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Paris, 1920. Bound uncut with the original printed wrappers, also the backstrip, in a magnificent bright purple lambskin binding with title and author in bright, metallic lettering to spine, blue, pink, and green respectively. Triple bright metallic line-borders to boards (same three colours), inside which the remainder of the boards are covered with a large inlay of shiny, coloured leather in crocodile skin-like relief pattern. Recto and verso respectively of flyleaves covered with pink/purple suede. Housed in a chemise with purple lambskin spine with same lettering as the binding and purple cloth boards, inside grey suede, and purple full lambskin slipcase. The binding is signed Leroux (in shiny green lettering to inside of front board). A handwriiten postcard from Leroux to the previous owner of the book is enclosed. The postcard is dated 1997 and concerns the binding, including the price. The slipcase has a bit of edgewear, but the binding is near mint. Apert from a tiny tear (no loss) to the upper margin of the front wrapper, also internally near mint. Front free end-paper with a four-line inscription for "René Baer" signed "Colette de Jouvenel". First edition - presentation-copy and one of 175 numbered copies on Hollande (premier papier), out of a total of 725 numbered copies - of Colette's fascinating novel "Chéri", published at the dawn of the roaring 20'ies. The scandalous novel, which portrays the love between an older woman and a much younger man, is partly inspired by Colette's own life, and is considered one of her very best works. Extremely controversial as a person, Colette has always been the object of fascination as well as controversy. In 1893, she married Henry Gauthier-Villars, who was already a famous author and publisher. He used the pen-name "Willy", under which Colette's famous first novels, the Claudine-stories, also appeared. Colette and Willy separated in 1906, with a final divorce in 1910. Colette is well known for the series of lesbian relationships she embarked upon after her separation. In 1912, however, she married Henry de Jouvenel, editor of Le Matin, and took his name. Not for her publications, but she clearly used it in her personal correspondence. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1924, however, due partly to her affair with her 16-year-old stepson, Bertrand de Jouvenel. Chéri is partly based upon her experiences with her much younger stepson. " 'Me a feminist?' She scoffed in 1910. 'I'll tell you what the suffragettes deserve: the whip and the harem'. COLETTE is an intriguing and flamboyant figure. Born in Burgundy in 1873 she moved to Paris at the age of twenty with her husband the writer and critic Henry Gauthiers-Viller (Willy). Forcing Colette to write, Willy published her novels in his name and the Claudine series became an instant success. She escaped her exploitative first husband to live by her pen and work in music-halls as a dancer. Colette had a lesbian love affair with a niece of Napoleon's, she married three times, had a baby at 40 and at 47, preferring 'passion to goodness', she seduced her teenage stepson. In the meantime she wrote stunning novels that were admired by Proust and Gide -- Gigi, Sido, Cheri, and Break of Day. Colette lived to be over 80. She was the first woman President of the Academie Goncourt and was the first woman in France to be accorded a state funeral." "Colette, in full Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, (1873 - 1954), outstanding French writer of the first half of the 20th century whose best novels, largely concerned with the pains and pleasures of love, are remarkable for their command of sensual description. Her greatest strength as a writer is an exact sensory evocation of sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and colours of her world. Her best work was produced after 1920 and followed two veins. The first vein followed the lives of the slightly depraved, postwar younger generation. Among these novels are Chéri (1920) and La Fin de Chéri (1926; The Last of Chéri), dealing with a liaison between a young man (Chéri) and an older woman... (Encycl. Britt.). René Baer (1887 - 1962) was a famous French author, journalist, playwright, and songwriter. Georges Leroux (1922-1999) was one of the most accomplished and esteemed French binders of the twentieth century. Before he became a book binder, in 1959, he was a poet. His works are known for their exotic materials, use of metallic effects and strong polychromatic color.

Rome, Joannis Zempel, 1767. Folio. Contemp. hcalf. Spine gilt with gilt lettering. Spine slightly rubbed. the marbled paper on covers with some wear. Corners a bit bumped. A large, completely uncut copy. Htitle. Engraved handcoloured frontispiece.Title-page in red/black with handcoloured engraved vignette. LXXX (lacking 4 leaves (= XLIII-XLVI), XLVII-XLVIII in duplicate), 106,(2 - errat-leaf). Handcoloured textillustrations, handcoloured headpiece and initial and 100 fine handcoloured plates (10 double-page). Text as well as plates wide-margined (uncut) and clean, printed on thick paper. On verso of plate I a painting in watercolour. First edition (volume one only) of this profusely illustrated and highly estimated work on etruscan vases, coloured after the original vases in the Vatican and other museums in Italy. Giovanni Battista Passeri was archaeologist and antiquary to the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

London, W. Simpkin, R. Marshall & C. Chapple, 1827. [recte 1818-1827]. Large 12mo. Bound in a beautiful contemporary, green, moiré-patterned full cloth binding with gilt title to spine. Spine and hinges neatly restored, preserving the original spine. Spine slightly faded and warped. Exlibris (S.E.G. Cox) pasted to inside of front board and ownership signatures to flyleaves. Internally clean. (6),VII,(2),47,(1); XI,(1),83,(1); V,(1),65,(1); IV,(2),83,(1); (4),40; (4),68; (4),III,(1),68; (2),IV,54,II. pp. The exceedingly rare title-issue of Oxberry's monumental edition(s) of Christopher Marlowe's (1564-1593) dramatic works, containing seven (Jew of Malta, Edward the Second, Doctor Faustus, Lust's Dominion, Massacre of Paris, Tamburlaine the Great I-II) of his eight plays in the first printings since the 17th century. During his lifetime, Marlowe achieved significant literary fame. From 1590, when he first appeared in print, through 1633, at least 16 editions of his works were published, many of which were reprinted. By the mid-17th century, however, the interest decreased significantly, and for the 150 years to come, he was virtually unread. In the years 1818-1820, Oxberry issued separate editions of Marlowe's plays (save for 'Dido'), each containing a short introduction and critical notes. In 1827, the remaining unsold copies were brought together and published, with 'Dido', in the present one-volume edition with a new, general title page. The individual plays, however, are in the original printings from 1818-1820 (and Dido, 1827), but just collected and given a newly dated title-page. Thus, although the collected edition with the new title-page was preceded by Pickering's three-volume collected edition, published in 1826, it may safely be said that Oxberry rescued Marlowe from oblivion, making the present edition one of the absolutely most important editions of his work. The copy belonged to the prominent Danish critic and collector Paul V. Rubow (1896-1972) and carries his ownership signature. Lowndes, 1480.

London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1805 - 1806. 4to. In recent marbled paper wrappers. Extracted from "Philosophical Transactions". Leaves reinforced in margin. (4), (239)-266, (2), 185-198 pp. First edition of these two important papers by Captain Matthew Flinders, the first circumnavigator of Australia.OBSERVATIONS UPON THE MARINE BAROMETER:First printing of this important paper relating Flinder's observations on the ship "Investigator" when exploring the coast of Australia. IN THE PAPER THE NAME "AUSTRALIA" APPEARS PROBABLY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A SCIENTIFIC MEMOIR (p. 247).The name Australia was popularised by Matthew Flinders, who pushed for the name to be formally adopted as early as 1804. When preparing his manuscript and charts for his 1814 A Voyage to Terra Australis, he was persuaded by his patron, Sir Joseph Banks, to use the term Terra Australis as this was the name most familiar to the public. Flinders did so, but allowed himself the footnote:"Had I permitted myself any innovation on the original term, it would have been to convert it to Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth." In the paper offered he used the name "Australia" as early as 1806.CONCERNING THE DIFFERENCES IN THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE:First printing of, probably the first work, to discover, and correct for the errors of the compass caused by the iron in ships, by the first circumnavigator of Australia."Captain Matthew Flinders RN (16 March 1774 - 19 July 1814) was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been known as New Holland. He survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned for violating the terms of his scientific passport by changing ships and carrying prohibited papers. He identified and corrected the effect upon compass readings of iron components and equipment on board wooden ships and he wrote what may be the first work on early Australian exploration A Voyage to Terra Australis."(Wikepedia)

