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(Luxembourg), Jacques le Sincere (and later:) Andre Chevalier, 1704 - 1723. 8vo. Bound almost uniformly in 38 contemporary full calf bindings with five raised bands and richly gilt spines. Paper-label pasted on to top of spines and ex-libris pasted on to pasted down front end-papers. Light wear to extremities, boards with scratches, occassionally with loss of leather, and spines with light miscolouring and occassional loss of the gilt ornamentation. Vol. 1-18, 20-30, 32-38 and the 2 supplement volumes (both 1713). The exceedingly rare first edition of Luxembourg’s first newspaper, and periodical in general, which appeared for the first time in July 1704. It was then published monthly, without interruption, until July 1794. The early volumes of the journal are rarely found in trade and we have not been able to trace a single multiple-volume set with the supplement included. Behind the newspaper were initially the librarian, printer and journalist Claude Jordan (born around 1659) from Valence, and the printer André Chevalier (1660-1747), a Frenchman from Bourg-en-Bresse, who had a printing press in Luxembourg city. Jordan had previously published the Gazettes de Hollande in Leyden and Amsterdam. In 1704, the two joined forces to produce a newspaper from Luxembourg aimed at the Lorraine region (which was then independent of France) and the French market, following the model of the Gazettes de Hollande.

[Leipzig, 1930). 8vo. Stapled extract. Some flossing to inner margin, probably from when extracted, far from affecting text. Handwritten indication of the journal, from which it is extracted, in pencil, on top of first page. Pp. (349) - 360. The scarce first printing of this seminal paper, in which Gödel, the greatest logician since Aristotle, proves for the first time the compactness theorem, which is of the greatest importance to the development of model theory, as it provides a useful method for constructing models of any set of sentences that is finitely consistent. The compactness theorem is used by Gödel to derive a generalization of the completeness theorem. The present highly important and influential paper constitutes a revised and shortened version of Gödel's doctorial dissertation, published the same year, in which he showed that every valid formula of first-order logic is provable and, moreover that each axiom of first-order logic is independent (the first of which is referred to as Gödel's completeness theorem). In this journal version he, in addition to that proved in the dissertation, also proved his highly influential compactness theorem (which states that a set of first-order sentences has a model if and only if every finite subset of it has a model). "G settled the [problem] of completeness (positively) in the summer and wrote up the result as his dissertation, which was finished by July. A revised version was received by the editor of "Monatshefte" on 22 October and published 1930; a main addition was what is now known as "Compactness theorem". G received his doctoral degree on 6 February 1930. He presented his result in Menger's colloquium on 14 May and in Königsberg on 6 September 1930." (Wang, Reflections on Kurt Gödel). "The Compactness Theorem was extended to the case of uncountable vocabularies by Maltsev in 1936, from which the Upward Löwenheim-Skolem theorem immediately follows. The Compactness Theorem would become one of the main tools in the then fledgling subject of model theory." (SEP).From the library of the highly important Danish logician and philosopher Jørgen Jørgensen (1894-1969), who was an active collaborator with the logical positivists from the Vienna Circle. After Hans Hahn's death he became editor of the series of the Vienna Circle, the "Einheitswissenchaft" ("Unified Science"), and later he collaborated on the International Encyclopedia, to which he contributed with the essay "The Development of Logical Empiricism", 1951. Jørgensen is also widely recognized for his three volume work "Treatise of Formal Logic; Its Evolution and Main Branches, with its Relations to Mathematics and Philosophy", 1931.Apart from the paramount importance of the paper, it is also of the utmost rarity, as evidenced by the fact that it is neither present in the collection of Honeyman, Barchas, Haskell Norman, nor Hook & Norman: Origins of Cyberspace, and furthermore, the paper has not been up for sale on any of the major auction houses for at least the last 50 years.

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

(Wien, K.k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1877). 8vo. In the original orange-brown printed wrappers, uncut and unopened. Near mint. (16), 13, III pp + 1 folded lithographic plate by Schuma, after Freud. First edition, in the scarce offprint, of Freud's first publication, which documents the early beginnings of the scientific thought that came to found psychoanalysis. In 1873 Freud entered the University of Vienna to study medicine. He chose to study medicine, not because he wanted to be a practitioner, but because he wanted to study the human condition with scientific rigor. In his early career, he modeled himself on Ernst von Brücke. "He spent an increasing amount of time in Brücke's Physiological Institute from 1876 through 1882. His first studies were on the connection of a large nerve cell (Reissner's cell) that had been discovered in the spinal cord of a primitive genus of fish, and his observations made it possible to fit these cells into an evolutionary scheme." (D.S.B. V:172).In the background of this task - of studying this nerve cell of a primitive fish - lay a greater question; a question that arguably became formative for the greatest revolutionizer of the human mind, namely the question about the nervous system of higher animals - including human beings - differing in kind from the lower ones. "Freud's precise observation revealed that the presence of Reissner cells in the primitive spinal cord was because of the incomplete development of the embryonic neural tube to the periphery, and that this demonstrated an evolutionary continuity between the two. Having successfully solved this problem, he then continued his histological research on nerve cells, but also decided independently to work on crayfish... [h]e was beginning to show himself to be a creative scientist, heuristically positing a conception on the basis of empirical evidence, something that would reappear in his psychoanalytic method..." (Thomas Dalzell, "Freud's Schreber Between Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis...", p. 156). "Years later Freud found this evolutionary-anatomical parallel to his phychoanalytic findings of important didactic use in his "Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis." (Sulloway, "Freud, Biologist of the mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend", p. 268). "To this vast and exciting field of research [the composition of nerve cells and the question whether the nervous system of higher animals is made up of elements different from those of lower animals] belonged the very modest problem which Brücke put before Freud. In the spinal cord of the Amoecetes (Petromyzon), a genus of fish belonging to the primitive Cyclostomatae, Reissner had discovered a particular kind of cell. ... Brücke wished the histology of these cells clarified. After a few weeks Freud came to him with the quite unexpected discovery that non-myelinated fibres of the posterior (sensory) nerves originated in some of Reissner's cells. Other fibres, probably also sensory, coming from these cells passed behind the central canal to the opposite side of the spinal cord ... Brücke pressed for publication [and] presented the study at the Academy of Sciences meeting of january 4, 1877. It appeared in the January Bulletin of the Academy. It was the first paper of Freud's to be actually published, since the one on his first piece of research, on the eel, did not appear until 3 months later." (Jones, Life and Work, vol. I, pp. 51 - 53).

