Justin Croft : Antiquarian Books

[BAKER, Thomas]. ~ Traité de l'incertitude des sciences. Traduit de l'anglois [translated by Nicolas Berger].

Paris: Pierre Miquelin and Jacques Piget, 1714.

First edition in French of Baker's Reflections upon Learning (1699), a work designed to display the inadequacies of human knowledge and reason and to emphasize the ultimate need for belief in revelation. It proved controversial (provoking an angry response from geologist and physician John Woodward) and was widely reprinted. Bacon and Descartes are closely considered. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

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BASILIUS VALENTINUS. ~ Les douze clefs de philosophie... Traictant de la vraye medecine metalique. Plus l'Azoth, ou le moyen de faire l'or caché des philosophes. Traduction francoise.

Paris: Pierre Mo't, 1659.

A rare early edition of two of the most important alchemical texts by Basilius Valentinus, together with Bernardus' treatise on the philosopher's stone. First printed in Latin in 1599 Les douze clefs, together with Azoth, first appeared in French in 1624, translated by David Laigneau and published together. Traicté de la nature de l'oeuf des philosophes also first appeared in French that year and was probably intended as an accompaniment. The 1659 edition is important for having been dedicated by the publisher to the English natural philosopher Kenelm Digby, then resident in Paris studying Paracelsian chemistry and expounding the efficacy of his "powder of sympathy", a variant of the Paracelsian "weapon salve". Our copy bears Digby's arms in early (though not demonstrably contemporary) manuscript on a label pasted to the verso of the title. Some copies, though by no means all, of Les Douze Clefs contain an engraved suite of "keys". Ours, like the copy described by Ferguson, appears never to have had them and one suspects the existence of a preliminary issue before the keys were prepared. view more...

£3000.00

US$5834.09*

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BERKELEY, George. ~ Recherches sur les vertus de l'eau de goudron, où l'on joint des Réfléctions Philosophiques sur diverses autres sujets... Avec deux Lettres de l'Auteur...

Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier, 1745.

FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH OF BERKELEY'S LAST WORK, Siris, a chain of philosophical reflections and enquiries concerning the virtues of tar-water (1744) and of his two letters on the subject to Thomas Prior. At the time of its publication, Siris was the most popular of the author's many works. Berkeley had observed the use of tar-water among the native Americans and came to regard it as a panacaea in medicine, setting up an apparatus for its manufacture. "He recommends it not only in fevers, diseases of the lungs, cancers, scrofula, throat diseases, apoplexies, chronic disorders of all kinds, but also as a general drink for infants. It strengthens their bodies and sharpens their intellects. It is good for cattle... It is good for all climates, land and sea, for rich and poor, high and low livers, and he had himself drunk a gallon of it in a few hours" (DNB).The Siris is, however, more than just a medical work and the consideration of tar-water led Berkeley into a lengthy chain of reflections on the principles of the universe and of divine providence. view more...

£475.00

US$923.73*

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BERTHOLLET, Claude Louis. ~ Elements of the art of dyeing... translated from the French by William Hamilton...

London: by Stephen Couchman, and sold by J. Johnson, 1791.

First edition in English, very scarce, of Berthollet's important scientific contribution to the burgeoning European textile industry. Having collaborated with Lavoisier on the latter's pioneering chemical nomenclature and presented some seventeen memoirs to the Academy, the author was already an influential chemist when appointed inspector of dye works and director of the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins in 1784. The Gobelins had their origins in the workshops of Flemish weavers brought to Paris by Henri IV in 1602 and were formally established by Colbert in 1667 as the "Royal Manufactury of Furnishings to the Crown". They became the pre-eminent centre for tapestry weaving in EuropeIn the Éléments de l'art de la teinture Berthollet "endeavored to place the ancient craft of dyeing on a scientific basis by a systematic discussion of its procedures, coupled with an attempt to find an adequate set of theoretical principles to explain the chemical actions involved. His explanation was that, depending on the variable physical conditions of temperature, quantity of solvent employed, and so forth, when a cloth was dyed the reciprocal affinities of the particles of the dye, the mordants, and the cloth itself were responsible for the kind and quality of dyeing. The colors produced were due to the oxidation of the mordant by the atmosphere" (DSB).The British edition appeared in the same year as the French, reflecting the market for such a treatise in a country where textile production was becoming one of the most important national industries. A second British edition appeared at Edinburgh the following year and several reprints appeared in the nineteenth century, presumably a measure of the popularity and utility of this scientific manual of dyeing in the British industrial revolution. view more...