S.-Peterburg, Izdanie redaktsii zhurnala "Znanie, 1871. 8vo. In recent half calf with four rasied bands and gilt lettering to spine. Soiling and damp stain to title-page. Light brownspotting throughout. (2), VII, (5), 439, (7) pp. The exceedingly rare first Russian translation of Darwin's 'Descent of Man' published only four months after the original English. The Russian publisher was eager to have a translation published, hence this early abridged edition - two other Russian translations followed later the same year - The present translation being the very first into any language. "The Descent of Man showed that the process of organic evolution, propelled by the struggle for existence and natural selection, applied to man no less than to the rest of the animal kingdom. It gave explicit recognition to the idea of the anthropoid origin of man. This claim surprised no one, for it was clearly hinted at in the great work of 1859 and was elaborated in Thomas Huxley's Man's Place in Nature and Vogt's Lectures on Man. Nor was it much of a surprise when three Russian translations of The Descent appeared within one year after the publication of the English original. Two general ideas represented the essence of The Descent: natural selection is not only behind the physical survival of man but also behind the evolution of cultural values; and the differences between animal and human behavior are differences of degree rather than of kind." (Darwin in Russian Thought) "The Expression helped lay the foundations for a scientific study of the psychological aspect of the evolution of species. The book appeared in a Russian translation only a few months after the publication of the English original. The paleontologist Vladimir Kovalevskii was the translator, and the embryologist Aleksandr Kovalevskii was in charge of editorial tasks. In 1874 Vladimir wrote to Darwin that nearly two thousand copies of the Russian translation were sold." " The Expression deals much more extensively with selected aspects of human and animal behavior than with general problems of evolutionary biology. The Russian reviewers were generally impressed with Darwin's descriptions and categorizations of animal behavior. The Journal of the Ministry of Public Education was unusually profuse in praising the book's content and writing style. The reviewer commended Darwin's impartiality and avoidance of "materialistic trappings." Even the adherents of spiritualism could read the book, he wrote, without the least discomfort. The reviewer thought that psychologists would benefit from the information the book presented on the "physiological" basis of behavior. Indeed, he recommended the book to all readers interested in the scientific foundations of human behavior. The liberal journal Knowledgewas equally laudatory. It noted that the book was eminently successful on two counts: it offered a "rational explanation" of many expressions of human emotions, and it integrated the study of animal and human behavior into the universal process of organic evolution. In fact, no educated person could afford to ignore it.N. P. Vagner, professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at St. Petersburg University, called The Expression a book with "great strengths and minor flaws." The volume reminded him of Darwin's previous works, which marked "turning points in the history of science." The strength of the book lay much more in its suggestion of new topics for comparative-psychological research than in a presentation of a theoretically and logically integrated system of scientific thought. Insufficient exploration of the physiological underpinnings of mental activities represented the book's major shortcoming" (Darwin in Russian Thought) In Russia Darwinism had a profound influence not only upon the different sciences, but also on philosophy, economic and political thought, and the great literature of the period. For instance, both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky referenced Darwin in their most important works, as did numerous other thinkers of the period.Like Strakhov, however, Dostoevsky, acknowledging the significance of the "Origin of Species", saw the dangers of the theory. In the same year as the publication of Rachinsky's translation, he lets the narrator in "Notes from Underground" (1864) launch his attack on Darwinism , beginning: "As soon as they prove you, for instance, that you are descended from a monkey, then it's no use scowling, you just have to accept it."In "Crime and Punishment" (two years later, 1866) the Darwinian overtones inherent in Raskolnikov's theory of the extraordinary man are unmistakable. He describes the mechanism of "natural selection," where, according to the laws of nature, by the crossing of races and types, a "genius" would eventually emerge. In general, Darwinian themes and Darwin's name occur in many contexts in a large number of Dostoevsky's works.'Descent of Man' was transted into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian and Swedish in Darwin's lifetime. Freeman 1107.

Paris, 1802. 8vo. In recent marbled paper wrappers. With very light occassional brownspotting, plates slightly toned. A nice copy. Housed in a cloth clam-shell box with gilt lettering to spine. 47 pp. + 2 plates, 1 of which is folded. The very rare first printing of the first published attempt at reading the Rosetta stone, constituting the very first step towards deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. With the plates contained in this first scientific publication on the Rosetta Stone, the work also contains the first published printing of any part of the text of the Rosetta Stone. Silvestre de Sacy was a professor at the Special School of Oriental Languages in Paris, where he became the most influential teacher of Jean-François Champollion. His attempts at deciphering the Rosetta Stone proved at the end to be unsuccessful, but his proposal that the Stone's hieroglyphic cartouches might be written in an alphabet proved important, and with the present publication he laid the foundation for the correct deciphering by Champollion 20 years later. "The first scholarly publication on the Rosetta Stone was de Sacy's, pamphlet: Lettre au Citoyen Chaptal . . . au sujet de l'inscription Égyptienne du monument trouvé à Rosette (Paris, 1802). In this brief work illustrated with one transcription of a portion of the stone, the orientalist and linguist Sacy, a teacher of Champollion, made some progress in identifying proper names in the demotic inscription." (Jeremy Norman: History of Information). The Rosetta Stone, which dates back to 196 B.C was found in 1799 by French Troops and was immediately brought to England, where it has been ever since. The stone was (and is) of the utmost importance to the understanding of the Egyptian language, the principles of which were totally unknown up until this point. Because the hieroglyphic inscription on the stone is accompanied by a Greek and a Demotic one with the same contents (the commemoration of Ptolemy V's accession to the Egyptian throne), scholars would eventually be able to decipher the ancient language that had been a mystery for more than a millennium. "When military engineers discovered the Rosetta Stone in July 1799 while rebuilding an old fort in the Nile Delta, the officer in charge quickly recognised the importance of its three parallel inscriptions and sent the Stone to the savants in Cairo.That October, Napoleon himself, recently returned from Egypt, told the National Institute in Paris: "There appears no doubt that the column which bears the hieroglyphs contains the same inscription as the other two. Thus, here is a means of acquiring certain information of this, until now, unintelligible language.From the moment of discovery, it was clear that the bottom inscription on the Rosetta Stone was written in the Greek alphabet and the top one - unfortunately the most damaged - was in Egyptian hieroglyphs with visible cartouches. Sandwiched between them was a script about which little was known.It plainly did not resemble the Greek script, nor did it appear to resemble the hieroglyphic script above it, not least because it lacked cartouches. Today we know this script as 'demotic', a cursive form of ancient Egyptian writing, as opposed to the separate signs of hieroglyphic.The first step was to translate the Greek inscription. This turned out to be a legal decree issued at Memphis, the principal city of ancient Egypt, by a council of priests assembled on the anniversary of the coronation of Ptolemy V Epiphanes, on 27 March 196 BC. The Greek names Ptolemy, Alexander and Alexandria, among others, occurred in the inscription.de Sacy deserves credit for a useful suggestion in 1811: that the Greek names inside hieroglyphic cartouches, which he assumed must be those of rulers like Ptolemy, Alexander and so on, might be written in an alphabet, as they almost certainly were in the demotic inscription.The same technique, he knew, was used to write foreign names in the Chinese script, which was also thought (wrongly) to have no intrinsic phonetic component." (BBC Science Focus Magazine, 2020). "Solid attempts to decipher hieroglyphs started with the discovery of Rosetta Stone. Before being captured by the Arabs, Egypt had a native language called Coptic. There was formerly a Coptic alphabet until the 2nd century AD. However, it was replaced by Greek letters, resulting in the creation of Old and New Coptic. Therefore, the alphabet of Old Coptic became obscured over time. In 1643, long before the discovery of Rosetta Stone, Athanasius Kircher, a reputed scholar and polymath of his time, argued that the Coptic inscription represents the same language as hieroglyphs (Lee & Merrill, 1989,p . 20). Based on this argument, scholars assumed that it would be possible to decipher the hieroglyphics by deciphering the Old Coptic script. The study of the relationship between Old Coptic and the hieroglyphs was first carried out by Silvestre de Sacy, a French nobleman and scholar. He was also a mentor of the three scholars who were the successors of his research. Sacy tried to decipher the Rosetta Stone by comparing the symbols and locations of names through mathematical analysis. However, he reached a dead end after some progress and passed the study to the Swedish diplomat and scholar, Johan David Åkerblad. As an expert on New Coptic, he managed to compare its alphabet with Old Coptic, identifying some of the phonetic values and words. However, since he could not understand that Old Coptic was not entirely alphabetic, his progress was halted." (Denic Aktunz: A Warfare of Greediness over the Rosetta Stone: Deciphering Hieroglyphics).