London, T. Bensley, for John Stockdale, 1810. Large folio-oblong. (44x58 cm.). Fine later full calf. 6 raised bands, richly gilt compartments. Titlelabel with gilt lettering. Broad gilt borders on covers. Engraved handcoloured frontispiece. (28),22 pp., 20 fine handcoloured engraved plates and 1 engraved handcoloured map. All plates with tissue-guards. Frontispiece with a repaired tear in lower left corner far from image. A closed tear in one plate, only marginal, not effecting image. A small piece of cornerpaper on one plate gone, far from image. Clean and fine. On heavy paper, and with broad margins. Second edition but in a contemporary HANDCOLOURING. Swinburne's "Travels through Spain" were issued in a quarto volume by Peter Elmsly of London in 1779, then reprinted in a pirate edition in Dublin the same year; a second edition in two octavo volumes came out in 1787. The title was then turned into a picturesque set of engravings entitled Views in Spain, from the drawings of Henry Swinburne (1794), in turn recycled as the Picturesque Tour through Spain in 1806, 1810 and 1823, with brief texts in French and English facing the plates followed by a 22-page abridged version of the Travels. These edition are normally published uncoloured.

Berlin, Hayn, 1851. 8vo. Uniformly bound in two uniform, contemporary - possibly original! - embossed full cloth bindings. Embossed lettering and ornamentation to spine. Spines and borders of boards slightly faded. Spines with repairs. Front free end-paper in vol. 2 with repair. Previous owner's label (Julius Kotrtsch) pasted on to lower margin of title-pages. Previous owner's name in contemporary hand to upper margin of title-pages. Verso of last leaf in vol. 2 annotated in pencil. Vol. 1 with light occasinal marginal browspotting. (6), 465, (1) pp.; IV, 531 pp. The scarce first edition of Schopenhauer's most influential work, his final masterpiece, which consists in his seminal philosophical reflections. The Parerga and Paralipomena was the first of his works to gain recognition and the work that propelled the then obscure figure into lasting philosophical prominence. Seeing that all of Schopenhauer's previous publications had been complete failures, it was only with great difficulty and reluctance that Hayn of Berlin was pesuaded to print the work, which they then only did in a small printrun of merely 750 copies, which now makes the first edition very difficult to find. The work is is two parts with the first "parerga"-part consisting in six extended essays intended as supplementary to the author's thought whereas the second "paralipomena"-part consists in shorter elaborations divided by topic into thirty-one subheadings that cover material hitherto unaddressed by Schopenhauer, but complementary to the "parerga". In spite of the poor reception of his earlier works, somehow, the “Parerga and Paralipomena attracted the attention of John Oxenford, a noted observer and translator of German literary culture, who contributed a favourable review of the work in 1852 and in 1853 wrote an article on Schopenhauer's philosophy entitled "Iconoclasm in German Philosophy", which, through its German translation in Vossische Zeitung sparked in immediate interest of Schopenhauer's work in Germany and propelled him into philosophical fame. “The effect was dramatic and almost overnight Schopenhauer in his own country passed from obscurity to fame and from then till his death in 1860he basked in the sunshine of belated recognition and eminence.” (Payne, in the Preface to his translation of Parerga and Paralipomena into English, Oxford, 2000p. xii) The work greatly influenced later philosophers, most notably Nietzsche, whose fondness of aphorism is directly inspired by “Parerga and Paralipomena”. “One of the most significant and fascinating works of the great philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). The Parerga (Volume 1) are six long essays; the Paralipomena (Volume 2) are shorter writings arranged under thirty-one different subject-headings. These works won widespread attention with their publication in 1851, helping to secure lasting international fame for Schopenhauer. Indeed, their intellectual vigor, literary power, and rich diversity are still extraordinary even today.” (Payne).

(Unsigned, and no date, but penned between 1746 and 1751). 1 leaf 4to (25,5 x 19 cm), off-white paper in fine condition. Fully penned on both recto (24 lines) and verso (5 lines). This magnificent manuscript leaf in Rousseau's hand constitutes notes on marriage rituals taken from "Rituel des Chartres", which was printed in Paris in 1531. 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, W. Bulmer & Co. for Peter Elmsley, 1800. 4to. In recent marbled paper wrappers. Extracted from "Philosophical Transactions", volume 90, part II. Including title-page of volume. Leaves reinforced in margin. Light offsetting from folding plate as usual. Plate trimmed with loss of right margin. (4), 403-431 pp. + folded plate. First edition of "the first announcement of the voltaic 'pile,' or electric battery" (Grolier/Horblit). It was a breakthrough in physics, and led to the development of electrotechnology and is today regarded as being one of the major milestones in the history of science. "The voltaic pile revolutionized the theory and practice of electricity, so that within one hundred years of Volta's invention, more progress was made than in the two thousand four hundred years between the tentative experience of Thales and the publication of Volta's letter addressed to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society ... The indispensability and ubiquity of electricity, in one form or another, in western civilization today emphasize sharply the fact that before 1800 human environment and existence were closer to life in ancient Egypt than to our own. Volta's invention is one of the earliest and most important causes of the change" (PMM)."The paper, in French, was sent by Volta to his friend Cavallo in London for communication to the Royal Society. In it Volta describes the pile of alternating dissimilar metals (silver and zinc) which, when moist, generated a flow of constant-current electricity. With this new force water was decomposed, metal was electro-deposited, the electro-magnet was created and the electrical age was begun."(Dibner Heralds of Science, no. 60).Horblit 37b Norman 2164 PMM 255Sparrow 168Dibner 60Barchas 2092

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

London, Printed for J. Johnson, by T. Bensley, 1803. Large 4to. Later brown hcalf w. four raised bands, single gilt lines and red leather title-label on back. First three and last 14 leaves a bit brownspotted, t-p. and last two leaves marginally repaired at hinge, otherwise a very nice, clean and solid copy. VIII, (4), 610 pp. The Great Quarto-edition, being the second edition of this first and most influential book on population. The work was first printed anonymously in 1798. This edition, though being the second, may be considered as a new work, which Malthus himself also claimed; -it is thoroughly revised and much enlarged (nearly four times the length of the original essay), the title has been changed (the title of the first is merely: "An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society with Remarks on the Speculation of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers"), and with this edition, Malthus does accept authorship of the work (by not publishing it anonymously). All the later editions were minor revisions of this second one. "In the course of this inquiry, I found that much more had been done, than I had been aware of, when I first published the essay. The poverty and misery arising from a too rapid increase of population, had been distinctly seen, and the most violent remedies proposed, so long ago as the times of Plato and Aristotle. And of late years, the subject had been treated in such a manner, by some of the French economists, occasionally by Montesquieu, and, among our own writers, by Dr. Franklin, Sir James Steuart, Mr. Arthur Young, and Mr. Townsend, as to create a natural surprise, that it had not excited more of the publick attention" (Preface to the second edition, p. IV). The controversial views, because of which the work became so influential, are most provocative and eyeopening in the second edition, in which he for instance for the first time advocates moral restraint (meaning sexual abstinence and late marriage) and elaborately explains his comparison between the increase of population and food. "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. For instance both Darwin and Wallace considered Malthus a main source in their development of the theory of natural selection, quoting him as being a great philosopher and his Essay on Population as being one of the most important books ever. "Malthus’s idea of man’s "Struggle for existence" had decisive influence on Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution. Other scientists related this idea to plants and animals which helped to define a piece of the evolutionary puzzle. This struggle for existence of all creatures is the catalyst by which natural selection produces the "survival of the fittest"... Thanks to Malthus, Darwin recognised the significance of intraspecies competition between populations of the same species (e.g. the lamb and the lamb), not just interspecies competition between species (e.g. the lion and the lamb). Malthusian population thinking also explained how an incipient species could become a full-blown species in a very short timeframe." (Wikipedia). The second edition must be considered the most important of all the editions. This is far more a work on the problems of over-population than it is a response to Godwin and Condorcet on their works (as is mainly the first edition). "Not so much shocked by his own conclusions, in his "Essay on Population" (first ed. 1798), as driven by a naturally inquiring mind, he travelled for three years through Europe gleaning statistics and then published a second edition (1803)." (Catlin, A History of the Political Philosophers, 1939, p. 377). Printing and the Mind of Man 251 (first edition).

