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Paris, Plassin, 1798. 8vo. and folio (44 x 30) cm. Textvolumes bound in 4 contemporary half calf. Gilt spines with gilt lettering. Tome-label on volume one eroded. Stamp on title-pages. (4),LXVIII,368;(4),414;316,(120 = Tables);(4),328 pp. A few scattered brownspots. Atlasvolume bound in matching hcalf. Spine gilt and rubbed. Lower compartment of spine with wear and tear. Engraved portrai of Pérouse as frontispiece. Engraved pictorial titlepage with cupids and naviogational instruments (dessinée par Moreau le Jeune) and 69 engraved maps, plans and plates of which 32 are large folded engraved maps. Mild foxing to some parts of some maps, occasionally mild dampstains to some plates, marginal browning and some spotting. One map with a repair to folding. Second edition of the textvolumes (the first appeared the year before, 1797) and first edition of plates. (69 plates to the first, 70 to the second)."In 1785, Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Perouse, began preparations for an extensive sea voyage. His aim was to explore the Pacific regions of North and South America, Asia and Australasia. The sponsor of the expedition was the French king, Louis XVI, who was inspired by Captain James Cook's Pacific voyages. Louis ordered the French expedition to show the world that France could also dominate in ocean exploration. The expedition consisted of two ships - La Boussole and L'Astrolabe. They carried a total of 225 crew, officers and scientists. The ships left France in August 1785 and sailed south around Cape Horn. The voyage was expected to last four years. During the voyage, La Perouse sent back regular reports to France. The expedition mapped coastlines and explored uncharted areas of ocean. The expedition's scientists also spent time onshore at various ports, observing the habits and customs of local people and collecting natural history specimens. The expedition's progess until September 1787 was published by the French government as Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde [La Perouse's voyage around the world]. It was reprinted many times and translated into several languages. In 1791, when La Perouse had not returned to France or made any contact by dispatch, the French government sent out a search party. It was commanded by Rear Admiral Joseph Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux and consisted of two ships, Recherche and Esperance.... The complete disappearance of La Perouse caught the imagination of the European public. Songs, stories and plays were written about the possible fate of the expedition, including a popular play called, Perouse, or, The desolate island..... It was not until 1964 that the wreck of La Boussole was finally discovered on Vanikoro's reefs. At last the fate of La Perouse and his crew was known. The expedition is commemorated in the name of a Sydney suburb on the shores of Botany Bay - La Perouse." (State Library of New South Wales, Website).Sabin, 38960.

[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.

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

Florenze, (J. Cocchini) sub signo Stellae, 1667. 4to (230 x 165 mm). Early 19th century brown half calf, rebacked and neatly restored, preserving most of the early spine. Newer endpapers. Gilt spine with gilt leather title-label. "F.C.C.H" (Frederik Carl Christian Hansen) in gilt lettering to lower part of spine. Vague dampstain to lower and outer margins of first half of bookblock. Margins washed and leves K-P2 possibly neatly restored at blank margin without loss of paper and without touching text. Vague dampstain to plates also, mostly visible from verso, barely from recto. Woodcut arms of the Medici-family on the title-page.(2 blanks), (8), 123, (1 blank) pp. + 7 plates: 3 large folding woodcut plates numbered Tabula I-III and 4 full page engraved plates. With previous ownership signatures and dates to title-page: "Fr. C.C. Hansen / Professor anatomiae / Hafniae. / MCMii", being the Danish anatomist Frederik Carl Christian Hansen (1870 - 1934).- "Svend Petri. / 1934." - "Troels Kardel / 2019", being Troels Johan Dahler Kardel (1940 - 2024) - Doctor of Medicine and one of the most renowned 20th-century Steno scholars. As co-author, alongside Belgian scholar Paul Maquet, of a major critical edition and biography of Steno, Kardel played a key role in reviving scholarly interest in "Elementorum Myologiae Specimen" and reestablishing its significance within the history of science. Notably, Kardel was received in audience by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, a testament not only to his scholarly standing but also to the cultural and spiritual relevance of Steno who is venerated in the Catholic Church and beatified in 1988. First edition, with an interisting provenance, of Steno’s landmark work in the history of science, introducing several groundbreaking discoveries across multiple fields of science, particularly anatomy, geology, and the philosophy of science. Steno was the first to demonstrate that muscles do not increase in volume when they contract. This refuted the longstanding Galenic theory and laid the foundation for modern muscle physiology. With the present work, Steno fully developed his groundbreaking muscle theory and revolutionized our knowledge of how the muscles function. He also included comparisons between animal and human anatomical structures, helping to establish the discipline of comparative anatomy and opening new pathways for later evolutionary thought. It as also in the present work that Steno, through the dissection of a shark's head, successfully identified "tongue stones" as fossilized shark teeth, which directly contradicted earlier beliefs that fossils formed spontaneously in rocks. This marked a foundational moment in paleontology and stratigraphy helping to establish that fossils are remains of once-living organisms, thereby setting the stage for his later geological principles (in “De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento”, 1669), such as the principle of original horizontality and superposition.Steno studied rock formations and concluded that all rocks and minerals were once fluid, settling into horizontal layers over time. These layers could trap and preserve animal remains as fossils with older layers at the bottom and newer ones on top - a principle now known as Steno’s Law of Superposition. While others had suggested that fossils were once-living organisms, Steno advanced the idea by linking fossils to specific moments in Earth’s history and showing that rock layers formed gradually. His insights laid the foundation for modern geology and paleontology helping to reveal how life evolved over billions of years. “The first part of Stensen’s "Elementorum" elaborates upon the concepts introduced in his "De musculis et glandulis", laying the foundation of muscular mechanics. In collaboration with the mathematician Vincenzo Viviani, a pupil of Galileo, Stensen developed a geometrical description of muscular contraction, and attempted to show theoretically that muscles did not increase in volume during contraction. Dealing with his subject on a strictly mechanical basis, he gave a clear terminology for the parts of the muscle and characterized muscle and muscle fiber according to their geometrical structure. He recognized that muscle tension was the result of the individual forces of its constituent fibers and was thus able to refute the views of Borelli, who believed that a muscle’s hardness and swelling during contraction was due to the influx of nerve fluid. The remainder of the treatise includes Stensen’s account of his dissection of a shark’s head. In discussing the relationship of the shark teeth to similar-shaped fossil stones found in the Mediterranean, Stensen developed theories of how geological structures and fossils might be formed. This has been called the first outline of a scientific theory of the development of the earth. The Elementorum also contains two of Stensen’s embryological contributions, his recognition of the egg-producing function of the mammalian ovary and his description of the placenta in the viviparous shark.” (Norman 2012). “A Danish physician, geologist, and clergyman, Steno studied medicine at Copenhagen, Leiden and Paris. He settled in Italy, first as professor of anatomy at Padua and then in Florence as house physician to Grand Duke Ferdinand II. He served for at brief time as professor and royal anatomist in Copenhagen. Dissatisfied, he returned to Florence where he abandoned his scientific career and entered the priesthood, eventually becoming bishop.” (Heirs of Hippocrates) The present work is a superb testament to Steno’s multifaceted life and eclectic career, revolutionizing several different branches of science. His fundamental scientific method applied here also reveals Steno as, not only a brilliant observer, but also a methodological pioneer, who helped shape how science was conducted in the early modern period. Norman 2012 Garrison-Morton 577Osler 4021Waller 9223Barchas 1994

