1873-75), plot them on maps, and analyse them by drawing isobars. These maps were then published annually. Five years later, when the printing of the maps became too expensive for the Danish state, the "Deutsche Seewarte" (German Marine Weather Service) in Hamburg took over the work until the first world war. The analyses continued, as before, to be made in Copenhagen. The "Hoffmeyer maps" are thus another nice example of European scientific cross-fertilization." (Niels Hoffmeyer - a great but forgotten Danish meteorologist, EMS)"Unread still are Danish daily weather maps for the NATL listed in a catalogue published by Bibliothek der Deutchen Seewarte (1890). These maps were also a joint effort between the Danish Meteorological Institute and Deutsche Seewarte and depict the weather at 0800 local time for ships at sea. The maps were published from 1876 to 1880 and run from September 1873 to November 1876. The series is entitled "Cartes synoptiques journalières embrassant l'Europe et le Nord de l'Atlantique " and authored by Hoffmeyer. Contact with Danish Meteoroloigcal Institute confirmed that the maps have been moved to the Danish State Archive" (Chenoweth, New Compilation of North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1851-98)

Erlangen, Andreas Deichert, 1872. 8vo. (233x152mm). Uncut with the original printed front-wrapper (loose) - back-wrapper missing. Fine and clean throughout. 48 pp. First edition of the "Erlanger Programm". For over two millennia geometry had been the study of theorems which could be proved from Euclid's axioms. However, in the beginning of the 19th century it was proved that there exist other geometries than that of Euclid. Motivated by the emergence of the new geometries of Bolyai, Lobachevsky, and Riemann, Klein proposed to define a geometry, not by a set of axioms, but instead in terms of the transformations that leave it invariant; according to Klein, a geometric structure consists of a space together with a particular group of transformations of the space. A valid theorem in that particular geometry is one that holds under this group of transformations. This controversial idea did not only give a more systematic way of classifying the different geometries, but also gave birth to new geometric structures such as manifolds. The Erlanger Programm was translated into six languages in the following two decades, and it has had an immense influence on geometry up to and throughout the 20th century. Scarce. Landmark Writtings in Western Mathematics 1640-1940, p.544-52.

[No place], Editura Partidului Comunist Roman, 1947. Royal8vo. In publisher's half cloth Binding with waterstain, affecting both front and back board. Hindges weak Internally with a few marginal annotations, othwise interanlly fine and clean. 780, (1) pp + frontispiece. First Romanian translation of 'Das Kapital', Marx' landmark work, constituting what is arguably the greatest revolutionary work of the nineteenth century. It is the first translation of the many translation from the post-war decades in countries with communist government. It even predates the translation into any of the USSR-languages. As World War II ended, Romania, a former Axis member, was occupied by the Soviet Union, the sole representative of the Allies. On 6 March 1945, after mass demonstrations by communist sympathizers and political pressure from the Soviet representative of the Allied Control Commission, a new pro-Soviet government that included members of the previously outlawed Romanian Workers' Party was installed. Gradually, more members of the Communist Party and communist-aligned parties gained control of the administration and pre-war political leaders were steadily eliminated from political life. In December 1947, King Michael was coerced to abdicate and the People's Republic of Romania was declared. The present translation was paid for by the Romanian Communist Party.