1944. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. A vague "bend", otherwise a very clean, fresh, and fine copy. Pp. (341)-376. First printing, in the scarce off -print, with a presentation- inscription to front free end-paper "To Professor P.W. Bridgman/ with best regards/ A.Tarski.", of Tarski's important contribution to his main topic, to which he provided fundamental contributions: The semantic theory of truth. Tarski's semantic conception of truth plays a central role in modern logic as well as in contemporary philosophy of language. Tarski's shy nature means that he rarely gave away inscribed copies of his works, and a presentation-copy like the present is a rare sight. The paper is centered around the notion of truth. The main problem is that of giving a satisfactory definition of this notion, i.e., a definition which is materially adequate and formally correct. Tarski (1901-1983) has contributed seminally to the fields of mathematics and logic in a number of ways, and together with Frege, Russell and Gödel, he now ranks as one of the most important contributors to the field of modern logic.

Franckfurt, Zunner, 1684 (+) Franckfurt am Mayn, Zunner, 1684. 4to (215 x 185 mm). Recently bound in a magnificent pastiche-binding of brown half calf with five raised bands and gilt red leather title-label to elaborately gilt spine. Vellum corners. The frontispiece/engraved half title trimmed with loss to upper and lower part of the plate. Closed tear to outer margin. Title-page closely trimmed with loss to first line of title. A few leaves with marginal repairs. Light occassional browning throughout, otherwise internally nice and clean. (14), 220, 123, (5), 68 pp. + folded frontispiece/engraved half title. 41 woodcut in text depicting various processes of mining and metallurgy. Second edition, including Berward’s lexicon of mining terms, of Ercker’s seminal and beautifully illustrated work on mining and metallurgy – of immense importance to and influence upon the subject throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Its detailed approach has made it a key reference in the history of science and technology, and its practical focus contributed to the economic development of mining regions. "Ercker's treatise is the most authoritative contemporary work on 16th-century metallurgy and assaying. Ercker gave a systematic review of methods of testing alloys and minerals and of obtaining and refining various metals, as well as methods of manufacturing acids, salts and other chemical compounds, including saltpeter. He described the apparatus and laboratory equipment used in metallurgy and assaying and gave a detailed account of laboratory methods, all of which he himself had used." (Norman) "Erker's Beschreibung may be regarded as the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry. The only one of Ercker’s works to contain many drawings, it presents a systematic review of the methods of testing alloys and minerals of silver, gold, copper, antimony, mercury, bismuth, and lead; of obtaining and refining these metals, as well as of obtaining acids, salts, and other compounds. The last chapter is devoted to saltpeter. Ercker's account of the fact that zinc precipitates other metals from solutions is to be found only in the 1684 and later editions" (DSB). “Considering the importance of Ercker’s tratise it is remarkable how little is on record about him. He was inspector-general of the mine of Hungary, Transylvania, and the Tyrol, which position he held under three consecutive emperors in the sixteenth century. He book was highly prized at the time, for it was a record of practical experiences, and was not burdened with theories and hypotheses. (Ferguson). Ferguson 1, 244. (The 1736-edition).Duveen, p. 195.

Stockholm, L.J. Hiertas Förlagsexpedition, 1871. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with gilt lettering to spine and gilt ornamentation forming five compartments. Hindges with a few worm holes, back hindges mostly affected, but binding still tight and firmly attached to book block. Previous owner's stamp to pasted down front end-paper. Internally extraordinarily fine and clean. XI, (1), 420 pp. + plate with genealogical tree inserted between p. 96 and p. 97. The rare first Swedish translation, also being the first in Scandinavia, of Darwin's Origin of Species. Initially the work mainly received attention from religious institutions who (also compared to most other countries) were fiercely against Darwin's theory. Freeman wrongly lists this first Swedish edition as appearing in 1869, he also does not register the plate.

Amsterdam, 1765. 4to. Contemporary vellum spine with marbled paper covered boards. Simple and worn, but tight and functional. Split in the inner stitching, but leaves still attached. With brownspotting and signs of use throughout. Small tears to some blank margins. Two leaves more worn to the lower margin, just touching one engraving and a line of text, resulting in very minor loss. Titl-page within woodcut printed border. Illustrated throughout with 14 large (7,7 x 11,5 cm) woodcut illustrations and 13 large illustrated woodcut initials (ca 3,2 x 3,2 cm). 33 ff. In spite of its signs of frequent use, the book is in very good condition for this type of work, which is usually in extremely poor condition. A beautifully illustrated and very rare 18th century Haggadah, setting forth the order of the Passover Seder; fully complete, with 14 large woodcut illustrations inspired by the "Amsterdam Haggadah" from 1695. The commentary by Rav Leone Modena found in this Hagadah, the famous “Tzeli Esh,” is an abbreviation of Don Isaac Abrabanel’s voluminous commentary “Zevach Pesach” first published during the author’s lifetime in Constantinople in 1505. The translation of the “Tzeli Esh” into Yiddish is by Solomon Zalman ben Moses Raphael London (1661-1748), author and translator, who was active between 1709 and 1735. Leon de Modena (or Yehuda Aryeh Mi-Modena) (1571-1648) is considered the most famous Venetian Rabbi of the 17th century. He was a Jewish scholar born in Venice, into a family of migrants from France, after the French expulsion of Jews. He was well respected, but his reputation within traditional Judaism suffered both due to his criticism of emerging sects within Judaism, but also because of his addiction to gambling and seeming lack of stability. He is famous for his criticism of the mystical approach to Judaism and his attacks on the Kaballa, but his international fame mainly rests upon him being the interpreter of Judaism to the Christian world. He was the first since Josephus and Philo to write a Jewish text to non-Jewish readers (Historia de gli riti Hebraici, 1637), which was widely read by Christians and extremely influential. The editor Naftali Hertz ben Alexander Ziskind Levi Rofe of Emden “set up his press in Amsterdam in 1726. He complemented his printing equipment with that purchased from the Isaac Templo press after it was closed down. He was a physician by profession, as evidenced by his moniker Rofe. He was granted title of doctor of medicine from the University of Harderwijk in 1716. He pursued his medical practice, as well as printing and bookselling. He was a member of a small group of Jewish intellectuals interested in scientific disputes. He tended to publish alone as well as in cooperation with others, but above all with his son-in-law Kosman ben Joseph Baruch, who was also involved in the book trade. Their cooperation lasted from 1742 to 1766, and resulted in many works being published.” (The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, The Center for Jewish Art)

Wittemberg, Vidua Scheffler, 1753. 4to. Contemporary full calf with five raised bands to richly gilt spine. Edges of boards blindtooled. Boards slightly warped and with lsigns of wear. Internally very nice and clean with only a few scattered brownspots. A nice, tight, clean, and completely unrestored copy. Title-page printed in red and black. (4), 18, (6), CCLII, (2) pp. + two folded engraved plates. The exceedingly rare first edition of the first published biography of Aldus Manutius including "the first real attempt at an Aldine bibliography" (Grolier, Aldus). This legendary publication constitutes not only the earliest but also one of the most important sources on Aldus and his publications. Written by Christian Gottlieb Unger (1671-1719), presumably in the early 1700'ies, it circulated in manuscript-form for decades until 1753, when Samuel Luther Geret, German theologian, lawyer and politician, took upon himself to edit the manuscript and have it published. Renouard mentions a 1729-edition, but this is a ghost (See "Grolier, Aldus Manutius: No. 135").Grolier, Aldus Manutius: No. 135.Renouard, pp. iv-v.