London, Taylor and Francis, 1844. 8vo. In a nice later half morocco binding with five raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. Blind stamped to upper outer corner of first leaf of table of contents. In "The Annals and Magazine of Natural History", volume 14. A very fine and clean copy. [Darwin's paper] pp. pp. 241-251.. [Entire volume:] vii, [1] - 472 + 12 plates. First edition of Darwin's paper on flatworms collected by him during the Beagle voyage, one of the important early papers by Darwin on invertebrates originally intended for publication in The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle. This is Darwin's first publication on taxonomy: illustrated with a plate drawn by Darwin, it describes a new genus and 15 new species of flatworm. Extremely rare on the market."The paper on flatworms [...] was Darwin's first venture into taxonomy. In it, he described a new genus and 15 new species; most of the latter are still recognised as valid. He took a great deal of interest in these animals, making extensive notes on their morphology and behaviour" (Porter, Darwin's Sciences).Previously familiar only with marine species, Darwin was astounded to discover two new species of flatworm living on dry land in Brazil. He was intrigued by their close resemblance to snails, and evolutionary questions may well lie behind his strong interest in them. PROVENANCE: From the collection William Pickett Harris, Jr. (1897 - 1972) (pencil note on p. iii). American investment banker and biologist. Following a career in banking, Harris was appointed Associate Curator of the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan in 1928. "[Harris] played a highly important role in developing mammalogy and systematic collections of mammals at the University of Michigan" (Hooper p. 923).Freeman 1669

Lugduni (Lyon), Apud Matthiam Bonhomme, 1554 + 1555. Folio. Bound in one cont. worn full calf w. blindstamped title-label to back. Wormholes to lower front board and back. Capitals defect, lacking leather. Corners bumped, extremities worn, but bdg. tight. First t-p. in facsimile, otherwise complete. Last leaf of index of the second work w. repair to upper right corner, affecting a few letters. Internally very fine and clean, except for a later backstrip to the first and the second-last leaf. Numerous beautiful woodcut initials and vignettes. Woodcut portrait of Rondelet in both volumes, woodcut illustration to second t-p, in all about 430 woodcut illustrations of all aquatic animals, i.e. fish, marine mammals, arthropods, mollusks, riverine amphibians, beavers etc. Scarce first edition. This work is rarely seen complete, often index or illustration-leaves are missing. In Latin w. Greek text. The rare, influential first edition of this work of seminal character, likewise the first French work ever published on fish. A French edition was published, also in Lyon, in 1558. As professor of medicine and eager student of anatomy, G. Rondelet (1507 - 1566) was also the personal physician of Francois Cardand Tournon, whom he accompagnied on many trips to towns along the coast. Here he was able to make observations of interest to natural history, for example by studying whaling."Although he was active in several branches of biology, Rondelet's reputation effectively depends on his massive compendium on aquatic life, which covered far more species than any earlier work in that field. Despite its theoretical limitation, it laid the foundations for later ichthyological research and was the standard reference work for over a century." (D.S.B., XI:527).Rondelet was a very popular teacher (both of anatomy and zoology), who had a great deal of influence on his students, among whom we find the two great zoologists Aldrovandi and Gesner.This his work on aquatic life is without doubt his main work, the work for which he claimed so great fame and because of which he is now referred to as "the grandfather of modern ichthyology" (Wood, p. 541).This work was groundbreaking in many ways, as it first of all went beyond Aristotle, and actually proved him wrong. Rondelet applies the device of observing the animals themselves, and his great anatomical knowledge enables him to present the world with entirely new material and discoveries; for example this is the first published work containing zoological accounts of the sperm whale and the manatee. Never before had the world seen a structered compilation of zoology like this, -profusely illustrated, giving account of every known species!"He is best known by his work on sea fishes - "De Piscibus marinis" - which included whales, eeals, cephalopods, crustacae, and vermes. He was especially noted for his dissection of these animals, which led him to contradict many of the assumptions of Aristotle." (Wood, p. 12).In this work many species are depicted for the first time, and with it the foundation of modern zoology is established. Nissen ZBI 3474, Wood, p. 541.