Cologne, Fran. Byrckman (Birckmann), 1527. Folio (310 x 210 mm). In a lovely contemporary full calf binding with four raised bands and blindtooled boards and spine. Paper title-label pasted on to spine. Outer margin of boards with traces from clasps. Author and title in contemporary hand to fore-edge. Title-page with Birckmann's two-part printer's mark showing his initials in the right medallion with the motto "Fortuna cum blanditur tunc vel maxime metuenda est" (When Fortuna flatters, she is the most to be feared") and in the left medallion showing a hen and chicks, which was also on Birckmann's House in Cologne. Annotation in neat contemporary hand to pasted down front end-paper, title-page, and occasionally in margins. Leaf N3 with small loss of paper in margin, not affecting text. Vague dampstain in upper margin and lower outer margin of last leaves, but generally a very nice and clean copy. (2 blanks), (5), CCXLII, (3 blanks) ff. Leaf B4 erroneously paginated as VII instead of X. Complete. Editio princeps of Rupert of Deutz' commentaries on the Book of the Twelve Prophets edited by the influential Luther opposer Johannes Cochlaeus (1479-1552). “Rupert of Deutz (ca. 1075-1129) is widely recognised as one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages. Along with other Church Fathers such as Augustine of Hippo, his work occupies more than three volumes of the Patrologia Latina. During his lifetime, he devoted more than twenty years to tireless commentary on the Scriptures and was involved in many theological debates. His writings touched almost all of the genres of religious literature for that period: numerous biblical commentaries (on all the historical books in the Old Testament, on the twelve Prophets, on the Gospels of Mathew and John, and on the Apocalypse), commentaries on the Rule of St. Benedict, two Lives of Saints and more apologetic works. The fact that his works are preserved in more than 250 manuscripts is a testament to his popularity, especially across the German Empire (and more specifically, the ecclesiastical provinces of Cologne and Salzburg). More than half of these manuscripts date from the middle of the twelfth century, and thereafter his influence appears to have dwindled dramatically. This noticeable phenomenon witnesses the vicissitudes of traditional Benedictine monasticism during the transformative period of the first half of the twelfth century.” (Teng Li, The Holy Spirit in Twelfth-Century Thoughts: Rupert of Deutz (ca 1075-1129) and Anselm of Havelberg (ca 1095-1158). Johannes Cochlaeus, a Deacon of the Church of the Blessed Virgin in Frankfurt, lived in exile in Cologne where he became acquainted with the Abbot of Deutz through his host George Lauer. Cochlaeus learned that certain works of Rupert were to be published by Lutherans in Nuremberg. He strongly opposed and tried to obstruct this effort because the Lutherans had previously struggled to find medieval authors who supported Luther's doctrines. When a book by Rupert was discovered and favored by Lutherans, they sought more of his works. Osiander, a married priest and preacher, added Lutheran ideas to Rupert's writings before their publication. Cochlaeus persuaded publishers Peter Quentell and Arnold Birckmann to print Rupert's works and promised to oversee the edition. As demand grew, Cochlaeus and the Abbot of Deutz gathered more volumes of Rupert's writings from various sources. Rupert of Deutz influenced theologians and thinkers in the medieval period and particularly within the Benedictine tradition. His writings were widely read and respected during his time and in the centuries that followed. Adams R-935.Graesse VI, 193.BM STC German, 1455-1600, P. 762.

(London), Journal of Physiology, 1902. Offprint from the Journal of Pysiology. Vol. XXVIII. No. 5, 1902. Pp. (325-) 353, 17 textfigs. Small staples in inner margin, also sewn. A very small stain in lower blank margin. First edition of the scarce offprint of the paper that fully described the discovery of the first hormone, a milestone in the history of physiology and medicine. The discovery was announced in the Proccedings of the Royal Society in Janauary 1902, on 2 pages. The offered item constitutes the first printing of the paper in full, in which the authors described their milestone discovery, which introduced an entirely new field in physiology and medicine, namely the discovery of the FIRST HORMONE, which they named "Secretin". A few years later Sterling coined the word 'hormone' (1905) from the Greek 'hormon', meaning to exite or set into motion. Up until Baylis' and Starlings' discovery, it was thought that the glands, here specifically the pancreas, were controlled by the nerves (e.g. Pavlov and others), but Bayliss and Sterling discovered that the intestine was in fact signaling the pancreas, thereby presenting a COMPLETELY NEW MECHANISM involving a new kind of body or substance functioning as a chemical messenger. "If nerves are the sprinters of biology, Bayliss & Starling had discovered the marathon runners. In doing so, they also founded the science of hormones, called endocrinology" (Alan Lightman "The Discoveries", p. 34 ff). "With the discovery of hormones, Bayliss & Starling had found the internal command and control centers - and in this, their discovery was much larger than a new communication system. The mechanism of response and control was chemical: atoms and molecules. Now, with hormones, there was a mechanism for a living thing to regulate itself. Furthermore, with hormones, an organism could not only be studied, but also controlled from the outside... Never had the living body come closer to a machine, a self-regulating machine governed not only by physics, but also by chemistry. And not only a machine, but a machine that we humans could willfully control. At the start of the new century, we still have not come to terms with the implications of this idea." (Alan Lightman).Parkinson "Breakthroughs", 1902 B. - Leicester "Source Book in Chemistry 1900-1950", pp. 312-13.