Leipzig, Ambrosius Barth, 1916. 8vo. Uncut in the original printed wrappers. Light discolouration to margins of wrappers. Inner hinges with professional repairs. Small stamp (exlibris?) to lower part of title-page. Previous owner's name (Erik Broekmeyer) in contemporary hand to upper outer corner of title-page. A fine copy. 64 pp. First issue of the first edition in book form, being, not an offprint of the"Annalen der Physik" journal issue as often stated, but a separate edition of the paper, completely re-set and with significant changes and additions, including for the first time in print the "Einleitung" and the "Inhalt".The first issue is distinguished from the later reprints by the printing of "Sonderdruck aus dem "Annalen der Physik" Band 49, 1916", and "Druck von Metzger & Wittig in Leipzig. 314" to the verso of the title-page and "Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig" to the foot of the back wrapper. Furthermore, "This separate edition is printed on good, strong paper, the wrappers are of strong material too, and it is described now as 'the original edition' of this classic paper" (Weil). Einstein's seminal "General Theory of Relativity" has had an immense impact on all science, philosophy, and man's view of the world in general. Few other books of the 20th century can be said to have so basically altered the way that we view the world and our place in it. Determining space and time as being interwoven into a single continuum known as "space-time" and determining that there is no absolute space-time coordinate system - i.e. that there are no absolute positions in time and pace - established the fact that events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another, i.e. all positions in space and time are relative. This general theory of relativity, here presented in its full exposition for the first time, in book form, is now a basic foundation for scientific thought."The theory of relativity has transformed astrophysics, and indeed the whole scientific outlook." (PMM)."Whereas Special Relativity had brought under one set of laws the electromagnetic world of Maxwell and Newtonian mechanics as far as they applied to bodies in uniform relative motion, The General Theory did the same thing for bodies with the accelerated relative motion epitomized in the acceleration of gravity. But first it had been necessary for Einstein to develop the true nature of gravity from his principle of equivalence...Basically, he proposed that gravity was a function of matter itself and that its effects were transmitted between contiguous portions of space-time... Where matter exists, so does energy; the greater the mass of matter involved, the greater the effect of the energy which can be transmitted. In addition, gravity affected light... exactly as it affected material particles. Thus the universe which Newton had seen, and for which he had constructed his apparently impeccable mechanical laws, was not the real universe... Einstein's paper gave not only a correct picture of the universe but also a fresh set of mechanical laws by which its details could be described" (R.W. Clark). "This paper was the first comprehensive overview of the final version of Einstein's general theory of relativity after several expositions of preliminary versions and latest revisions of the theory in November 1915. It includes a self-contained exposition of the elements of the tensor calculus that are needed for the theory. (T. Sauer in Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics). PMM: 408. Horblit 26 c. Weil 80.Boni: 78,1 Schilpp-Schields: 86.

Paris, Crochard, 1820. 8vo. In 'Annales de Chimie et de Physique', Volume 15, pp.59-76;170-218. The entire volme 15 offered here. 448 pp., 5 engraved plates. Bound in contemporary half calf with gilt spine, Raised bands. Minor scratches to spine. Corners a bit bumped. Five engraved plates accompanying the memoires. Clean and fine. First edition of the first announcement of Ampère's discoveries on electromagnetism. Ampère first heard of Ørsted's discovery of electromagnetism on the 4th of September when Arago announced Ørsted's results to the Paris Academy of Sciences. In Ørsted's experiment a current-carrying wire is held over, and under, a compass needle - the result being that the needle is positioned at 45 degrees in respect to the wire. Ampére immediately saw that this result made no physical sense and realized that the true nature of the effect could not be observed until the force of terrestrial magnetism was somehow neutralized; what Ørsted had observed and reported on was the resultant of the force from the wire and that from the earth's magnetic field. Ampère discovered that the compass needle sets at 90 degrees to the current-carrying wire when the effect of terrestial magnetism is eliminated. He also observed that current-carrying wires which are formed as spirals act as permanent magnets, and this lead him to his theory that electricity in motion produces magnetism and that permanent magnets must contain electrical currents. And thus Ampère laid the foundation of the new field of electrodynamics. Ampère announced his theory and experimental results, for the first time, in a series of memoires read before the Paris Academy of Sciences in September and October 1820. These memoires were first published in the September and October issues of Arago's 'Annales de Chimie et de Physique' (the offered items). In November Ampère had a seperate printing of his findings published under the title 'Mémoires sur I'action mutuelle de deux courans électriques, sur celle qui existe entre un courant électrique et un aimant ou le globe terrestre, et celle de deux aimans I'un sur I'autre.' (Dibner 62, Norman 43). On the title-page of this publication it is stated 'Extrait des Annales de Chimie et de Physique' and therefore this publication is often identified as an offprint of the two offered papers (see the Norman sales catalogue for an example). This is, however untrue, since it contains considerable changes and additions in comparison with text of the journal issues (see Williams: What were Ampère's Earliest Discoveries in Electrodynamics? ISIS, volume 74, p.492). Honeyman 82, Barchas 51, Wheeler 762.

London, Printed by G. James, for Henry Clements, 1713. 8vo. Contemporary marbled full calf boards, prettily rebacked in period style with gilt title-label, raised bands and gilt ornamentations to spine. During the re-backing, new end-papers have been inserted, but the original front end-paper , containing old owners' inscriptions, has been preserved and is still withbound. Three old owners' names to title-page, two of them crossed out. The title-page had been repaired at the outer margin, affecting three letters in the last three lines of the subtitle (To open a Method for rendering the/ SCIENCES more easy, useful, and/ compensious), namely the "he" in "the" and the "d" in "and" as well as part fo the double-ruled border, which has been drawn up again. The final leaf with a somewhat crode repair causing loss of some words towards the hinge. A small hole in A3, not repaired. A bit of brownspotting, mostly at beginning and end. With its flaws, still and overall acceptable copy of this extremely rare title. (10), 166 pp. The very scarce first edition of Berkeley's other magnum opus, his great work of metaphysics, second in importance only to his "Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge" (1710). The present work is not only a popularized version of the "Treatise", though it is a fact that it was more widely studied and more easily understood - being written as an almost Platonian dialogue between Hylas (Greek for "matter" - thought to be the representative for John Locke) and Philonous (Greek for "the lover of reason" - Berkeley's spokesman) - it also constitutes a thorough and elaborated explanation of Berkeley's central ideas and the emergence of many of the principal thoughts that we now associate with him and his anti-materialist philosophy."In this Treatise, which does not presuppose in the Reader, any Knowledge of what was contained in the former (i.e. the "Treatise"), it has been my Aim to Introduce the Notions I advance, into the Mind, in the most easy and familiar manner; especially, because they carry with them a great Opposition to the Prejudices of Philosophers, which have so far prevailed against the common Sense and natural Notions of Mankind.If the principles, which I here endeavour to propagate, are admitted true; the Consequences which, I think, evidently flow from thence, are, that Atheism and Scepticism will be utterly destroyed, many intricate Points made plain, great Difficulties solved, several useless Parts of Science retrenched, Speculation referred to Practise, and Men reduced from Paradoxes to common Sense" (Preface, pp. (7-8)).In the present work, Berkeley, one of the greatest thinkers of early modern philosophy, sets out to alter the direction of philosophy and set straight the boundaries of man's knowledge of himself and the world around him. He seeks to bring back man to common sense and to bring back science and knowledge to that which is essential and factual. In the present work he famously defends the idealism, because of which he is still considered one of the greatest metaphysicians ever. As his "Treatise" is remembered today for the famous phrase "Esse est percipi" - to be is to be perceived - so his "Dialogues" is remembered for the introduction of the perceptual relativity argument (stating that the same object can have different characteristics, e.g. shape, colour, etc., depending on the perspective of the observer, e.g. distance, angle, light, etc.). Furthermore, as Berkeley had used God in the "Principles" as the CAUSE or originator of our ideas of sense, in the "Dialogues" he brings God a very important step further, stating that our ideas must EXIST IN God when not perceived by us, thus seeing this as the warrant for the continuity of our ideas (God being unchanging). This leap (from claiming that God must cause our ideas to claiming that our ideas must exist in God) that Berkeley thus takes in the "Dialogues" is among the most important within his philosophy, guaranteeing continuous existence to physical objects. The work is considered the foremost representative of Berkeley's phenomenalism."George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, was one of the great philosophers of the early modern period. He was a brilliant critic of his predecessors, particularly Descartes, Malebranche, and Locke. He was a talented metaphysician famous for defending idealism, that is, the view that reality consists exclusively of minds and their ideas. Berkeley's system, while it strikes many as counter-intuitive, is strong and flexible enough to counter most objections. His most-studied works, the Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Principles, for short) and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (Dialogues), are beautifully written and dense with the sort of arguments that delight contemporary philosophers. He was also a wide-ranging thinker with interests in religion (which were fundamental to his philosophical motivations), the psychology of vision, mathematics, physics, morals, economics, and medicine. Although many of Berkeley's first readers greeted him with incomprehension, he influenced both Hume and Kant, and is much read (if little followed) in our own day." (SEP).Berkeley published his first important philosophical work, "Essay Toward a New Theory of Vision" in 1709, aged 24. The book was well-received and a second edition came out later that same year. The following year he published "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge" , in which he sought to lay out a complete philosophical system based on the idea that the only existing entities in the world are ideas and the mind that perceives them. The work was not very well received, however. This did not affect his search for truth, though, and he continued the outlay of his philosophical system in his "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous", which was printed in 1713. Though neither of the two works were well received and appeared in small numbers, they are by far the most important and enduring of all of his works. The view that he presents in the "Dialogues" is that which he called "immaterialism" (now "idealism"). He considered this anti-materialism the perfect answer to and refutation of skepticism and atheism, and his theories later became the foundation of much idealistic philosophy."Upon the common Principles of Philosophers, we are not assured of the Existence of Things from their being perceived. And we are taught to distinguish their real Nature from that which falls under our Senses. Hence arise Scepticism and Paradoxes. It is not enough, that we see and feel, that we taste and smell a thing. Its true Nature, its absolute external Entity, is still concealed. For, tho it be the Fiction of our own Brain, we have made it inaccessible to all our Faculties. Sense is fallacious, Reason defective. We spend our Lives in doubting of those things which other Men evidently know, and believing those things which they laugh at and despise..." (Preface, p. (6)).The first edition of this important work is very difficult to find. It was published in an edition together with the "Treatise" in 1734, which, though also scarce, is the edition of the work that most libraries and institutions have in their holdings, seeing that the first editions of both works are of even greater scarcity. We have only been able to locate three copies in libraries worldwide.

