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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)

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.

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.

Paris, Stephanus (Estienne), 1544. Folio. Contemporary full vellum with some wear. Six raised bands to spine and large blindstamped centrepieces to boards. Capitals and upper part of back board worn and torn; but binding still fine and solid. Some dampstaining, especially to beginning and end, though mostly marginal. Back end-paprs quite dampstained. A worn, but still nice copy with mostly bright and clean pages. Bookplate to inside of front board and old owner's inscriptions and a pasted-in catalogue-description to front free end-paper. Numerous large foliated and grotesque initials and headpieces and large woodcut printer's device on title-page (basilisk) and verso of final leaf (the so-called device 10) . (4), 361 (misnumbered as 353, and including blank P5), 181, (5) ff. The rare editio princeps of one of the most beautiful and elegant of all renaissance printings, namely Estienne's magnificent volume of "Church History", which constitutes the first major Greek text produced by Estienne as the King's Printer in Greek and the work which marks the first appearance of a full text in the fist font of the Royal Greek types (the so-called "grecs du roi") - "These cursive Greek types are universally acknowledged as the finest ever cut." (Schreiber). This is also the first book in which appear the splendid matching initials and headpieces, which are considered "among the best of the printed decorations used in the sixteenth century" (Updike). In 1542, Francois I appointed Estienne his new printer in Greek, and at the same time he commissioned Claude Garamond to cut a new Greek font intended specifically to be used to print Greek books from then unpublished manuscripts in the Royal Library at Fontainebleu. The first text selected for printing by Estienne was the great "Ecclesistical History", which marks a new era of book printing. Garamont's new Royal Greek types, the later so famous "grecs du Roi", used for it, were based on the handwriting of the Cretan Angelo Vergezio's (a well-known calligrapher), with its many ligatures; the capitals were influenced by roman letters that Garamont had already cut. One of the particularities of these fonts was the introduction of accents and breathing marks, made with the use of kerned letters. Garamont's skill can clearly be seen in the ligatures and the treatment of the abbreviations.The work is very difficult to find complete. Schreiber: 77.

Basel, in Officina Frobeniana (Per Hieronymum Frobenium, & Nicolaum Episcopium), 1531. Small 8vo. Bound in a lovely, charming early 19th century red half calf with gilt title and lines to spine and lovely gold and red ornamented "romantic" paper over boards. A bit of wear to spine. Internally a very fine and clean copy. Title-page slightly soiled, and a vague marginal dampstain throughout, on most leaves barely visible. Froben printer's device to title-page, and in a larger version to verso of last leaf. Four large woodcut initials. 76, (44) pp. The extremely scarce first printing, of both the original Greek text and the translation into Latin, of Parthenius's only surviving work, the historiographically, mythographically, and literarily hugely important "Erotica Pathemeta" (or "Sorrows of Love"), which constitutes the only prose work by a Hellenistic poet to survive in its entirety and one of the few extant works of its genre, i.e the mythological or paradoxographical handbook, preserved from any period. The "Erotica Pathemata" constitutes the only surviving work by the famous Greek poet Parthenius of Nicea (fl. 1st century BC, Rome), the Greek teacher of Virgil, and the favourite author of Hadrian and Tiberius, who is now often referred to as "the last of the Alexandrians".Parthenius was Born in Nicaea in Asia Minor, He was captured in the third Mithradatic war and taken to Italy, where he became the Roman poet Virgil's teacher in Greek. He is considered a main influence on the "Neoteroi" - the group of "modernist poets" led primarily by Callimachus, and he played an important role in spreading a taste for "Callimachean" poetry in Rome.In his time, Parthenius was primarily famous as a poet, but unfortunately none of his poetic works have survived, and only some small fragments have been preserved. What we have in their place is the prose treatise "Erotica Pathemata", which has survived in merely one manuscript, probably written in the mid 9th-century. In 1531 Froben printed the editio princeps of both the original Greek text and the Latin version of it, and only in 1675 did it appear again. The Froben editio princeps is of great scarcity.The "Erotica Pathemata" is a little prose treatise consisting of thirty-six love stories, all with tragic or sentimental endings. The work was dedicated to Cornelius Gallus, and was, Parthenius explains, meant as "a storehouse from which to draw material"."The very concatenation of poetry and prose is interesting, and perhaps important. It could be that the "Erotika Pathemata" were first collected by Parthenius for his own use as a poet. But the collection of prose anecdote by a poet also locates Parthenius in the same tradition as Callimachus ...; Nicander ... ; and Euphorion of Chalcis ... . Parthenius' is in fact the only prose work by a Hellenistic poet to survive entire. It proclaims its purpose as utilitarian, and begins with an epistolary introduction in which Parthenius offers his work to the poet Gallus as potential raw material for hexameter and elegiac poetry. This detail is of some importance for literary history. The loss of the poetry - not only of Parthenius, but also of his friends in Rome, of Gallus, Cinna, and the other "neoteroi" - is admittedly grievous; but the treatise, and particularly the implications of the dedication, offers some insight of their own into literary production in Rome in the middle of the first century BC. It is a period about which we should like to be better informed, the age of the supposed epyllion, of nascent elegy, and of experimentation with new Greek genres. The dedication suggests, on the one hand, intriguing possibilities for the sort of narrative poetry, both hexameter and elegiac, which Parthenius might have expected Gallus and his friends to write; and on the other the text can be read (and may also have been intended to be read) for pleasure as a prose work in itself. Thus regarded, it raises questions about the hellenistic historiography in which the stories were embedded, about the diverse kinds of mythography written in the hellenistic period and the two-way relationship between mythography and poetry; about the types of stories it contains, the manner in which they were generated, the structure they exhibit, the messages about social life which are encoded within them. And not the least intriguing question concerns its relationship to the Greek novel, a genre which seems to have been gaining momentum in the first century BC, and other sorts of prose fiction. Stylistically too, the work should be of interest to historians of Greek prose. It is preserved by a lucky accident in a single manuscript, possibly because its Atticism pleased the Byzantines' ear as much as it appealed to their penchant for story-telling, and it is one of the very few surviving works of Greek prose from the middle of the first century BC. Indeed it is one of few extant works of its genre, the mythographical or paradoxographical handbook, preserved from any period." (Lightfoot, Parthenius of Nicea. The Poetical Fragments of the "Erotika Pathemata". Edited with introduction and commentaries. 1999, pp. 2-3). As such, the "Erotica Pathemata", along with its author, apart from being of pivotal importance to the study of the ancient novel (the earliest examples of which date from exactly this perioed), Greek prose, and the Greek language ("Parthenius' Greek is of no little interest in view of the dearth of surviving material which is comparable in genre and date" - Lightfoot, p. 283), also plays a central role in Hellenistic literature and is of decisive character to the development of Roman prose and poetry in the 1st century BC. "It was Parthenius who taught me Greek -Yes, a freed prisoner-of-war, whose giftWas perfect elegiacs, faultless poems.He gathered brief love-stories, so that GallusCould turn them into song. Parthenius sleepsWatched over by sea-deities, by Glaucus,Panopea, Melicertes - Ino's son -Beside a river graved in celandine." (Virgil - see Lightfoot, p. (97)).

[London, Taylor & Francis], 1913. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. The fragile wrappers are detached, but fully intact. Merely tiny parts of the thin backstrip lacking. Three small tears to front wrapper, no loss, as well as a couple of creses. Back wrapper with a slight bend to the corner and minor fading to extremities. Pp. (9)-31. Scarce first edition, off-print issue with presentation-inscription, of Bohr's seminal first work on nuclear physics, being the work that lays the foundation for his atomic theory (published before his "On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules"), in which he is able to conclude "that a hydrogen atom contains only 1 electron outside the positively charged nucleus, and that a helium atom only contains 2 electrons outside the nucleus ." "Bohr's 1913 paper on alpha-particles [i.e. the present], which he had begun in Manchester, and which had led him to the question of atomic structure, marks the transition to his great work, also of 1913, on that same problem. While still in Manchester, he had already begun an early sketch of those entirely new ideas." (Pais, p. 128). The present work must be considered one of the most important to the birth of modern atomic theory.The work is inscribed to renowned Danish physicist and meteorologist Dan la Cour (1876-1942), son of the great Poul la Cour (1846-1908), who is considered the "Danish Edison". The inscription reads as thus: "Hr. Docent Afdelingschef D. la Cour/ med venlig Hilsen/ fra/ Forfatteren." [In Danish, i.e.: "Mr. Assistant Professor Head of Department D. la Cour/ with kind regards/ from/ the author."].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. After finishing his studies in Copenhagen, Bohr went to Cambridge in order to pursue his studies on electron theory under the guidance of J.J. Thompson. Thompson, who was beginning to lose interest in the subject by now, did, however, not recognize the genious of the young Bohr, and as soon as he could, Bohr went to Manchester, where Ernest Rutherford had established a laboratory. "There, from March to July 1912, working with utmost concentration, he [i.e. Bohr] laid the foundation for his greatest achievements in physics, the theory of the atomic constitution." (DSB). Bohr's survey of the implications of Rutherford's atomic model had led him to attack the much harder problem which lay at the core of it, namely determining the exact nature of the relation between the atomic number and the number of electrons in the atom. "Bohr obtained a much deeper insight into the problem by a brilliant piece of work, which he - working, as he said, "day and night" - completed with astonishing speed" (DSB), that paper being the present "On the Theory of the Decrease of Velocity of Moving electrified Particles on passing through Matter", which thus constitutes his very first publication on the subject, published immediately after this dense period of 1912, in the Philosophical Magazine of January 1913. "The problem was one of immediate interest for Rutherford's laboratory: in their passage through a material medium, alpha particles continually lose energy by ionizing the atoms they encounter, at a rate depending on their velocity. Their energy loss limits the depth to which the particles can penetrate into the medium, and the relation between this depth, or range, and the velocity offers a way of determining this velocity. What Bohr did was to analyze the ionizing process on the basis of the Rutherford model of the atom and thus express the rate of energy loss in terms of the velocity by a much more accurate formula than had so far been achieved-a formula, in fact, to which modern quantum mechanics adds only nonessential refinements" (DSB). In the present work, Bohr was thus able to conclude: "In this paper the theory of the decrease of velocity of moving electrified particles in passing through matter is given in a form, such that the rate of the decrease in the velocity depends on the frequency of vibration of the electrons in the atoms of the absorbing material." as well as the seminal words that have been formative for the birth of the modern atomic theory: "Adopting Prof. Rutherford's theory of the constitution of atoms, it seems that it can be concluded with great certainty, from the absorption of alpha-rays, that a hydrogen atom contains only 1 electron outside the positively charged nucleus, and that a helium atom only contains 2 electrons outside the nucleus ". Bohr continues: "These questions and some further information about the constitution of atoms which may be got from experiments on the absorption of alpha-rays, will be discussed in more detail in a later paper." (pp. 30-31 of the original paper) - the last sentence referring directly to his three part "On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules", in which he went on to present his postulates of the orbital structure of the electrons and their quantized radiation. Rosenfeld, Bohr Bibliography No. 5. Rosenfeld, Dictionary of Scientific Biography II, pp. 240-41. Pais, Niels Bohr's Times, pp. 117-31.