£1300.00

US$2528.10*

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BEVERWYCK, Jan van. ~ De calculo renum & vesicae liber singularis. Cum epistolis & consultationibus magnorum virorum.

Leyden: Elzevir Press, 1638.

First edition of this famous work in urology, one of the earliest medical books to accept William Harvey's account of the circulation of the blood. Beverwyck was a Dutch physician and a relative of Vesalius. He sent a copy of this work to Harvey with a letter praising him for his work on circulation, saying "As everyone here wonderingly admires this doctrine, so I too embrace it both both arms in the little book which I send 'On the calculus of the kidneys and the bladder'". Harvey replied at length, praising the work with the punning passage: "Pleasing me, learned and elegant, and truly original, your De calculo renum et vesicae, in which you have laid a firm and solid foundation for your name and fame; go on to build further day by day, and erect a splendid monument of your genius. I will, not unwillingly, add my stone..." He went on to provide a detailed and approving critique of Beverwyk's work on the operation of the kidneys. view more...

£800.00

US$1555.76*

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BLAEU, Willem. ~ Institutio astronomica de usu globorum & sphaerarum caelestium ac terrestrium: duabas partibus adornata, una, secundum hypothesin Ptolemai, per terram quiescentem. Altera, juxta mentem N. Copernici, per terram mobilem [translated by Martinus Hortenisus].

Amsterdam: Joannem Blaeu, 1655.

Blaeu's classic treatise on the use of the globes, armilary spheres and sundials, divided into sections considering the earth-centered Ptolemaic system of cosmography and the sun-centered Copernican system. It was first published in Dutch in 1634, soon followed by a Latin edition (also 1634), and then by a number of later seventeenth-century impressions.Our copy is in an interesting contemporary binding, with covers bearing thistle tools as cornerpieces, suggesting an early Scottish provenance, though without any further marks of ownership. view more...

£1000.00

US$1944.70*

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BOERHAAVE, Herman. ~ A method of studying physick. Containing what a physician ought to know in relation to the nature of bodies, the laws of motion: staticks, hydrostaticks, hydraulicks, and the properties of fluids: chymistry, pharmacy, and botany: osteology, myology, splanchnology, angiology and dissection: the theory and practice of physick: physiology, pathology, surgery, diet, etc. And the whole Praxis medica interna; with the names and characters of the most excellent authors on all these subjects in every age: systematicks, observators, operators, &c. their best editions, and the method of reading them. Written in Latin... Translated into English by Mr. Samber.

London: by H.P for C. Rivington, B. Creake and J.Sackfield, 1719.

First edition in English of Institutiones medicae, the hugely influential series of medical lectures given at Leyden by one of the most important clinicians and teachers of the eighteenth-century. Boerhaave's university lectures were given in Latin and attracted an enthusiastic audience of scholars from all over Europe. He is credited (with Thomas Sydenham) with the rediscovery of Hippocrates and he introduced the modern method of clinical instruction which has remained the basis of medical education until the present day. A method of studying physick is important not just for its instruction in clinical theory but for its bibliographical throroughness, introducing students to the medical literature of the past and present through detailed citations of the works of great figures of European science.Boerhaave's influence in the British Isles was considerable: the medical faculty at Edinburgh was re-founded by Alexander Monro after the model of his teacher at Leyden and the best account of Boerhaave's life was written by Samuel Johnson (published in the Gentleman's Magazine 1739). The present translation from the original Latin text of 1708 is by Robert Samber. view more...

£950.00

US$1847.46*

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CARUS, Carl Gustav. ~ Vorlesungen über Psychologie, gehalten im Winter 1829/30 zu Dresden...

Leipzig: Gerhard Fleischer for Adolf Frohberger, 1831.

