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

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

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

New Haven, Conn., J.D. & E.S. Dana, 1887. 8vo. Contemporary half calf. Gilt lettering to spine. A small stamp to top of title-page. In: "The American Journal of Science. Editors James D. and Edward S. Dana", Third series Vol. XXXIV (July to December, 1887). VIII,500 pp., textillustr. and 10 plates. (Entire volume offered). The joint paper: pp. 333-345 and textillustr. (Apparatus). A few faint brownspots to titlepage, otherwise clean and fine. First appearance of this classic paper which announced one of the most celebrated experiments in the history of physics and eventually led Einstein to his Relativity Theory.The experiment was expected to show the rate of the earth's movement through the ether; they looked in vain for a difference between the speed of light in the direction of the earth's motion around the sun and the direction perpendicular to it. The failure of this experiment was a serious blow to classical scientific theories because it cast doubts on the existance of the universal ether which had been a basic principleof, for example, the Newtonian theories of the universe. (Vide PMM: 378, 401, 408).The paper appeared first in the "American Journal of Science" in November (as offered here), and was published a month later in "Philosophical Magazine" in a slightly modified form."Michelson, trained at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Morley, minister turned chemist, began a series of experiments to determine the relation of ether drift and the velocity of light, effects of extremely minute values. They used a slightly silvered glass set angular to a ray of sunlight so that a part ofthe ray was transmitted, a part reflected out and again returned, thereby providing two paths, one perpendicular to the other. If drift existed, the superimposed rays would produce interference. None was observed, showing that the earth's motion did not affect the light's speed. The negative result held revolutionary implications which led directly thru Lorentz and Einstein to the acceptance of new standards of reference of time and space from geometry and cosmometry."(Dibner)In 1919 Einstein met Michelson in California. At a dinner given in honor of them both, Einstein said in a speech "You (Michelson) uncovered an insidious defect in the ether theory of light, as it existed, and stimulated the ideas of H.A. Lorentz and Fitzgerald, out of which the Special Theory of Relativity developed. Without your work this theory would today be scarcely more than an interesting speculation..." In an interview in 1842 Einstein said: "It is no doubt that Michelson's experiment was of considerably influence upon my work insofar as it strengthened my conviction concerning the validity of the Principle of relativity...On the other side I was pretty much convinced of the validity of the principle before I did know this experiment and its result. In any case, Michelson's experiment removed practically any doubt about the validity of the principle in optics and showed that a profound change of the basic concepts of physics was inevitable."Michelson was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize "for his optical precision instrument (the inteferometer) and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations he has carried on."Dibner: Heralds of Science: 161 (lising the later version from "Philosophical Magazine") - Norman 1505.- Magee "A Source Book in Physics", pp. 369 ff. (the later paper).The volume contains another paper by Michelson and Morley "On a method of Making the Wave-lenght of Sodium Light the actual and practical Standard of Lenght", pp. 427-430.

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

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

Paris & Genève, Chez J.J. Paschoud, 1809. 8vo. Bound in three nice uniform cont. hcalfbdgs. w. gilt backs, red leather title-labels w. gilt lettering and gilt round green tome-labels on backs. Capitals w. a bit of wear. Internally nice and clean. W. half-titles in all three volumes and advertisement-leaf in vol. one. XIII, (1), 424, (5); (6), 395, (1); (4), 392 pp. First French edition of this political and economic classic, which constitutes Malthus' first major publication and his main work, because of which he is considered the father of demography and the main source of inspiration of Darwin and Wallace.The first edition was printed anonymously in London in 1798, and in 1803 the second edition, which also according to Malthus himself can be said to constitute a new work, appeared; -the great quarto edition from 1803 is thoroughly revised and much enlarged, the title has been changed and Malthus' name appears on the title-page, it is on this edition that all the preceding editions are based, and in consequence also the early translations. All the later editions were minor revisions of the second one. In 1807 the fourth edition appeared, and in 1809 the first French one, which is translated from the revised fourth edition ("A la suite de cette préface on trouve dans la 4.e édition, sur laquelle je traduis, une notice de tous les changements que la 3.e édition a apportés à la 2.e. Le plus considérable est celui qui a rapport à l'estimation de la fécondité des mariages. Il est absolument inutile pour les lecteurs francois de connoître le détail minutieux des autres changemens, qui ne peuvent intéresser que les acquéreurs des précédentes éditions. P.P.p", Préface, p. xxiij). New revisions of the text kept appearing till the sixth edition in 1826.The book, then as now, is considered highly controversial, and it has influenced all demographers ever since, as well as being of immense importance to the study of economic theory and genetic inheritance. "The "Essay" was highly influential in the progress of thought in the early nineteenth-century Europe.... "Parson" Malthus, as Cobbett dubbed him, was for many, a monster and his views were often grossly misinterpreted.... But his influence on social policy, whether for good or evil, was considerable. The Malthusian theory of population came at the right time to harden the existing feeling against the Poor Laws and Malthus was a leading spirit behind the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834." (PMM 251).Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), called the "enfant terrible" of the economists, was an English demographer, statistician and political economist, who is best known for his groundbreaking views on population growth, presented in his "Essays on the Principle of Population", which is based on his own prediction that population would outrun food supply, causing poverty and starvation. Among other things this caused the legislation, which lowered the population of the poor in England. Malthus actually turned political, economic and social thought upside down with this work, which has caused him to be considered one of the 100 most influential persons in history (Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the most Influential Persons in History, 1978). Of course, he was condemned by Marx and Engels, and opposed by the socialists universally, but the work was of immense impact on not only politics, economics, social sciences etc, but also on natural sciences. "Later in the "Origin of Species" he [Darwin] wrote that the struggle for existence "is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms; for in this case there can be no artificial increase of food, and no prudential restraint from marriage" [p. 63]. Alfred Russel Wallace, who arrived at a worked-out formulation of the theory of evolution at almost precisely the same time as Darwin, acknowledged that "perhaps the most important book I read was Malthus's "Principles of Population" (My Life, p. 232). Although there were four decennial censuses before Malthus' death, he did not himself analyze the data, although he did influence Lambert Quetelet and Pierre Verhulst, who made precise statistical studies on growth of populations in developed countries and showed how the early exponential growth changed to an S curve." (DSB, IX, p. 69).As Malthus realized that his theories were not satisfactorily presented or sufficiently demonstrated in the first edition from 1798, he travelled for three years through Europe gleaning statistics, and then published the second edition in 1803. Among other places he travelled through France and Switzerland in 1802, and his detailed diaries of these journeys provided him with some of the evidence necessary for the development of his theory on population growth. The observational information that he gathered on his travels in Europe were crucial to the development of his theories, which also means that the work is of great interest for other European countries, and not only Britain. "In 1819 the Royal Society elected Malthus to a fellowship. He was also a member of the French Institute and the Berlin Academy, and a founding member of the Statistical Society (1834)." (DSB, IX, p. 67). Printing and the Mind of Man 251