St Petersburg, I. I. Glazunov, 1868. 8vo. In contemporary half calf with with embossed boards. Three raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. Spine with wear. Small label pasted on to top left corner of pasted down front free end-paper. Removed stamp to half-title and title-page with stamp and a a few number written to top of title-page. A few light occassional underlining in pencil, otherwise internally fine and clean. (1)-515, (1), IV pp. Rare first Russian translation of Adam Smith's 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments'.The translator, Pavel Bibikov (1831-1875), also translated the 'Wealth of Nations' in 1866, both being part of his series the Library of Classical European Writers. Bibikov regarded the two works as complementing each other, as he remarks in his preface to this translation, "the works reinforce each other. That is why, having published in Russian Adam Smith's great work of political economy, I decided to translate and publish his other work, which is no less remarkable, and yet known even less to Russian society than the first" (p. 5). "Bibikov's translation, probably done via French, remained the only Russian version available until 1997". (National Library of Scotland).Adam Smith developed a comprehensive and unusual version of moral sentimentalism in his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759, TMS). He did not expressly lay out a political philosophy in similar detail, but a distinctive set of views on politics can be extrapolated from elements of both TMS and his Wealth of Nations. Although these economic doctrines had not been unheard of in Russia prior to the rise of Anglophile feelings at the beginning of the nineteenth century, "it was not until interest and admiration for things British was firmly rooted that classical economics could secure its ground in Russia" (Tanaka, The Controversies Concerning Russian Capitalism - An Analysis of the Views of Plekhanov and Lenin), this processes coincided with the present publication which became important in the spreading of Adam Smith's economic principles in Russia. OCLC only locates three copies.

Lisboa Occidental, na Officina de Joseph Antonio da Sylva, 1730. Folio (29 x 195 mm). In recent green half calf with five raised bands and gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine. Title-page mounted and with repair to outer margin, no loss of text. Last leaf with repair to lower outer corner, also with no loss of text. First and least few leaves with brownspotting. Very light browning in margins throughout. Title printed in red and black, woodcut initials and head-pieces. A fine and clean copy. (14), 716 pp. (Here with the often missing half title, but wanting the final blank). Rare first edition, here with the often missing half title, of the first general history of Brazil – “This work is extremely copious in the details of its foundation as a colony, its successive governors, its churches, its monasteries and convents” (Sabin). "This first edition is becoming rare, and is much sought after by Brazilians [...] since it is the first history of Brazil to have been printed, and since it was written by a Brazilian" (Borba de Moraes). The author's purpose was to narrate the events that had taken place in Brazil with the help of "truthful reports", these largely from Jesuit sources, and "modern information" given by those who had traveled in the vast Brazilian territory. This was the only history of Brazil available to Pitta’s contemporaries, since most of the others composed in the first two centuries of colonization remained in manuscript form until the nineteenth century. Rocha Pitta was born in Bahia in 1660 and died in the year 1738. At the age of 22 he left the University of Coimbra, where he took his degree, to return to Bahia, where he got married. He made up his mind to write a history of Brazil, and he spent years in collecting documents in the Monasteries of Brazil and Portugal, where he went in order to study French, Dutch and Italian for the purposes of his history. “In 1728, after 40 years of study, he began to print his history, which appeared in 1730. It was universally well received, and King John V. appointed him a member of the household in consequence, yet in a few years the Portuguese government publicly prohibited its being read under the severest penalties.” (Sabin).Sabin 72300 Borba de Moraes (1983), p. 748

Kiøbenhaffn, (Melchior Martzan og Salomon Sartor), (1632-) 1633. Folio. Bound in a splendid recent full calf pastish binding with five raised bands. Gilt floral ornamentation to spine and boards ruled in gilt. End-papers renewed. First 10 leaves with marginal repairs. A few leaves in the New Testament (last part) closely trimmed in upper margin, occassionally touchly text. Last 10 leaves with marginal repairs. Internally with occassional miscolouring and brownspotting, but an overall nice copy. Engraved title-page and the engraved portrait of Christian IV, all by the royal engraver Simon the Pas. Without the half-title, which merely contains the printed words "BIBLIA / Paa Danske", which is almost never present. (21 - not counting the engraved title-page and the portrait), 353 (i.e. 354 due to the erroneous double pagination 353), 226, 159 ff. A nice copy of the scarce first edition of the last (i.e. the third) of the Danish folio-bibles, known as "Christian IV's Bible", being a slightly revised edition of the Bible of 1589 (Frederik II's Bible). Christian IV is the most famous Danish king ever to have lived, and the Christian IV bible is extremely sought-after. The numerous woodcut illustrations are the same that were used for the Frederik II's Bibel from 1589. The four engraved leaves - the portrait and the three title-pages - are by Simon de Pas. Despite already having two beautiful folio-bibles, Denmark's supply of Bibles was insufficient for the nation's needs. In many parishes only the church had a copy, with a few more in the homes of the wealthy. This shortage was particularly severe in Norway due to its distance from the capital, which limited the benefits of initiatives from the King. Funds were raised from churches in Zealand and Norway, with Norway contributing generously. Two printers, Melchior Martzan and Salomon Sartor, were employed, with Martzan overseeing corrections and sales. Norwegian churches' significant contributions were rewarded with copies equivalent to their donations, while Zealand's lesser contributions received no compensation. Biblioteca Danica I, 9. Thesaurus II, 378. Birkelund, 41. Darlow and Moule, 3160.

Kiøbenhavn [Copenhagen], 1779-80. 8vo. Two nice contemporary half calf bindings with four raised bands and gilt leather title label to spines. Volume one lacking one cm of upper part of spine. Volume two with a small tear to lower part of spine. Both volumes with light brown spotting throughout, however, mainly affecting first and last five leaves of both volumes. A fine set. (12), 575; (8), 775, (3, - errata) pp. The extremely scarce first Danish edition of Adam Smith's seminal main work, "the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" (PMM 221), the main foundational work of the era of liberal free trade. This publication constitutes the first Danish work worth mentioning in the history of economic thought - in spite of the great interest in political economy that dominated Danish political thought in the last quarter of the 18th century. The value of Smith's work was not immediately recognized in Denmark at the time of its appearance and a quarter of a century had to go by for its importance to be acknowledged and for Danish political economy to adapt the revolutionizing theories of Adam Smith. Few copies of the translation were published and sold, and the book is now a great scarcity. As opposed to for instance the German translation of the work, Smith concerned himself a great deal with this Danish translation. As is evident from preserved correspondence about it, he reacted passionately to it and was deeply concerned with the reaction to his work in Scandinavia (see "Correspondence of Adam Smith", Oxford University Press, 1977).- As an example, Smith writes in a letter to Andreas Holt on Oct. 26th, 1780: "It gives me the greatest pleasure to hear that Mr. Dreby has done me the distinguished honour of translating my Book into the Danish language. I beg you will present to him my most sincere thanks and most respectful Compliments. I am much concerned that I cannot have the pleasure of reading it in his translation, as I am so unfortunate as not to understand the Danish language." The translation was made by Frants Dræby (1740-1814), the son a whiskey distiller in Copenhagen, who mastered as a theologian and was then hired by the great Norwegian merchant James Collett as tutor to his son. There can be no doubt that Dræbye's relation to the Collett house had a great impact upon his interest in economics. In the middle of the 1770'ies, Dræbye accompanied Collett's son on travels throughout Europe, which took them to England in the year 1776, the same year that the "Wealth of Nations" was published for the first time. Through the Colletts, Dræbye was introduced to the mercantile environment in England and here became thoroughly acquainted with English economics and politics at the time. It is presumably here that he gets acquainted with Adam Smith's freshly published revolutionary work. When Dræbye returned to Denmark at the end of 1776, he was appointed chief of the Norwegian secretariat of the Board of Economics and Trade. He began the translation of the "Wealth of Nations" that he brought back with him from England immediately after his return."WN [i.e. Wealth of Nations] was translated into Danish by Frants Dræbye and published in 1779 (three years after the first English edition). The translation was initiated by Andreas Holt and Peter Anker, who were acquainted with Smith. Dræbye was a Dane who lived mainly in Norway, reflecting the fact that Norway was much more British-oriented than Denmark proper (Denmark and Norway were united until 1814, when Sweden took Norway away from the Danes; in 1905 Norway became an independent state). Norwegian merchants lived from exporting timber to Britain and tended on the whole to be adherents of a liberal economic policy, whereas the absolutist government in Copenhagen was more German-oriented and had economic views similar to those in contemporary Prussia." (Cheng-chung Lai (edt.): "Adam Smith Across Nations", p. (37)). The last quarter of the eighteenth century in Denmark was dominated by a lively discussion of monetary policy and the institutional framework best suited to realize that policy. There was a vital interest in questions of economic concern, and contemporary Danish sources refer to the period as "this economic age" and state things such as "never was the world more economically minded" (both from "Denmark and Norway's Economic Magazine"). During this period, Smith's revolutionary ideas did not play a major role, however, and only at the beginning of the 19th century did Danish politicians and economists come to realize the meaning of Smith's views. "Without exaggeration it can essentially be said that a quarter of a century was to pass from the time of the publication of the book in Denmark before Danish political economy fully made Adam Smith's theories and points of view its own. It took so long a time because the economic conditions as a whole in the years from 1780-1800 did not make desirable or necessary the changing of their concepts. That glorious commercial period had to pass before it was understood that we had altogether too little help in our own natural resources and that a different course was, therefore, necessary. Only when one had come so far could the new thinking find a nourishing soil so that it could develop strength with which to push aside the old ideas."(Hans Degen: "On the Danish Translation of Adam Smith and Contemporary Opinion Concerning It." Translated by Henrietta M. Larson. In: Adam Smith Across Nations, p. 51). This first Danish translation is one of the very earliest translations of "Wealth of Nations"; it is only preceded by the German (1776-78) and the extremely scarce French (1778-79). As a comparison, the Italian translation does not appear until 1790-91, the Spanish 1792, the Swedish 1800-1804, the Russian 1802, etc.Adam Smith Across Nations: A4 - nr. 1. "All five books were translated; appears to be a complete translation. The long letter from Governor Pownall to Adam Smith (25 Sept. 1776) is added as the Appendix (vol. 2, pp. 683 ff.)."