Lund, 1956. 4to. Minor signs of wear. A fine copy, With signature of "Joh. Holtfreter" to top of p. (1). 6 pp. + 1 plate. First printing, in the very rare off-print - Johannes Holtfreter's copy -, of the revolutionary paper that established for the first time the correct number of chromosomes in man, thus founding modern human cytogenetics. The present paper constitutes the most important breakthrough in genetics since Mendel. "The finding that the normal human diploid chromosome number was 46, rather than 48 as had been assumed for many years previously, represents the starting point of modern human cytogenetics, with great importance for future clinical applications in the detection of both constitutional chromosome abnormalities and somatic abnormalities such as those seen in cancers. This discovery, made 50 years ago at the Institute of Genetics of the University of Lund, Sweden, in December 1955 and published early in 1956 in the journal "Hereditas" (Tjio and Levan 1956), is now of historical as well as scientific importance." (Harper). "After 50 years, the paper of Tjio and Levan can be clearly seen as one of the major landmarks of human genetics, opening up the field of human chromosomes and of medical genetics generlly to detailed analysis, as well as fulfilling its original aim of providing a normal reference point for studies of chromosomes in cancer." (Harper).The rediscovery of Mendel's law at the end of the 19th century triggered intense interest in the principles of heredity; ever since that time, chromosome behavior had been studied scientifically, but although a great deal of scientific interest was directed towards learning more about chromosomes themselves, it wasn't until Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan's epochal discovery that the correct human chromosome count was established. For half a century it had been accepted that humans normally have 48 chromosomes - only due to Tjio and Levan were we to know that the chromosome number of man is actually 46. "Difficulties in determining the human diploid number arose for a variety of reasons. For one, early experiments that provided evidence for the chromosome theory often used invertebrate species that reproduced in large numbers and had a relatively low number of well-defined chromosomes. Neither of these characteristics, of course, is a common finding in humans. In addition, the human samples initially used for chromosome analysis were derived from fresh testicular tissue in which haploid meiotic cells were often present. Furthermore, what morphology could be deduced suggested that human chromosomes were more complex than those of the model organisms studied earlier. In light of these and other factors, an erroneous estimate by prominent cytologist Theophilus Painter dominated the field for decades, until researchers Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan eventually applied new technology to identify the true diploid number of human chromosomes." (O'Connor). As Painter's estimate of 48 chromosomes had been generally accepted from studies over the previous 30 years, study of normal human chromosomes was not an active research field in the mid-1950's. Albert Levan - one of the key figures in cancer cytogenetics -, however, extensively studied the chromosomes of human cancers and realized that it was necessary to be certain of the normal human karyotype. Likewise, Joe Hin Tjio - who then was primarily involved in plant cytogenetics - realized the importance and necessity in establishing the correct number. "In the decades following Painter's work, scientists continued to refine their methods for preparing chromosomes for microscopy. Sectioning of paraffin-embedded preserved tissue was gradually replaced by squash techniques, in which small tissue specimens are placed on a microscope slide and then literally squashed under a cover slip to produce a single layer of cells. This approach gained broad acceptance as it eliminated any need to slice through tissues and reconstruct the organization of chromosomes in a single nucleus from several different sections. Chromosome preparations were also dramatically improved by combining treatment with a hypotonic salt solution (described by T. C. Hsu in 1952) and cell fixation. This combination of treatments enhanced chromosome spreading without deterioration or fragmentation, thereby facilitating better chromosome counts. In fact, in 1956, these techniques enabled researchers Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan to make a more accurate estimate of the human chromosome number.When their classic paper was published in 1956, Tjio and Levan had already been collaborating for several years. Albert Levan was a well-established cytologist who had pioneered the use of colchicine for analyzing chromosomes. Colchicine is a plant-derived toxin that arrests cells in metaphase, the point in the cell cycle at which chromosomes are most condensed. Colchicine is toxic to animals, but Levan and others found that colchicine allowed investigators to work with cells grown in tissue culture. Capturing cells at a specific state of mitosis when the chromosomes are condensed and easily tracked improved the reliability of their observations... Tjio and Levan used spreads such as these in their research, eventually reporting summary data from 261 unique chromosome spreads obtained from 22 different cell cultures of fetal lung tissue. All of the cultures were used within a few days after the tissue was obtained, thus minimizing the possibility of long-term culture-induced artifacts of chromosome number. The results were both clear and replicable. In the words of Tjio and Levan, "We were surprised to find that the chromosome number 46 predominated in the tissue cultures from all four embryos, [with] only single cases deviating from this number." Appreciating the fact that these in vitro data may not have been representative of cells in the body (i.e., in vivo data), Tjio and Levan also highlighted the importance of finding the same chromosome number in spermatogenic cells from testicular samples. Within a year, Ford and Hamerton (1956) did just that, providing confirmatory data by reporting the diploid chromosome number in human testicular cells to be 46." (O'Connor). The revolutionary finding of Tjio and Levan was submitted to the Swedish journal "Hereditas" (which was published for the Mendelian Society of Lund) on January 26, 1956, only a month and four days after the discovery, and appeared in the April issue. "The clarity and unambiguous nature of the published results in the "Hereditas" paper meant that the predominant reaction internationally was surprise rather than dispute; confirmation rapidly came from other workers, while workers who had previously supported the number of 48 soon admitted that they had been wrong. Additional publicity was given in the form of a display by Tjio at the 1956 International Genetics Congress in Copenhagen. Debate rapidly turned to the question of how it was that repeated studies done over the previous 30 years had found 48, not 46 chromosomes. This is an important general issue for science..." (Harper). "Joe Hin Tjio (born Nov. 2, 1919, Java, Indon.-died Nov. 27, 2001, Gaithersburg, Md.), Indonesian-born American geneticist who dispelled a 50-year-held belief that the number of chromosomes in the human cell was 48 when he established that the majority of human cells contain 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs. While working in 1955 at the Institute of Genetics in Lund, Swed., Tjio used a newly discovered technique to separate chromosomes from the nucleus of a cell; he helped establish modern cytogenetics-the study of the relationship between the structure and activities of chromosomes and the mechanisms of heredity-as a major branch of genetics. His work led to the discovery in 1959 that those people afflicted with Down syndrome have an additional chromosome in their cells." (Encycl. Britt.). JOHANNES HOLTFRETER was the world's foremost experimental embryologist in the decades between 1930 and 1960. He initiated and contributed substantially to many lines of experimentation (that are still ongoing) in the analysis of the embryonic "organizer" (a part of the embryo essential for the development of the proper body plan) and embryonic induction. Through his research on amphibian embryos, Holtfreter made many significant discoveries in the field of developmental biology and is considered one of the most significant embryologists of the 20th century. See:Peter S. Harper: The Discovery of the Human Chromosome Number in Lund; in: Hum. Genet. 119, 2006: pp.226-232.Clare O'Connor: Human Chromosome Number. In: Nature Education. 1(1):43. 2008. Garrison&Morton: 256.2 ("Proof that the normal chromosome number in man is 46").

Copenhagen, Bianco Lunos, 1918. 4to. Both parts uncut and in the original printed wrappers. Wrappers detached and with small nicks and tears to extremities. Internally fine and clean. Part I unopened. 36 pp. + pp. (37) - 100. First editions, author's off-prints (with "Separate Copy" printed to front wrappers), presentation-copies, of the first two parts of Bohr's seminal work "On the Quantum Theory of the Line-Spectra" (which appeared in three parts and which was never finished, the third part of which, published 4 years later, is almost never found in presentation-sets), in which Bohr gave his first clear presentation of his groundbreaking "correspondence principle": "Which would play a pivotal role in the later development of atomic theory and its transformation into quantum mechanics." (Kragh, Quantum Generations, p. 56). It eventually became a cornerstone in the quantum mechanics formulated by Heisenberg and Schrödinger. "There was rarely in the history of physics a comprehensive theory which owed so much to one principle as quantum mechanics owed to Bohr's correspondence principle" (Jammer 1966, p. 118). The evolution of quantum theory is divided into two distinct periods; from 1900 to 1925, usually referred to as the period with the old quantum theory still grounded in classical physics and the second period with quantum mechanics from 1925 onwards. The general rules of quantum mechanics are very successful in describing objects on an atomic level. But macroscopic systems are accurately described by classical theories like classical mechanics and classical electrodynamics. If quantum mechanics were to be applicable to macroscopic objects, there must be some limit in which quantum mechanics reduces to classical mechanics. Bohr's correspondence principle demands that classical physics and quantum physics give the same answer when the systems become large. "A major tool he developed for dealing with quantum problem, [...], was the correspondence principle, which establishes links between predictions of the classical theory and expectations for the quantum theory." (Pais, Niels Bohr's Times, p. 20.). In this sense, the correspondence principle is not only an exceedingly important methodological principle, it also represents the transition to quantum mechanics and modern physics in general and it became the cornerstone of Bohr's philosophical interpretation of quantum mechanics which later would be closely tied to his thesis of complementarity and to the Copenhagen interpretation. Another version of the correspondence principle lives on in philosophical literature where it has taken form as a more general concept representing a development of new scientific theories."By 1918 Bohr had visualized, at least in outline, the whole theory of atomic phenomena. ... He of course realized that he was still very far from a logically consistent framework wide enough to incorporate both the quantum postulates and those aspects of classical mechanics and electrodynamics that seemed to retain some validity. Nevertheless, he at once started writing up a synthetic exposition of his arguments and of all the evidence upon which they could have any bearing; in testing how well he could summarize what was known, he found occasion to check the soundness of his ideas and to improve their formulation. In the present case, however, he could hardly keep pace with the growth of the subject; the paper he had in mind at the beginning developed into a four-part treatise, 'On the Theory of Line Spectra', publication of which dragged over four years without being completed; the first three parts appeared between 1918 and 1922 [of which the two first from 1918 are offered here], and the fourth, unfortunately, was never published. Thus, the full impact of Bohr's view remained confined to the small but brilliant circle of his disciples, who indeed managed better than their master to make them more widely known by the prompter publication of their own results" (D.S.B. II: 246-47).Inscribed to "Hr. Docent D. la Cour/ Venskabeligst/ fra/ Forfatteren" on both front wrappers. The renowned Danish physicist and meteorologist Dan la Cour (1876-1942), was the son of the great Poul la Cour (1846-1908), who is considered the "Danish Edison". Dan la Cour was the assistant of Niels Bohr's father, Christian Bohr, and a well known scientist. From 1903, he was head of the department of the Meteorological Institute, and from 1923 leader thereof. From 1908 he was Associate Professor at the Polytechnic College. His original scientific works are highly respected, as are his original apparati for measuring earth magnetism which are considered highly valuable. "His original intelligence, which in many ways resemble that of his father, also bore fruit in his patenting of various inventions: the "Pyknoprobe", developed to quickly determine the different layers of the sea; a use of termite in quickly heating food and drinks out in the open under unfavourable weather conditions." (From the Danish Encyclopaedia - own translation). He wrote a number of important and esteemed works and was member of the Danish Scientific Academy as well as many prominent international scientific commissions of meteorology and geophysics (i.e. president of the International Geodetical and Geophysical Union). He was also honorary Doctor at the George Washington University. Rosenfeld, Bohr-Bibliography, 15.