Venice, Joannem Herthz, 1744 - 1750. Folio (450 x 325 mm). Twelve parts uniformly bound in six contemporary Cambridge-style mirror binding with six raised bands and richly gilt spines. Bindings with considerably wear and damage (especially vol. 1, 4, 5 and 6) and are in general in need of restaurantion, alternatively new bindings. Internally occassionally affected by dampstains, but otherwise generally nice and clean. Text in Hebrew and Latin in columns. With numerous engravings and vignettes in text. See below for details and collations: Vol. 1 (part 1 & 2): Spine split, front board detached. Lower compartment with loss of leather. First quire detached. Half-title damaged in inner margin. engraved half-title chipped in inner margin, with a bit of loss. Dampstain to upper outer corner throughout, primarily affecting first 55 ff. Occassionally with dampstain to inner and lower margin. 22 ff., 530 columns, 8 ff., 842 columns + frontispiece.Vol. 2 (part 3 & 4): Wear to extremities. Head and foot of spine missing leather, showing headbands. Internally nice and clean. 10 ff., 740 columns, 6 ff., 820 columns, 4 ff.Vol. 3 (part 5 & 6): Wear to extremities. Head and foot of spine missing leather, showing headbands. Internally nice and clean. Vague dampstain to upper margin of first leaves. 10 ff., 1144 columns, 9 ff., 710 columns, 1 ff. + 9 maps and plates.Vol. 4 (part 7 & 8): Spine split. Head and foot of spine missing leather, showing headbands. Vague dampstain to upper margin. 6 ff. 5-730 columns, 11 ff., 736 columns + portrait and 1 map.Vol. 5 (part 9 & 10): Upper and lower part of spine missing leather. Front board detached from book block. Paper creased throughout from previous waterdamage. 5 ff.,1182 columns, 55 ff. 1120 columns + folede plate (with tear).Vol. 6 (part 11 & 12): Lower part of spine missing, upper part partly detached. Hindges weak. Dampstains to margin. 5 ff., 1132 columns, 6 ff. 1108 columns. First twelve parts of Ugolino’s monumental “Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum” - an encyclopedic collection focusing on the antiquities of the Hebrew people, presenting a detailed exposition of their customs, laws, institutions, and sacred rites. The work is notable for its exhaustive compilation of ancient sacred antiquities related to Jewish history, traditions, and culture and as a crucial resource for scholars studying ancient Jewish culture and religion for centuries. The first eight parts are divided into following themes:Part 1: Festivals Part 2 – 4: General Antiquities. Part 5 – 6: Geography. Part 7 – 12: Priests and temples. Not much is known about Ugolino other than he was an Italian polyhistor, born in Venice around 1700. He is stated to have been a Jewish convert and was certainly well acquainted with Talmudic literature. He is primarily known for the present work.