Venice, 1546. 4to. Contemporary full vellum. Neatly recased, endpapers renewed. A (mostly fairly faint) damp stain throughout and a marginal worm tract, far from affecting text. Inner blank margin of title-page re-enforced. Some contemporary marginal annotations. Woodcut title-vignette and woodcut printer's device to final blank verso. (4), 76, (4) ff. Scarce first edition of this milestone in the history of medicine, the foundational work of modern epidemiology, which was the first to state the germ theory of infection.This epochal work "establishes Fracastoro as one of the foremost scientists of all time, and earns him the title of founder of modern epidemiology. "De contagione" contains the first scientifically reasoned statement of the true nature of infection, contagion, and the germ theory of disease and is the foundation of all modern views on the nature of infectuous diseases... Fracastoro's influence is also clearly reflected in the work of such modern scientists as Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, and Robert Koch as they broadened and furthered man's knowledge of infectuous diseases." (Heirs of Hippocrates). "This book represents a landmark in the development of our knowledge of infectuous disease. Fracastorus was the first to state the germ theory of infection. He recognized typhus and suggested the contagiousness of tuberculosis. Haeser describes him as the "founder of scientific epidemology"." (Garrison & Morton).Faracstoro's theories on contagions and epidemics were far ahead of their time, but they were still widely respected. The magnificent theories here constitute the first correct illustrations of how contagions might spread: by simple contact as in scabies and leprosy; by "fomities" or inanimate carriers, such as clothing or sheets; and at a distance, without direct contact or carriers, as in plague, smallpox, etc., attributing their transmission to the action of the air - and his ideas on the spreading and controlling of epidemics were of vital importance to Renaissance man and to the further development of our knowledge within this field. The work furthermore gives the first accurate account of typhys as well as several other contageous diseases, together with the affirmation of the contagiousness of tuberculosis. With this work, Fracastoro was also the first to enunciate the modern doctrine of the specific characters and infectious nature of fevers. Heirs of Hippocrates: 101; G&M: 2528; Wellcome: 2393; Govi: 83.

Berlin, A. Hirschwald, 1847. 8vo. Uncut in the original printed wrappers. Previous owner's name (Kurt Egon Deutsch) to half-title. Wrappers a bit discoloured and frayed, and spine missing small part of paper. Spine skewed. Internally with light marginal brownspotting, otherwise a good copy. Housed in a cloth clam-shell box. XII, 228 pp. + 1 engraved plate. Rare first edition, here in the original printed wrappers, of Dieffenbach’s landmark work in which he helped popularize aether as an anesthetic and, for the first time, applied “ether anesthesia for plastic operations. Dieffenbach made his first use of the anesthetic in reconstructing a nose. Dieffenbach’s work helped bring about the early acceptance of anesthesia in Germany.” (Garrison & Morton). After the successful use of ether as a surgical anaesthetic Dieffenbach famously stated that: "The wonderful dream that pain has been taken away from us has become reality. Pain, the highest consciousness of our earthly existence, the most distinct sensation of the imperfection of our body, must now bow before the power of the human mind, before the power of ether vapor." The present work was published shortly before Dieffenbach died. Here he recorded his results of his practical experience with etherization:“He expressed the opinion that since ether was able to obviate completely even the most intense pain during capital operations, it afforded the greatest possible relief to the patient; but for the surgeon […] it merely made the matters more difficult. He stressed the dangers of etherization: its liability to produce apoplexy and haemorrhage, the possibility of instantaneous death through overdosage, the tendency to increased post-operative bleeding, the slow healing of wounds where much tissue had been lost. He found indeed, that the post-operative condition of the patients who had been etherized was in general less favourable than of patients operated upon without ether.” (Davison, The Evolution of Anaesthesia). Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach (1792 -1847), German surgeon, specialized in skin transplantation and plastic surgery. His work in rhinoplastic and maxillofacial surgery established many modern techniques of reconstructive surgery. His endeavours comprehended subcutaneous operations such as tenotomy, the surgical division of a tendon. Before the discovery of blood typing and blood matching, Dr. Dieffenbach researched blood transfusion, Dieffenbach performed the first successful myotomy for the treatment of strabismus on a seven-year-old boy with esotropia. He settled in Berlin, where he focused his attention on plastic and reconstructive surgery.He soon won recognition as a leading plastic surgeon. In the following years he published a large number of writings describing his methods of operation, above all in the field of rebuilding surgery. In 1829 he was made chief physician to the surgical department of the Berlin Charité. At this period he turned his attention to the recently introduced subcutaneous operations like tenotomys and other methods of treating orthopaedic disturbances. He also concerned himself with blood transfusions, with the healing of stuttering and blinking. Shortly before his death he authored the last, and most famous and influential, of his medical dissertations introducing painless plastic surgery. Waller 2443 Garrison & Morton 5659.1

Kiøbenhaffn, Hans Støckelman oc Andreas Gutterwitz, 1575. Folio. Bound in a very nice mid 19th century brown half calf with five raised bands and gilt ornamentations to spine. Title-page printed in red and black and with large woodcut, verso with full-page woodcut portrait of King Frederik II. Small repaired cut-out to top of title-page and an old owner's annotation. Neat marginal annotations to some leaves and early annotations to back fly-leaf. Occasional light brownspotting, but overall an unusually well kept and fresh copy, printed on good paper. (36), 547, (33) pp. The very rare first translation into any language, being the seminal first Danish translation, of the first preserved full history of Denmark - to this day the most important of all Danish historical publications and a main work of European Medieval literature. This magnificent work furthermore contains the first known written narrative of the legend of Hamlet and served as the basis for Shakespeare's play. ""Hamlet" is based on a Norse legend composed by Saxo Grammaticus in Latin around 1200 AD. The sixteen books that comprise Saxo Grammaticus' "Gesta Danorum", or "History of the Danes", tell of the rise and fall of the great rulers of Denmark, and the tale of Amleth, Saxo's Hamlet, is recounted in books three and four. In Saxo's version, King Rorik of the Danes places his trust in two brothers, Orvendil and Fengi. The brothers are appointed to rule over Jutland, and Orvendil weds the king's beautiful daughter, Geruth. They have a son, Amleth. But Fengi, lusting after Orvendil's new bride and longing to become the sole ruler of Jutland, kills his brother, marries Geruth, and declares himself king over the land. Amleth is desperately afraid, and feigns madness to keep from getting murdered. He plans revenge against his uncle and becomes the new and rightful king of Jutland." ("Shakespeare's Sources for "Hamlet" " - Shakespeare-on-line). The patriotic "Danish Chronicle" (i.e. Gesta Danorum) by Saxo Grammaticus is without comparison the most ambitious literary production of medieval Denmark and the most important source for the early history of the nation, also being one of the oldest known written documents about the history of Estonia and Latvia. Its sixteen books describe the history of Denmark and the Danes as well as Scandinavian history in general, from prehistory until Saxo's own time (12th century). It offers crucial reflections on European affairs of the High Middle Ages, from a unique Scandinavian perspective, and constitutes a significant supplement to other Western and Southern European sources. Saxo Grammaticus (ab. 1150-1220) was probably a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the great Danish churchman, statesman and warrior. Saxo is remembered today as the author of the first full history of Denmark, in which he modelled himself upon the classical authors (e.g. Virgil, Plato, Cicero) in order to glorify his fatherland. The work dates from the end of the 12th century and was first printed, in Latin, in Paris in 1514 with 16th century re-issues following in 1534 (Basel) and 1576 (Frankfurt). In 1575, the very first translation of the work appeared, that into Danish, which came to play a significant role in the history of both the legends presented in the work and in Danish language and culture. This groundbreaking first printed translation of Saxo's chronicle was prepared by the Danish historian and philologist Anders Sørensen Vedel (1542-1616). Vedel was also the tutor of Tycho Brahe and his companion on Brahe's grand tour of Europe, where the two formed a lasting bond of friendship. Previous attempts had been made at translating Saxo's magnificent work (one by Christiern Pedersen, one by Jon Tursen), but none of them were printed and the manuscripts have also not survived; Vedel's translation is the only one that was finished and made it to print. Prompted by Absalon, Vedel began his translation in 1570, and it took him five years to finish the task of both translating and rewriting the original Latin text. While working on this grandiose production, he was given the income of a canon at Ribe Cathedral. Vedel's translation is one of tone of the most important Renaissance contributions to Danish literature and to the development of the Danish language. Vedel's work is not merely a translation, but a magnificent rewriting that should be considered a literary masterpiece in its own right. After Vedel's translation, Saxo remained the indispensable classic that overshadowed all other historical works, both as a source to the earliest history of Denmark and the Danes and as a source of the Nordic myths. Vedel's seminal translation predates the first English translation by more than 300 years and remained the only vernacular version of the text for centuries. The work consists of sixteen books that cover the time from the founders of the Danish people (Dan I of Denmark) till Saxo's own time, ending around 1185 (with the submission of Pomerania), when the last part is supposedly written. The work thus covers the entire history of Denmark until Saxo's own time, seen under a somewhat glorified perspective, from heathen times with tales of Odin and the gods of Valhalla to the times of Absalon, who probably directly influenced the sections on the history of his own time, working closely with Saxo himself. The work also contains the first known written narrative of the legend of Hamlet (Amleth, the son who took revenge for his murdered father). It is this narrative of Saxo's, which he based on an oral tale, that forms the basis for Shakespeare's "Hamlet", which takes place in Helsinore in Denmark. There is fairly certain evidence that Shakespeare knew Saxo's work on the History of Denmark and thus the legend of Amleth. "This is the old, Norse folk-tale of Amleth, a literary ancestor of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The Scandinavian legend was recorded in Latin around 1200 by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus and first printed in Paris in this beautiful 1514 edition. It is part of the collection of tales known as Gesta Danorum - a partly mythical history of the Danes. Saxo's Amleth story - a summaryKing Rørik of Denmark appoints two brothers, Horwendil and Fengo, as the rulers of Jutland. Horwendil slays the King of Norway, marries King Rørik's daughter Gerutha, and they have a son named Amleth. Consumed by envy of his brother, Fengo murders Horwendil and marries his wife Gerutha. Amleth then feigns madness, clothing himself in rags and spouting nonsense, to shield himself from his uncle's violence. In fact, the name 'Amleth' itself means 'stupid'.Yet Amleth's behaviour attracts suspicion, and the King attempts to trap him into admitting he has plans for revenge. First, a beautiful woman is used to lure him into betraying himself, but she proves loyal to Amleth. Then a spy is planted to eavesdrop on Amleth's conversation with his mother, in which she repents and he confesses his plans for revenge. Amleth detects the spy, kills him in a mad frenzy, throws his mutilated body in a sewer, and leaves it to be eaten by pigs. Fengo then deports Amleth to England with two escorts carrying a letter directing the King there to execute him. Amleth switches the letter with another one, which orders the death of the escorts and asks for the hand of the English Princess in marriage.Returning to Denmark, Amleth arrives disguised, in the midst of his own funeral, burns down the hall and hunts down his sleeping uncle. Because Amleth had wounded himself on his sword, attendants had made it harmless by nailing it to the scabbard (the sheath used to hold it). Amleth swaps this useless sword with Fengo's, succeeds in killing his uncle and next day is hailed as the King....Saxo's account has many of the defining features of Shakespeare's drama: a villain who kills his brother, takes over the throne and then marries his brother's wifea cunning young hero, the King's son, who pretends to be mad to shield himself from his unclethree plots used by the King to uncover the young man's secrets: a young woman, a spy planted in the Queen's bedroom (who is uncovered and killed), and two escorts who take the prince to England (also outwitted and killed)a hero who returns home during a funeral and finally achieves his revenge through an exchange of swords. There are equivalents for Shakespeare's central characters - old and young Hamlet, old and young Fortinbras, Claudius and Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. But Saxo has no ghost demanding vengeance, and the identity of the murderous uncle is known from the start. There is no Osric, no gravediggers or play within a play. The legend lacks a Laertes character and the young woman does not go mad or kill herself. Perhaps most crucially, Amleth lacks Hamlet's melancholy disposition and long self-reflexive soliloquies, and he survives after becoming king." ("Saxo's legend of Amleth in the Gesta Danorum" - The British Library.mht). "Saxo Grammaticus, (flourished 12th century-early 13th century), historian whose Gesta Danorum ("Story of the Danes") is the first important work on the history of Denmark and the first Danish contribution to world literature.Little is known of Saxo's life except that he was a Zealander belonging to a family of warriors and was probably a clerk in the service of Absalon, archbishop of Lund from 1178 to 1201. Saxo is first mentioned in Svend Aggesen's Historia Regum Danicae compendiosa (1185; "Short History of the Danish Kings") as writing the history of Svend Estridsen (d. 1076).The Gesta Danorum was written at the suggestion of Archbishop Absalon: its 16 volumes begin with the legendary King Dan and end with the conquest of Pomerania by Canute IV in 1185. The work is written in a brilliant, ornate Latin. It was his Latin eloquence that early in the 14th century caused Saxo to be called "Grammaticus." The first nine books of the Gesta Danorum give an account of about 60 legendary Danish kings. For this part Saxo depended on ancient lays, romantic sagas, and the accounts of Icelanders. His legend of Amleth is thought to be the source of William Shakespeare's Hamlet; his Toke, the archer, the prototype of William Tell. Saxo incorporated also myths of national gods whom tradition claimed as Danish kings, as well as myths of foreign heroes. Three heroic poems are especially noteworthy, translated by Saxo into Latin hexameters. These oldest-known Danish poems are Bjarkemaalet, a battle hymn designed to arouse warlike feelings; Ingjaldskvadet, a poem stressing the corruptive danger of luxury upon the old Viking spirit; and Hagbard and Signe, a tragedy of love and family feuds. The last seven books contain Saxo's account of the historical period, but he achieves independent authority only when writing of events close to his own time. His work is noteworthy for its sense of patriotic purpose based on a belief in the unifying influence of the monarchy. By presenting a 2,000-year-long panorama of Danish history, he aimed to show his country's antiquity and traditions. Saxo's work became a source of inspiration to many of the 19th-century Danish Romantic poets." (Encycl. Britt.) Laur.Nielsen 240. - Thesaurus 190.