Københaffn, (Hans Vingaard), 1557. 4to. Indbundet samlet i et senere enkelt hldrbd. fra omkr. 1850. Med brugsspor men repareret. Ad. 1: Titelblad trykt i sort/rød med sammensat træskåren ramme. (8),160,(1) blade - 2. Titelblad med træskåren ramme. (3),48 blade. - 3. Titelblad med træskåren ramme. (4),32,(12) blade (heraf de sidste 12 blade Apoteckerfortegnelsen). - 4. Titelblad med sammensat træskåren ramme. (7),20 blade. - 5. Titelblad med træskåren ramme. (5),10,(1) blade. Gennemgående i god stand, men her og der med brunpletter, brugspletter særligt på de første blade. Nogle af trykkene har et blankt blad til slut, disse er ikke tilstede i samlingen. Her foreligger samlet 5 af Danmark-Norges tidligste lægebøger, i alder kun overgået af Christian Pedersens 2 bøger fra 1533 og 1534 og Smiths egen "Ny vrtegaarddt" 1546. I modsætning til den samlede udgave fra 1577 ("Henrik Smids Lægebog"), blev disse udgivet separat, og er alle af største sjældenhed. De få eksemplarer, som har været udbudt på markedet de sidste 50 år, har næsten alle været ukomplette. De tre af værkerne er førsteudgaverne, mens "En Bog om Pestilintzis Aarsage" skulle, efter forfatterens egen oplysning på titelbladet, være anden udvidede udgave. Imidlertid er førsteudgaven, som siges at være udkommet 1535, ikke kendt i noget bevaret eksemplar.Lauritz Nielsen Nr. 1511,1512, 1507, 1505, 639. - Thesaurus Nr. 266, 267, 265 og 264. - Bibl. Danica I:798-99.

Tübingen, Hulderich Morhart, 1534. Small folio. Nice full vellum with yapp edges. A, exceptionally nice, clean, and fresh copy. One blank corner of f. 100 restored and small part of upper blank margin of last three leaves restored - far from affecting text. (7), (1 - blank), 133 ff + 1 leaf with portrait. With numerous woodcut astronomical illustrations and diagrams in the text and the woodcut portrai, which is attributed to Holbein the Younger. The rare first edition of Stoeffler's highly important commentary on Proclus' astronomical main work, "Sphaera", together with the Latin translation of the text by Ludovicus Schradinus (Ludwig Schradin). Proklos' astronomical main work constitutes one of the most important and influential works of Ptolemaic cosmology, and through Stoeffler's pivotal edition of the text with his seminal commentaries, the work comes to play a significant role in Renaissance astronomy. Through Stoeffler, Proclus' "Speara" came to be regarded as the most significant Renaissance alternative to the otherwise dominating "Tractatus de Sphaera" by Sacrobosco - it constituted a Platonic-humanistic and anti-scholastic alternative that gave it a unique role in the history of spherical astronomy, strongly influencing the likes of Kepler. Johannes Stoeffler (1452-1531), Professor of mathematics at the University of Tübingen, was a highly important and influential astronomer and astrologer, who counted both Melanchton and Sebastian Münster among his students. His commentary on Proclus' "Spaera" became extremely influential and was studied by the most important astronomers of the Renaissance. The work furthermore contains two important references to the discovery of America (f. 24r: "Ut est America provincia occidentialis vicina tropico Capricorni ... inventa per Columbanum Ianuensem" & f. 54v: "Hoc in primis, deprehendit Vespucius nobilis mathematicus, terram nusquam oceano ut illi crediderunt) à nostra omnino interceptam").

Schleswig, Johan Holwein, 1658. Folio. Contemp. full vellum. Covers and spine fully intact but with some spots. and light wear along edges. It seems to be bound for a person with the initials W L E M (in gold letters on top of frontcover) and the year, 1658 (also in gold letters at bottom of frontcover). Engraved frontispiece (by G. Rothgiesser) and engraved portrait (Mandelslo). (32),248,(36) pp., 21 large textengravings by Rothgiesser and 1 double-page engraved map (ca 29 x 34 cm.) "Delineatio Indiæ Orientalis". Frontispiece a bit frayed in margins, no loss. Printed title-page a bit frayed at bottom, no loss. Last leaf with errata on verso frayed in margins, no loss of letters. Occassionally some browning to some quires in the first part. First edition of the complete German edition of the collected travels of Mandelslo, edited by Adam Olearius who was entrusted the editing after the original manuscript turned up after Mandelslo's death in Paris 1644.Birkelund, 55. - Thesaurus, 582. - Bibl. Dan. II,411-14.

(On colophon:) Hagenau, Henrich Gran for Johannes Rynman, 1498, 20. August. Small quarto. A copy with wide margins. Newer (late 19th century) brown half calf w. gilt red title label and gilt ornamentation to back. Corners bumped. First leaf a bit soiled and with many old owener's names. Repair to upper part of first leaf, due to worm-hole, far prom affecting printed text. The two following leaves with small worm-hole to upper margin, far from affecting text. Occasional soiling and minor brownspotting. Many leaves with contemporary marginal annotations and occasional contemporary underlinings. The marginal annotations have been fully preserved when the book was rebound, and the margins have not been cut. Printed in double columns with 34 lines to each, and headlines; rubricated throughout. (12 (being title and Tabula), 1 (blank), 139) ff. - i.e. with all 152 ff., including the blank, which has been lacking in other identified copies. Exceedingly scarce incunable-edition (the first printed by Gran) of the first general handbook for parish priests, i.e. the first official parish handbook. Before Lochmaier's "Parrochiale curatorum", parish handbooks were usually written by the individual parish priests for their own use, as no reliable, official or general handbook existed. The "Parrochiale curatorum" describes all that a parish priest needs to know, and as such it is the first work to remedy the great lack of such a work, which had otherwise occasioned merely individual efforts.The first printing of the work appeared without place and without date, but not earlier than 1493. A reproduction of this edition appeared in Leipzig in 1497 (by Kachelofen), and in 1498 this, the third edition of the work, appeared in Hagenau. In 1499 Lotter produced yet an edition of the work, in Leipzig, and in 1500 Furter produced one in Basle. All these editions are scarce. The work continued to appear into the 16th century.Heinrich Gran (active en Hagenau 1489 - 1527) was a highly important German printer, who introduced printing to the German city of Hagenau, which in the 15th century was a city of much greater importance than it is today. Together with Mentelin and Eggestein, he was one of the pioneers of book-printing in Alsace. The great pioneering publisher Johann Rynmann of Augsburg was one of Gran's most important clients, and the present work constitutes one of their very early collaborations. Between 1501 and 1527, Rynmann financed 174 out of the 213 works that Gran produced during this period. Incunables by Gran are of great scarcity.Graesse IV:243. Hain II:10169.