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

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

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

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

(New York), American physical Society, 1965. Lex8vo. In the original printed blue wrappers. In "Physical Review Letters", Volume 15, No. 17, November 15, 1965. Small white paperlabel pasted on to top to back wrapper. Small blue line in ballpoint pen to back wrapper, not affecting text. A nice and clean copy externally as well as internally. P. 689. [Entire issue: Pp. 687-720]. Rare first appearance of Hawking's first published paper, published a year before his Ph.D. was approved. It signposted the beginning of the area of research in black holes and singularities in general. Shortly after the present paper was published, Hawking followed up with three other seminal papers, in which he applied the Penrose-singularity (that a gravitationally collapsing star will inevitably end in a space-time singularity) to the whole universe. This resulted in his famous conclusion that: "Yes, a universe governed by the classical (i.e., nonquantum) general theory of relativity must necessarily have started in a space-time singularity" (Kragh, Cosmology and Controversy).When Hawking began his graduate studies, there was much debate in the physics community about the prevailing theories of the creation of the universe: the Big Bang and Steady State theories. Inspired by Roger Penrose's theorem of a spacetime singularity in the centre of black holes, Hawking applied the same thinking to the entire universe and during 1965, he wrote his thesis and the present paper on this topic. "Hawking [in the present paper] realized that closed trapped surfaces, in its past version, will be present in any expanding Universe close to be spatially homogeneous and isotropic. This started a series of papers by him, Ellis, Geroch and others on the question of the inevitability of an initial singularity in our past if GR is assumed to hold and some reasonable conditions are met." (Senovilla, The 1965 Penrose singularity theorem)

Hamburg, Excud. Iac. Wolffius, impens Paulus Brachfeldus, 1591. 4to. Senere halvpergament med mønstret papir over permerne. Professionelt restaurerede revner ved de først to blade, intet tab. Titelblad jævnt brunet, ellers blot en smule lettere brunpletning i margin af nogle blade. (28), 176, (7) pp. Pp. (76)-(77) udgør den kobberstukne planche (lidt tæt beskåret ved marginerne), der afbilder Jellingstenen. Tre store træskårne illustrationer i teksten. Træskårne initialer og vignetter. 4to. Later nice half vellum vith patterned paper over boards. Neatly repaired tear to first two leaves, no loss. Title-page evenly browned, otherwise only a bit of occasional minor marginal brownspotting. (28), 176, (7) pp. Pp. (76)-(77) constituting an engraved plate (a bit shaved at margins). Three large woodcut illustrations (ab. 1/2-page) in the text. Woodcut initials and vignettes. The exceedingly rare first edition of the work in which we find the first depiction of the Jelling Stone, also known as "Denmark's birth certificate", and its famous rune inscription for the first time in print. The work is of exceptional importance to Danish history and specifically important to our current knowledge of the Jelling Stone and where it was placed. The Jelling stone is a massive carved runestone from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. It was raised by King Gorm's son, Harald Bluetooth in memory of his parents, celebrating his conquest of Denmark and Norway, and his conversion of the Danes to Christianity. The runic inscriptions on these stones are considered the best known in Denmark and are of the utmost importance to the history of the country. The seminal Jelling Stone is often called "Denmark's birth certificate", because Denmark is named in the inscription and also because the stone is a clear material proof of the change in religion - from paganism to Christianity. Furthermore, it is strongly identified with the creation of Denmark as a nation state. The inscription translates thus: "King Harald ordered these kumbls made in memory of Gorm, his father, and in memory of Thyra, his mother; that Harald who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian". Not in Brunet ; Graesse: IV:218 (note); Adams: 731 (erroneously lists three plates).DANSK BESKRIVELSE:Den yderst sjældne originaludgave af dette værk om "De mærværdige Begivenheder, som har fundet Sted i Europa mellem 1586 og 91", i hvilket vi finder den første afbildning af Jellingstenen samt sammes indskrift for første gang på tryk. Værket er således af største betydning for dansk historie og endog af konkret betydning for vor nuværende viden om Jellingstenen og dens placering."1586 endelig blev Jællinge-Runestenene en almindeligere Gjenstand for bevarende og undersøgende Opmærksomhed, hvilket baade var en Frugt af de tidligere Bestræbelser, - der dog ganske vist ikke havde indskrænket sig til blot ovenstaande, som er det nu derom bekjendte - og en Opfordring til mere, og navnlig blev det Anledningen til, at der skete en god Begyndelse med at føre vore Runestenes Indskrifter ind i Litteraturen. Det var Lensmanden paa Koldinghus , den navnkundige Kaspar Markdanner, der har den Fortjeneste at have ført Jællinge-Stenene frem af set Skjul, hvori de, om ikke saa lige glemte, vare hensunkne. Ifølge en i Jællinge Kirke indsat Tavle lod han 1586 den store Runesten "opgrave paa Kirkegaarden" og opsætte. Den mindre Sten nævnes just ej ved den Lejlighed med Hensyn til, hvad Markdanner lod foretage, men Grunden er vistnok, at den ikke var större eller tungere, end at den ikke ved sin egen Vægt kunne være dybt sunket i Jorden, og at den til samme tid har tildraget sig Opmærksomhed. I nogle endnu bevarede samtidige Optegnelser af Ar. Huitfeldt kaldes den, i det dens Indskrift der er blevet optaget, "Stenen ved Kirkedören", og begge Indskrifter, baade den store Stens og den "in parvi lapide", blev strax meddlete i et Skrift, som paa den lærde Henr. Rantzaus Foranstaltning blev udgivet 1591 af P. Lindeborg, angaaende de mærkelige Begivenheder, der havde fundet Sted i Europa 1586-91. Der er forsøgt en Fortolkning af Indskrifterne, og der er tilföjet en vel udført Afbaldning af Höjene med Kirken og Omgivelserne i det hele. Denne er endnu ikke uden Værd, da den viser os en Udstyrelse med omgivende Stene, som tidenikke har bevaret, og navnlig ovenpaa den mindre Höj en meget stor Sten, som udtrykkelig siges ikke at være synderlig mindre end den store Indskrift-Sten... Lindeberg indførte ogsaa ovennævnte Afbildning af Jællinge-Stenene med de nødvendigste didhørende Oplysninger i et Skrift, som han kaldte "Hypotyposisarcium, palatiorum... - dog ikke i sammes 1. Udgave 1591, men da det anden Gang blev trykt..." (P. G. Thorsen, De danske Runemindesmærker, 1864, Bd. 1, pp. 30-32).Ikke nævnt i Thesaurus, som fejlagtigt hævder, at den første afbildning af Jellingstenen forekommer i andenudgaven af samme forfatters "Hypotyposis" fra 1592 (se Thesaurus 216).