First edition of one of Carus's pioneering works in the emerging science of psychology. The author's major contribution was in exploring the psychology of the unconscious and he is considered the precursor of Jung (who acknowleged his debt to Carus) in this field. The author was a prolific figure who wrote on many aspects of psychology, medicine and philosophy. He was an accomplished landscape artist in the Romantic tradition and had studied under Caspar David Friedrich. He was also a friend of Nietzsche, Humboldt and Goethe.The Vorlesungen über Psychologie is especially notable for its wide frame of reference outside the discipline of medicine. Many of Carus's examples are drawn from literature, with a special emphasis on the works of Shakespeare: in the course of his argument he refers variously to Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry IV, Romeo and Juliet and Othello. view more...

£225.00

US$437.56*

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CASTÉRA, [Louis.] ~ Essai sur la navigation sous-marine par M. Castéra, Membre de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie nationale, et de celle d'Agriculture de la ville de la Rochelle.

Paris: chez Allut, 1810.

First edition of a very rare treatise on the submarine. Castéra was one of a small group of Frenchmen who discussed the possibility of submarine warfare before the American Robert Fulton made his famous proposal for the Nautilus to the French government. Castéra first approached the government with his ideas in 1796 (see Philip, Robert Fulton, p. 72), but as he explains in this treatise of 1810, his proposal for a "bateau- poisson" was treated by them "une chimère". Fulton took the credit for building the first operable powered submarine, but it was men like Castéra who had prepared the ground by persuading the government that only a new technique such as submarine warfare could break the British supremacy of the sea.Essai sur la navigation sous-marine discussed the problems of underwater navigation, the technical demands of underwater vessels and the potential uses of submarines in warfare, commerce and marine salvage. view more...

£3000.00

US$5834.09*

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CHARLETON, Walter. ~ Oeconomia animalis, novis in medicina hypothesibus superstructa, & mechanicè explicata...

London: Roger Daniel and John Redmayne, 1659.

First edition on Latin (issued simultaneously in English) of this important work in the history of physiology. "In 1659 Charleton published a mechanistic account of physiology in Latin (Oeconomia animalis) and English (Natural History of Nutrition, Life, and Voluntary Motion), which included the suggestion that there was no increase in volume when a muscle contracted. Charleton was here rejecting the Cartesian account which attributed muscle shortening to its inflation by animal spirit. Charleton's assessment was confirmed experimentally by Jonathan Goddard in 1669" (Oxford DNB). view more...

£1200.00

US$2333.64*

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COMBALUSIER, François de Paule. ~ Pneumato-Pathologia seu tractatus de flatulentis humani corporis affectibus...

Paris: Joannes de Bure, 1747.

First edition of this Parisian physician's first book, a treatise on the causes of flatulence. It was translated into French in an edition of 1754. view more...

£275.00

US$534.79*

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[DIGBY, Kenelm.] DIONIS, Charles. ~ Dissertation sur le taenia, ou ver-plat, dans laquelle on prouve que ce ver n'est pas solitaire. Avec une lettre sur la poudre de sympathie, propre contre le rhumatisme simple ou gouteux.

Paris: P. G. Le Mercier, 1749.

First edition. While Dionis's consideration of the tape worm is fascinating enough (with its refutation of the theories of Nicolas Andry de Boisregard) the work is principally interesting for its larger part: Dionis' edition of Sir Kenelm Digby's account of the "Powder of Symapthy", an alchemical preparation purported to cure at a distance. Made from dried green vitriol, this was a variant of the well-known Paracelsian 'weapon salve' which cured wounds by being applied, not to the patient, but to the offending weapon. It is a measure of the endurance of belief in this cure that Dionis entered into a contemporary dispute concerning its use and provides a recipe for it. Pp. 65-266 here are occupied by Dionis's introduction and by Digby's text, first published in 1658. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

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FERRIAR, John. ~ An essay towards a theory of apparitions.

London: Cadell and Davies, 1813.