Bologna, Alessandreo Benacci, 1565. 4to. In contemporary blank cardboards with marbled paper back-strip. Ff 8-12 with small brown dot to lower outer margin, not affecting text. A fine copy. [4], 43 ff. + 1 blank. (Erroneously paginated f. 33 as 25 and f. 44 as 43). First edition of Commandino's translation, and accompanying mathematical additions, of Archimedes' work on floating bodies, being the foundational work of hydrostatics. Commandino's own mathematical additions include the very first attempt to fill the gap in the incomplete proof of propositions 2 in book II of the Latin translation made by the Flemish Willem Moerbeke in 1269. "This edition of Commandino remained the reference until the early twentieth century and the work of Heiberg after the discovery of the Archimedes palimpsest". (D.B.I)."In hydrostatics [Archimedes] described the equilibrium of floating bodies and stated the famous proposition - known by his name - that, if a solid floats in a fluid, the weight of the solid is equal to that of the fluid displaced and, if a solid heavier than a fluid is weighed in it, it will be lighter than its true weight by the weight of the fluid displaced. We owe to Archimedes the full exposition of the doctrine of levers and pulleys." (PMM, p. 44)The work consists of two parts: The first is to the effect that the pressure excerted by any part of a fluid on the fluid is downward. The second postulate states that the pressure of the fluid on a body placed in it is exerted upward along the perpendicular through the center of the body.However, Book II contained many sophisticated ideas and complex geometric constructions and did not have the appeal of Book I. Only after Greek geometry was combined with algebra, trigonometry, and analytical geometry, the present work being one of the earliest attempts to do this, and the field of mechanics reached the maturity to handle the concepts of equilibrium and stability that Archimedes introduced was Book II seriously studied. It then became the standard starting point for scientists and naval architects examining the stability of ships and other floating bodies."Archimedes left to posterity his famous treatise "On Floating Bodies", which establishes the physical foundations for the floatability and stability of ships and other maritime objects. Yet since this treatise was long lost and also simply ignored by practitioners, it took many centuries before Archimedes' brilliant insights were actually applied in ship design and ship safety assessment." (Nowacki, The Heritage of Archimedes in Ship Hydrostatics: 2000 Years from Theories to Applications).A Greek manuscript dating from about the ninth century and containing both books of On Floating Bodies was translated into Latin by the Flemish Dominican William of Moerbeke in 1269, along with other works of Archimedes from other manuscripts. The tracks of the Greek manuscript were lost in the fourteenth century, but Moerbeke's holograph remains intact in the Vatican library (Codex Ottobonianus Latinus 1850) [5, 8]. Moerbeke's Latin translation was the source of all versions of On Floating Bodies from his time until the twentieth century."In 1543 Tartaglia [...] the Moerbeke translations of On the Equilibrium of Planes and Book I of On Floating Bodies (leaving the erroneous impression that he had made these translations from a Greek manuscript, which he had not since he merely repeated the texts of the Madrid manuscript with virtually all their errors). Incidentally, Curtius Trioianus published from the legacy of Tartaglia both books of On Floating Bodies in Moerbeke's translation (Venice, 1565). The key event, however, in the further spread of Archimedes was the aforementioned editio princeps of the Greek text with the accompanying Latin translation of James of Cremona at Basel in 1544. Since the Greek text rested ultimately on manuscript A,On Floating Bodies was not included. A further Latin translation of the Archimedean texts was published by the perceptive mathematician Federigo Commandino [...], which the translator supplemented with a skillful mathematical emendation of Moerbeke's translation of On Floating Bodies (Bologna,1565) but without any knowledge of the long lost Greek text." (DSB)Adams, 1533 Riccardi, I, 42- 5Honeyman 131; Macclesfield 183D.B.I., XXVII, p. 604.Bibliotheca Mechanica 78Graesse I, 180.BM 000105842

Paris, Arthus Bertrand, (1841-42). Folio. (50 x 34 cm.). Contemp. hcloth. Marbled covers. Spine with gilt lettering. Light wear along edges. Corners renewed. Printed title-page (thick paper), 8 pp. of "Table Explicative des Planches" (of which 2 leaves are remargined) and 101 (of 102) fine engraved plates. 96 are in excellent original handcolouring and 5 are uncoloured. The lacking plate is: Carinairorïde Placenta (femelle), in the section of mollusques. Textleaves with some faint brownspots. Plates clean and fine, a few very faint marginal brownspots. First edition of the Zoological Atlas from the important voyage by Vaillant on board "La Bonite" in the Pacific, the result of which were published from 1840-66. The atlas was accompanied with 2 volumes of text in 8vo published from 1842-52, the textvolumes are not present here.The atlas comprises: Mammafieres, Oiseaux, Reptiles, Poissons, Crustacés, Insectes, Mollusques, Zoophytes and Vers.Wood, p.615. - BMC NH, 603, - Sabin, 98298. - Nissen ZBI,408.

Venice, Baptista de Tortis, 17 July 1485. Small folio (322x210 mm). Bound later in a full vellum binding of a a sprinkled antiphonary leaf. Five raised bands and gilt leather title labels to spine. Ink stains to lower back board. Hinges slightly cracked. Inner front hinge reinforced, also from verso af a1 - restoration also cracked. Small wormholes to first and last leaves, and first couple of leaves a bit frayed at edges. Two closed marginal tears to a1 and reattachment of upper blank part of a2 (ca. 1 cm, far from touching text). c2 with a closed tear and a restoration to lower blank part, not touching text. c7 with a closed tear, a bit crudely done, but no loss, and a restoration to lower blank part, not affecting text. A few leaves a bit brownspotted, but mostly nice, clean, and fresh. A4 possibly washed. Contemporary or near-contemporary underlinings, markings, inserted numberings, and marginal notes. 15 Handpainted initials in red and red/blue, of varying sizes, between ca. 1x1,5 cm and 4x3cm. Old owner's name crossed out to top of a1. 19th century owner's signature to inside of front board (Albert Priou). Text of varying length surrounded by 63 lines of commentary. 172 leaves (a-u8 x-y6). Last leaf (being the register) with large woodcut printer's devise. A beautiful and rare incunable-edition of Martial's Epigrams, being the seventh edition containing Domizio Calderini's (1446-1478) highly important commentary. With no known ancient or Medieval commentaries on Martial's work, Calderini's commentary, first printed in 1474 by Jacobus Rubeus in Venice, constitutes the earliest commentary on the Epigrams. In addition to the present work, Calderini produced extensive commentaries on the works of Vergil, Propertius, Juvenal and Statius, making him one of the most prolific humanist commentators on Latin poetry. Although Martial, in his own words, was known all over the world in antiquity, the interest in his poetry decreased significantly in the Middle Ages, perhaps as a result of the pronounced obscenity that characterises his poetry. However, things took a turn in the 15th century, and Calderini's commentary may well be considered one of the earliest scholarly treatments of the Epigrams. Containing the earliest reference to the codex as a format used for literature, Martial's Epigrams have played an immensely important role in the history of the book. With roughly one in eight of the epigrams concerned with books and reading, no work of classical literature gives a better insight into ancient book culture. ISTC im00308000; Hain *10819.

London, Whittaker & Co. 1842-1850. 4to. 4 cont. full calf. Backs with 5 raised bands, richly gilt compartments, very slight wear to backs. Gilt double line borders on covers. All edges gilt. Front hinge on Vol. 4 professionally repaired. With 260 fine hand-colored lithographed plates, all with tissue guards. (Chabot's Zinc, Skinner st.) Practically with no offsetting or foxing, clean. List of subscribers in Vol. 1., also an alphabetical index withbound. Text to all plates, pages unnumbered. First and only edition. Very scarce in complete state as here. BMC NH. Vol. 1, p.291. has only 130 plates. Nissen 305. Pritzel 1400. "Most of the text was drawn from notes left by Miss Burnett's brother G.T.B." (The Library of the Stiftung fur Botanik, Liechtenstein. Sotheby's Sales Catalogue. 1975. No. 118).

Paris, Chez Treuttel et Würtz, 1824. Lex 8vo. Both volumes bound completely uncut in one near contemporary brown half calf with ornametal spine. A bit of wear to capitals, corners, and hinges. Occasional brownspotting. Overall a very nice copy. (Text-vol.:) (4), XVI, 410, (4, - 1 blank leaf + 1 leaf of book binder instructions) pp. + 16 plates, some folded; (2), 45 pp. + 32 plates (numbered 1-21 and A-K). Complete in two vols. w. all 38 lithographed plates. Very rare first edition of the work in which the deciphering of the hieroglyphs was fully presented for the first time. In 1822 Champollion had read his "Lettre a M. Dacier" before the Academie des Inscriptions, and for the first time presented the key to reading hieroglyphs. His monumental work "Précis du système hiéroglyphique" appeared two years later, and in this richly illustrated work he presents his definitive, expanded analysis, and finally corrects the misleading mistakes of the other Egyptologists, counting also Thomas Young. Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832), the father of Egyptology, is credited with actually deciphering the inscription on the famous Rosetta Stone, translating it, and breaking the mystery of the ancient hieroglyphic script; he is therefore accepted as the founder of Scientific Egyptology, -a title primarily justified with the publication of this work.The Rosetta Stone 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 to this point. Because the hieroglyphic inscription on the stone is accompanied by a Greek and a Demotic one with the same contents, Champollion was able to crack the code of the hieroglyphs and to read a language that had not been read for far more than a millennium. Champollion was an extraordinary philologist, who, by the age of sixteen, besides Greek and Latin, mastered six ancient Middle Eastern languages, among these Coptic, the knowledge of which, unlike that of Egyptian, was never lost. As the first, Champollion realized the connection between the Coptic and the Egyptian language, and was able to identify many of the Egyptian words on the Rosetta Stone, as he could read them with their Coptic equivalents. He was the first to believe that both Demotic and hieroglyphs represented symbols, and not sounds as earlier presumed. After that he quickly realized that each single hieroglyph could represent a sign, and he began compiling a hieroglyphic alphabet. In his "Précis du système hiéroglyphique" he could finally, in 1824, prove that the glyphs represented sounds as well as concepts, according to context. Champollion is the constructor of our present code of the hieroglyphic alphabet. "Further study enabled him to discover the values of a number of syllabic hieroglyphic signs, and to recognize the use of hieroglyphs as determinatives. In cases where the Greek text supplied him with the meaning of hieroglyphs of which he did not know the phonetic values, his knowledge of Coptic enabled him to suggest values which he found subsequently to be substantially correct. Further reference to determinatives and the importance of parallel passages and texts will be made later on in his work. Between 1822-24 CHAMPOLLION worked incessantly, and was enabled to modify much of his earlier views, and to develop his Alphabet, -and he evolved some rudimentary principles of Egyptian Grammar. The results of his studies at this period he published in his "Précis du Système Hiéroglyphique", Paris, 1824, wherein he took special pains to inform his readers that his system had nothing whatever to do with that of Dr. YOUNG." (Wallis Budge, The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, pp. 224-25). "... Ces mémoires réunis formèrent le grand ouvrage publié aux frais de l'Etat en 1824 sous le titre "Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Égyptiens", didié au roi." (N.B.G. Vol. 9, p. 650).