Wien & Leipzig, Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1929. 8vo. In the original printed wrappers. Very light wear to extremities. First and last leaf with light brownspotting. A very fine and clean copy. XII, (1)-147, (1), [Blank] pp. First edition of Hayek's first book, famously stating that there is a business cycle and that it is caused by the organization of the monetary system - it was later to be known as the Austrian Business Cycle. The present work established Hayek's ideological position within the economic community and laid the foundation for his future career. Here, he wrote of the necessity of the trade cycle and that all economic phenomena present that regular wave-like appearance that we observe in cyclical fluctuations. "For Hayek, the cycle was a virtually unavoidable consequence of a credit economy"; "Hayek's fundamental point is that the business cycle is an unfortunate but unavoidable concomitant of a credit economy". (Bruce Caldwell, Hayek's Collected Works).Hayek's principal investigations in economics concerned capital, money and the business cycle. Ludwig von Mises had earlier applied the concept of marginal utility to the value of money in his Theory of Money and Credit (1912) in which he also proposed an explanation for "industrial fluctuations" based on the ideas of the old British Currency School and of Swedish economist Knut Wicksell. Hayek used this body of work as a starting point for his own interpretation of the business cycle, elaborating what later became known as the Austrian theory of the business cycle.This work was translated into English in 1933 as Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle. In 1974 Hayek shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with Gunnar Myrdal.Masui p.1277 Cohen 184

Tokyo, Kaizosha, 1927-1928. Small4to. 5 volumes all in publisher's original full red cloth with gilt lettering to spine, all five volumes house the original slipcases. Free end-papers browned and only very light sporadic brownspots throughout. A very fine and clean copy. Rare first complete Japanese translation of Marx's 'Das Kapital'. In response to the Russian October Revolution young Marxists produced in rapid succession partial translations of Marx's works and secondary accounts of the same. Japanese translations of Marx's works were comparatively late compared to those in Europe. Japanse translations, however, did exercise a great influence in Asia and especially in China where several of the early translations were made from the Japanese. "Similarly, Takabatake Motoyuki, the first to produce a complete Japanese translation of the three volumes of 'Capital', created a system of Marxist national socialism. Asserting the "Marxism was originally statism", Takabatake cited Thomas Hobbes and other western state theorists to support the notion that the state preceded class society and would not wither away after a proletarian revolution. To guard against external threats and to organize economic activity at home - against the possibility of proletarian imperialism on the part of Soviet Russia, for eksample - a socialist Japan would require a powerful state" (Hoston, Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan).

(Unsigned, and no date, but penned between 1746 and 1751). 1 leaf 4to (25,5 x 19 cm), off-white paper in fine condition. Penned on both recto (21 lines) and verso (6 lines) in columns taking up half the pages. This magnificent manuscript leaf in Rousseau's hand constitutes notes taken from the seminal work of Dionysos Halicarnassos, on the foundation of Rome, more particularly on the story of Rome herself, the alleged mother of Romulus and Remus and how they named the city after their mother. This manuscript leaf is part of a grandiose project that Rousseau was working on with his employer Madame Dupin during his years as her secretary. The project was that of writing the history of womankind. With its focus on gender equality, the work is nothing less than pioneering and would no doubt have been a work of seminal importance in the history of feminism and women's rights, had it ever been published. The manuscript ended up comprising more than 2.000 pages, but was never printed. Louise Marie Madeline Fontaine Dupin (1706-1799) was one of the most famous salonnieres of the 18th century, renowned for the beauty as well as her intelligence. Rousseu met her in 1743 and took an instant liking to her. In 1745, she offered him the position as her private secretary and tutor to her son. During his six years in her employment, he spent most of the time working on the grandiose project of the history of women, until it was abandoned in 1751. "In the years between 1745 and 1749 Jean Jacques Rousseau was employed by Louise Marie Madeline Dupin as a research assistant on her ambitious project to delineate in print the history of women. After years of labor by Rousseau and Madame Dupin her "Ouvrage sur les Femmes" was shelved, unfinished. The research notes, drafts, and fair copies written by Rousseau and his employer were stored at the chateau of Chenonceaux, essentially forgotten, until their sale at a series of auctions held between 1951 and 1958." (Harry Ranson Center, University of Texas)