London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, (1812-) 1816 4to. Bound in a fine contemp. full calf with broad rectangular gilt borders on covers. Inner gilt borders. Professionally re-backed to style and spine richly gilt. Fine repairs along edges and to corners. Engraved frontispiece-portrait of Hooker. (28) incl.htitle,20 pp., (2) pp. of Index. Unnumbered leaves with descriptions to each plate. Complete with 88 fine hand-coloured engraved plates (Numb. I-LXXXIV and Supplementplates I-IV (bound first). Portrait with some brownspots, some offsetting from portrait to title. Inner margins of portrait and title-page with 2 larger brownspots, not reaching the text or the engraving. Otherwise a fine clean copy with broad margins, printed on good paper. Exquisite handcolouring. Interesting presentation-copy of the scarce first edition of Hooker's first botanical work, which is not only considered his most beautiful, but which is also the work that established hepaticology (the science of liverworts) as an independent entity and cemented Hooker's reputation. Presented on half-title: "To Francis Boott, Esq./ of Boston, N. America,/ as a testimony of the affectionate/ regard & esteem of/ The Author/ Halesworth Aug. 5.th 1818." Underneath the dedication in Francis Boott's hand: "Mr. Hooker in a letter to me from Halesworth of Aug 5. - says of this copy - "It will serve as a specimen of Country binding, printing and engraving - every thing in short belonging to it being executed in this neighbourhood."/ signed "F.B.". When Hooker returned from his botanical excursions, first to Iceland, then to France, Switzerland and Northern Italy, he devoted himself to the formation of his "Herbarium", which became of worldwide renown among botanists. In 1841 he was appointed director of the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew, where he founded the first museum of economic botany."Hooker spent twelve years at Halesworth, during which he produced his British Jungermanniae, with his own illustrations, widely considered to be his most beautiful work. This book established hepaticology as an independent entity and made Hooker's reputation." (Mea Allan in DSB).Francis Boott (1792-1863), to whom this copy was given, was a friend of Hooker. He had studied botany in America and medicine in London, where he practiced medicine and also gave lectures in botany, - he was also secretary to the Linnean Society. Pritzel: 4208 - BMC(NH) II.870 - Nissen: 916 - Staffleu & Covan: No 2987.

New York, Macmillan, 1930. 8vo. In the original red full cloth and with the the original dust-jacket. Dust-jacket price-clipped and missing 2 cm of lower part of spine, spine discoloured. Internally very fine and clean. Binding likewise very fine and clean. xxvi, (2), 286 pp. First edition of this seminal work tracing the causes of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, here in scarce original dust-jacket..Irving Fisher is considered one of the earliest American neoclassical economists and the first celebrity economist. Fisher was also the first economist to distinguish clearly between real and nominal interest rates, and Milton Friedman called him "the greatest economist the United States has ever produced."Considered "the father of monetary economics" (Pressman, 91), "Irving Fisher was, in the opinion of many, the leading economic theorist in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. Although his contributions to economic theory and to the development of econometrics ensure him a preeminent position among contemporary economists, he was a versatile man. In his day he was equally well-known as social philosopher, teacher, inventor, businessman, and passionate crusader for many social causes" (DAB).

Paris, Dentu, 1809. 8vo & Folio. Four text-volumes and one atlas-volume. Text-volumes uniformly bound (by Harry Larsen) uncut with contemporary blue blank wrappers in recent half calf with gilt lettering to spines. A stamp to title-page in all volumes. With repaired worm-tracts throughout, primarily affecting margins, but with occassional loss of text, otherwise internally clean. LX, 389; (4), 562 + three folding tables; (4), 479; (4), 380 pp.Atlas-volume in contemporary half calf with gilt lettering to spine. Worm-tract to inner margin and light margin brownpostting. 25 numbered plates: An engraved portrait of the author, 5 detailed folded maps, 7 plates depicting animals, 8 city plans and views, including a double page plan and view of Buenos Aires, and four bird plates. A complete set. The preferred first French edition of Azara's highly influential and important work on the region around Río de la Plata, here he charted the region while delineating the boundary between Spanish and Portuguese interests. His work, however, also included his observations on many topics ranging from the geography of the region to characteristics of the many indigenous groups and to zoology in the region. Consequently, he became a naturalist of some note, and Charles Darwin had a high regard for his work. In 1777, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso. As dictated by the treaty, each nation would send a delegation to the Río de la Plata region to negotiate the border dispute between the Portuguese and Spanish colonies. Azara, being a Spanish military officer and engineer, was selected as a member of this delegation and departing quickly for the New World. The Portuguese delegation, however, never arrived, and Azara ended up remaining in the region from 1781 to 1801. In the 20 year period Azara ventured on several expedition in which he began observing the nature of the region. Over the course of his time there, he "described 448 birds...This number is reduced to 381 when duplications of sex, age, and plumage are taken into account (eight remain unidentified), and 178 of them are the types upon which the scientific names are based." (Beddall, "Isolated Spanish Genius. He also identified 78 quadrupeds, 43 of which were new. A number of animals were named after him, including Azara's night monkey (Aotus azarae), Azara's agouti (Dasyprocta azarae), Azara's grass mouse (Akodon azarae), Azara's spinetail (Synallaxis azarae), and Azara's tree iguana (Liolaemus azarai ). Dorsum Azara on the Moon is also named after him.The present work is by far the most extensive and wide-ranging work he published. Vol 3-4 and to a large extend translated from his "Apuntamientos para la historia natural de los pa?jaros del Paraguay y Rio de la Plata" (Madrid, 1802-05). Palau 20975 Sabin 2541 Wood, p. 214.