London, Edward Griffin [John Haviland, Bernard Norton, and John Bill], Richard Whitaker [& John Norton], 1638. Folio. (Binding: 32x22 cm, leaves: 31,1x20,8 cm.). Contemporary full speckled calf binding with six raised bands and gilt red leather title-label to spine. Boards with blindstamped ornamental border. Scuff marks to boards and hinges worn, so bands showing. Large woodcut head- and tail-pieces, initials, printer's devices, and typographical ornaments (that have been of great significance to the Baconians in their attempts to establish Bacon as the author of the works attributed to Shakespeare). Roman and Italic lettering, and some Greek. Several neat inscriptions to front free end-papers and verso of frontispiece, in Latin, Greek, English, and German, dated 1704, 1740, and 1926, the last being a presentation-inscription for the renowned German Bacon-scholar and noted Baconian George J. Pfeiffer. Neat early 18th century inscription to top of title-page. Old description of the copy (1946) neatly pasted on to inside of front board. Vague minor damp-staining to lower margin throughout, far from affecting text, and mostly barely visible. A vague minor dampstain to margins of a few leaves at the beginning, also far from affecting text. All in all a lovely, clean and crisp copy on large paper. Full page engraved frontispiece-portrait + (14), 386 (pp. 177-78 omitted in pagination); (16), 475, (1) pp. Fully complete, with separate half-titles for the different works. Scarce first edition, first issue, on large paper - THE GREAT BOOK COLLECTOR VOLLBEHR'S COPY, GIVEN TO THE IMPORTANT BACONIAN G.J. PFEIFFER - of the monumental first collected edition of the works of Francis Bacon, containing the seminal first printing in Latin of not only his greatly influential "Nova Atlantis" ("The New Atlantis" - often referred to as "the blueprint for the founding of America"), but also his groundbreaking Essays ("Sermones Fideli") as well as his history of Henry VII ("Historiam Regni Henrici Septimi") and his Dialogue on the Holy War ("Dialogum de Bello Sacro"), published by Bacon's literary executor, his close friend William Ramsey, to whom Bacon bequeathed most of his manuscripts. This first edition of his works in Latin is of the utmost importance to Bacon-scholarship and has played a seminal role in the spreading of his works as well as the understanding of two of his greatest achievements, The Essays and The Nova Atlantis, which is usually referred to with its Latin title instead of the English.This magnificent copy with its wide margins contains several interesting inscriptions in different languages. One of them, 19th century, in German states that "This book is to remind you of the "15th Century Plot". When, in 1926, you showed to scholars his collection of 2000 incunables. He is also known as "Otto H.F. Vollbehr., [...]" - " Dated "N. York City 29/11 26" And in the same hand, the presentation inscription is continued: "This "little book" is being handed over in friendship to Mr. George J. Pfeiffer the famous "Bacon-scholar" in order for him to continue his fruitful studies [...]." -THE PRESENT COPY THUS EVIDENTLY BEING THE GREAT BOOK COLLECTOR VOLLBEHR'S COPY, GIVEN TO THE IMPORTANT BACONIAN PFEIFFER. "Vollbehr was a German industrial chemist turned book collector who at the close of World War I found himself with more assets than most. Either in his own collection or through consignment Vollbehr had control of thousands of incunabula. In 1926 Vollbehr came to the United States, bringing with him a collection of 3,000 incunabula to be exhibited at the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. After the exhibition in Chicago, Vollbehr traveled with the collection by train to several other cities. His last stop was in Washington, and over 100 of the books were exhibited in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. Vollbehr proposed that if a benefactor would step forward to buy the collection for an American institution for half the asking price of $1.5 million, he would donate the other half. In addition, he would include a complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible printed on vellum as one of the 3,000 incunabula.The Gutenberg Bible which crowned Vollbehr's collection had had only three owners. The first owner was said to have been Johann Fust, who took it to Paris and sold it as a manuscript to a representative of the monks of Saint Blasius. It resided with the monks in the Black Forest until they had to move to St. Paul in Carinthia in the face of the Napoleonic army. Finally, in 1926, Otto Vollbehr purchased the three volumes from the monks for $250,000.In December 1929, a bill was presented to Congress proposing that public funds be used to acquire the Vollbehr collection for the Library of Congress. In June 1930 Congress passed the bill and President Hoover signed it into law. Between July 15 and September 3 the Vollbehr books arrived at the Library of Congress. The Bible, one of three known perfect copies printed on vellum, is one of only a few items that are permanently on display in the Library." (from the Library of Congress web-site). George J. Pfeiffer, Ph. D., of New York, graduate of Harvard University, and Vice-president of the Bacon Society of America, is considered one of the most important Bacon-scholars of his time. His thorough scientific studies convinced himself and many others that Bacon was in fact the author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. With THE FIRST PRINTING IN LATIN OF "NOVA ATLANTIS", Bacon's famous theories of his masterly utopian work became widespread and hugely influential. It had originally been printed, posthumously, in English and appeared at the very end of his "Sylva Sylvarum" of 1626, where it was more or less hidden away and quite humbly presented by Rawley, who was responsible for his leftover papers. Rawley's introduction to the Latin edition of the work is quite different from that of the English edition and has had quite an impact upon the reception of the work, a work which came to inspire a totally new philosophical and political genre and which fundamentally changed the way that we view the world. The "Nova Atlantis" occupies a unique place within the works of Bacon; among many other things, it is the only overtly fictional product of his career (if one does not, like Pheiffer, believe that he is actually the true author of the Shakespearean works). The printing of this major work in the history of man's thought is quite interesting and fairly complicated. As mentioned, it appeared at the back of the larger, and much more conform, work "Sylva Sylvarum", which was published by his secretary and friend William Rawley shortly after Bacon's death. It does not, however, seem to have much in common with the "Sylva Sylvarum", and the "New Atlantis" was not even mentioned when that work entered the Stationers' Register on July 4th, 1626.The "Sylva Sylvarum" was being compiled during the last couple of years of Bacon's life, and there is evidence to conclude that "Nova Atlantis" was being translated into Latin at the same time, whereas it seems that the English version of it was written about a year or two earlier. Although the Latin translation was thus left lying around for quite some years before it was finally printed, perhaps due to the fact that it was an unfinished text, Bacon himself seems to have concerned himself a great deal with the Latin translation of the work (as well as the other works). The appearance of them in the "universal language" were, in the words of Bacon himself to be carried out 'for the benefit of other nations', a phrase which is paralleled in the text of "Nova Atlantis", as the father of Salomon's House remarks of his relation of the institution's working that 'I giue thee leave to Publish it; for the Good of other Nations'. And finally does this great work appear to the benefit of all men and all nations, in the universal Latin language, when in 1638 Rawley publishes the "Operum moralium", in which his "Essays" also appear in Latin for the first time, as does the History of Henry VII, and the Dialogue on the Holy War, two other greatly important works. The printed title of the "Operum Moralium" not only informs the reader which texts are included within the volume; Rawley also provides information on the texts themselves, dividing them into two distinct sections (with two separate title-pages). The first section consists of five translations which (apart from De sapientia) had never appeared in Latin translation before; the second section consists in the first part of the "Instauratio" (originally published in 1620). The second issue of the "Operum Moralium" furthermore has the reissued sheets of the last part of the "Novum organum".Rawley's prefatory letter tells us quite a bit about the way that he (and Bacon himself) would like the "Nova Atlantis" to be viewed, and for the first time the work is addressed in a direct and assertive manner, bringing it forth as an important philosophical work, now for the first time properly introduced. Rawley informs the reader that Bacon began the process of translating the Essays and the Nova Atlantis, because he wished his moral and political works not to perish. He goes on to explain the importance of the moral and political works being published in the "universal" Latin and groups the texts in a new way. He now makes a new category of text for the final two works, "De bello sacro" and "Nova Atlantis", calling them 'fragmentary', as opposed to the "Worke Unfinished" that he used for the English "Now Atlantis" of 1626/7, stating that this is at the request of Bacon himself: "And finally he ordered that two fragments be added, the Dialogue of the Holy War, and the New Atlantis: but he said that these were the three kinds of fragments.", giving to them a certain status of their own and a deliberate character that they had not possessed before. For the first time, the "Nova Atlantis", the hitherto hidden-away work that was never properly introduced, is now included in the general preface, which it was not in 1626/27, and the "Nova Atlantis" is given the central position within Bacon's works that it deserved - and that it has possessed ever since. This also explains the great impact of the first Latin version of the "Nova Atlantis" as opposed to the English version, which was far less influential. Not only is "Nova Atlantis" no longer just an unfinished work worthy of no more than being hidden away at the back of a larger work, it is now the central part of a seminal collection of works appearing for the first time in Latin "for the Good of other Nations"."Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. As a lawyer, member of Parliament, and Queen's Counsel, Bacon wrote on questions of law, state and religion, as well as on contemporary politics; but he also published texts in which he speculated on possible conceptions of society, and he pondered questions of ethics (Essays) even in his works on natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning).After his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge and Gray's Inn, London, Bacon did not take up a post at a university, but instead tried to start a political career. Although his efforts were not crowned with success during the era of Queen Elizabeth, under James I he rose to the highest political office, Lord Chancellor. Bacon's international fame and influence spread during his last years, when he was able to focus his energies exclusively on his philosophical work, and even more so after his death, when English scientists of the Boyle circle (Invisible College) took up his idea of a cooperative research institution in their plans and preparations for establishing the Royal Society.To the present day Bacon is well known for his treatises on empiricist natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning, Novum Organum Scientiarum) and for his doctrine of the idols, which he put forward in his early writings, as well as for the idea of a modern research institute, which he described in Nova Atlantis." (SEP). Gibson: 196; Lowndes I:96.