First edition. The physician John Ferriar was among the first to argue that ghostly apparitions should be understood as psychological rather than supernatural phenomena and should be investigated therefore by scholars of the brain. His theme was human insanity, both temporary and permanent, and he provides numerous examples of 'apparitions' from his own medical experience together with influential accounts of the characters of literary creations who were touched by madness, including Hamlet and Don Quixote. Ferriar was a Scot by birth but practiced in Manchester where he became acquainted with the important and radical circle associated with the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. He worked on theories of the 'vital principles' of life (a notion which became central to Romantic preoccupations) and published his important Essay on the Medical Properties of the Digitalis Purpurea, or Foxglove in 1799. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

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FRANCISI [or FINX], Erasmus. ~ Der Wunder-reiche Uberzug unserer Nider- Welt, Oder Erd-umgebende Lufft-Kreys, Nach seinem natürlichen Wesen, manchfaltigen Eigenschafften, Nutzen, und Würckungen, natür- und unnatürlichen, feuer- und wässerigen Erscheinungen.

Nuremberg: Wolffgang Moritz Endter, 1680.

First edition of a rather extraordinary illustrated book, devoted chiefly to the subject of extreme weather conditions and natural wonders. The 27 fine engraved plates depict a variety of exceptional meteorological occurrences: storms of rats, frogs, fish and snakes; storms at sea (with images of ships); a hurricane; thunderstorms and deluges. There are also striking plates showing will-o-the -wisps and mirages.Francisi (born Finx) was a polymath in the vein of Athanasius Kircher whose exceptionally wide learning was gleaned through a combination of formal education, travel and his work as an editor and proofreader for Endter at Nuremberg (who published this book). He is concerned here with natural science in the strict sense (he refers freely to Copernicus, Cardanus, Hevelius, Scaliger, Varenius and many others) and in a cultural sense. Much of his text describes human relations with the environment and his work is a valuable compendium of customs, beliefs and ceremonies across the known world concerning the weather. He also records numerous examples of freak conditions.His writing has been criticised for its floridity and pomposity, but Francisi was clearly more concerned with amplitude of description rather than economy of style. view more...

£6000.00

US$11668.18*

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(FRANKLIN INSTITUTE). JONES, Thomas P., editor. ~ The Franklin Journal, and American Mechanics' Magazine; devoted to the useful arts, internal improvements, and general science. Under the patronage of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania. Vol 1, [3-6 and New Series Vols. 4-6]

Philadelphia: Jesper Harding for Judah Dobson [vol. 5 onwards by Harding for the Franklin Institute and Pishey Thompson in Washington City, G. &. C. Carvill in New York and Monroe & Francis in Boston,] 1826-1830.

Eight early volumes (wanting vol. 2 in first series and first volume of new series). An important record of innovations in British and American science and engineering, including railroads, canals, steam-engines, arts and manufactures, with excellent illustrations, including several of the earliest steam engines in Britain and America. view more...

£800.00

US$1555.76*

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FULLER, Francis. ~ Medicina gymnastica: or, a treatise concerning the power of exercise, with respect to the animal oeconomy; and the great necessity of it in the cure of several distempers... The second edition, with additions.

London: for Robert Knaplock, 1705.

Second edition, printed in the same year as the first, of this very succesful treatise on the use of excercise in the treatment of illness. Fuller wrote from first-hand experience, having cured himself of severe hypochondriasis through riding and fresh air. He devotes an entire chapter to the benefits of riding. A third edition appeared in 1707, a fifth in 1718, a sixth in 1728, and a ninth and last in 1777. view more...

£375.00

US$729.26*

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[GADROYS, Claude.] ~ Le système du monde, selon tres hypothèses, Où conformement aux loix de la Mechanique l'on explique dans la supposition du mouvement de la Terre. Les Apparences des Astres, La Fabrique du Monde, La Formation des Planetes, La Lumiere, la Pesanteur, &c. Et cela par de nouvelles demonstrations.

Paris: Guillaume Desprez, 1675.