London, C. Davis, 1753. 4to. Without wrappers. Extracted from "Philosophical Transactions", vol. 47. Including title-page of volume. Title-page with repair to inner margin. Pp. 289-91; pp. 565-70. First appearance of both papers, one of them being the milestone paper in which Franklin describes his lightning experiment and proves what he had already conjectured, that lightening is an electrical discharge. Both of the present papers were to become part of his famous work "Experiments and Observations on Electricity.." assembled by his friend Peter Collinson, to whom the papers were addressed. The famous letter was also published in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1752."Franklin was the first American scientist to achieve an international reputation, with his work on electricity...The most dramatic result of Franklin's researches was the proof that lightening is really an electrical phenomenon. Others had made such a suggestion before him - even Newton himself - but it was he who provided the experimental proof. In 1752 he flew a kite in a thunderstorm and attached a key to its string. From this he collected electrical charges in a Leiden jar and showed that atmospheric and frictional or machine-made electricity are the same. He went on to propose the fixing of iron rods at the top of buildings, masts of ships, etc., from which he conducted the electric charges they collected from lightening into the wet subsoil - the invention of the lightening conductor."His reputation as a scientist was immediately established by the publication of the results of his researches in a series of letters addressed to Peter Collinson, a London merchant and naturalist, in 1751; and the Experiments and Observations [ which collected all the Collinson letters not just those offered here ] remains the most important scientific book of eighteenth-century America." (PMM 199)."Later, Franklin devised a second experiment to test the electrification of clouds (the first was the sentry-box experiment), one which has become more popularly known: the lightning kite. Franklin reported his experiments to Collison in a letter of October 1752 (the paper offered), written after Franklin had read "in the public papers from Europe, of the success of the Philadelphia -Experiment for drawing the electric fire from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings..." Actually, Franklin appears to have flown his electrical kite prior to having learned of Dalibard's successful execution of the sentry-box experiment. The KITE LETTER, published in the "Philosophical Transactions", referred to the erection of lighetning rods on public buildings in Philadelphia. The lightening experiment caused Franklin's name to become known throughout Europe to the public at large and not merely to men of science. Joseph Priestly, in his "History...of Electricity", characterized the experimental discovery that the lightening discharge is an electrical phenomenon as "THE GREATEST, PERHAPS, SINCE THE TIME OF NEWTON".....the discoveries made in the summer of 1752 will make it memorable in the history of electricity," William Watson wrote in 1753. "These have opened a new field to philosophers, and have given them room to hope, that what they have learned before in their museums, they may apply, with more propriety than they have hitherto could have done, in illustrating the nature and effects of thunder; a phenomenon hitherto almost inaccessible to their inquiries."(DSB V, pp. 134-35).The volume offered contains a series of other notable papers: T. Simpson (mathematics), Thomas Debenham (medicine), James Parsons (Phocae Marinae, the long-necked seal), W. Watson (the sex of flowers), Francis Blake (steem-engine), William Watson (An Account of Mr. Benjamin Franklin's Treatise, lately published, Experiments and Observations on Electricity..."pp. 202-211),Dunthorne (on comets), William Watson ("An Account of the Phaenomena of Electricity in vacuo", pp. 362-376), J. Smeaton (Air-pump), Richard Brooke (surgery), Abbe Nollet (electricity from the clouds), W. Watson (electrical experiments in England upon Thunder-Clouds), etc. etc.

Leipzig, J.A. Barth, 1926. 8vo. Bound in three volumes: two uniform contemporary half cloth and one contemporary full cloth. In "Annalen der Physik. Hrsg. von W. Wien und M. Planck., Vierte Folge, Bde. 79-81." Band 79 (full cloth) with gilt lettering to spine, library label pasted on to pasted down front free end-paper and library stamp to front free end-paper. Band 80,81 (half cloth) with a copy of the title page pasted on the front boards. White handwritten title to spine and coners bumped. Library cards inserted on pasted down front free end-paper. All three copies internally fine and clean. [Schrödinger's papers:] Pp. 361-376; Pp. 489-527; Pp. 734-756 (Bd. 79). Pp. 438-490 (Bd. 60). Pp. 109-131 (Bd. 81). [Entire volumes: VII, (1), 160 pp. + 10 plates; VII, (1), 828 pp. + 15 plates; VIII, 1172 pp. + 11 plates.]. First printing and first appearence of these 5 papers which introduces Schrödinger's wave-equations and explains the stationary states of electrons in Bohr's theory of the atom by way of applying de Broglie's concept of electron waves. These papers are among the most important in modern physics."The intensity of Schrödingers work on the problem (he found the earlier Bohr-Sommerfeld quantum theory unsatisfactory) increased as he saw that he was on the track of "a new atomic theory", and it reached a peak during his winter vacation in Arosa. On 27 December 1925 he wrote to Wilhelm Wien, editor of the "Annalen der Physik" inMunich that he was very optimistic: "I believe that I can give a vibrating system...thatyields the hydrogen frequency levels as it eigenfrequencies." The frequences of the emitted light rays are then obtained, as Schrödinger observed, by establishing the differences of the two eigenfrequencies respectively. "Consequently the way is opened toward a real understanding of Bohr's frequency calculation - it is really a vibration (or, as the case may be, interference) process, which occurs with the same frequency as the one we observe in the spectroscope. I hope, that I will soon be able to report on this subject in a little more detail and in a more comprehensive fashion" (Schrödinger's letter to Wien)...The so-called Klein-Gordon equations which Schrödinger used gives an incorrect description of the relativistic structures Schrödinger tried to describe. As this equation he tried to use, describes particles without spin, whereas a a description of electrons requires the Dirac equation..."After a brief interruption Schrödinger took up his method again, but this time he treated the electron nonrelativistically. It soon became apparent that he had arrived at a theory that correctly represented a the behavior of the electron to a very good approximation. THE RESULT WAS THE EMERGENCE OF WAVE MECHANICS IN JANUARY 1926. Schrödinger published the results of his research in a series of four papers in the "Annalen der Physik" bearing the overall title "Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem." The first installment, sent on 26 January and received by Wien the next day, contains the first apperarance in the literature of his famous wave equation, written out for the hydrogen atom..."(DSB). In the fifth paper offered, Schrödinger himself shows that there is an essential equivalence of his theory and that of Heisenberg, Born and Jordan's.