Marosvásárhely, Kali Simon, 1843. 8vo. In a simple contemporary half calf with gilt ornamentation to spine forming five compartments. Later paper title-label with gilt lettering pasted on to spine, partly detached in right margin. Light wear to extremities. Stamp to front free end-paper. First leaves evenly lightly browned. An overall fine and clean copy. XLIV, 386 pp. + 2 folded plates, one with 12 folding flaps with partial grey colouring. The rare first edition of Bolyai’s important work on the foundations of mathematics, being his last major work. It is in part based on his ‘Az arithmethica eleje’ (1830), in many aspects a rudimentary and introductory work, and the second volume of his magnum opus ‘Tentamen juventutem studiosam elementa matheseos purae’ (1832-33) – but here, for the first time, expanded and fully expounded. As with Bolyai’s other works, it was unappreciated by his contemporaries: “He can be taken as a precursor of Gottlob Frege, Pasch, and Georg Cantor; but, as with many pioneers, he did not enjoy the credit that accrued to those that followed him” (DSB). His work was considered mathematically incomprehensible by his colleagues and only his students and his son, János Bolyai, understood and appreciated it. Probably because of lack of interest from Bolyai’s contemporaries, all of his works are now rare, the present work being no exception. It has appeared only once at auction the past 30 years.In 1796, Farkas Bolyai (1775-1856) traveled to Germany, first to Jena and then to Göttingen, where he studied until 1799. It was at this time that Bolyai began his lifelong friendship with Carl Friedrich Gauss, also a student at the University Göttingen, who was already intensely engaged in mathematical research. Bolyai’s interest in the foundations of geometry dates from this period, especially in the so-called Euclidean or parallel axiom, to which Kastner and Seyffer, as well as Gauss were devoting their attention. Bolyai maintained a correspondence with Gauss that, with interruptions, lasted all their lives. Bolyai accepted the position of professor of mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the Evangelical-Reformed College at Marosvásárhely in 1804, where he taught until his retirement in 1853. Meanwhile, he continued his research, concentrating on the theory of parallels. He sent a manuscript on this subject, Theoria parallelarum, with an attempt to prove the Euclidean axiom, to Gauss in 1804. The reasoning, however, satisfied neither Gauss nor himself, and Bolyai continued to work on it and on the foundations of mathematics in general. “In 1829 Bolyai finished his principal work, but because of technical and financial problems it was not published until 1832–1833. It appeared in two volumes, with the title Tentamen juventutem studiosam in elementa matheseos purae, elementaris ac sublimioris, method intuitiva, evidentiaque huic propria, introducendi, cum appendice triplici (“An Attempt to Introduce Studious Youth Into the Elements of Pure Mathematics, by an Intuitive Method and Appropriate Evidence, With a Threefold Appendix”). While writing the Tentamen, Bolyai had his first difficulties with his son János. In spite of warnings from his father to avoid any preoccupation with Euclid’s axiom, János not only insisted on studying the theory of parallels, but also developed an entirely unorthodox system of geomentry based on the rejection of the parallel axiom, something with which his father could not agree. However, despite misgivings, Bolyai added his son’s paper to the first volume and thus, unwittingly, gave it immortality. In 1834, a Hungarian version of Volume I was published. The Tentamen itself, the fundamental ideas of which may date back to Bolyai’s Göttingen days, is an attempt at a rigorous and systematic foundation of geomentry (Volume I) and of arithmetic, algebra, and analysis (Volume II). The huge work shows the critical sprit of a man who recognized, as did few of his contemporaries, many weaknesses in the mathematics of his day, but was not able to reach a fully satisfactory solution of them." (DSB) Neverthless, when it is remembered that Bolyai worked in almost total isolation, his works are a most remarkable witness to the sharpness of his mind and to his perseverance. Not in Sommerville