Edinburgh, 1767. Large 4to. Recased preserving the contemporary marbled leather boards with a gilt line-frame over a more recent light brown full calf binding with five raised bands and gilt ornamentations to spine. The contemporary gilt title-label also preserved in second compartment of the spine. A later leather-onlay to the lower compartment, presumably covering an earlier library-marking. All edges of boards gilt. Inner hinges re-enforced. A good, solid, and sturdy copy. Library stamp (Freie Universität Berlin) to verso of title-page, along with a deaccession-stamp, as well as to blank lower margin of p. 48. Apart from the stamps, internally extremely well preserved, clean, and fresh, with only light occasional brownspotting. A very wide-margined copy on good paper. Leaves measuring 27x21 cm. VII, (1), 430 pp. The uncommon first edition of this pioneering classic of the Enlightenment, a magnum opus in the history of political thought. The Essay became extremely influential and established Ferguson’s reputation in Britain and the rest of Europe. The work was also taught at the University of Moscow, causing Voltaire to praise Ferguson for “civilizing the Russians”. Marx was also directly influenced by the work, as were numerous of the great political and sociological theoreticians. “Adam Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society (first published in 1767) is a classic of the Scottish - and European - Enlightenment. Drawing on such diverse sources as classical authors and contemporary travel literature, Ferguson offers a complex model of historical advance which challenges both Hume's and Smith's embrace of modernity and the primitivism of Rousseau. Ferguson combines a subtle analysis of the emergence of modern commercial society with a critique of its abandonment of civic and communal virtues. Central to Ferguson's theory of citizenship are the themes of conflict, play, political participation and military valour. The Essay is a bold and novel attempt to reclaim the tradition of active, virtuous citizenship and apply it to the modern state.” (Cambridge University Press). ”A pioneering work of the Scottish Enlightenment in the field of “philosophical history”, or what we would today call sociology. It deals with the social, political, economic, intellectual, and legal changes which accompanied societies as they made the transition to modern commercial and manufacturing society.” (OLL – Online Library of Liberty)

Neuchatel, L'Imprimerie de la Société Typographique), 1771-83. 4to. Bound in 19 contemp. uniform full mottled calf. Raised bands. Gilt spines. Title-and tomelabels with gilt lettering. Spine-ends on nearly all volumes strenghtened. Stamp on title-pages. Each volume around 650 pp. With 508 fine engraved plates. Second edition and the first 4to-edition was published in 19 volumes plus an additional volume by Jean Elie Bertrand (where vol. 20 is an additional volume published much later (1799) - not present here - dealing with the art of printing). This importent collection of books on crafts was published by between 1761 and 1788. The full series comprises 113 parts (cahiers) in 27 folio volumes along with three supplements, and "provide detailed accounts of a wide range of handcraft and manufacturing processes carried out in France at that time. The volumes are well-illustrated, with precise engravings by Jean Elie Bertrand (1737-1779) a noted typographer from Neuchâtel, where the printing was done. Many of them provide the background for shorter articles in Diderot's Encyclopedia, which was appearing at much the same time. The project had its origin in request from Colbert in 1675 to the Academy Royal des Sciences for detailed accounts of various mechanic arts to be prepared and for new machines to be reported upon. This led to the formation of the Bignon Commission under Abbé Bignon. René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683-1757) became editor soon after he joined the Academy. He inherited number of drawings (the earliest prepared in 1693) and an illustrated manuscript on printing, type and book binding, which had been prepared in 1704. It was left to Réaumur's successor Duhamel du Monceau to bring about the publication of the series, probably as the result of the competition from the Encyclopedia." (Wikipedia).Brunet II,618 ff. - Graesse II, 367.

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

Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1816-47. 8vo. Bound in 101 physical volumes in contemp. hcalf. Gilt spines. Light wear to top of spine, occassionally rubbed, a few with tears to spines. With folded maps, plates, plans, tables. Scattred brownspots to some volumes. Extremely scarce in complete state as this, being one of the main sources for French colonial and marine history, dealing with ethnography, voyages, surveys, medicine (KERAUDREN), technology, hydrography, sailing manuals, navigation, geography, carthography, oceanography, commerce etc. etc.First serie: the years 1816-21 comprising 2 vols. each, 1822-30 comprising 3 vols. (1827 and 1830 each: 4 vols) - Second serie: each year comprising 3 vols. - Third serie from 4 to 5 vols. each year.