Morgiis, Guillelmus Laimarius, 1584. Small folio. 18th century half vellum, somewhat soiled and worn. Corners and edges bumped and worn. Handwritten title to spine. Fore-edge with 2-line title in neat (contemporary?) hand and with the "Societas Jesu" (i.e. the Jesuit Society) symbol in white to the otherwise red fore-edge. Internally a very ni8ce copy, with the occasional browning and spotting. A faint damp stain to top marging of some leaves. A small hole to top of title-page, far from affecting print. Last leaves with neat strenthening of blank upper corners, far from affecting text. Old (presumably 18th century) owner's name to title page: "Ioan. Bey A. Vest." Front free end-papers heavily annotated (presumably by this same owner, in Latin, Greek, and German. The annotations include and elaborate handwritten index, information about the edition, and references to the Greek sentences. Verso of last leaf and back end-papers also with notes. A few underlinings here and there. Woodcut ornamental title-border, woodcut vignettes, woodcut initials, numerous woodcut illustrations and diagrams in the text. Greek-Latin parallel-text. (8), 831, (1) pp. The very rare first edition of Julius Pace's seminal "Organon"-edition, which was the standard-edition of the logical texts of Aristotle throughout more than a century, running through at least 11 editions before 1624. Pace's version of the text, in Greek-Latin parallels, and with Pace's inspired commentaries and interpretations, profoundly influenced Renaissance thought, determining the course of the Organon-interpretation throughout this period and inspiring much original philosophical thought. Pace's interpretation of Aristotle's logical works - arguably the most influential collection of works in the history of Western thought - not only changed the face of Renaissance thought, it has remained the authoritative reading of Aristotle's "Organon" to this day and is still considered the most important and authoritative reading of the texts. As Ross puts it in the Preface to his translation of the logical works (the standard Oxford-edition): "My chief authority in matters of interpretation has been Pacius". ("The Works of Aristotle Translated into English Under the Editorship of W.D. Ross. Volume I". Oxford University Press). To this day, a proper study of Aristotle's "Organon" - and Porphyrios' "Isagoge" - is still unthinkable without references to Pace, his rendering of the text, and his interpretations of it. The famous "Porphyrian Tree" or "arbor porphyriana", which has gone down in history as a standard presentation of the basis of Aristotle's thought, was presented by Porphyrios in his "Isagoge", which since Antiquity has accompanied Aristotle's "Ornanon" as an introduction thereof. The standard presentation of this tree is that of Pace in the present edition, on p. 9. It is that rendering of it, with occasional slight alterations, which has remained standard ever since 1584. That which we ever since Antiquity have called the "Organon" comprises the logical works of Aristotle: 1. Categories, 2. On Interpretation, 3. Prior Analytics, 4. Posterior Analytics, 5. Topics, 6. On Sophistical Refutations - which ever since late Antiquity/early Middle Ages have been accompanied by Porphyrios' (233/34-ca.310) "Isagoge", his introduction to Aristotle's "Categories". During the Renaissance, all editions of Aristotle's "Organon" also comprised Porphyrios' "Isagoge", which was seen as necessary for the understanding of Aristotle's logic. Aristotle's logic has played a seminal role in the history of Western thought. No other collection of writings has had an impact on the history of philosophy that comes close to the "Organon", an impact that remains pivotal to this day. "Aristotle's logic, especially his theory of the syllogism, has had an unparalleled influence on the history of Western thought." (SEP).From Antiquity, the earlier middle ages had inherited Boethius' translation of the two first treatises of Aristotle's "Organon", along with Porphyrios' "Isagoge". These works formed the basis for logical study and teaching until the end of the 11th century. Only during the 12th and 13th centuries, were Aristotle's writings - along with those of the Arabic and some of the Greek commentators - translated into Latin. When the medieval universities reached their full development during the thirteenth century, Aristotle's works were adapted as the standard textbooks for all philosophical disciplines - thus modern terms for many philosophical and scientific disciplines correspond to the titles of Aristotle's works (e.g. Ethics, Physics, Metaphysics). Through Aristotle's works, the West thus acquired, not only the specific problems and ideas that were being dealt with at the universities, but also the terminology used to describe and discuss them and the systematic framework within which all relevant problems should and could be treated. But come the Renaissance, we see a clear change in the use of Aristotle's works. We here witness something other than a mere continuation of the late medieval Aristotelianism. The Humanists began supplying new translations of Aristotle's works and translated all the Greek commentators of Aristotle, many of them for the first time. And thus, a tendency to emphasize the original Greek Aristotle developed, a tendency that became pivotal for the development of modern thought - the development of modern science and modern philosophy is inextricably linked with the Renaissance Humanist editions of Aristotle's works in Greek (with Latin parallel-text). The "Organon", Aristotle's seminal logical writings, occupies a central position within the Aristotelian body of writing and thus within the development of Western thought. Certain Humanist versions of the Greek text and the Latin translations, as well as the interpretations of them, thus came to play a seminal role in the trajectory of Renaissance and modern though, Pace's "Organon"-edition presumably being THE most important and influential edition ever to have appeared. "The medieval traditions of logical writing survived well into the sixteenth century particularly at Paris and at the Spanish universities, though with considerable internal changes. Treatises on sophisms and on proofs of terms ceased to be written; whereas there was a sudden flurry of activity concerned with the various divisions of terms and with the opposition of propositions, i.e. the logical relations between different kinds of categorical proposition. These internal changes were not, however, sufficient to keep the tradition alive, and after about 1530 not only did new writing on the specifically medieval contributions to logic cease, but the publication of medieval logicians virtually ceased. The main exceptions were the logical commentaries by (or attributed to) such authors as Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus, which found a place in their "Opera Omnia", and which benefited from a revived interest in the great medieval metaphysicians.The main changes in the teaching and writing of logic during the sixteenth century were due to the impact of humanism. First, commentaries on Aristotle came to display a totally new style of writing. One reason for this was the influence of new translations of Aristotle, and new attitudes to the Greek text. Another reason was the publication of the Greek commentators on Aristotle's logic, Alexander, Themistius, Ammonius, Philoponus and Simplicius. A third reason was the new emphasis on Averroes, which expressed itself in the great Aristotle-Averroes edition of 1550-1552. The effects of these new factors can be seen in the commentaries on individual works of the "Organon" by such Italians as Agostino Nifo (1473-1546) and Jacopo Zabarella (1533-1589), the latter of whom offered a particularly influential account of scientific method. They can also be seen in the "Organon" edition of Giulio Pace (1550-1635), which was first published in 1584 and contained the Greek text side-by-side with a new translation which was designed not only to read well but also to capture the philosophical significance of Aristotle's words." (Raul Corazzon, "History of Renaissance and Modern Logic from 1400 to Stuart Mill")."No editor better understood the nature of this Treatise of Aristotle than Julius Pacius, who was the preceptor of Casaubon, and profoundedly skilled in all the arcane of the Peripatetic philosophy, in both the Greek and Latin tongues." (Dibdin I: 318)Giulio Pace of Beriga (or Julius Pace/Pacius) (1550 - 1635) was a famous Italian Aristotelian scholar and jurist. He was born in Vicenza and studied law and philosophy in Padua. He was inspired by the Reformation and put on trial by the Inquisition. Therefore he had to flee Italy and escaped, first to Geneva, thereafter to Germany. While in Heidelberg, he converted to Protestantism. He was highly respected as an academic and was widely known for his deep knowledge and understanding of Aristotle, whom he became famous for translating. He was elected public professor in Geneva, where he taught for ten years (1575-1585). The next ten years he spent teaching law at the University of Heidelberg (where he got into different conflicts, especially with the philosophical faculty for giving private tuition in the controversial Ramist logic). After Heidelberg, he taught at different universities throughout Europe, where he was especially well known for his 1584-edition of Aristotle's "Organon", which played a definitive role in Aristotle-scholarship and philosophy in general throughout all of Europe.Dibdin I:318; Adams A:1866.