Ihenae (Jena), Rhodius (Rödinger), 1556. 4to. In contemporary blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards with three raised bands and two clasps. Wear and soiling to extremities. Pigskin partly detached to upper part of boards. Previous two owner's names in contemporary hand to title-page. A few occassional underlignings and marginal annotations in contemporary hand throughout. Small worm-tract affecting last 20 leaves, internally generally fine. (10), 367 pp. Rare first printing of Martin Luther's early letters from 1507 to 1522, spanning the years from the celebration of his first Mass to his removal to Wartburg Castle after the Diet of Worms. Among them is a notable letter Cardinal Albrecht, Archbishop of Magdeberg and Mainz accompanying a copy of the 95 Theses, composed on the very day (October 31st, 1517) when Luther affixed the Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg and Luther's first letter to Erasmus, penned on March 28th, 1519. These letters provide a most interesting perspective into Martin Luther's personal and public reflections on crucial aspects of the early days of the Reformation. The collection encompasses correspondence with figures such as Emperor Charles V, Pope Leo X, King Henry VIII, Georg Spalatin, Philip Melanchthon, Frederick, Elector of Saxony, Andreas Karlstadt, Cardinal Tommaso de Vio Cajetan and many others. The present work was edited by Joannes Aurifaber (1519-1575), Luther’s private secretary, who lived with Luther at the time of his death: “Joannes (Vinariensis; 1519–1575), was born in the county of Mansfeldt in 1519. He studied at Wittenberg where he heard the lectures of Luther, and afterwards became tutor to Count Mansfeldt. In the war of 1544–45 he accompanied the army as field-preacher, and then lived with Luther as his famulus or private secretary, being present at his death in 1546. In the following year he spent six months in prison with John Frederick, elector of Saxony, who had been captured by the emperor, Charles V. He held for some years the office of court-preacher at Weimar, but owing to theological disputes was compelled to resign this office in 1561. In 1566 he was appointed to the Lutheran church at Erfurt, and there remained till his death in November 1575. Besides taking a share in the first collected or Jena edition of Luther’s works (1556), Aurifaber sought out and published at Eisleben in 1564–1565 several writings not included in that edition. He also published Luther’s Letters (1556, 1565), and Table Talk (1566). This popular work, which has given him most of his fame, is unfortunately but a second or third hand compilation.” (Encyclopedia Britannica). A second volume was published as “Secundus tomus epistolarum” in 1565. Adams L1805 BM STC German, 1455-1600,; p. 535

(Paris), Gallimard, (1957). Bound uncut and with the original printed wrappers, aslo the backstrip, in a magnificent full black morocco binding with more than 100 calf onlays in seven different tones of red/orange, forming three hypnotizing circles on each board. Gilt title to spine, all edges gilt, and bright red suede end-papers within cream calf borders. Housed in a matching black morocco chemise with gilt title and red and grey paper covers, with suede on the inside, and a slipcase of the same paper and with black morocco edges. The binding is signed J.P. Miguet and dated 2003. One of the morocco onlays on the back board, towards the spine, has a tiny tear at the edge. Otherwise the binding is in splendid condition. Also internally, the copy is near mint. Apart from the backstrip, which has been mounted and slightly restored, it is completely clean, fresh, and crisp. Elengant, blindstamped super-exlibris to inside of front board. Nr. 35 out of merely 45 numbered copies on Hollande van Gelder - first paper (premier papier), followed by another 1.145 numbered copies on other kinds of paper - of Camus' great collection of stories, which are considered among the best of his works. Together, these stoires cover the entire variety of existentialism - or absurdism. There is general consensus that the clearest manifestation of the ideals of Camus can be found in the present work.

Copenhagen, Peter Haubold, 1673-80. 4to. Bound in four full mottled calf bindings from ab. 1800 with five raised bands to richly gilt spines. All edges of baords gilt. Bindings with some wear, especially to capitals, hinges, and corners. Old owner's inscription "AEM Schleisveig/ Paris 1 Juli 1889" to front free end-papers. Some brownspotting and browned leaves. Woodcut vignettes and initials. All four title-pages (part III & IV have a joint title-page) printed in red and black. (16), 316; (20), 376; (16), 174, 216; (8), 342 pp. With ab. 60 woodcut illustrations in the text, many of them quite large, two of them full-page, and all 62 engraved plates (of which two are on a folded leaf), four of which are folded. Fully complete, with all five volumes and all 62 plates. The very rare first edition of all five volumes of Bartholin's groundbreaking medical journal, which constitutes the first scientific periodical in Scandinavia and one of the very first medical periodicals in the world. Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) was one of the leading physicians of his time, now remembered, among many other things, as the discoverer of the lymphatic system. He "was the most celebrated physician of his period in Denmark and perhaps in all of Europe". (Kronick, p. 81). He is considered "a typical representative of the "Curiosi naturae" of the 17th century with all their learning, diligence and insatiable spirit of curiosity... He belonged with all his heart to the learned period, and yet he made an anatomical-physiological discovery of high mark when he found, and demonstrated, a hitherto entirely unknown vascular system in animals, and later in man - the lymphatic." (Meisen, p. 25). He was a hugely influential and extremely productive man. Apart from his seminal discovery of the lymphatic system, he wrote a number of highly influential treatises, published a series of very influential anatomical papers, published his vast correspondence with other scientists, which has the character of a scientific archive at a time when there were not yet periodicals of natural science, provided us with the most extensive information about medicine in Denmark and about the conditions of the physicians, called attention to the significance of pathological anatomy, etc., etc., and "[y]et the greatest importance is to be attached to his "Acta medica philosophica Hafniensia", in 5 volumes, that was published from 1673 to 1680, when he died. It is a scientific periodical, wide in its scope, one of the first of its kind." (Meisen, p. 28). "The Copenhagen biologists, under the quickening influence of Thomas Bartholin, produced five volumes of transactions known as the Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia, which is now very rare." (Hagenströmer)The leading contributors to the periodical, besides Bartholin himself, was the great Niels Steensen (Steno), Holger Jacobsen (Jacobaeus), Caspar Bartholin, Ole Borch (Borrichius), Ole Worm, Simon Paulli, Johan Rohde, Caspar Kölichen, etc., but the contributions were not confined to Danes or Scandinavians. For instance, the English anatomist Edward Tyson (1650-1708) also published here, as did several other internationally famous physicians and scientists. Interestingly, the "Acta Hafniensia", as it is known, has a great focus on the odd and curious, the astounding and marvelous, the unnatural and abnormal. Thorndike claims that "Monsters and freaks of nature receive perhaps the most attention." (vol. VIII, p. 234). However, the journal was far from limited to this. "Thomas Bartholin describes the male mandrill illustrated by three anatomical plates (Male genitalia) and a figure of the entire animal, which had died of disease in the Royal Menagerie. Holger Jacobsen describes the scorpion, the salamander, snakes, several birds, the heron and the parrot (based on dissections and figures by Steno). He also investigated the fascinating and unique anatomical puzzle of the tongue of the black woodpecker (with plate). He gives an exceptionally interesting account of the mole cricket, Gryllotalpa, which is important as being one of the first in which the elongated segmental heart of insects is described and figured. This memoir is a commendable piece of zootomical research, and it is all the more outstanding because the subject of it was an invertebrate (Cole). The most outstanding contributions in the entire periodical, however, are the 12 by Niels Steensen (Steno), which are all printed here for the first time. Steensen was the most gifted of Bartholin's disciples, and when he returned to Denmark in 1672, he immediately took up anatomical demonstrations and dissections, the fruits of which he published here, in the first three volumes of the "Acta Hafniensia". His contributions constitute important finds in the fields of The Brain, The Heart, The Muscles and General Embryology. "Steno's dissections of the muscles of the eagle, Aquila (1673) is one of the most remarkable essays in zootomy published up to his time, and it is perhaps more detailed and reliable than almost any other." (Cole). (Gosch 24).In the paper "Embryo monsto affinis Parisiis dissectus" (Gosch 15), we have the first known description of the "tetralogy of Fallot" (Garrison & Morton no 2726.1). "Bartholin was the most celebrated physician of his period in Denmark and perhaps in all of Europe. He was professor of anatomy at the University of Copenhagen and later became Dean of its Medical Faculty. The publication seems also to have associated with the activities of a scientific society, although there seems to be little evidence for Neuberger's statement that the "Acta" were the proceedings of this society. The preface to the translation of the "Acta" which are included in the "Collection Académique" gives the following account of its origins: "The Academy of Copenhagen was founded by Frederick III, who was aware how much glory it brought to him and to Denmark by encouraging the sciences and by attracting and holding scientists in his kingdom. One finds little to clarify the history of this academy, even in the five published volumes. The editing of the memoirs was principally under the care of Bartholin, the first Dane to publish medical observations. His aim was first to make a collection which embraced all parts of science; but, deterred by the immensity of the task, he limited himself to the different parts of medicine and to those observations that were offered to him. His sponsor was Count Griffenfeld, the grand chancellor of Denmark, who obtained an edict enjoining all Danish physicians to render exact correspondence with the Dean of the Faculty of Copenhagen and to inform him of all singularities in medicine and natural history observed in different parts of the kingdom. Bartholin had great hopes for this collection and one can truly find in the five volumes which he published many discoveries which would have been lost or perhaps not have existed if this correspondence had not brought them to light and encouraged him." The "Acta" consisted primarily in short original observations on medical and natural scientific subjects, although it also contained a few abstracts of books." (Kronick p. 81). Waller: 712 (listing only 39 plates)Wellcome: II, p. 108 (listing 61 plates)Gosch: III, pp 58-59 & I, pp. 137-38Hagströmer Library has only vols. I-IVBartholin papers: Gosch: Bartholin 30-43Steensen-papers: Gosch: Steno 15-26; Garrison&Morton: 2726.1Cole, F.J.: A History of Comparative Anatomy, pp 369-93Thorndike: History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. VIII, Chapter 30Kronick, David A.: A History of Scientific and Technical Periodical 1665-1790, p. 57 & pp. 80-82Meisen: Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages, pp. 25-28