Napoli, Excudebat Felix Musca, 1716. 4to. Nice contemporary Italian full vellum binding with gilt title to back. A bit of soiling and averall wear. Internally occasional brownspotting, but overall a very nice copy. Title-page in red an black, full-page engraved portrait of Hadrianus Carafa, full-page engraved portrait of Antonius Carafa, six beautiful large engraved vignettes, and six beautiful large engraved initials. Tissue-guards inserted later. (2) ff. (being half-title and title-page), portrait, (12) ff. (dedication), portrait, 501 pp. The very rare first edition of Vico's intriguing account of the deeds of Antonius Carafa, the historical biography which the highly influential Enlightenment philosopher, historian, and jurist was commissioned to write about the important seventeenth-century statesman. The work is more than a beautifully printed work by a highly influential thinker about an important Italian statesman, though; it is a rich and enlightened reconstruction of many major historical events and aspects of the contemporary history of Vico, mixed with numerous of Vico's personal opinions. As such, the work is of the greatest interest to historians, philosophers, jurists and political historians, as well as anyone interested in early modern European history; it furthermore gives us a unique insight into the thought of a thinker, whose ideas and opinions, both philosophical and political, have greatly influenced the likes of Marx, Hegel, Goethe, etc. The commission of the work is also that which caused Vico to become interested in the question of the law of nations, and that which led him to discover Grotius' "On the Law of War and Peace" (1625), which came to influence him greatly. The biography of Antonio Carafa is the next major work that Vico writes after his magnum opus, the "Scienza Nouva". "The life of Carafa was a commissioned work, undertaken at the request of Don Adriano Carafa, the nephew of the subject and a former pupil of Vico, and for its composition access to the family archives was given him. It appeared in 1716, in magnificent format, as Vico says "in the Dutch style", and won for its author the praise of Pope Clement XI as well as the friendship of the Italian scholar Gianvincenzo Gravina"." (Camponigri, Time & Idea: The Theory of History in Giambattista Vico, p. 22). Vico later married one of Carafa's daughters, and he has himself said of the work that it was "tempered by honour towards the subject, reverence towards the princes and the just claims of truth." (The Autobiography). Antonio Carafa (1646-1693) was a Neapolitan statesman and diplomat, who immigrated to Vienna in 1662 to serve the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg, in whose service he stayed throughout most of his life. Carafa spent years at the Viennese court, familiarizing himself with the intrigues and learning the secrets of the state and the art of governing here. He became a favourite of the emperor and the Habsburg princes (Charles of Lorraine and Maximillian of Bavaria ) and came to serve as a statesman and diplomat of Leopold I in Vienna, Poland and Hungary. He kept rising through the ranks, as his military experience grew, and he was known for his courage, wisdom, strategic skills and political diplomacy. Eventually he rose to the highest rank in the Austrian military and was appointed Military Governor of, first, Upper Hungary, then Transylvania as well as General Commissary of all imperial armies on all fronts, namely the Rhine, Danube, and Po; he was integral in Leopold's wars against the Ottoman Empire. Towards the end of his career, he came to suffer from infamy, according to Vico due to the jealousy of his rivals, and he was dubbed the "butcher of Eperjes"; he was thus sent back to Vienna, where he died shortly after.The present text by Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) is a historiographical work which sets out to delineate the biography of Antonio Carafa, a statesman much admired by Vico. The work touches on numerous events, in which the important statesman and diplomat was involved, and Vico thus describes in detail, from a contemporary point of view, many highly interesting historical events. These events include THE ALLIANCE'S WAR AGAINST THE TURKS BETWEEN 1683 AND 1694, THE SECOND ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1688-1689, THE WAR OF THE AUGSBURG LEAGUE, etc., etc. These events are also valuably commented upon by Vico, for whom they were contemporary and vivid. For a modernist, the present work possesses a rare source of information on a number of important European events, presented in the most interesting manner, by one of modern Europe's great thinkers, and it is thus probably of greater interest to us today than it ever has been. "In his own time, Vico was relatively unknown, but from the nineteenth century onwards his views found a wider audience and today his influence is widespread in the humanities and social sciences." (SEP). In 2004 the first English translation of the work appeared, bearing witness to the renewed interest in this important and interesting work by one of the leading Enlightenment philosophers. "Vico's next major work [after the "Scienza Nuova"], "The Life Of Antonio Carafa" (1716), although somewhat of a by-way in the development of his general thought, contains one relevant point. Whereas, in "On the Study Methods of our Time", he had emphasised the importance of wisdom, virtue and eloquence in training the intellectual to guide the masses, in his biography of Carafa he attributes Carafa's success to his natural, rather than acquired, shrewdness and suggests that formal culture is likely to hinder rather than to promote effective action. This was not a view that he was to maintain in its generalised form, but it is indicative of decreasing confidence in the capacity of the intellectual to bring about political well-being by the methods advocated earlier. At this point it is necessary to turn to the importance of Grotius's influence on Vico, though this is a highly debated matter. Vico may have known something about Grotius's doctrines, probably through discussion, as early as 1708, but as part of his preparation for "The Life of Antonio Carafa", he had undertaken a thorough reading of "The Law of War and Peace"." (Introduction to Vico's "The First New Science" by Leon Pompa, p. XXIII).First editions by Vico are generally of great scarcity, and the present work is no exception, as it is almost impossible to find.

Balsel, Sebastian Henricpetrus, (1562). 4to. Both volumes bound in one nice mid-19th century half calf with gilt spine. Title to lower edge in contemporary hand. Ex libris to inside of front board. Some browning and brownspotting, and first title-page frayed at edges and with a repaired hole (presumably removing an old owner's name), not affecting printing and a small repaired hole in imprint (affecting the "Pe" of "Per Sebastianum..."). 1) Somniorum Synesiorum: (42) pp., 1 blank leaf, 278 pp., 1 blank leaf. +2) Opera quaedam lectu digna (with a separate title-page and separate pagination): (36), 413, (1, -errata) pp. - lacking the final leaf with printer's devise only (no text). The extremely rare first edition of the most important Renaissance work on dreams, arguably the most important book on dream interpretation up until Freud. (Appended thereto as the second part of a collection of earlier works by Cardano, gathered here for the first time. This part lacks the leaf with the printer's device). "Cardano is unusual among Renaissance writers on dreams, in that he both records a good many of his own dreams, displaying keen interest in them, and has a highly developed theory about the causation of dreams and the method of interpreting them. His book on dreams, "Somniorum Synesiorum Libri IIII", comprises an exhortation to interpret dreams, an account of how dreams are caused, classifications of them, advice on how to interpret them, and a final chapter describing fifty-five of his own dreams." (Alice Brown, Girolamo Cardanos's Somniorum Synesiorum Libri III, 1979). Girolamo Cardano/Hieronymus Cardanus (1501 -1576) was an extremely important Renaissance polymath, being an influential mathematician, physician, biologist, physicist, chemist, astrologer, astronomer, philosopher, writer, - and gambler. He is often referred to as the greatest mathematician of the Renaissance and was one of the key figures in the foundation of probability as well as the one whointroduced binomial coefficients and the binomial theorem to the Western world. His great work on dreams was also extremely influential and has always been considered of the utmost importance to the understanding of his scientific theories and world view. His theories about dreams are closely connected to his scientific theories about the world and bridges the gap of our understanding of his thoughts about certainty of knowledge. This great work on dreams, dream interpretation, and the cause of dreams, constitutes a fundamental attempt at understanding the mind and therefore the boundaries of our knowledge. "Cardano admired experience and was a determined advocate of natural science. But at the same time he was aware of the insufficiency of empiricism and insisted upon the justice of the claims of mathematical reason. He even went so far as to stress that our knowledge can be protected against uncertainty only by the employment of a method that led from the one to the many. He held, however, that owing to the way in which the mind is tied to the body, the synthesis between reason and sensuous knowledge was most precarious and prevented a perfect understanding of those ideal and incorporeal essences which constitute the principles of bodies. It also makes it impossible for us to visualise adequately the original connections through which the separate things arise out of their principles. Our physical knowledge is a superficial knowledge. It makes us glide over things without probing their souls and is based upon analogies and parables... In short, Cardano was fully aware of the difficulty of the passage from the mental to the real, from ideas to things." (Eugenio Garin: Italian Humanism, 1965, pp. 188-89). "Girolamo Cardano conceived and outlined his four books on dreams according to Synesius' philosophy between 1535 and 1537. Originally divided into ten books, the volume underwent subsequent modifications until it was published in 1562. We know from Cardano's own testimony how the key episodes in his life were always heralded or accompanied by dreams. From this point of view, the 1562 summa on dreams reflects one of the most critical of such moments. As Jean-Yves Boriaud explains in the introduction to his new Latin edition and French translation of Somniorum Synesiorum libri quatuor, in the year prior to the composition of this work, Cardano was undergoing intense dream activity as a result of the tragic execution in 1560 of his son Giovanni Battista, who had been charged with poisoning his wife. From that moment on, the death of his son would represent a watershed moment in both his life and literary career. For this reason, too, Somniorum Synesiorum libri quatuor deserves to be considered as one of Cardano's most important writings and Boriaud's edition should be saluted as a notable accomplishment. (Giglioni, Guido (2010) Synesian Dreams. Giacomo Cardano on dreams as means of prophetic communication. Bruniana & Campanelliana, XVI (2). pp. 575-584.).The work is of the utmost scarcity. OCLC lists merely four copies: two in Switzerland, one in Germany, and one in The Netherlands.Adams: C:692; Wellcome: I:1305.