Egypt, ca. 1870ies. Folio-oblong (365 x 280 mm). 146 albumen prints mounted verso and recto on 73 ff. Bound in contemporary half cloth. With traces of paper-label to inner margin of front board. Label of the stationery shop "Maison Martinet, Albert Hautecoeur, bd des Capucines, 12, Paris" pasted on to upper outer corner of pasted down front end-paper. Paper creased and some leaves symetrically perforated, not affecting photos. Two photos with tears and a few photos partly detached from paper. Some photos are slightly discoloured and toned but are in general in good condition. Extraordinary collection containing 146 albumen prints depicting landscapes and animated scenes of Egypt including some of the very earliest photographs of the newly opened Suez Canal. The photographs also document a period in Egyptian history, where the country began to gain independence and autonomy from Ottoman rule; Constantinople had granted Egypt the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate in 1867, and completion of the Suez Canal gave Britain a faster route to India which in turn made Egypt increasingly reliant on Britain for both military and economic aid. Most photos are signed by the greatest local photographers of the time: the Zangaki brothers, Bonfils, Arnoux, Beato, Fiorillo, Béchard and Sébah. Active in the second half of the 19th century, these photographers of diverse origins such as French, Italian, British, Ottoman and Greek all established a studio or a branch in Egypt, in Alexandria, Port Said and Cairo. The Suez Canal was one of the most ambitious engineering projects of the 19th century. It was designed to create a waterway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, linking Europe and Asia and providing a faster and more efficient route for shipping goods between the two continents. Construction of the canal began in 1859 and took over ten years to complete. Hippolyte Arnoux is best known for his remarkable photographs of the Suez Canal in Egypt. Arnoux's photographs of the Suez Canal were groundbreaking in their time and remain an important documentation of the construction of one of the world's most significant engineering endeavors. He was hired by the French government to document the construction of the canal, and he spent several years in Egypt taking photographs of it. He used a large-format camera, which allowed him to capture incredible detail and clarity in his images. Arnoux's photographs of the Suez Canal were not only important documents of the construction of the canal, but they also played an important role in the popular imagination of the time. They helped to promote the idea of progress and modernity, as well as the importance of colonialism and European expansion in the world. Zangaki's portrait photography also received much acclaim. His portraits were known for their ability to capture the essence of his subjects, conveying their personality, character, and emotions, and his portraiture work also demonstrated his mastery of lighting, composition, and posing.Zangaki's landscape photography is another notable aspect of his work. He and his brother captured breathtaking images of Egypt's natural landscapes, such as the Nile River, the desert, and the countryside. Their images were notable for their use of contrast, shadows, and light, creating a unique atmosphere that evoked the beauty and mystery of Egypt's landscapes. Their work contributed significantly to the early days of Egyptology, as it allowed European scholars and archaeologists that were not in a position to travel to examine the monuments and artifacts. The present collection forms a fine testament to one the most interesting periods in modern Egyptian history and to the cradle of Egyptian photography.

Rome, Nicoloò Angelo Tinassi, 1672. Small 8vo. Near contemporary full calf biding with five raised bands to richly gilt spine. All edges of boards gilt. Hinges, capitals and corners with wear. Cords showing at front hinge, but still tight. Slight spotting to margins of title-page and some scattered brownspotting (not heavy). Overall a fine, unrestored copy with wide margins. Book plate to inside of front board and an old library stamp (Académie de Chirurgie) to title-page. (26), 455, (1) pp. Engraved frontispiece. The rare first edition of the first book devoted entirely to surgical anatomy. Genga's milestone work founded the discipline of anatomical surgery; it was frequently reprinted and remained a widely used manual for decades after its first appearance. Genga furthermore, in the tract appended to this work (i.e the "Breve Discorso" on the circulation of the blood, pp. 420-448), showed himself to be one of the first Italians to accept Harvey's theory on the circulation of blood. "Though anatomy was hitherto cultivated with much success as illustrating the natural history and morbid states of the human body, yet little had been done for the elucidation of local diseases, and the surgical means by which they may have been successfully treated. The idea of applying anatomical knowledge directly to this purpose appears to have originated with Barnardin Genga, a Roman surgeon, who published in 1672, at Rome, a work entitled "Surgical Anatomy, or the Anatomical History of the Bones and Muscles of the Human Body, with the description of the Blood-vessels". This work, which reached a second edition in 1687, is highly creditable to the author, who appears to have studied intimately the mutual relations of different parts." (Encyclopaedia Britannica). This foundational work, Genga's first work, was extremely influential and widely used. It was reprinted a number of times within the following decades. The first edition of it is of great scarcity. Most of the bibliographies only have later editions, and one of the few copies that are listed on OCLC is incomplete, lacking the title-page. We have only been able to locate one copy at auction within the last 40 years (in 1979). Heirs of Hippocrates: 337 (1687-edition)Wellcome III:102 (only later editions)Garrison-Morton: 387 ("First book devoted entirely to surgical anatomy").

Oxford, Sheldonian, 1686. Folio. Recent full calf with 6 raised bands, ruled and blind-stamped in antique style, morocco label. (8),343,30,(1),(11) pp. Engraved allegorical frontispiece dated 1685, 188 copper engraved plates. Slight browning and small stain at the top. Three plates with a minor tear. First edition of the first large English work on ichtyology. The work was a collaboration between Willughby and John Ray, and includes essays on the definition of fish, on their anatomy, and on theory physiology. The work devides fish according into the Aristotelean categories of Cetacei, Cartilaginei, and Spinosi, and includes a description of the reproductive organs and a rejection of the theory of reproduction through spontaneous generation. (Norman Sale 872). The plates were engraved by Poul van Sommers. Wood p.629. Nissen 4417. Wing W-2879.