London, C. Davis and A. Lyon, 1733. 8vo. Lovely contemporary full Cambridge-style binding with five raised bands to spine and blindstamped ornamental borders to boards. . Double gilt line-borders to boards. All edges of boards with gilt borders. Gilt title to spine. Hinges neatly and professionally re-inforced. Internally very nice, clean, and fresh. A lovely, crisp, and large copy with good margins, printed on heavy, fine paper. (16, -including preface, contents, advertisements), 253, (1), (18, -Index) pp. The important actual first edition of this highly celebrated key work of the Enlightenment, in which the anecdote of how Newton discovered gravity (the story about Newton and the falling apple) appeared for the first time, together with the description of the difference between the physical world view of the English and the French (the "plenum" and the "vacuum"). This seminal work, in which Voltaire famously depicts British philosophy, science, society and culture, in comparison to French, can be viewed as the Enlightenment equivalent to Tocqueville's "Democracy in America". This series of essays, which is based on Voltaire's experiences when living in England, was actually written by Voltaire mostly in English, which he mastered to perfection. It has often been presumed that the first edition of the work was that published in French in 1734, but actually, the present English edition constitutes the actual first appearance of the work as well as the version that is closest to Voltaire's intention, as the French language version is the re-written one, and the English version the original. Curiously, almost all modern English versions are translations into English of the French edition, instead of the original English version, making this edition of the utmost importance.After the original English edition of 1733, two French editions soon followed (the first in 1734). Unlike the British, the French resented the book, and already in 1734, the French Parliament issued an order for the author's arrest and condemned the work, causing the impact of it in France to be delayed. The book was burned for being "dangerous to religion and civil order". At the same time, the work became a bestseller in Britain, and as much as 14 editions of the work were published in the eighteenth century. "Inspired by Voltaire's two-year stay in England (1726-8), this is one of the key works of the Enlightenment. Exactly contemporary with Gulliver's Travels and The Beggar's Opera, Voltaire's controversial pronouncements on politics, philosophy, religion, and literature have placed the Letters among the great Augustan satires. Voltaire wrote most of the book in English, in which he was fluent and witty, and it fast became a bestseller in Britain. He re-wrote it in French as the Lettres philosophiques, and current editions in English translate his French." (Nicholas Cronk, Introduction to the Oxford's Classics edition from 1999).The great French philosopher Voltaire was greatly impressed by the philosophical and scientific achievements of the English, especially those of Newton, Locke, and Bacon. As a disseminator of scientific knowledge, Voltaire came to play a great rôle in the popularization of Newtonian science and its discoveries, the present work being a prime example. Although the work was condemned by the French authorities, it still came to play a great rôle in the spreading of Newtonian ideas in France. The present work generally came to play a dominant rôle in Enlightenment accounts of the history of science and philosophy. The work focuses on British science and thought and uses the accounts of these to emphasize what is lacking in French society and French thought. The work is generally very critical towards the French "ancient régime", and when Voltaire here discusses the emergence of empiricism, it is viewed as an English tradition that stands in opposition to the French rationalist tradition (with Descartes as the prime example). This view is taken over by the following Enlightenment historians of science and philosophy, e.g. d'Alembert (see for instance his "Preliminary Discourse" of 1751). Some of the most influential passages of the work are probably those on Bacon (who Voltaire sees as the founder of modern experimental science), Newton, and Descartes. Letters XIV, on Descartes and Newton, XV, on attraction, and XVI, on Newton's Optics (from 1704), are among the most influential essays of the work. In XVI Voltaire reflects upon Newton's "Optics" and the way that he rejected Descartes' theory and set out his own account of the properties of light. In XV he presents the first account of Newton and the falling apple: "As he was walking one Day in his Garden, and saw some Fruits fall from a Tree, he fell into profound Meditation on that Gravity, the Cause of which had so long been sought, but in vain, by all the Philosophers, whilst the Vulgar think there is nothing mysterious in it. He said to himself, that from what height soever, in our Hemisphere, those Bodies might descend, their Fall wou'd certainly be in the Progression discover'd by Galileo; and the Spaces they run thro' would be as the Square of the Times. Why may not this Power which causes heavy Bodies to descend, and is the fame without any sensible Diminution at the remotest Distance from the Center of the Earth, or on the Summits of the highest Mountains; Why, said Sir Isaac, may not this Power extend as high as the Moon?..." (pp. 127-28).But perhaps the most famous passage in the volume is the opening of Letter XIV: "A Frenchman who arrives in London, will find Philosophy, like every Thing else, very much chang'd there. He had left the World a "plenum", and he now finds it a "vacuum". At Paris the Universe is seen, compos'd of Vortices of subtile Matter; but nothing like it is seen in London. In France, 'tis the Pressure of the Moon that causes the Tides; but in England 'tis the Sea that gravitates towards the Moon; so that when you think that the Moon should make it Flood with us, those Gentlemen fancy it should be Ebb, which, very unluckily, cannot be prov'd..." (pp. 109-10).