Leipzig, Weidmann, 1776-78. 8vo. Bound in two nice uniform contemporary half calf bindings with five raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. Ex-libris pasted on to pasted down front free end-papers and a small embossed stamp to front free end paper on volume 1 ("Buchhändler u. Antiquar Carl Helf"). Stamp to p. 1 of both volumes. Spines with light soiling and capital on volume 1 lacking a small part of the leather. A few light brown spots throught. A fine set. VIII, 632 pp; XII, 740 pp. First German edition, also being the very first overall translation, of Adam Smith's ground-breaking main work, the "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". This seminal first translation of the work was undertaken by J.F. Schiller, who finished the first part of the translation in time for it to appear as soon as 1776, the same year as the original English edition. The second part appeared in 1778, the same year as the exceedingly scarce first French translation. This first German translation has been of the utmost importance to the spreading of Smith's ideas throughout Europe, and, after the true first, this must count as the most important edition of the work."The influence of the Wealth of Nations [...] in Germany [...] was so great that 'the whole of political economy might be divided into two parts - before and since Adam Smith; the first part being a prelude, and the second a sequel." (Backhouse, Roger E., The Methodology of Economics: Nineteenth-Century British Contributions, Routledge, 1997.)"The first review of the translation, which appeared in the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen for March 10, 1777, by J. G. H. Feder, professor of Philosophy at the University of Göttingen, was very favorable. In the words of the reviewer: "It is a classic; very estimable both for its thorough, not too limited, often far-sighted political philosophy, and for the numerous, frequently discursive historical notes," but the exposition suffers from too much repetition." (Lai, Cheng-chung. Adam Smith Across Nations: Translations and Receptions of The Wealth of Nations, Clarendon Press, UK, 2000).Until 1797, [...], the work of Adam Smith received scant attention in Germany. While Frederick II was living, Cameralism held undisputed sway in Prussia, and the economic change which began with the outbreak of the French Revolution had still not gained sufficient momentum to awake the economic theorists from their dogmatic slumber." (Lai, Cheng-chung. Adam Smith Across Nations: Translations and Receptions of The Wealth of Nations, Clarendon Press, UK, 2000).Various German economist read the german translations and was inspired by it."Christian Garve, [...], must be considered as among the important contributors to the spread of Smith's views. Himself a popularizer of philosophical doctrines, he was early attracted by the Scotch writers and became one of their foremost exponents in Germany." In 1791 Garve began a second translation of the Smith's work and in the introduction to the the translation he wrote: "It (Smith's work) attracted me as only few books have in the course of my studies through the number of new views which it gave me not only concerning the actual abject of his investigations, but concerning all related material from the philosophy of civil and social life". Georg Sartorius, August Ferdinand Lueder and, perhaps the most important economist of the period, Christian Jacob Kraus, were all important figures in the spread of Smith's thought. "The most significant of Kraus' works and that also which shows his conception of economic science most clearly is the five-volume work entitled State Economy. The first four volumes of this work are little more than a free paraphrase of the Wealth of Nations". Kraus was: "to a large extent responsible for the economic changes which took place in Prussia after 1807, in so far as they can be ascribed to Smithan influence." (Lai, Cheng-chung. Adam Smith Across Nations: Translations and Receptions of The Wealth of Nations, Clarendon Press, UK, 2000).Kraus wrote of the present volume: "[T]he world has seen no more important book than that of Adam Smith.... [C]ertainly since the times of the New Testament no writing has had more beneficial results than this will have.... [Smith's doctrines form] the only true, great, beautiful, just and beneficial system." (Fleischacker, Samuel , A Third Concept of Liberty, Princeton University Press, 1999.)_____________Hailed as the "first and greatest classic of modern thought" (PMM 221), Adam Smith's tremendously influential main work has had a profound impact on thought and politics, and is considered the main foundation of the era of liberal free trade that dominated the nineteenth century. Adam Smith (1723-1790) is considered the founder of Political Economy in Britain, mainly due to his groundbreaking work, the "Wealth of Nations" from 1776. The work took him 12 years to write and was probably in contemplation 12 years before that. It was originally published in two volumes in 4to, and was published later the same year in Dublin in three volumes in 8vo. The book sold well, and the first edition, the number of which is unknown, sold out within six months, which came as a surprise to the publisher, and probably also to Smith himself, partly because the work "requires much thought and reflection (qualities that do not abound among modern readers) to peruse to any purpose." (Letter from David Hume, In: Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 286), partly because it was hardly reviewed or noticed by magazines or annuals. In spite of this, it did evoke immense interest in the learned and the political world, and Buckle's words that the work is "in its ultimate results probably the most important book that has ever been written", and that it has "done more towards the happiness of man than has been effected by the united abilities of all the statesmen and legislators of whom history has preserved an authentic account" (History of Civilisation, 1869, I:214) well describes the opinion of a great part of important thinkers then as well as now. Kress S. 2567Goldsmith 11394Menger 521Not in Einaudi

Paris, Brunot-Labbe, 1817. 8vo. Completely uncut in later, simple paper-wrappers. Light dusting to first and last leaf and only light occasional brownspotting. Overall a magnificent anf fresh copy, on good paper, and completely uncut. Scarce first edition of the first Western book about Buddhism and Buddha. "Although the Western encounter with Asia's largest religion may be the vastest and most consequential spiritual encounter in human history, its protagonists and historical development are still barely known. Thus it comes as no surprise that even specialists have hitherto failed to appreciate the earliest Western book about Buddhism: Michel-Jean-François Ozeray's Recherches "Sur Buddou ou Bouddou, Instituteur religieux de l'Asie Orientale" (Paris, 1817)." (from the review of Urs App's edition of the work from 1917).To commemorate Ozeray's groundbreaking work, an edition of it was published for its 200th anniversary, in 2017, with French-English parallel-text (the translation by Urs App). It is this edition that has made the book famous and re-introduced it as the pioneering classic that it is. "In his 73-page introduction App presents and analyzes Ozeray's view of Buddhism and its founder. Tracing the author's main sources, he explains why his book deserves to be recognized as a pioneering contribution to Western knowledge about Buddhism and to global-scale comparative religion. Published just before the onset of academic research on Buddhism in Europe, Ozeray's work relied not on Christian missionary literature or romantic speculation but rather on figurative representations and reports furnished by ambassadors, travelers, and long-time residents in Asian countries. Due to its focus on living Buddhism as practised in numerous Asian countries, Ozeray's pioneering study is-in spite of its inevitable flaws-in many respects more congruent with modern field work than the majority of popular books on Buddhism that bend the spiritualism and esotericism shelves in today's bookstores."