First and only edition of this very scarce astronomical work written in an enthusistically Cartesian vein. Dedicated to the gentlemen of the Académie Royale des Sciences, Le système du monde rehearses (with the help of diagrams) the basic Ptolemaic and Copernican theories of the universe and then pursues a more sophisticated enquiry into the nature of planetary motion according to Copernicus, Galileo and Descartes. "Claude Gadroys (1642-1678) believed that Descartes has discovered a new world as truly as Columbus and others had discovered America. Although he professed not to accept the explanations of Descartes on every point, he did adopt his theory of tourbillons or vortices, his three elements or kinds of particles of matter, and his three laws that everything remains in the state it is, so long as nothing changes it, that a body in movement tends to continue to move in a straight line, and that bodies moving in circles try to break away from the centre of their movement" (Thorndike). The work is devoid of Newtonian influence (Newton's already formulated theories of gravitation remaining unpublished in 1675).Our copy is bibliographically interesting in containing alternative settings of several leaves. The first of these (pp. 87-8, given in two versions) apparently derives from a decision taken while the work was in the press to remove the rather rudimentary Copernican diagram from p. 87 and to alter the wording of the surrounding text. Our copy gives both versions, which makes for some confusion in the ordering of the text, but provides an insight into authorial and editorial practice in a work with an extensive scheme of diagrams. The alternative setting of pp. 271-6, which appear out of order, are harder to explain, but again there are variances between the texts of the two versions.Gadroys had earlier published a work entitled Discours sur les influences des astres (1671) which considered the claims of astrology in the light of the philosophy of Descartes. He refers the reader to this work in his brief treament of astrology towards the end of the present work. view more...

£750.00

US$1458.52*

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GATTEY, François. ~ Éléments du nouveau systême métrique, suivis des tables de rapports des anciennes mesures agraires avec les nouvelles...

Paris: Bailly and Rondonneau, 'An X' [1801].

First edition of an important practical guide to the new metric system, designed to counteract the persistence of local customary measurements in the regions of France and containing numerous tables for conversion from the old measures to the new. François Gattey was, with Legendre, one of the members of the convention established in 1795 to enact the definitive adoption of the metric system."One of the most significant results of the French Revolution was the establishment of the metric system of weights and measures....On June 19, 1791, a committee of 12 mathematicians, geodesists, and physicists met with Louis XVI, who gave his formal approval. The next day, the king attempted to escape from France, was arrested, returned to Paris, and was imprisoned; a year later, from his cell, he issued the proclamation that directed two engineers, Jean Delambre and Pierre Méchain, to perform the operations necessary to determine the length of the metre. The intervening time had been spent by the scientists and engineers in preliminary research; Delambre and Méchain now set to work to measure the distance on the meridian from Barcelona, Spain, to Dunkirk in northern France. The survey proved arduous; civil and foreign war so hampered the operation that it was not completed for six years. While Delambre and Méchain were struggling in the field, administrative details were being worked out in Paris. In 1793 a provisional metre was constructed from geodetic data already available. In 1795 the firm decision was taken to enact adoption of the metric system for France. The new law defined the length, mass, and capacity standards and listed the prefixes for multiples and submultiples. With the formal presentation to the assembly of the standard metre, as determined by Delambre and Méchain, the metric system became a fact in June 1799. The motto adopted for the new system was 'For all people, for all time'" (Ency. Brit.). view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

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HOFFMANN, Friedrich. ~ Vollständige Anweisung zu einer sichern, vernünftigen und in Erfahrung stehenden medicinischen Praxi Medica, auss Hrn. D. Friederich Hoffmanns... Scriptis und Manuscriptis mit großem Fleiß verfertigt, zu Berförderung des gemeinen bestens heraus gezogen und in Ordnung gebracht.

Ulm: Daniel B. Sohn, 1736.

Second edition (first 1724) of Hoffmann's "Complete Instruction for a safe, sensible and medically respected practice of medicine": a very extensive baroque medical compendium.Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742), a German physician, practiced and taught medicine, chemistry and physics in Halle from 1693. He studied and wrote on such varied topics as paediatrics, mineral waters and meteorology and introduced many new drugs into medical practice (such as a compound spirit of ether branded "Anodyne" and "Hoffmanns-Tropfen" still today known as a household remedy). Hoffmann was among the first to describe several diseases, including appendicitis and German measles, and to recognize the regulatory role of the nervous system.The work contains examinations of common ailments such as fever, infections, haemorrhageing, cramps, spasms and convulsions, consideration of the cerebral and nervous system, lymph and glands, female complaints and childhood illnesses. It also includes numerous medicinal recipes and cures. view more...