Hafnia, Joachim Moltke, 1643 + Melchior Martzan, 1642. Small folio. Bound in a nice contemporary full calf binding with raised bands to richly gilt spine. Spine worn and corners bumped. A damp stain throughout, mostly faint. Title-page of "Danicorum Moumentorum" with a contemporary presentation-inscription to verso: "Ex donatione amici et fautoris nei Secretarii Rejersen./ Wedege." Contemporary handwritten corrections and additions to the Index. Engraved title-page (by Simon de Pas). (24), 526, (16) pp. + large folded woodcut plate (the Golden Horn). Large woodcuts in the text + (12), 36 pp. The text is in two columns, in Latin and runes. Captions and some runic letters printed in red. Scarce first editions of both of Worm's famous masterpieces on runes - 1) "Danicorum Monumentorum" being Worm's runic magnum opus, which not only constitutes the first written study of runestones and the first scientific analysis of them, but also one of the only surviving sources for depictions of numerous runestones and inscriptions from Denmark, many of which are now lost; 2) "Regum Daniae", which contains the highly important reproduction of The Law of Scania in runes as well as in Latin translation with commentaries. The "Danicorum Monumentorum", with its numerous woodcut renderings of monuments with rune-inscriptions - including the world-famous folded plate of the Golden Horn, which had been found only five year previously, and which is now lost - is arguably the most significant work on runes ever written, founding the study of runes and runic monuments. Most of the woodcuts were done after drawings by the Norwegian student Jonas Skonvig; they are now of monumental importance to the study of runes and runic monuments, not only because they appeared here for the first time in print, but also because many of the monuments are now lost and these illustrations are the only surviving remains that we have. Ole Worm (Olaus Wormius) (1588-1655) was a famous Danish polymath, who was widely travelled and who had studied at a range of different European universities. Like many of the great intellectuals of the Early Modern era, Worm's primary occupation was as a physician, for which he gained wide renown. He later became court doctor to King Christian IV of Denmark. In 1621, Worm had become professor of physics, but already the year before, in 1620, had he begun the famous collection that would become one of the greatest cabinets of curiosites in Europe (and one of the first museums) and which would earn him the position as the first great systematic collector (within natural history) in Scandinavia. It was his then newly begun collection that enabled him, as professor of physics, to introduce demonstrative subject teaching at the university, as something completely new. He continued building and adding to his magnificent collection, now known as "Museum Wormianum", throughout the rest of his life. Worm's fascination for antiquarian subjects not only resulted in his famous "Museum Wormianum", but also in a deep fascination with early Scandinavian and runic literature and the history and meaning of runestones. These monuments found throughout Scandinavia, were carved with runic inscriptions and set in place from about the fourth to the twelfth centuries. In most cases, they are burial headstones, presumably for heroes and warriors.Worm published works on the runic calendar, translations of runic texts and explications of folklore associated with the runestone histories. By far his most extensive and important work was the "Danicorum Monumentorum", which was the first serious attempt at scientifically analyzing and recording all 144 then known runestone sites in Denmark. With the King's blessing and support, Worm contacted bishops all over the country who were instructed to provide details and drawings of the barrows, stone circles and carved inscriptions in their regions.Many of the monuments recorded in this splendid work have since disappeared. Some of them appeared in the fire of Copenhagen, to which they were brought at the request of Worm himself. The book thus contains highly valuable data about missing sites in Scandinavian archaeology and is an invaluable source to anyone studying runes and runic monuments. Included in the work are Worm's three earlier, small treatises on runes, here collected for the first time and set into a systematic an scientific context, among them his 1641 treatise on the Golden Horn. For Danes, the Golden Horns, discovered on 1639 and 1734 respectively, with their amazing, complicated, and tragic story, constitute the Scandinavian equivalent to the Egyptian pyramids and have been the object of the same kind of fascination here in the North, causing a wealth of fantastical interpretations, both historical, literary, mystical, linguistic, and artistic. The two golden horns constitute the greatest National treasure that we have. They are both from abound 400 AD and are thought to have been a pair. A span of almost 100 years elapsed between the finding of the first horn and the finding of the second. Both findings are now a fundamental part of Danish heritage. In 1802 the horns were stolen, and the story of this theft constitutes the greatest Danish detective story of all times. The thief was eventually caught, but it turned out that he had melted both of the horns and used the gold for other purposes.Before the horns were stolen, a copy of the horns was made and shipped to the King of Italy, but the cast which was used to make this copy was destroyed, before news had reached the kingdom of Denmark that the copies made from the cast were lost on their way to Italy, in a shipwreck. Worm's work constitutes not only the earliest description of the seminal first horn, but also the most important source that we now have to the knowledge of the horn. It is on the basis of the description and depiction in the present work that the later copies of the first horn were made. Both horns were found in Gallehus near Møgeltønder, the first in 1639, by Kirsten Svendsdatter, the second in 1734, by Jerk (Erik) Lassen.Kirsten Svendsdatter made her discovery on a small path near her house, initially thinking that she had stumbled upon a root. When she returned to the same place the following week, she dug up the alleged root with a stick, and took it for an old hunting horn. She brought it back home and began polishing it. During the polishing of it, a small piece broke off, which she brought to a goldsmith in Tønder. It turned out that the horn was made of pure gold, and rumors of Kirsten's find quickly spread. The horn was eventually brought to the King, Christian IV, and Kirsten was given a reward corresponding to the gold value of the horn. The king gave the horn to his son, who had a lid made for it so that he could use it as a drinking horn. An excavation of the site where the horn was found was begun immediately after, but nothing more was found - that is until 95 years later when Jerk Larsen was digging clay on his grounds - merely 25 paces from where Kirsten had found the first horn. The year was now 1734. The horn that Larsen found was a bit smaller in size and was lacking the tip, but it still weighed 3,666 kg. As opposed to the first horn, this second horn had a runic inscription. After the horn had been authenticated, it was sent to King Christian VI, where it was placed in a glass case in the royal art chamber, together with the first horn. Before being placed here, a copy was made of both horns. These copies were lost in a ship wreck, however, and the casts had already been destroyed. In the fatal year of 1802, the gold smith and counterfeiter Niels Heldenreich broke in to the royal art chamber and stole the horns. By the time the culprit was discovered, the horns were irrevocably lost - Heldenreich had melted them and used the gold to make other things, such as jewellery. A pair of ear rings that are still preserved are thought to have been made with gold from the horns, but this is all that we have left of the original horns. New horns were produced on the basis of the descriptions and engraved illustrations that were made after the finding of the horns. And thus, the plate used in the present works constitute our main source of knowledge of the appearance of the first horn. "The longest of the golden horns was found in 1639 and described by Ole Worm in the book 'De Aureo Cornu', 1641 (a treatise which is also included in his greater "Danicorum Monumentorum"). The German professor at Soro Academy Hendrich Ernst, disagreed with Worm’s interpretation of the horn. Ernst believed that the horn came from Svantevits temple on Rügen, while Worm interpreted it as a war trumpet from the time of Frode Fredegods, decorated with pictures, calling for virtue and good morals. Worm immediately sent his book to Prince Christian and the scholars at home and abroad. You can see in his letters, that not only did the horn make an impression, but also the letter and the interpretation. In that same year there were such lively discussions on the horn among the scholars of Königsberg, now Kaliningrad!In 1643 Worm reiterated the description of the golden horn in his great work on Danish runic inscriptions, 'Monumenta Danica'. In 1644, his descriptions of the horn reached for scholars and libraries in Schleswig, Königsberg, London, Rome, Venice and Padua. Several learned men wrote poems for him, and the golden horn was mentioned in an Italian manus. Map Cartoonist Johannes Meyer placed the finds on several of his map of South Jutland. When the Swedish commander Torstensson attacked Jutland in 1643, Peter Winstrup wrote a long poem in Latin addressed to the bishop of Scania (which at that time still belonged to Denmark), the poem was called 'Cornicen Danicus'. It was immediately translated into Danish, entitled 'The Danish Horn Blower'. He interpreted the horn and its images as an warning of war, and his interpretations were very hostile to the Swedish. Paul Egard and Enevold Nielssen Randulf were among some of the other scholars who interpreted the Golden Horn In the 1640s. They were both deans in Holstein, and had a more Christian interpretation of the horn.All these works were illustrated with copies of Worms depictions of the horn. The Golden Horn remained known throughout the 1600s, both in terms of interpretations of the horn and designs. The found of the short golden horn in 1734 renewed the interest of the meaning of the horns." (National Museum of Denmark). Thesuarus: 727 & 733 Rejersen: Holmens chef Wedege: Regiments-Quarteer-Mester

Hafniae (Copenhagen), Melchior Matzan, Joachim Moltke, 1641. Small folio. Bound in an newer absolutely exquisite full mottled calf pastiche-binding with five raised bands and gilt title-label to richly gilt spine. Gilt ornamental borders with gilt corner-pieces to boards, all edges of boards gilt, and inner gilt dentelles. Title-page restored at inner hinge, far from affecting print. Some leaves slighly dusty and some mostly light brownspotting. Overall very nice indeed. The folded plate neatly re-enforced at the foldings, from verso, and on stub. "Dupl" written in hand to upper right corner of title-page and with two stamps to verso: "Museum Britannicum" and "British Museum Sale Duplicate 1787". (8), 72 pp. + large folded engraved plate of the horn. Exceedingly scarce first printing of one of the most important works in Scandinavian history. Worm’s monumental 1641-treatise is the first and single most important work on what is arguably the most famous Danish cultural artifact, namely the first Golden Horn, and constitutes our primary source of knowledge of that now lost treasure. For Danes, the Golden Horns, discovered on 1639 and 1734 respectively, with their amazing, complicated, and tragic story, constitute the Scandinavian equivalent to the Egyptian pyramids and have been the object of the same kind of fascination here in the North, causing a wealth of fantastical interpretations, both historical, literary, mystical, linguistic, and artistic. The two golden horns constitute the greatest National treasure that we have. They are both from abound 400 AD and are thought to have been a pair. A span of almost 100 years elapsed between the finding of the first horn and the finding of the second. Although the first was by far the most important, both findings are now a fundamental part of Danish cultural heritage. In 1802 the horns were stolen, and the story of this theft became the greatest Danish detective story of all times. The thief was eventually caught, but it turned out that he had melted both of the horns and used the gold for other purposes. Before the horns were stolen, a copy of the horns was made and shipped to the King of Italy, but the cast which was used to make this copy was destroyed, before news had reached the kingdom of Denmark that the copies made from the cast were lost on their way to Italy, in a shipwreck. Worm's work constitutes not only the earliest description of the seminal first horn, but also the most important source that we now have to the knowledge of the horn. It is on the basis of the description and depiction in the present work that the later copies of the first horn were made. Both horns were found in Gallehus near Møgeltønder, the first in 1639, by Kirsten Svendsdatter, the second in 1734, by Jerk (Erik) Lassen. Kirsten Svendsdatter made her discovery on a small path near her house, initially thinking that she had stumbled upon a root. When she returned to the same place the following week, she dug up the alleged root with a stick, and mistook it for an old hunting horn. She brought it back home and began polishing it. During the polishing of it, a small piece broke off, which she brought to a goldsmith in Tønder. It turned out that the horn was made of pure gold, and rumors of Kirsten's find quickly spread. The horn was eventually brought to the King, Christian IV, and Kirsten was given a reward corresponding to the gold value of the horn. The king gave the horn to his son, who had a lid made for it so that he could use it as a drinking horn. An excavation of the site where the horn was found was begun immediately after, but nothing more was found - that is until 95 years later when Jerk Larsen was digging clay on his grounds - merely 25 paces from where Kirsten had found the first horn. The year was now 1734. The horn that Larsen found was a bit smaller in size and was lacking the tip, but it still weighed 3,666 kg. After the horn had been authenticated, it was sent to King Christian VI, where it was placed in a glass case in the royal art chamber, together with the first horn. Before being placed here, a copy was made of both horns. These copies were the ones lost in the ship wreck, however, and as mentioned the casts had already been destroyed. In the fatal year of 1802, the gold smith and counterfeiter Niels Heldenreich broke in to the royal art chamber and stole the horns. By the time the culprit was discovered, the horns were irrevocably lost - Heldenreich had melted them and used the gold to make other things, such as jewellery. A pair of earrings that are still preserved are thought to have been made with gold from the horns, but this is all that we have now have of the original horns. New horns were produced on the basis of the descriptions and engraved illustrations that were made after the finding of the horns. The plate in the present work constitutes our main source of knowledge of the appearance of the first horn and is the single most important depiction of it, forming the basis of the reproductions. "The longest of the golden horns was found in 1639 and described by Ole Worm in the book 'De Aureo Cornu', 1641 (a treatise which is also included in his greater "Danicorum Monumentorum" [1643]). The German professor at Soro Academy Hendrich Ernst, disagreed with Worm’s interpretation of the horn. Ernst believed that the horn came from Svantevits temple on Rügen, while Worm interpreted it as a war trumpet from the time of Frode Fredegods, decorated with pictures, calling for virtue and good morals. Worm immediately sent his book to Prince Christian and the scholars at home and abroad. You can see in his letters, that not only did the horn make an impression, but also the letter and the interpretation. In that same year there were such lively discussions on the horn among the scholars of Königsberg, now Kaliningrad! In 1643 Worm reiterated the description of the golden horn in his great work on Danish runic inscriptions, 'Monumenta Danica'. In 1644, his descriptions of the horn reached scholars and libraries in Schleswig, Königsberg, London, Rome, Venice and Padua. Several learned men wrote poems for him, and the golden horn was mentioned in an Italian manus. Map Cartoonist Johannes Meyer placed the finds on several of his map of South Jutland. When the Swedish commander Torstensson attacked Jutland in 1643, Peter Winstrup wrote a long poem in Latin addressed to the bishop of Scania (which at that time still belonged to Denmark), the poem was called 'Cornicen Danicus'. It was immediately translated into Danish, entitled 'The Danish Horn Blower'. He interpreted the horn and its images as a warning of war, and his interpretations were very hostile to the Swedish. Paul Egard and Enevold Nielssen Randulf were among some of the other scholars who interpreted the Golden Horn In the 1640s. They were both deans in Holstein, and had a more Christian interpretation of the horn. All these works were illustrated with copies of Worms depictions of the horn. The Golden Horn remained known throughout the 1600s, both in terms of interpretations of the horn and designs. The found of the short golden horn in 1734 renewed the interest of the meaning of the horns." (National Museum of Denmark). This monument of Danish cultural history is incredibly scarce in the trade. We have never seen a copy before, and there is not a single auction record traceable.