Paris, Didot le jeune, 1773. Large 12mo (167 x 98 mm). In a nice contemporary full mottled calf binding with five raised bands. Spine richly gilt. Boards with gilt frame and edges of boards gilt. Occassional very light browning and a very vague damp-stain in lower outer corner affecting some pages. An overall very nice copy. XXIV, 248, (4) First edition of Parmentier's groundbreaking work that revolutionized the understanding of potatoes and their biological and chemical properties. Published in 1773, Parmentier's work sheds light on the scientific aspects of potatoes, their nutritional value, and their potential to address food scarcity and malnutrition. Permentier aimed at dispelling myths about and prejudices against potatoes, which were considered as food for livestock and were largely neglected as a human food during that era. His discoveries eventually caused Louis XVI, the French Monarch to declare: “La France vous [Parmentier] remerciera un jour d’avoir trouvé le pain des pauvres” (i.e. France will thank you one day for having found the bread of the poor). Parmentier's work on potatoes was a significant scientific breakthrough. By applying principles of chemistry and experimental analysis, he revealed the rich nutritional content and potential health benefits of this versatile crop. Parmentier's experiments showcased the potato's high water content, carbohydrate content, and its impressive array of vitamins and minerals. He also explored the potato's medicinal properties, using it to treat various ailments such as dysentery and scurvy. The publication of "Examen Chymique des Pommes de Terre" had a profound impact on society. Parmentier's research highlighted the importance of potatoes as a sustainable food source capable of supporting large populations. In an era plagued by famine and general food shortages, Parmentier's findings played a vital role in combating hunger and malnutrition. His efforts to promote potatoes as a staple food contributed to their acceptance and eventual integration into European diets. Parmentier's book had a lasting legacy shaping the fields of botany and chemistry. His meticulous observations and experiments on potatoes laid the groundwork for further scientific studies into plant chemistry and nutrition. Parmentier's work inspired subsequent researchers to explore the chemical composition of various crops, ultimately expanding our understanding of the fundamental building blocks of life. Moreover, his promotion of potatoes as a reliable and nutritious food source has left an permanent mark on agricultural practices worldwide. Not in Vicaire, Cagle, or Oberlé.

Kiøbenhaffn, (Melchior Martzan og Salomon Sartor), (1632-) 1633. Folio. (37,5 x 24,5 cm.). Nær samtidigt hellæderbind over svært træ. De ægte bind markeret i blindtryk på ryggen. Permerne er begge forsynet med talrige mindre stifter med store hoveder i messing til beskyttelse af permerne ved opslag. 2 lukkestroppe med blanke messingbeslag hvor den lille klo på det ene er bortslidt. Bindet er antageligt fra sidste halvdel af 1600-tallet og ganske velbevaret. Blokken er noget løs, men heftesnorene, som er intakte skal fastgøres på permernes inderside, hvilket kræver noget lim og måske en fornyelse af forsatsbladene. Halvtitelblad, 2 deltitelblade. Kobberstukket titelblad, kobberstukket portræt af Christian IV. (24),353,226,157 blade (af 159 - sidste tekstblad og registerbladet mangler til Ny Testamente). Teksten med talrige træsnit. Halvtitelbladet, som næsten altid mangler, er løst og kantflosset. Et blad løs i heftningen. Enkelte blade i Fortalen med smårifter og lettere kantflossede. En del af de sidste blade i Ny Testamente med slid i ydre marginer. Enkelte blade kantforstærkede. Med talrige træsnit i teksten. Originaltrykket af den sidste af de danske foliobibler, trykt af den første kongelige bogtrykker Melchior Martzan og for 2. dels vedkommende af Salomon Sartor. De træskårne illustrationer er de samme som anvendtes i Frederik II's Bibel fra 1589. De 4 kobbere (portrættet og de 3 titelblade) er stukket af Simon de Pas.The scarce first edition og the last (the third) of the Danish folio-bibles, known as "Christian IV's Bible", being a slightly revised edition of the Bible of 1589.Bibl. Dan.I,9 - Thesaurus II, 378. - Birkelund, 41. - Darlow and Moule, 3160.

Kiøbenhavn (i.e. Copenhagen), Ernst Henrich Berling, 1746-49. Folio (485 x 325 mm). Uniformly bound in two beautiful contemporary Cambridge-style mirror bindings with eight raised bands and gilt lettering and ornamentation to front board. Spine with repairs. Wear to extremities, scratches to boards and spine, corners bumped and front hinge on both volumes weak. Edges of boards with some loss of leather. Ex-libris (Einar Christiansen, renowned Danish book collector) pasted on to pasted down front end-paper in both volumes. First 50 ff. (all text leaves) with dampstain to upper half of leaves. Otherwise internally nice and clean. Engraved frontispiece, (10), 96 pp. + 120 engraved plates pp; (2), 267 pp. + 161 engraved plates. Fully complete with the engraved frontispiece and all 281 full-page engraved plates (a few folded) of prospects, designs and drawings. First edition of the only extensive Danish work of architecture, a Baroque masterpiece that is of great international importance.No-one has done as much for the understanding of Danish architectural heritage and building construction as Lauritz de Thura (1706-1759), one of the most important Danish architects ever to have lived. His magnificent magnum opus is not only of national importance but is also internationally significant, as much of his inspiration came from his travels abroad. He is responsible for bringing the Baroque style to Denmark, where he let it flourish for longer than it did in other countries. He kept developing it, in spite of the fact that it was losing terrain to the new rococo style that so quickly became so popular; also therefore, his great work constitutes one of the most important sources of Baroque style. In 1735, Thura received a royal grant that enabled him to travel around both Denmark and Europe to collect the necessary information for writing the most comprehensive work on architecture in Denmark. It took him more than a decade to gather all the information necessary for the monumental work, and finally, in 1746, he could publish the first part of the work, with the second following in 1749. The work contains 281 drawings, measurements, designs and prospects of Danish buildings, including, of course, the royal castles.Biblioteca Danica II, 602Graesse VII, 153 Brunet V, 851Katalog over Ejnar Christiansens efterladte bogsamling, no. 477 ("beautiful copy").