£900.00

US$1750.23*

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HÜNERSDORF, Ludwig. ~ Anleitung zu der natürlichsten und leichtesten Art Pferde abzurichten. Für Liebhaber des Reitens aus dem Militär- und Civilstand. Nebst einem Anhang, wie diese Anleitung auf die Abrichtung des Cavalleriepferdes und den gemeinen Reiter anzuwenden ist.

Marburg: neuen akademischen Buchhandlung, 1791.

First edition of perhaps the most innovative German handbook of horsemanship published during the late eighteenth century, considered the first practical German cavalry manual.Ludwig von Hünersdorf (1748-1813) was known as one of the best riders in Germany. He was head groom to the Hessian Guard and after publishing Anleitung zu der natürlichsten und leichtesten Art Pferde abzurichten was appointed stable master to the Hessian Prince and later to Friedrich I of Württemberg. He was knighted by Friedrich for his services to the art of horsemanship. He opposed the traditional "decorative" equestrian arts and taught his riders to attain rhythm and harmony on horseback: his aim being to create an entirely practical combination of horse and rider.The work was reprinted at least six times in fifty years and remains in print. The first edition is rare. view more...

£650.00

US$1264.05*

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KRUGER, Johann Gottlob. ~ Diaet oder Lebensordnung.

Halle: Carl Hermann Hemmerde, 1751.

First edition of Kruger's regimen for health and long life. The first part of the book includes chapters on living in general, on the nurture of children, on air, on food and drink, sleeping and waking, exercise and rest. The second part discusses how to avert illness and the third gives advice on achieving long life. There are quite extensive materials on wine (including German regional varieties, brandy and Champagne), beer, tea, coffee, tobacco and snuff and chocolate, which include comments on origins and production as well as on dietetic and therapeutic value.The frontispiece is an attractive emblematic composition. Three couples sit at a well-laid table within an elegant tiled room. They dine on fruit, vegetables, a chicken and wine. In the darkened foreground sits a dour miserly figure with money-bags, coins and a sheet of paper, resting his head on his hand, under his table lurks a dog. Through open windows and doors we see a drunken man stumbling and three other figures.Krüger (1715-1759) was Professor of Medicine at Halle and Helmstedt. He was something of a polymath who aside from writing many medical and physiological scientific works also wrote on aspects of the natural sciences, child education and research into electricity and its therapeutic applications. He received a pietistic education which greatly influenced his work and life. His work was shaped on an all-embracing physico-theological world view in which man and body stood in the centre. He believed that god created the world and that due to his wisdom all the individual constituent elements were successively aligned. view more...

£1200.00

US$2333.64*

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LETTSOM, John Coakley. ~ Histoire de l'origine de la médecine, par M. Coakley Lettsom... traduite de l'anglois par M. H***.

"Londres & se trouve à Paris, Rue des Cordiers, No. 4; et chez La Ve[uve] Hérissant; Théophile Barrois le jeune," 1787.

First edition in French, bearing an obviously false "Londres" imprint, of History of the origin of medicine (London, 1778). Lettsom, the physician and Quaker philanthropist was a prolific author on medical subjects and his name is especially associated with the foundation of the Medical Society of London (as a Quaker, he was excluded from the Royal College of Physicians). view more...

£225.00

US$437.56*

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LEWIS, William. ~ Expériences physiques et chymiques sur plusieurs matières relatives au Commerce & aux Arts: ouvrage traduit de l'Anglois de M. Lewis, de la Société Royale de Londres; Par M. De Puisieux...

Paris: chez Desaint, 1768-1769.

First continental edition of Lewis's Commercium philosophico-technicum (first published London 1763-6) a work of considerable value in the history of the industrial and applied arts. The author was a member of the Royal Society and a founder of the Society for the Improvement of Arts and Manufactures. Much of the first volume and part of the second is devoted to the extraction and working of gold and includes much detailed information on its smelting (with furnaces illustrated) and its application to the arts including the gilding of paper and bookbindings, together with a history of alchemy. In the later volumes he considers the manufacture of glass, the working and properties of platinum, and the use of colours in paints, dyes and inks. view more...