Roma, Apud Antonium Bladum Asulanum (on colophon), 1531, mense Septembri. 4to. Sown, uncut and unbound. Title-page and a few other leaves with a bit of minor brownspotting; overall a very nice and well-preserved copy of this beautifully printed, extremely scarce work. Two quires with loose leaves. Floriated large initial at beginning. [32] ff. (being title-page, 29 ff. text, 1 f. errata, 1 f. blank). The exceedingly scarce second edition (the "Rome text") of "[t]he most famous of all medical poems" (Garrison & Morton), the poem which gave to the disease syphilis its name, being the most important edition of the work, the first complete edition (with the two lines of the first book printed for the first time - not found in any other contemporary editions of the work), the only authoritative version of the text to appear contemporarily, and by far the rarest edition - with only four known copies at the time of the official bibliography (Baumgartner and Fulton, 1935) (whereas the first edition from the year before, 1530, was known in 30 copies) - our copy also with the final blank leaf (H4), "not preserved in any copy examined" (Baumgartner & Fulton, p. 38)."The edition published at Rome (no. 2) in the following year is a finer piece of printing, AND IT IS EVIDENTLY A MUCH RARER WORK SINCE ONLY FOUR COPIES HAVE BEEN TRACED, WHILE AT LEAST 30 COPIES OF THE VERONA EDITION (i.e. the first edition) ARE KNOWN." (Baumgartner & Fulton, p. 37). Apart from the work itself being of the greatest impact on the history of medicine, giving to Syphilis its name and epitomizing contemporary knowledge of the illness, and the author being one of the most renowned physicians of the Renaissance, being compared in scope and excellence to Leonardo da Vinci, the present work in the present second edition has yet another feature, apart from its utmost scarcity, which contributes to its excellence; it is printed by the excellent Italian printer Antonio Blado, whose works are scarce and very sought after."Textually, as well as typographically, this is the most important edition of Fracastoro's poem, since, unlike those which follow, it bears evidence of having been supervised by Fracastoro himself, the two lines which had been omitted from Bk. I of the Verona edition being here included (verses 1 and 2 on leaf C2b) in exactly the form in which they were written on the vellum copy of the 1530 edition mentioned above (see end of note)... Among his other achievements in typography Antonio Blado can claim the distinction of having issued the most beautiful edition of Fracastoro's poem of any of the sixteenth century. The format is larger than that of the Verona edition and the fount of large italic type seems particularly well suited to Fracastoro's even lined verses. As with the other editions of this period the capitals are in Roman throughout; the ornamental capital (Q) at the beginning of Bk. I is particularly well executed. Bks II and II have spaces at the beginning for an illuminated initial.THE BOOKS OF ANTONIO BLADO ARE APPARENTLY AS RARE AS THEY ARE EXCELLENT, AND THEY HAVE LONG BEEN SOUGHT AFTER BY ITALIAN COLLECTORS. Blado was born in 1490 at Asloa in northern Italy. In 1515 Blado settled in Rome where he remained until his death in 1567. He was a bold and original printer, who, as Fumagelli points out, almost invariably undertook new things, never reprinting classics, and only occasionally , as in the case of Fracastoro's poem, reprinting the work of a contemporary. In 1532 he issued the first edition of Machiavelli's "Il Principe", and in 1549 he became official printer to the Papal See..." (Baumgartner & Fulton, p. 39)."Girolamo Fracastoro (1484-1553), a Veronese of thick-set, hirsute appearance and jovial mien, who practiced in the Lago di Garda region, was at once a physician, poet, physicist, geologist, astronomer, and pathologist, and shares with Leonardo da Vinci the honour of being the first geologist to see fossil remains in the true light (1530). He was also the first scientist to refer to the magnetic poles of the earth (1543). His medical fame rests upon that most celebrated of medical poems, "Syphilis sive Moribus Gallicus (Venice, 1530), which sums up the contemporary dietetic and therapeutic knowledge of the time, recognizes a venereal cause, and gave the disease its present name..." (Garrison, History of Medicine, p. 233).The magnificent medical poem is about the main character, a young shepherd called "Syphilis", who induces the people to forsake the Sun God, who in return bestows upon man a new, horrible plague, which Fracastoro names after the shepherd. "It epitomized contemporary knowledge of syphilis, gave to it its present name, and recognized a venereal cause. Fracastorius refers to mercury as a remedy." (Garrison and Morton).The work must be described as seminal, and its great influence and importance has continued throughout centuries. As stated in the bibliography by Baumgartner and Fulton, which is devoted exclusively to the poem, "[t]he full extent of the influence exerted by a work which has received such wide recognition cannot be adequately estimated without searching bibliographical analysis", and thus they have traced 100 editions of Fracastoro's Syphilis-poem, including translations into six languages. 18 of these appeared in the 16th century, but it is curious to see, how the work continues to resurface up until the 20th century. Almost 200 years after the work originally appeared, Italy witnessed a great revival of Fracastoro and his poem, and the first Italian translation appeared in 1731, with a preface by the great Enlightenment philosopher Giambattista Vico, and by 1739 five Italian editions had appeared. Another revival of the work took place as late as the 20th century, with four new English translations appearing between 1928 and 1935."Le poème de Fracastor sur la Syphilis restera toujours un chef-d'oeuvre, parce que le pinceau est large, l'imagination hardie, la versification harmonieuse, et que le poète agrandit son sujet ingrat en remontant aux cases celestas, en montant la main des Dieux s'appersantissant pour punir la terre; la fiction, surtout, qu'il a imagine pour retrace la découverte du mercure, est un tableau digne des plus grands maîtres." (Achille Chéreau, Le Parnasse medical francais, 1874, p. xv). Baumgartner & Fulton, A Bibliography of the Poem of Syphilis sive Moribus Gallicus by Girolamo Fracastoro of Verona: no. 2 (our copy follows exactly the collation given here - and also has the final blank leaf mentioned but not found in any of the examined copies).Garrison and Morton: 2364. "There is every reason to believe that the first edition of 1530 was personally supervised by Fracastoro as it was passing through the press. The printer, however, omitted two verses in the first book, which have been inserted in manuscript, apparently by Fracastoro himself, in the copy on vellum now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale. As these two lines are included in the Rome edition of the following year, it is likely that Fracastoro also supervised this, the second edition, and that this should be regarded as the authoritative text, since there is no evidence of textual changes in seven subsequent editions during his life."