Kbhvn., 1763-81. 4to. Indbundet i 9 samtidige helldrbd., hvoraf de 7 er i pragtfulde spejlbind med rig rygforgyldning. Stort eksemplar på skrivepapir (undtagen bd. 7 som kom senere, og som er på trykpapir). Bd. 2 og 7 afvigende i indbindingen. Med alle 296 kobberstukne prospekter, plancher, grundtegninger og kort samt det store Generalkort over Danmark, som ikke findes i alle eksemplarer. Enkelte kort repareret i foldningen, kun enkelte brunpletter (i bd. 2), ellers frisk og ren. Originaludgaven af Danmarks topografiske hovedværk.

Paris, Iean Roigny, 1556. Folio. In contemporary linp vellum, with three (of four) of the original vellum ties. Binding with wear and inner hinge weak, but in completely original state, with no restorations. Only some light scattered brownspotting and a worm-tract to inner margin, just occasionally touching a few letters. Book-plate to pasted-down front end-paper. A lovely copy. (4), CCXLIII ff. The scarce first edition of Saliat's translation of the complete Histories of Herodotus, being the extremely popular first French edition and arguably the most important French edition of the work ever published. Saliat's monumental 1556-translation of Herodutus was extremely influential end widely used and quoted. It greatly influenced the way that Herodotus was used and understood in Renaissance France. It was used by virtually all contemporary French intellectuals as the main reference - as for instance Sandys points out, it is from this that all of Montaigne's Herodotus-quotations are taken (Sandys, vol. II, p. 197). Pierre Saliat had published a small work in 1552 consisting the the first three books of Herodotus, and in 1556, his monumental translation of the complete work appeared; for the first time, all nine books were accessible in the French language. "Little is known of Saliat's life except that he had produced two previous translations from Latin, Erasmus' "On Methods of Instructing Children" and a collection of Roman speeches. Both translations of Herdotus are dedicated to the king, Henry II, and Saliat notes that the work on the first three books had taken him six years to complete and that it had taken him a further five years to translate the remaining six books. In the preface to the 1556 translation, Saliat compares at length the scale and grandeur of the Persian Wars with Henry's recent invasion of Germany. Henry's deeds are portrayed as greater than those described by Herodotus... [The preface] reads as a salutary encomium of Henry's military and political prowess." (Brill's Companion to the Reception of Herodotus in Antiquity and Beyond, p. 127). In short, Saliat views Herodotus' work as a manual for or collection of examples of warfare that is fully transferable to other times, rather than a mere memoralization of great deeds. Graesse: III:256.

London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1849. Large 4to. (300x231mm). Original blank wrappers. Some small tears. Back strip proffesionally repaired with Japanese paper. With presentation-inscription by Faraday in ink on title page: "William Thomson Esq. | St. Peters College | from the Author." (2),41,(1:blank) pp. First edition, rare offprint-issue, of "one of the great classics of chemistry and physics". With an extremely attractive presentation-inscription from Faraday to William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), who delivered the first mathematical exposition of Faraday's researches in electricity. Thomson provided an important theoretical direction for Faraday's interpretation of his own experiments and the two colleagues motivated and inspired each other to a degree that the research and knowledge of electricity they possessed and published would not have would have been reached until many years later. The paper itself is of the utmost importance, since much of Faraday's groundbreaking research published in 1831-1839 contained many shortcomings and errors which are corrected in this publication. "The corrected second edition of volume 1 is preferred, because the first edition (London 1839) contained many errors". (Neville, Historical Chemical Library)."In June 1849 William Thomson wrote to Michael Faraday suggesting that the concept of a uniform magnetic field could be used to predict the motions of small magnetic and diamagnetic bodies. [...] There had been an important exchange of ideas between the two, who had a common interest in explaining voltaic, electrostatic, magnetic, optical, and thermal phenomena. They meet every year between 1845 (where they became acquainted) and 1849". (Gooding, Faraday, Thomson, and the Concept of the Magnetic Field).In 1845 Thomson gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some imprecise "action at a distance". He also devised a hypothesis of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, or the science which deals with the forces of electricity at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday Effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thereby electric) phenomena were related.Faraday was also the direct cause of William Thomson's work on the transatlantic submarine telegraph cable. In 1854, Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent, which later would be termed the bandwidth. Thomson immediately looked into the problem and published his response the same month Faraday had published his observations. Thomson expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In 1855, Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability. Thomson's work on the cable consequently resulted in a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858.From 1831 to 1852, Michael Faraday published his "Experimental Researches in Electricity" in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. These papers contain not only an impressive series of experimental discoveries, but also a collection of heterodox theoretical concepts on the nature of these phenomena expressed in terms of lines of forces and fields. He published 30 papers in all under this general title. They represent Faraday's most important work, are classics in both chemistry and physics, and are the experimental foundations for Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light, using Faraday's concepts of lines of force or tubes of magnetic and electrical forces. His many experiments on the effects of electricity and magnetism presented in these papers lead to the fundamental discoveries of 'induced electricity' (the Faraday current), the electronic state of matter, the identity of electricity from different sources, equivalents in electro-chemical decomposition, electrostatic induction, hydro-electricity, diamagnetism, relation of gravity to electricity, atmospheric magnetism, and many others."Among experimental philosophers Faraday holds by universal consent the foremost place. The memoirs in which his discoveries are enshrined will never cease to be read with admiration and delight; and future generation will preserve with an affection not less enduring the personal records and familiar letters, which recall the memory of his humble and unselfish spirit." (Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether & Electricity, p. 197).