£500.00

US$972.35*

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MERBITZ, Joannes Valentinus. ~ De Varietate Faciei Humanae, Discursus physicus appendicis loco accedunt carmina figurata Rabani Mauri.

Dresden: Widow and Heirs of Melchior Bergen for Martin Gabriel Hubner, 1676.

First edition. "Merbitz's book takes features of the human face and describes them by mathematical and alphabetical schemes, constructs cipher systems, and reproduces figured poems by the medieval encyclopedist Hrabanus Maurus (780-856)." Norman, Cyberspace. [Norman notes that Charles Babbage owned a copy, see Norman Cat 28 (1994) 431.] Hrabanus Maurus, the Benedictine archbishop of Mainz was a celebrated encyclopaedist, but his most remarkable legacy is his series of 28 figured poems De laudibus sanctae crucis, a collection of twenty-eight encrypted religious poems, composed before 814 AD. Using a 36 by 36 grid he composed sacred poems (each line in Latin contains precisely 36 letters) which incorporated simple spiritual images formed from contrasting coloured letters (red, in our versions) within the grid, each making brief, succinct verses in their own right. The intention was that the grid provided both texts and images for contemplation, prayer and visual memorization. Merbitz includes 8 of Maurus' "concrete prayers." view more...

£1200.00

US$2333.64*

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MILN, Robert. ~ A course of physico-theological lectures upon the state of the world, from the Creation to the Deluge...

Carlisle: by J. Milliken and sold by R. Faulder in London, 1786.

First edition of an attempt to reconcile the geological evidence of Whitehurst, Deluc and others with scripture: published 8 years before the View of the Evidences of Christianity by William Paley, who appears among the subsribers here. Miln marshals numerous geological facts, together with local anecdotes and observations to argue for the entirely natural means chosen by the creator for the destruction of the antediluvian world and to explain fossil remains from an orthodox creationist perspective.The subscribers include not only Paley but also Joseph Priestley and William Cullen. The list is arranged alphabetically by town: Alnwick, Alston, Brampton, Cambridge, Carlisle, Cockermouth, Durham and so on, providing an interesting geographical cross-section of the potential readership. The pagination in ESTC gives an additional unnumbered leaf between p. xxiv and p.1 not present in our copy. This leaf bore half a page of additional subscribers and was in all likelihood never present in our copy. view more...

£475.00

US$923.73*

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NEILL, Hugh. ~ The practice in the Liverpool Ophthalmic Infirmary, in the year 1834; being the first special report...

[Liverpool: D. Marples & Co.] for W. Grapel in Liverpool and Longman, Rees, Orme, and Co. in London, 1835.

First edition. Though entitled "the first special report", no further issues of the series were produced. The work includes an interesting collection of cases of named individuals ("William Ablett, aged 9, at play, ran a fork through the Cornea of the right eye, and punctured the Lens... James Greenow, 20 years of age, of Little Woolton, had the stalk of a tobacco pipe thrust through the Cornea" etc) and gives a peculiarly detailed insight into this aspect of public health in the Victorian industrial city. Neill was an enthusiastic advocate of the use of strychnine in opthalmology. This copy of the Special Report evidently belonged to one of his doctors, who made several small notes at the end of his part in a few of the treatments described in the text. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

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(NEWTON). PEMBERTON, Henry. ~ Elémens de la philosophie newtonienne... traduit de l'Anglois [by Elias de Joncourt]..

Amsterdam and Leipzig: Arkstée & Merkus, 1755.

First edition in French of perhaps the mostly widely-read early work on Newton, the View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy (first published in England in 1728). Pemberton's explanation of Newton's thought for a lay audience is valuable for having been written from the point of view of a friend and contains a good number of anecdotes. Pemberton had been as close to Newton as any other scientist and had superintended the editing of the definitive third edition of the Principia mathematica. The View was read in part to the dying Newton. It is often cited as evidence that Newton did not need to see an apple drop to formulate his theory of gravitation: Pemberton tells us simply that the idea came to him while sitting alone in a garden. Though the English edition was very popular and is not now especially rare, the continental translations are very scarce indeed. They are, however, important. Newton's acceptance in Europe was famously slow and it is through works such as Pemberton's that his thought became more widely understood. In addition to the French translation by de Joncourt there is an earlier Italian translation of 1733. view more...