Kiøbenhavn [Copenhagen], 1779-80. 8vo. Two very nice contemporary brown half calf bindings with raised bands, gilt ornamentations and gilt leather title- and tome-labels. Volume two with a bit of wear to upper capital. Corners slightly bumped. Pencil annotations to verso of title-page in volume one; title-page in volume two mounted to cover up a small hole caused by the removal of an old owner's name. Internally very clean and bright. All in all a very nice, clean, fresh, and tight copy. Engraved (by Weise, 1784) armorial book plate to inside of front boards (Gregorius Christianus Comes ab Haxthausen). (12), 575; (8), 775, (3, - errata) pp. The extremely scarce first Danish edition of Adam Smith's seminal main work, "the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" (PMM 221), the main foundational work of the era of liberal free trade. This publication constitutes the first Danish work worth mentioning in the history of economic thought - in spite of the great interest in political economy that dominated Danish political thought in the last quarter of the 18th century. The value of Smith's work was not immediately recognized in Denmark at the time of its appearance and a quarter of a century had to go by for its importance to be acknowledged and for Danish political economy to adapt the revolutionizing theories of Adam Smith. Few copies of the translation were published and sold, and the book is now a great scarcity. As opposed to for instance the German translation of the work, Smith concerned himself a great deal with this Danish translation. As is evident from preserved correspondence about it, he reacted passionately to it and was deeply concerned with the reaction to his work in Scandinavia (see "Correspondence of Adam Smith", Oxford University Press, 1977).- As an example, Smith writes in a letter to Andreas Holt on Oct. 26th, 1780: "It gives me the greatest pleasure to hear that Mr. Dreby has done me the distinguished honour of translating my Book into the Danish language. I beg you will present to him my most sincere thanks and most respectful Compliments. I am much concerned that I cannot have the pleasure of reading it in his translation, as I am so unfortunate as not to understand the Danish language." The translation was made by Frants Dræby (1740-1814), the son a whiskey distiller in Copenhagen, who mastered as a theologian and was then hired by the great Norwegian merchant James Collett as tutor to his son. There can be no doubt that Dræbye's relation to the Collett house had a great impact upon his interest in economics. In the middle of the 1770'ies, Dræbye accompanied Collett's son on travels throughout Europe, which took them to England in the year 1776, the same year that the "Wealth of Nations" was published for the first time. Through the Colletts, Dræbye was introduced to the mercantile environment in England and here became thoroughly acquainted with English economics and politics at the time. It is presumably here that he gets acquainted with Adam Smith's freshly published revolutionary work. When Dræbye returned to Denmark at the end of 1776, he was appointed chief of the Norwegian secretariat of the Board of Economics and Trade. He began the translation of the "Wealth of Nations" that he brought back with him from England immediately after his return."WN [i.e. Wealth of Nations] was translated into Danish by Frants Dræbye and published in 1779 (three years after the first English edition). The translation was initiated by Andreas Holt and Peter Anker, who were acquainted with Smith. Dræbye was a Dane who lived mainly in Norway, reflecting the fact that Norway was much more British-oriented than Denmark proper (Denmark and Norway were united until 1814, when Sweden took Norway away from the Danes; in 1905 Norway became an independent state). Norwegian merchants lived from exporting timber to Britain and tended on the whole to be adherents of a liberal economic policy, whereas the absolutist government in Copenhagen was more German-oriented and had economic views similar to those in contemporary Prussia." (Cheng-chung Lai (edt.): "Adam Smith Across Nations", p. (37)). The last quarter of the eighteenth century in Denmark was dominated by a lively discussion of monetary policy and the institutional framework best suited to realize that policy. There was a vital interest in questions of economic concern, and contemporary Danish sources refer to the period as "this economic age" and state things such as "never was the world more economically minded" (both from "Denmark and Norway's Economic Magazine"). During this period, Smith's revolutionary ideas did not play a major role, however, and only at the beginning of the 19th century did Danish politicians and economists come to realize the meaning of Smith's views. "Without exaggeration it can essentially be said that a quarter of a century was to pass from the time of the publication of the book in Denmark before Danish political economy fully made Adam Smith's theories and points of view its own. It took so long a time because the economic conditions as a whole in the years from 1780-1800 did not make desirable or necessary the changing of their concepts. That glorious commercial period had to pass before it was understood that we had altogether too little help in our own natural resources and that a different course was, therefore, necessary. Only when one had come so far could the new thinking find a nourishing soil so that it could develop strength with which to push aside the old ideas."(Hans Degen: "On the Danish Translation of Adam Smith and Contemporary Opinion Concerning It." Translated by Henrietta M. Larson. In: Adam Smith Across Nations, p. 51). This first Danish translation is one of the very earliest translations of "Wealth of Nations"; it is only preceded by the German (1776-78) and the extremely scarce French (1778-79). As a comparison, the Italian translation does not appear until 1790-91, the Spanish 1792, the Swedish 1800-1804, the Russian 1802, etc.Adam Smith Across Nations: A4 - nr. 1. "All five books were translated; appears to be a complete translation. The long letter from Governor Pownall to Adam Smith (25 Sept. 1776) is added as the Appendix (vol. 2, pp. 683 ff.)."(PMM 221 - first edition)

London, Philosophical Transactions, 1807. 4to. Bound to style in recent plain blue wrappers. Offprint, with the separate printed title-page, from "Philosophical Transactions" 1807 - Part I. With author's presentation to title-page: "From the Author". Occassional brownspotting throughout and a small tear, not affecting text, to lower margin of B4. (2), 56 pp. + 1 plate. The exceedingly rare offprint, inscribed presentation copy, of Davy’s milestone paper in which he shows that electricity is capable of decomposing the most stable elements. The paper was central to any chemical affinity theory in the first half of the nineteenth century and Berzelius, one of the founders of modern chemistry, considered it "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry”. Davy early concluded that the production of electricity in simple electrolytic cells resulted from chemical action and that chemical combination occurred between substances of opposite charge. He therefore reasoned that electrolysis, the interactions of electric currents with chemical compounds, offered the most likely means of decomposing all substances to their elements. “These views were explained in 1806 in his lecture “On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity,” for which, despite the fact that England and France were at war, he received the Napoleon Prize from the Institut de France (1807). This work led directly to the isolation of sodium and potassium from their compounds (1807) and of the alkaline-earth metals magnesium, calcium, strontium, and barium from their compounds (1808).” (Britannica). "Humphry Davy was one of the most brilliant chemists of the early nineteenth century. His early study of nitrous oxide brought him his first reputation, but his later and most importent investigations were devoted to electrochemistry. Following Galvani's experiments and the discovery of the voltaic pile, interest in galvanic electricity had become widespread. The first electrolysis by means of the pile was carried out in 1800 by Nicholson and Carisle, who obtained oxygen and hydrogen from water. Davy began to examine the chemical effects of electricity in 1800, and his numerous discoveries were presented in his Bakerian lecture to the Royal Society on November 20, 1806 (the paper offered here). His experiments, along the lines stated in this paper, lead to his discoveries of potassum and sodium in 1807 and the year after to barium, calcium and boron.” (A Source Book in Chemistry p. 243). Sparrow: Milestones of Science No 52. Wheeler Gift: 2511. (PMM 255)

Copenhagen, Gyldendal, 1794-(1805). Folio-oblong (320 x 202 mm). With, detached, contemporary blank blue front wrapper and spine. Spine missing upper and lower 2 cm of the blue paper. First two leaves of text with traces of tape in inner margin, not affecting text. All plates very fine and clean in fresh contemporary handcolouring. [Part I:] 12 pp + 26 handcoloured plates - complete; [Part 2] 23 handcoloured plates - presumably lacking 2 plates. The exceedingly rare first edition of the very first Danish pattern book for embroidery. Except for the present copy, only one complete copy of part 1 is known; that copy is in the Royal Danish Library, which does not have part 2. Lilly Library holds an incomplete copy of part 1 (containing 24 plates) and the only other known copy of any part of part 2 (with 25 plates, presumably being complete). The work is so rare and known in so few copies, that no-one has been able to establish exactly what was published. We know that part 1 is complete as it is here, with 12 leaves of text and 26 plates. Part 2, however, is even scarcer with only one other copy to compare with, and whether that is complete, is uncertain. In all, our copy has 49 plates, as does the other copy known of parts 1 and 2 together (that in the Lilly Library). The work contains beautiful hand coloured plates with floral designs and ornaments for both wool foot rugs and for embroidery on silk clothing, handkerchiefs ect. Grosch was fully aware that he was treading new ground with the present publication; in the introduction he states that no comparable work has been published before and that he therefore had to make all designs and colour decisions himself, with no historical references to lean on.Grosch grew up in Lübeck. He moved to Copenhagen in 1790 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, in an environment best characterized by French classical ideals. Here, he particularly admired the neoclassical works of Bertel Thorvaldsen. Grosch received the academy's small silver medal in 1793, but never succeeded in becoming a member of the academy. Heinrich August Grosch is considered an important forerunner of J. C. Dahl and Norwegian landscape painting in general. Through art, teaching, and educational writings, he made an important contribution to cultural life in Norway in the first half of the 19th century. Grosch executed graphic works of various nature; in addition to prospectuses, portraits, and renderings of ancient ruins, he also published textbooks on drawing, calligraphy and embroidery – the present work being the rarest and most progressive. Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon 1814-56., p. 218 (mentions both parts). Biblioteca Danica, Supplement 209 (part 1 only). See altso Charlotte Paludan & Lone De Hemmer Egeberg: 98 mønsterbøger til broderi, knipling og strikning, 1991.