Kjøbenhavn, L.H. Lillies Enke, 1758. 4to (203 x 160mm). In a very nice contemporary half calf binding with five raised bands and gilt ornamentation to spine. Lower compartment of spine with some loss of leather. Marbled boards with wear. End-papers renewed but with near contemporary paper. Previous owner's name to title-page. Internally very nice and clean. 72 pp. The extremely scarce first edition of the first printed account of the island of St. Croix under Danish rule. It contain descriptions of the geology, topography and natural history and present detailed descriptions of sugar cultivation and production and the conditions of the slaves. Haagensen settled on the island immediately after Danish occupation (1733) as plantation owner and Danish official. In 1725, St. Thomas Governor Frederik Moth encouraged the Danish West Indies Company's directors to consider purchasing Saint Croix (then known as Santa Cruz). On 15 June 1733, France and Denmark-Norway concluded a treaty by which the Danish West India Company bought Saint Croix for 750,000 livres. Louis XV ratified the treaty on 28 June, and received half the payment in French coins, with the remaining half paid in 18 months. On 16 November 1733, Moth was named the first Danish governor of Saint Croix. The 1742 census lists 120 sugar plantations, 122 cotton plantations, and 1906 slaves, compared to 360 whites on the island. By 1754, the number of slaves had grown to 7,566. That year, King Frederick took direct control of Saint Croix from the company. For nearly 200 years, Saint Croix, St. Thomas and St. John were known as the Danish West Indies. By the mid to late 18th century, "at the peak of the plantation economy, the enslaved population of Saint Croix numbered between 18,000 and 20,000, the white population ranging between 1,500 and 2,000". (Loftsdóttir, Kristin, and Gísli Pálsson, "Black on White: Danish Colonialism, Iceland and the Caribbean"). In 1916, Denmark sold Saint Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John to the United States, formalizing the transfer in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, in exchange for a sum of US$25 million in gold. Sabin 29406 Reid 98 Bibl. Danica III, 647.

(Paris, Henricus Stephanus, 1513). Folio. Bound in a nice 18th century brown half calf with six raised bands to richly gilt spine. Corners slightly bumped and capitals worn, especially the lower one, where the capital band is showing and has loosened a bit. Inner hinge slightly weak. Front free end-paper with 18th century ink-annotation (title, year, etc.). A very light damp stain top the last portion of leaves, a bit heavier to the last two leaves. Otherwise internally very nice and clean. All in all a very nice copy, with only very light scattered brownspotting. Beautifully printed in two columns and in red and black throughout. Pp. 233-294. Second edition (following the original of 1509) of the final two parts of Estienne's typographic masterpiece "Quincuplex Psalterium", also known as the "First book of French Protestantism". These two final parts, which make up complete works in themselves, consist in the "Psalterium Vetus" - the Old Latin Psalter (i.e. the version used by the churches before Jerome's revisions) and the "Psaltarium Conciliatum", consisting in Lefevre's own version, based on the Vulgate text corrected according to the Hebrew text and using the Aristarchian signs. This spledid publication had an immense impact upon protestantism, early bible-scholarship, and theology in general and is famed because of its beauty, elegance, and typographical excellence along with its immense importance historically speaking. "Lefèvre's epoch-making work was awaited impatiently by the learned world, and is the topic of many a letter among the extant humanist correspondence of the period: thus, Cardinal Ximeèz, the future editor of the first polyglot Bible, in a letter to Charles de Bovelles, praises Lefèvre's scholarship and the usefulness of his "Psalterium". This famous volume is also Henri Estienne's typographical masterpiece and is commonly singled out as one of the outstanding monuments of early 16th-century French typography." (Schreiber). "Lefèvre agreed with Erasmus that theology must be based on accurate texts and translations of the Scriptures; as the title of the volume indicates, Lefèvre presents five different versions of the psalms" (Schreiber). As described, the present copy contains the final two. The three parts that were printed before those two, were all printed in three columns and consisted in the three versions of St Jerome, namely the "Psalterium Romanum" (Jerome's first version of the Old Latin Psalter according to the Septuagint), the "Psalterium Gallicum" (Jerome's second revision, first adopted by the churches of Gaul), and the "Psalterium Hebraicum" (Jerome's translation directly from the Hebrew). Schreiber nr. 8 (1509 ed.); Renouard 1509, nr. 1.; Mortimer 1, nr. 62 (present edition).

Bath, R. Cruttwell, 1795. Large 4to. Contemporary boards, beautifully re-backed in contemporary style, with five raised bands, gilt lines, and gilt red leather title-label to spine. A few light marginal pencil-annotations, small library stamp to lower part of title page, otherwise a very fine copy. 8, 200 pp. + the errata slip inserted after the title-page. First edition of this landmark work in scientific social inquiry, constituting one of the earliest microeconomic- and consumer behavior- analyses. Davies profoundly influenced social history and initiated the entire field of consumer behavior analysis, two areas of study which were to dominate 19th century economics, relevant not only to economic and social history, but also to present day economic analysis. Davies's work anticipates Eden's "The State of The Poor" (PMM 249) by two years. In the present work, Davies discusses in detail the causes of the poverty of agricultural labourers in England, linking the high prices of goods with poverty, and proposes measures to relieve the labourers, including linking their daily wage to the price of bread. Davies's observations demonstrated the failings of the contemporary Poor Laws and was by many seen as a direct criticism of the central policy making (or lack thereof). "The differences in consumption of poor and rich families excited attention and often compassion, but apparently never quantitative analysis, for many centuries. Finally in England in the 1790's two very different investigators made extensive compilations of workingmen's budgets. [Davies in 1795, Eden in 1797]. Both were stimulated to this task by the distress of the working classes at this time." (Stigler, The Early History of Empirical Studies of Consumer Behavior). In "Was bread Giffen? The demand for food in England circa 1790" (in Review of Economics and Statistics, 1977, Vol. 59, issue 2, pp. 225-29), Koenker developed a problem in statistical demand analysis using samples from the budgets recorded in these works. "Two seminal budget studies by .. .Davies ... and ... Eden are employed ... to investigate the place of bread in the diets of English rural laborers at the end of the eighteenth century. Because of the considerable geographical and temporal dispersion in prices of foodstuffs found in these budgets, they afford a unique opportunity to study the influences of both prices and income on individual household consumption decisions. In particular a test is made of the famous hypothesis, attributed by Marshall to Robert Giffen, that a rise in the price of bread, ceteris paribus, increases its consumption among the lower classes." The budget studies to which Koenker refers comprise the 70-page appendix. Davies began collecting statistical data on the poor in 1787 while a rector in the parish of Barkham, Berkshire. "He collected six detailed budgets of 'typical' agricultural laborers living in Barkham and circulated these budgets widely to friends throughout the kingdom. Some of these correspondents were persuaded to produce similar budgets for their own localities. In 1795 Davies edited 127 of these budgets, wrote a dispassionate plea for a minimum wage law tied to the price of wheat, and published both as The Case of Labourers in husbandry." (Koenker). In making the case for government intervention, Davies attacks rampant ignorance and prejudice toward the poor, in particular the notion that the poor are profligate creatures of habit. "It is wonderful how readily even men of sense give in to this censure." (p. 31).Davies's studies "were the first examples of studies in that long and semi-honorable liberal tradition of econometrically snooping into the private lives of the poor. By the mid 19th century such studies were being conducted all over Europe by such notables as Ernst Engel, Frederick Engels, Frederick LePlay and others." (Koenker, Applied Econometrics)David Davies (1742-1819), English clergyman and social commentator, was ordained in 1782 and became the rector of Barkham parish, where he remained incumbent until his death. Kress B2916Goldsmith 16422. Not in Einaudi.