Zürich, Verlag des Waysenhauses, 1774 -(77). Folio. Bound in cont. marbled boards. Gilt lettering on back. The marbled paper over boards as well as back and edges in some places torn, especially spine and corners. Kept in a fine morocco-backed box. Title-page with a large engraved vignette. (4), 129, (1) pp., 2 engraved plates (Tab. A+B) with 58 hand-coloured illustrations to Linné (C.L.J. Gesneri delin - Bullinger sculpsit) and 100 wood-cut plates (with 101 illustrations of plants (plate 47 verso with an illustr.). All in fine original hand-colouring. Printed on good paper, internally fine and clean. First (and only) edition of Schinz's reissue of 101 plates from Leonhart Fuch's "De Historia Stirpium", Basel 1542, a work which marks the birth of botanical illustration and perhaps the most celebrated and most beautiful herbal ever published. The selection by Schinz of 101 illustrations from Fuch's work (containing 512 plates) was printed with the original wood-blocks, which Schinz borrowed from Chorherr Gessner, in the possession of whom they were to be found. In talking about the girls and boys from the "Waysenhaus" colouring the plates, Schinz said (in the Vorrede): "Ich freute mich, da mir der Gedanke glücklicher Weise beyfil, dass mein Oheim Hr. Doctor und Chorherr Gessner die ganze Sammlung der Holzformen von den Pflanzenhistorie des Herrn Leonhard Fuchsen besitze, und dass diese zu einem Versuche in dieser projectirten Beschäftigung dienen könnten." In this way the plates are original, the prints taken from the original blocks (Originalstöchen) and hand-coloured in the years 1774-77. "The plates established the requisites of botanical illustration - virisimilitude in form and habit, and accuracy of significent detail." (A.G. Morton)."Fuch's plates in particular played a curious but important part in the development of systematic botany owing to the fact that they were extensively pirated and appeared in very many works during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and even later." (A.G. Morton)."Far more impressive in appearance, though less sensitive in execution, is the great folio herbal, De Stirpium, of Leonhart Fuchs, published in Basle in 1542. With its hundreds of full-page illustrations of plants, it deservedly ranks as the first of that long line of monumental flower-books which during the last four hundred years have poured from the printing-presses of Europe. Many other fine herbals - those for instance of the Italian Matthioli - were issued during the sixteenth century, but none was quite so lavishly illustrated." (Wilfrid Blunt in Great Flower Books p. 27). - Nissen No 1761 - Hunt No 640. Dibner No 19 (Fuchs) - Printing a. The Mind of Man No 69 (Fuchs).

Paris, L'Imprimerie de la République, AN VIII (1800). 4to. a. Imperial folio. Bound in 4 uniform contemp. blue hcloth with marbled boards. Gilt lettering on spines. Minimal wear to extremities. Atlas with small repairs to spine-ends. (2,= htitle),XII,491;(6, incl. htitle),516;(6, incl. htitle),562 pp. and 7 + 6 + 5 engraved plates (incl. 1 map), all with tissue-guards. Atlas volume (66 x 47 cm.): 4 pp. (incl. htitle) and 10 double-page folded maps and 6 engraved plates (landfalls - profiles). A fine clean copy, wide-margined. 1 leaf a bit brownspotted, 2 leaves a bit frayed in right margin, 2 leaves slightly brownspotted, 2 leaves with loss of a bit of lower corner. Atlas clean and fine, some minor marginal brownspots. First French edition of this classic work in geographical exploration, completing one of the most difficult surveys ever undertaken, that of the Pacific coast of North America, from the vicinity of San Francisco northward to present-day British Columbia. "This voyage became one of the most important ever made in the interests of geographical knowledge". (Hill).Sabin, 98441.Lada-Mocarski 55 (The original English edition).

(Geneva), Henricus Stephanus (Estienne), H. Fugger (typogr.) 1562. 8vo. Near contemporary full calf with richly gilt spine. All edges of boards gilt. Wear to extremities and hinges, but overall tight and fine. Old owner's name to title-page and a stamp to blank margin ("Teres etque Rotundus")). A few early underlinings. Two leaves with a damp stain, otherwise unusually nice and clean. Title-page slightly soiled. Woodcut printer's device to title-page and woodcut initials. 288 pp. The very rare hugely influential first edition of one of the single most important printings in the history of Western thought, namely the very first appearance in print of any of Sextus Empiricus' works, his great "Hypotyposes". This seminal printing inaugurated a new era in the history of Western thought. Together with the second edition of the work (by Hervet, 1569, with which the "Adversos Mathematicos" also appeared), the first appearance of Sextus Empiricus' work profoundly influenced the thought of Bruno, Montaigne, Descartes, as well as many other pivotal thinkers of the modern era, and caused Sextus to be viewed as "the father of modern philosophy"."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). Apart from being of seminal importance to the development of modern thought, the work is of the utmost scarcity and constitutes one of the rarest of all Estienne books. "The first printed edition was by Henri Estienne (Stephanus) in 1562 of Sextus' "Hypotyposes". A second printed Latin edition of the "Hypotyposes" plus "Adversus Mathematicos" appeared in 1569. The text of the "Hypotyposes is that of Estienne, the translation of "Adversus Methematicos" was done by French counter-reformer and theologian, Gentian Hervet... The Greek text was not published until 1621 by the Chouet brothers." (Popkin, p. 18).Having been almost completely neglected throughout the entire Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, the first printing of Sextus' work in 1562 is almost solely responsible for the inauguration of a new skeptical era that came to profoundly influence almost all thinking of the centuries to follow. "As the only Greek Pyrrhonian sceptic whose works survived, he came to have a dramatic role in the formation of modern thought. The historical accident of the rediscovery of his works at precisely the moment when the skeptical problem of the criterion had been raised gave the ideas of Sextus a sudden and greater prominence than they had ever before or were ever to have again. Thus, Sextus, a recently discovered oddity, metamorphosed into "le divin Sexte", who, by the end of the seventeenth century, was regarded as the father of modern philosophy. Moreover, in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the effect of his thoughts upon the problem of the criterion stimulated a quest for certainty that gave rise to the new rationalism of René Descartes and the "constructive skepticism" of Pierre Gassendi and Martin Mersenne." (Popkin, p. 18).The discovery and dissemination of these foundational texts was nothing less than a epiphany. Scepticism was immediately absorbed into Renaissance thinking and quickly became a dominant strand of thought. "The revival of ancient philosophy was particularly dramatic in the case of scepticism. This critical and anti-dogmatic way of thinking was quite important in Antiquity, but in the Middle Ages its influence faded [...] when the works of Sextus and Diogenes were recovered and read alongside texts as familiar as Cicero's "Academia", a new energy stirred in philosophy; by Montaigne's time, scepticism was powerful enough to become a major force in the Renaissance heritage prepared for Descartes and his successors." (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 17-18). "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). Our knowledge of ancient scepticism comes almost solely from Sextus, who is introduced to the Renaissance in 1562 with this first printing of any of his works. From then on, skepticism grew rapidly, determining the course of much modern thought."Ancient Scepticism had a number of followers in the renaissance, especially in the sixteenth century, when the writings of Sextus became more widely known. [...] Scepticism in matters of religion is by no means incompatible with religious faith, as the example of Augustine may show; consequently this position had many more followers during the sixteenth century than is usually realized. The chief expression of this sceptical ethics is found in some of the essays of Montaigne, and in the writings of his pupil, Pierre Charon." (Kristeller, p. 36).Adams: 1027. See:Kristeller: "Renaissance Thought II. Papers on Humanism and the Arts", 1965.Popkin: "The History of Scepticism. From Savonarola to Bayle", 2003.Copenhaver & Schmitt: "Renaissance Philosophy", 1992.

Paris, Chez Didot, 1746-61 (Vols. 1-16) a. Amsterdam, Arkstée et Merkus, 1761 (Vol. 17) a. Paris, Rozet, 1768 (Vol. 18) a. Paris, Panckoucke, 1770 (Vol. 19). 4to. Bound in 19 uniform contemp. hcalf. Richly gilt spines. Titlelabels with gilt lettering. Spines a bit rubbed with light wear to the gilding. All spine-ends neathly repaired with matching leather. Stamps on half-titles. Engraved portrait of Prevost as frontispiece to volume 1. (The portrait with faint brownspots). In all more than 10.000 pp. and with 561 maps, plans and plates, of these ca. 250 engraved maps, many large and folding. A few plates inserted in a wrong volume, but all plates seems to be present in accordence with the listings of the plates. One leaf torn in volume 18, but all text preserved. Very few scattered brownspots. A few quires in one volume with light browning. No repairs to maps. All volumes printed on good paper. A clean and attractive set. The last volume (XX) was issued much later (1789) and is not present here. First edition of Prevost's important and impressive collection of explorations and travels, including most of the early American voyages and travels. The first 15 volumes were prepared by Prévost and the following volumes by other authors. The fine maps were done by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin.Sabin, 65402.