Mirandulae, Ioannes Maciochius Bundenius, 1520 (on colophon). [Mirandola, Mazzocchi]. Small folio. Contemporary full vellum binding with handwritten title to spine. Author written in contemporary hand to lower edge. Binding professionally restored, at lower part of spine, edges of boards, and corners of back board. Free end-papers renewed. First leaf restored, with lower blank part supplied in later paper - no loss of text! This lower part was blank on both recto and verso. A bit of soiling to upper part of this leaf, as well as two old owner's inscriptions. First few leaves a bit browned, not heavily. Otherwise only light scattered browning. Some small marginal worm-holes to inner and lower blank margins, far from affecting text. All in all very fine, nice, and clean. Woodcut device to final leaf. (6), 208 ff. The seminal first edition of Gianfrancesco Pico's main work, the work which publicly introduces Greek scepticism to the modern world (i.e. the Reniassance) for the first time and thus comes to play a seminal role in the development of modern thought. With this work, Pico becomes the first modern thinker to specifically use the theories of Sextus Empiricus, foreshadowing the great "Sceptical Revolution" of the later Renaissance as well as the ideas of later modern thinkers such as Montesquieu. The "Examen" furthermore introduces other important critiques of Aristotle that were not generally known at the time (and works that had not yet been published) as well as a completely new sort of attack upon the theories of Aristotle that come to play an important role in later Renaissance Aristotle scholarship. "But his "Examen Vanitatis Doctrinae Gentium et Veritatis Disciplinae Christianae" is not only a criticism of human knowledge which can, as has been done, be compared with Montaigne. It is also a wholesale destruction of the whole world of human values, of that "regnum hominis" so dear to the Renaissance. And as such, it inclines one to think that it anticipated Pascal. [...]." (Garin, p. 135)The "Examen" is considered foundational in "anti-pagan" historiography of thought, "a work that deserves special attention here as the earliest example of an "anti-pagan" reaction in the Renaissance historiography of thought, and as the first in a line of publications preparing the way for the anti-apologists of the seventeenth century. ..." (Hanegraaff, "Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture", p. 81). It is due to this work that Gianfr. Pico is now remembered as "the first modern sceptic". "Joining the sceptical arguments of Sextus, which he quoted and used liberally, to Savonarola's negative view of natural knowledge, he presented the first text since antiquity utilizing Pyrrhonism, using it to illuminate knowledge by faith!" (Popkin, p. 24). Gianfr. Pico, a learned scholar and apt reader of classical texts, was the first Renaissance thinker that we know to have seriously studied and used the works of Sextus Empiricus, which were not printed until the 1560'ies, causing a revolution in Renaissance thinking. "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)."The printing of Sextus in the 1560s opened a new era in the history of scepticism, which had begun in the late fourth century BCE with the teachings of Pyrrho of Elis. [...] Before the Estienne and Hervet editions, Sextus seems to have had only two serious students, Gianfrancesco Pico at the turn of the century and Francesco Robortello about fifty years later." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 240-41)."No significant use of Pyrrhonian ideas prior to the printing of Sextus' ""Hypotyposes" [in the 1560'ies] has turned up, except for that of Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola". (Popkin, p. 19). Giovanni Francesco [Gianfranceso] Pico della Mirandola (1470-1533), not to be confused with his uncle Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) was a highly important Renaissance thinker and philosopher, who was strongly influenced by the Neoplatonic tradition, but even more so by the preaching of Girolamo Savonarola, whose thought he defended throughout his life. Just like his uncle, Gianfr. Pico devoted his life to philosophy, but being a follower of Savonarola and having a Christian mission, he made it subject to the Bible. He even depreciated the authority of the philosophers, above all of Aristotle.It is in the "Examen", Gianfr. Pico's main work, that his sceptical arguments are developed to their fullest extent, and it is here that he not only discusses at length Pyrrhonism, based on Sextus' "Hypotyposes"( which were only published more than 40 years later), and deals in detail with Sextus' "Adversus Mathematicos" (also only published more than 40 years later), propounding his own ideas and attacking Aristotle, he also provides lengthy "summaries" of Sextus' texts, which seem more like actual translations than interpretations or paraphrases.As Charles Schmitt also shows, the younger Pico must have read Sextus in a Greek manuscript, as the texts of Sextus were not printed before the 1560'ies, when the Hervet- and the Estienne-editions appear, causing what we would call "´The Sceptical Revolution of the Renaissance", a turning point in the history of modern thought. Apparently, Gianfr. Pico used a codex that belonged to Giorgio Antonio Vespucci. It was during an enforced exile around 1510 that Gianfr. Pico set to work on his "Examen Vanitatis Doctrinae Gentium", which was published for the first time in 1520 and dedicated to Pope Leo X. The work was printed in a small edition by an obscure press in his own little principality at Mirandola, which explains its scarcity. In the "Examen" "Pico introduced the actual sceptical arguments of Sextus Empiricus, plus some newer additions, in order to demolish all philosophical views, especially those of Aristotle, and to show that only Christian knowledge, as stated in the Scriptures, is true and certain." (Popkin, pp. 20-21). But although he here carefully set forth the ancient sceptical criticisms of sensory knowledge claims and of the rational criteria that let us judge what is true and false, it is important to remember that he did not as such advocate scepticism, rather, he used it for his own means. Using the ancient sceptical arguments as ammunition to undermine the confidence in natural knowledge, his aim was to lead people to see that the only real and reliable knowledge is revealed knowledge. He denounces all pagan philosophical claims, attacks Aristotle's theory of knowledge with the arguments of Sextus, all the time regarding Christianity as immune to sceptical infection, because it does not depend upon the dogmatic philosophies that Sextus had refuted. In his use of Sceptical arguments, Gianfr. Pico was not only doing something completely new in a Renaissance setting (i.e. reviving and using sceptical arguments at all), he was doing something completely new as such. The original Pyrrhonian formulations were primarily directed against Stoic and Epicurean theories of knowledge, and traditionally they were not directed towards the all-overshadowing dominating theories of Aristotle. As such, Gianfr. Pico makes Aristotelianism more of an empirical theory than it was traditionally viewed, and also in this did the "Examen" come to have groundbreaking influence. He furthermore introduces several critiques of Aristotelianism that were not generally known at the time, such as that of Hasdai Crecas (15th century Jewish Spanish thinker), whose work had not yet been published and which only existed in Jewish manuscript, as well as that of the late Hellenistic commentator John Philoponous, who later came to play an important role in Renaissance readings of Aristotle. "As early as 1496 [originally printed 1497], in one of his first works, "On the Study of Divine and Human Philosophy", he distinguished divine philosophy, rooted in scripture, from human philosophy based on reason; he denied that Christians need human wisdom, which is as likely to hinder as to help the quest for salvation. By 1514 he had completed a longer and sterner work, "The Weighing of Empty Pagan Learning against True Christian Doctrine, Divided into Six Books, of Which Three Oppose the whole Sect of Philosophers in General, while the Others Attack the Aristotelian Sect Particularly, and with Aristotelian Weapons, but Christian Teaching is Asserted and Celebrated throughout the Whole". As its title suggests, the "Examen", published in 1520, hardened Pico's hostility to pagan philosophy. Just when Luther was making the Bible the sole rule of faith, Pico discredited every source of knowledge except scripture and condemned all attempts to find truth elsewhere as "vanitas", emptiness; profane knowledge is at best a distraction from the work of salvation, as some of the greatest Fathers had taught. Pico's purpose was sincerely religious and only incidentally philosophical; much of Renaissance scepticism remained true to his pious motives, though they were not fully appreciated for forty years after he wrote. By demolishing secular thought, Pico hoped to empty the human mind of reason and make a clear channel for God's grace; man's only intellectual security lay in church authority. Convinced of Christianity's unique value, he turned his uncle's eirenic learning to contrary purposes, working skillfully with Greek manuscripts to make his humanism a potent weapon against religious error. [...].Pico devoted most of his first three books to reproducing the arguments of Sextus Empiricus against the various schools of ancient philosophy; in Books IV and V he turned scepticism against Aristotle. His extensive borrowings from Sextus often come closer to translation than paraphrase or analysis, and his choices are therapeutic rather than theoretical. Aristotle had to go because he was the chief source of secular contagion among the faithful, and Sextus was the best medicine available. Pico regarded Christianity itself as immune to sceptical infection because it does not depend on the dogmatic philosophies that Sextus had refuted. [...]". (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 245-46). The "Examen" marks a turning-point in the history of Renaissance thought and the development of modern philosophy. The importance of the revival of scepticism can hardly be over-estimated, and Gianfr. Pico's use of the sceptical arguments which he utilizes in the "Examen" would prove to be highly important and influential. But the revival that Gianfr. Pico is thus responsible for, not only comes to serve his own purpose, as history will prove, the sword is two-edged.Claiming in the "Examen" that "the works assigned to Aristotle were doubtfully authentic; his sense-based epistemology could not produce reliable data; his doctrines, often presented with deliberate obscurity, had been disputed by opponents and followers alike and had been criticized by Christian theologians; even Aristotle himself was uncertain about some of them. Aristotelian philosophy, the pinnacle of human wisdom, was therefore shown to be constructed on the shakiest of foundations. Christian dogma, by contrast, was built on the bedrock of divine authority and therefore could not be undermined by the sceptical critique. Or so he believed, unaware that scepticism, which he had revived as an ally of Christianity, would eventually become a powerful weapon in the hands of its enemies." (Jill Kraye: "Two Cultures: Scholasticism and Humanism in the Early Renaissance", in: The Philosophy of the Italian Renaissance). "Defended by ancient philosophers such as Sextus Empiricus, refuted by Augustine (De civitate dei (11,26): "Even if I am mistaken, I exist"; a clear anticipation of Descartes' cogito), Scepticism was revived in the Middle Ages by Nicholas of Autrecourt (whose works were burned by papal order in 1347). By the Renaissance, this tendency came to be linked with fideism (Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus, Montaigne, Gassendi, Daniel Huet, and Pierre Bayle, to name but a few), leading, in one way or another, to its modern culmination in Hume." (Black Swans, the Brain, and Philosophy as a Way of Life : Pierre Hadot and Nassim Taleb on Ancient Scepticism)."Gianfrancesco's most important philosophical work, probably written sometime after 1510 and published in 1520, was "Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium", which is especially important because it marks the first serious attempt to adapt the Pyrrhonist (radically skeptical) philosophical ideas of the Hellenistic philosopher Sextus Empiricus to contemporary intellectual discourse." (Charles G. Nauert: "Historical Dictionary of Renaissance", 2004).See: Popkin: "The History of Scepticism. From Savonarola to Bayle", 2003; Schmitt: "Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (1469-1533) and his critique of Aristotle", 1967; Copenhaver & Schmitt: "Renaissance Philosophy", 1992; Garin: Italian Humanism", 1965.Adams P:1156.

Paris, Chez la Veuve Desaint, 1788. 4to. Beautiful contemporary full mottled calf with richly gilt spine and gilt borders to boards. Double gilt line-borders to edges of boards. Binding with wear, especially to capitals, corners, and hinges - binding still tight, though. A tear to lower front hinge and small lack of leather to upper capital as well as corners. (a2&3) loose, but intact, present, and NOT supplied from another copy. Very minor scattered brownspotting to a few leaves, otherwise very fine and clean. In spite of wear, a nice and tight copy, which is completely unrestored. XII,512 pp. First edition of Lagrange's masterpiece, "which laid the foundation of modern mechanics, and which occupies a place in the history of the subject second only to that of Newton's Principia". (Wolf). In "Méchanique Analytique" Lagrange reformulated classical Newtonian mechanics in a purely analytical manner, whereas Newton derived his results geometrically, or synthetically, with the aid of figures. "Lagrange proposed to reduce the theory of mechanics and the art of solving problems in that field to general formulas, the mere development of which would yield all the equations necessary for the solution of every problem." (DSB). In his preface, Lagrange draws attention to the absence of diagrams in the book, which he believed the lucidity of his own presentation had rendered superfluous. Horblit/Grolier 61; Dibner 112; Sparrow 120; Norman 1257.

[Kapitalut:] Balchik, Izdanie na Krist'o Ivanov, 1905. [Speech On the Question of Free Trade:] Sofia 8vo. In contemporary red half calf. Extremities with wear. Previous owner's name in contemporary hand to upper part of both title-pages. Light browning throughout and a few occassional underlignings in text, mainly in "A speech on free trade". [Kapitalut:] XXXVIII, 122 pp. [Rech za...:] 27, (1). The exceedingly rare first partial Bulgarian translation of Marx's 'Das Kapital', heft. 1. Translator Dimitar Glagoev, who eventually in 1909-10 made the first complete translation was the founder and leader of the Bulgarian Worker's Social Democratic Party became (or Narrow Socialists, or Tesniaki), became the the first Marxist propangandist in Bulgaria. The present publication is presumably printed in very low number and are of the utmost scarcity; OCLC locate no institutional holdings (We know of one copy in the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library, Bulgaria) and no copy has been up for auction the past 50 years.Extradited in 1885 by the Russian government, Blagoev returned to Bulgaria, settled in Sofia and began to propagate socialist ideas. In July 1891 on the initiative of Blagoev, the social democratic circles of Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Sliven, Stara Zagora, Kazanluk and other cities united to form the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (BSDP). The Marxist nucleus of the BSDP was opposed by a group, who were essentially opposed to making the social democratic movement into a party. In 1893 this group, led by Yanko Sakazov, founded a reformist organization, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Union. In 1894, Blagoev's supporters agreed to unite with the Unionists in the interests of working class unity and took the name Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party. Blagoev founder and became the leader of its left wing, which split from the BSDWP in 1903 to found the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists). Under his guidance the foundations of the class trade-union movement was laid in 1904. Blagoev was also a prominent proponent of ideas for the establishment of a Balkan Federation, leading the Narrow Socialists into the Communist International in 1919, where the party changed its name to the Bulgarian Communist Party. However, during this period Blagoev and the party as a whole did not completely adopt Bolshevik's positions on the basic questions. This determined the party's policies during the Vladaya Soldiers' Rebellion of 1918 and the military coup of 9 June 1923 when the party adopted a position of neutrality. He was also an opponent of the failed September Uprising and thought that there were no ripe conditions for a revolution in Bulgaria yet.From 1897 to 1923 Blagoev directed the publication of the party's theoretical organ, the journal "Novo Vreme", which published more than 500 of his articles. The first complete Bulgarian translation were published in 1909/1910.