Kiøbenhaffn, Laurentz Benedicht, 1589. Lille 4to. Nydeligt velbevaret halvlæderbind med skindtitel på ryg fra omkr. 1700. Marmoreret overtrækspapir på permer. Titelblad trykt i rødt og sort. 41 blade, teksten komplet, men uden sidste blanke blad. Med 29 store træsnit i teksten, skåret af L. Benedicht, afbildende skjoldefrisens våben. Gennemgående skjold, af varierende markering, nederst på siderne. Lettere brugsspor, et blad med lille hul repareret. Eksemplaret stammer fra Thore Virgin's samling på Quarnfors (No 184) og med mærkaten Ex Bibliotheca Rolf Wistrand N. 2082 på indersiden af bagpermen. Ex-libris Poul Hauge og Max Ebert.Small 4to. Lovely well preserved half calf from ab. 1700 with leather title-label to spine. Marbled paper over boards. Dampstaining throughout, af varying degree, to the bottom of the leaves. A bit of wear, and one leaf with a small repaired hole. With 29 large woodcuts in the text, cut but L. Benedict. Title-page printed in red and black. 41 ff. Text complete, but without the final blank. Frm Thore Virgin's library. The extremely rare first edition of the first genealogical work of Denmark. The work documents the genealogical history of the Hvide family, to which the founder of Copenhagen, the great Absalon, belonged. ___________________________Det yderst sjældne originaltryk af Danmarks første genealogiske værk. Som abbed på Sorø Kloster interesserede Morten Pedersen sig for Klostrets grundlægger og Hvideslægtens historie som afbildet på "Skjoldefrisen" i Klosterkirken. Gengivelserne af frisens våbenskjolde i bogen er den ældste dokumentation for deres udformning, og bogens træsnit blev derfor benyttet som rettesnor for restaureringen af frisen i 1871. Bogen indeholder yderligere historien om Klostrets grundlæggelse og de kongelige grave heri. Birkelund nr. 35 - Thesaurus Nr. 213 - Bibl. Danica III:951.

London, Lockyer Davis, 1777. 4to. In recent marbled paper wrappers. Extracted from "Philosophical Transactions". Including title-page of volume 61 and 66. Leaves reinforced/mounted in margin. Light offsetting from folded plates as usual. Pp. (2), 401-406, 447-450, (4), 397-436 pp. + 3 folded plates. Second appearance (but first journal-edition) of Cook's landmark paper on his successful measures taken against scurvy on his first two voyages. The paper was read to the Royal Society by its president, Sir John Pringle in the absence of Cook himself (on his final voyage). Cook was awarded the year's Copley medal award for the present paper. "No commander before had been so particular about the diet of his men ... sour krout, mustard, vinegar, wheat, orange and lemon juice, saloop and portable soup were used regularly, and every chance of obtaining fresh vegetables and 'scurvy-grass' was eagerly seized" (Beaglehole pp 256-57Cook's triumphs over scurvy soon proved to be one of the most important and influtial archievements in the general field of exploration.Withbound are four other papers by Cook, all first editions.Beddie 1288

St. Petersburg: N.P. Polyakova, 1869. 8vo. In a later modest half calf binding. Previous owner's name to top of front free end-paper and half title. Internally lightly spottet and soiled. Dampstain to top corner and lower part of book. Restauration to upper outer corner of Pp. 109-110 and pp. 111-112. A closed tear to map. (6), II, 494 pp. + 1 map. Rare first edition of Bervi-Flerovsky's important study based on his own research and impressions from Siberia, which became a milestone in the history of Russian sociology, often referred to as the Russian 'Das Kapital'. It was greatly appreciated by Marx, and in 1869 he began leaning Russian in order to be able to read this work. Marx came to consider Russia the country in which the outbreak of the Revolution was most likely to happen, and in his research for the successive volumes of 'Das Kapital', he primarily used the present work along with works of A. Hoshelev.Flerovsky painted a vivid picture of the growing destitution of the peasantry following the introduction of capitalist social relations in agriculture. "the conclusion he drew was that everything possible should be done to prevent capitalism from making further headway and to utilize, instead, the potentialities of the peasant commune." (Walicki, A History of Russian Thought)."I have read the first 150 pages of Flerovsky's book (they are taken up by Siberia, North Russia and Astrakhan). This is the first work to tell the truth about Russian economic conditions. The man is a determined enemy of what he calls 'Russian optimism.' I never held very rosy views of this communistic Eldorado, but Flerovsky surpasses all expectations. In fact it is wonderful and undoubtedly a sign of change that such a thing could be printed in Petersburg at all [...] In any case this is the most important book which has appeared since your Condition of the Working Class" (Marx's letter to Engels in Manchester. London, 10 February, 1870.)Marx later stated: "The work by Flerovskii is a real discovery for Europe. Russian optimism which has been put about on the continent even by so-called revolutionists, has been mercilessly exposed in this work. The virtues of the book are not diminished if I say that it is in several places not fully up to critical standards, from the purely scholarly point of view. This is a work of a serious observer, a dispassionate laborer, and an impartial critic, a powerful artist, etc..."As an open revolutionary the majority of Flerovsky's works were banned in Russia. This present first edition was banned but sold so quickly that it was not possible to destroy the whole run. All 2465 copies of the second edition from 1872 were destroyed.

Kjøbenhavn, P.G. Philipsens Forlag, 1843 - 45. 8vo. Nice contemporary half calf with gilding to spine. Slight wear to capitals and corners and spine a little spotted. Overall very nice. Some leaves with brownspotting, but also internally nicer and fresher than usual. Contemporary owner's inscription to front free end-paper, dated 1854. A very nice copy. (4), 62; 84; 59 (including the blank leaf between the title-page and the preface); 70, (2, - i.e. 1 blank f.); 111 pp. Very rare first edition of this Kierkegaard-title, which is without doubt the most difficult to get hold of. "Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses" consists of the popular Two, Three and Four Upbuilding Discourses. The unsold copies of these "Opbyggelige Taler" ("Upbuilding Discourses") were initially collected under the title "Atten opbyggelige Taler" (Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses) and published with a collected title-page; when "To opbyggelige Taler" ("Two Upbuilding Discourses") from 1843 was sold out, the remaining sixteen upbuilding discourses were published with the title-page "Sexten opbyggelige Taler". The number of copies of this scarce title is said to be well under 100 and is thus by far the rarest of all of Kierkegaard's books.

London, 1804. 8vo. Bound in a lovely contemporary brown half calf with richly gilt spine. Upper part of spine restored and front hinge cracked and very weak. Corners bumped. Internally an very nice, clean, ad fresh copy with only light occasional brownspotting. Book plate to inside of front board. IX, (3), 203, (1) pp. The very scarce first edition of Trotter’s seminal “Essay on Drunkenness”, which constitutes the first book on alcoholism. “It was during the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the problem of chronic alcohol dependence in modern society and its consequent medical effects emerged. The topic of drunkenness figures prominently in the thinking and writing of social reformers, politicians, theorists, medical practitioners, and psychiatrists. Eventually, by the mid-nineteenth century, ‘alcoholism’ was named as the disease of habitual drunkenness. Possibly the most important book to predict this was Trotter’s Essay, written in 1804. Through case studies based on wide experience, he detailed the manifestations of alcoholism, ventured therapeutic recommendations, and squarely termed drunkenness a disease – indeed, a mental disease.” (Routledge, Edt. Roy Porter, 1988) Thomas Trotter (1760 – 1832), Scottish naval physician, was a leading medical reformer in the Royal Navy, also known as an ardent critic of the slave trade. Trotter was a champion of vaccinations for naval medical staff and a key figure in the development of modern theories of alcohol addiction. His groundbreaking “Essay on Drunkenness” from 1804, in which he describes habitual alcohol consumption as a “disease of the mind”, is the first ever book-length consideration of the phenomenon of alcohol dependence and its treatment.