(Paris), 1959. 4to. No wrappers. Fine and clean. The paper: Pp. 1721-22. Entire issue offered pp.: (1597)-1732. First printing of the seminal paper that first described the cause of Down's Syndrome, trisomy-21, or the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21. "Currently, Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common birth defects, affecting about one in every 750 live births. John Langdon Down first described this condition in the medical literature in 1866, documenting the various symptoms associated with the syndrome but failing to determine their cause. In fact, the cause of DS remained unknown for nearly 100 years following Down's work. Then, in the 1950s [i.e. in the present paper], researchers finally determined the source of DS: the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21, a condition often referred to as trisomy 21.Since the discovery of trisomy 21, scientists have made great strides in Down syndrome research." (Clare O'Connor, in: Nature Education)."As previously mentioned, almost 100 years elapsed between Down's medical description of DS and the discovery of the cause of this condition. But why was this the case? It was certainly not for lack of trying. Many theories for the cause of DS were put forth in the century after Down's publication. Some physicians even made the key observation that older mothers had a higherfrequency of DS babies, and they postulated that the condition was caused by what they termed "uterine exhaustion." Gradually, researchers narrowed in on the real cause of DS: achromosomal abnormality. In fact, researchers now realize that older mothers have more babies with DS because the frequency of meiotic nondisjunction increases in women with age.The reason that cytologists in the early twentieth century failed to correctly diagnose DS is almost certainly due to technical limitations. Chromosome 21 is the smallest human chromosome, and procedures for examining human chromosomes were still being developed during the first part of the century. Many early cytologists had, in fact, studied chromosomes from DS patients, but none had been able to detect a supernumerary copy of chromosome 21. A breakthrough finally occurred in 1956, when Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan described a set of experimental conditions that allowed them to correctly identify the number of human chromosomes as 46. Within three years of the publication of this groundbreaking work, Jerome Lejeune in France and Patricia Jacobs in the United States were able to identify a supernumerary copy of chromosome 21 in karyotypes prepared from DS patients. Trisomy 21 is now accepted to be the major cause of DS, accounting for about 95% of cases." (Clare O'Connor, in: Nature Education).Garrison & Morton: 4962.5

London, printed for the Author, 1720. Small8vo. (115 x 80 mm) Bound in a contemporary full calf with three raised bands and gilt margins to front and back boards. Extremities with wear and hindges weak. Previous owner's names to end paper and verso of title-page. Authors name in contemporary hand (in Castaing's own hand?) to upper part title-page. Internally fine and clean. [Blank], 88 ff, [Blank]. (A-I*8, K-L*8). Scarce fourth edition of edition this earliest example of what came to found the London Stock Exchange, Castaing's famous pocket book for calculating interest. The book, which was advertised to be: "very exact, and convenient, not much bigger than a Spectacle-Case" quickly became immensely popular and was published in a total of nine editions. Despite of the many editions, all editions of the book are of the utmost scarcity, most likely due to the fact that it was intended to be a practical tool for merchants and bankers who daily had to look up interest rates, which will have caused the majority of the copies to be worn out. We have been able to locate another copy with Castaing's name in a similar handwriting which could suggest it is either by the author himself or the publisher. We have, however, not been able to have this confirmed. "This eighteenth-century version of Reuters, and its competitors were the sine qua non for the development of London into the major world financial center that it later became. For subsequent scholarly research,Castaing’s publication also has proven highly valuable. If one event can be said to mark the completion of England’s transformation, however, it is the development of London to the point where it eclipsedAmsterdam as an international financial center." (Lothian, Financial Integration over the Past Three Centuries).During the 17th century, stockbrokers were not allowed in the Royal Exchange due to their lack of manners. They had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity, such as Jonathan's Coffee-House. At that coffee house, in 1698, Casting began listing the prices of a few commodities, exchange rates as well as certain key provisions such as salt, coal, and paper. Originally, this list was not daily and was only published a few days of the week. This constitutes the earliest initiative of what later became the London Stock Exchange. (Goldsmiths' 6376 (1725 edition)); (Kress 2778 (1712 edition)). ESTC records 6 copies of this edition.

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