Copenhagen, Joachim Schmitgen, 1709. Folio (398 x 260 mm). In a magnificent full brown morrocco binding with five raised bands, richly gilt spines, elaborate gilt borders to boards, inner gilt dentelles, gilt capitals and gilt ornamentation to edges of boards. All edges gilt. Binding signed by Anker Kyster. Sunning to spine and a few scratches to boards. A very nice wide margined copy. (10), 112, (11), (2), 36, (29) pp. + 7 large folded plates (including the frontispiece). Plates numbered A-F, by Andreas Reinhardt after Gottfrid Fuchs. The frontispiece was drawn by J.S. Ebert. Five of the plates bear dates, which range from 1704 to 1707. The frontispiece and plate C incorporate a portrait of Gyldenlöve. Plate A shows the casket being taken off an illuminated ship at night. Plate B, the procession through Copenhagen (4 joined sheets, 1850 mm). Plate C, closely trimmed with professional repair to inner margin, shows the laying in-state, Plate D (3 joined sheets 1470 mm) shows the funeral ceremony with the catafalque. Plate E (3 joined sheets, 1600 mm), shows the procession leaving the church with the casket. Plate F, closely trimmed with minor loss of text, shows the casket. The very scarce first appearance of one the most magnificent of all funeral books and one of the finest examples of Danish book production in general. In a grandiose baroque-style, the work documents the funeral procession of King Christian V’s young son Christian Gyldenløve’s, Count of Samsø. The procession through Copenhagen and final burial in Church of Our Lady took place in the evening, which is why the plates were printed in dark tones. Christian Gyldenløve, Count of Samsø (1674-1703), was a Danish nobleman and military officer. He was the illegitimate son of King Christian V of Denmark and his mistress Sophie Amalie Moth. Christian Gyldenløve was born on November 28, 1674, in Copenhagen, Denmark.Gyldenløve had a military career and achieved the rank of colonel. He participated in various military campaigns and battles, including the Scanian War (1675-1679) against Sweden. He commanded his own regiment and gained a reputation as a skilled and brave officer.In addition to his military duties, Christian Gyldenløve held several noble titles. In 1698, he was appointed Count of Samsø, which is a Danish island located in the Kattegat Sea. He also held the title of Lord of Rosenborg. Tragically, Christian Gyldenløve's life was cut short at the age of 28. He died on July 16, 1703, during the Battle of Thorn (modern-day Torun) in Poland, while fighting in the service of the Polish king against the Swedish forces. His premature death was a source of sorrow for his family and the Danish court to which this lavishly printed book is a testament to. The work was printed in 275 copies. Dansk Boghåndværk gennem Tiderne 75. Bibliotheca Wegeneriana 2189

Paris, Impremerie du depot des lois, An II (1793). 4to. In contemporary half calf with gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine. Wear to extremities. Upper part of back hinge split, with minor loss of letters. Small dampstain to upper inner margin, otherwise a nice copy. (2), VII, (2)-116, 100, 8 pp. Exceedingly rare first edition of this highly interesting document being the Code of the Committees of Surveillance containing 106 regulations and guidelines for the functioning of these committees during the French Revolution. The Committees of Surveillance were established during the Reign of Terror (September 5, 1793 - July 27, 1794), as part of the revolutionary government's efforts to identify and suppress counter-revolutionary activities. These committees were tasked with monitoring individuals' behavior, enforcing revolutionary laws and ensuring loyalty to the revolutionary government. The document outlines the powers, duties, and procedures of these committees, as well as the penalties for those found to be opposing the revolution, providing a unique and fascinating insight into the legal and administrative framework of revolutionary France – arguable one of the most profound and radical moments in modern European history. The Committee of Surveillance in France during 1793 was established as a part of the radical phase of the French Revolution. Its function was to oversee and monitor the activities of suspected counter-revolutionaries and enemies of the Revolution, as well as to enforce laws related to internal security and revolutionary principles. The committee was tasked with identifying individuals or groups deemed to be a threat to the revolutionary government, often leading to arrests, interrogations, and, in some cases, executions by the Revolutionary Tribunal. It played a significant role in the Reign of Terror, a period marked by extreme political violence and repression in France. The present work is of the utmost scarcity. We have not been able to trace a single copy at auction, and OCLC only lists one copy (in Paris). Nadaillac, Catalogue d’une Collection Importante Sur la Revolution Francaise 724

Paris, Buisson, (1796/97) - An Cinquième De La République. 8vo. Very nice contemporary half calf with gilt spine. Minor, barely noticeable repair to upper capital and slight bumping to corners. A very nice and clean copy, with only very minor brownspotting. Printed on good paper. With the half-title (bearing the "Décret concernant les Contrefacteurs" on verso). Book plate of Guy de Portuales to inside of front board. (4), 411, (1) pp. The very rare first edition of Diderot's famous novel, "The Nun", which was actually begun as an elaborate practical joke, but which ended up as one of the most famous novels of the period. A great succes-de-scandale, "The Nun" has both fascinated and unsettled the vast reading public since its first appearance. It started out as a series of letters from a fictitious character, the nun Suzanne, to one of Diderot's friends, the Marquis de Crosmare (who Diderot was trying to lure back to Paris), describing her intolerable life in the convent and imploring him to help regain her freedom and her renounce her vows. The fictitious letters were later revised and written in to the novel that we know today. The work was completed in ab. 1780 and was published posthumously in 1796/97, attracting enormous attention and bringing to light a number of issues that had not previously been publically addressed. It focuses on the then-current practice of forcing young women into convents in order to get them out of the way, on the unnatural life of the convents, and on the corruption in religious institutions and among the clergy. As such, it caused an outrage when it appeared and and became an instant succes-de-scandale. "A novel mingling mysticism, madness, sadistic cruelty and nascent sexuality, it gives a scathing insight into the effects of forced vocations and the unnatural life of the convent. A succes de scandale at the end of the eighteenth century, it has attracted and unsettled readers ever since. For Diderot's novel is not simply a story of a young girl with a bad habit; it is also a powerfully emblematic fable about oppression and intolerance. This new translation includes Diderot's all-important prefatory material, which he placed, disconcertingly, at the end of the novel, and which turns what otherwise seems like an exercise in realism into what is now regarded as a masterpiece of proto-modernist fiction." (From the Oxford University Press edition, 2005). Tchemerzine IV:471

S.-Peterburg, Typografiya M.M. Ctasiulevitsa, 1882. 8vo. Bound in an elegant recent red half calf binding, in pastiche, with five raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. Heavily underlined thoughout in blue and red. Title-page repaired at inner hinge, far from affecting text. No stamps. (4), 312 pp. The exceedingly scarce first edition of this landmark work of Russian economics, being Vorontsov's seminal pre-revolutionary book "The Fate of Capitalism in Russia", which constitutes, not only the first serious attempt at analyzing Russian capitalism, but also one of the earliest (and the first Russian) theoretical statements of the assumption of economic development along non-capitalist lines. Vorontsov, together with Danielson - who was greatly inspired by the present work - is considered the major exponent of Narodnik (and pre-revolutionary) economics, of which the present work is essentially the epitome. "In the 1880's, after the revolutionaries had clearly abandoned their indifferences to political forms, legal Populism became a distinctly separate movement with its own ideology. The common denominator linking the often very different members of this movement was the postulate of noncapitalist industrialization to be initiated and directed by the state, which would safeguard the interests of the small producers. The leading and most characteristic representative of this trend was V. P. Vorontsov (1847 - 1918). His book [the present] was the first ambitious attempt to analyze the specific features of Russian capitalism; at the same time, it was an original statement of the theoretical assumptions of economic development along noncapitalist lines." (Walicki, A History of Russian Thought)Vorontsov argues that that Russia's lack of an adequate internal market and the continued vitality of the peasant commune in Russia precluded any possibility that capitalism could ever supplant the agrarian economy that existed there; the process of industrialization had been initiated in Russia but the backwardness compared to the rest of Europe meant that the industrialized mode of production would be kept in Europe, meaning Russia would have to import instead of export goods and thereby be kept on a comparatively low industrialization level due to the lack of internal market. Vorontsov, however, saw this as a not necessarily negative development. He wrote: "The countries which are latecomers to the avenue of history have a great privilege in comparison with their foregoers, a privilege consisting in the fact that the accumulated historical experience of other countries enables them to work out a relatively true image of their next step and to strive for what others have already achieved not instinctively but consciously, not groping in the dark but knowing what should be avoided on the way." [From the present work].Vorontsov was one of the first Russian economists to study the works of Karl Marx, the historical materialism of whom he was strongly influenced by. Vorontsov, inspired by Marx, maintained that crises are caused by production of surplus value, which becomes the real purpose of the economy under capitalist relations. The "problem of the home market" and the excess of production over consumption are manifestations of the fact that the capitalist class is not in a position to consume the entire surplus value produced. Vorontsov had therefore worked out a Marxist version of the underconsumption approach, which converged with the one first introduced by Malthus: Crises emanate from "over-saving," or, in Marxist terms, from the inability of the capitalists to consume surplus value."The views of the other Marxist theoreticians of the Narodnik current, first and foremost Nikolai Danielson, who in 1891 presented his theses in comprehensive form in his "Outlines of our Social Economy after the Reform" converged with the basic conclusions of Vorontsov's analysis: inability of the economy to absorb the product generated owing to capitalism's inherent tendency to increase production beyond society's ability to consume. Within this framework, Danielson is nevertheless to be distinguished from Vorontsov as regards the factors that cause underconsumption: contraction in the purchasing power of the popular masses (and not the inability of capitalists to consume the surplus value)." (MILIOS, Tugan-Baranowsky and Effective Demand)The present work had a profound influence upon the Narodnik movement and is considered the movements economic background. It is commonly rendered as "populism" or "peopleism", an ideology which took "peasant collectivism as a vehicle for non-capitalist development in Russia. The Narodnik movement developed along two paths: The intellectual, media based approach (The most influential and to which Vorontsov belonged) and the revolutionary agitation against the Tsardom. Though their movement achieved little in its own time, the Narodniks were in many ways the intellectual and political forebearers of the socialist revolutionaries, who went on to greatly influence Russian history in the 20th century.