£875.00

US$1701.61*

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NICHOLSON, William. ~ The British Encyclopaedia, or dictionary of arts and sciences. Comprising an accurate and popular view of the present improved state of human knowledge...

London: by C. Whittingham, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, J.Johnson, R. Baldwin, F. and C. Rivington [and numerous other in London], 1809.

First edition of the major scientific dictionary of the early nineteenth-century. It was nominally edited by Nicholson, but was mainly compiled by the dissenting scholar Jeremiah Joyce and published by a large 'conger' syndicate of London booksellers. It includes excellent accounts of new industrial technologies, notably the steam engine. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

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NICHOLSON, William. ~ A dictionary of chemistry, exhibiting the present state of the theory and practice of that science, its application to natural philosophy, the processes of manufactures, metallurgy, and numerous other arts dependant on the properties and habitudes of bodies in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, with a considerable number of tables, expressing the elective attractions, specific gravities, comparative heats, component parts, combinations, and other affections of the objects of chemical research. Illustrated with engravings.

London: for G.G. and J. Robinson, 1795.

First edition. Nicholson was an important British figure in the new chemical movement. In 1784 he had become one of the secretaries of the Coffee House Philosophical Society, through which he became associated with some of the leading non-academic scientists who were pioneering the new sciences: Josiah Wedgwood (for whom he had previously worked), Richard Kirwan, Tiberius Cavallo, Adair Crawford, Joseph Priestley, James Watt, and James Keir from the Birmingham Lunar Society. One of the major points of discussion was the chemistry associated with the new gases and 'airs' discovered by Priestley. Nicholson later became interested in the French developments in this field, but was reluctant to embrace Lavoisier's oxygen theories or to renounce the British phlogiston theories. The questions are amply discussed in the Dictionary, as is a vast array of practical questions related to the application of chemistry to the arts and sciences. This work and the First principles of chemistry (1790) are considered Nicholson's most important works.Though the directions to the binder calls for 5 plates, the fifth plate appears never to have been issued. It does not, to our knowledge, appear in any recorded copies. view more...

£700.00

US$1361.29*

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ROBERTSON, Dionysius. ~ Leichte und ganz neue Art Pferde zu Englisiren, nebst noch verschiedenen anderen Operationen an Pferden, und einem Anhange von einigen bewahrten Mitteln wider die leibige Vieh-Seuche.

Arnheim: Felix Grundlieb, 1770.

First edition of two rare equestrian veterinary titles. The first, by an English veterinarian in royal service in Germany, is entitled Easy and new art of Anglicising horses, including many operations on horses, and an appendix of proven remedies for livestock epidemics. Chapter one describes the operation of 'Anglicising' the tail of the horse by sectional cutting and raising the tail while the horse is in its stall, holding it aloft with weights and pulleys until it achieves a pleasing erect form. Chapter two gives directions for reducing the size of horses' ears by surgery. Both these operations are the subject of one of the large folding plates. Later chapters refer to the eyes and braiding the mane, treatment of infected eyes and diseases of the glands. The final chapter is devoted to the groin and to cures for injuries sustained. The appendix consists of Robertson's successful "English" cures and recipes for equine ailments.The second work is anonymous and is entitled On horse- breeding and various proven cures. It contains cures and recipes for common horse ailments such as coughing, worms, infections and wounds.Both works are rare. view more...

£2000.00

US$3889.39*

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ROBINS, Benjamin. ~ New principles of gunnery: containing, the determination of the force of gun-powder, and an investigation of the difference in the resisting power of the air to swift and slow motions. By Benjamin Robins, F. R. S.

London: for J. Nourse, 1742.

First edition."New Principles of Gunnery transformed ballistics into a Newtonian science. Galileo's vacuum theory was the only practical theory before 1742, but only for low-velocity mortars as demonstrated in Bélidor's Le bombardier français (1731). Robins made it applicable for gunpowder weaponry in general. His key contribution was the invention and utilization of the ballistic pendulum. With Huygens's law of pendulum motion and Newton's law of linear momentum, he deduced the bullet's impact velocity from the subsequent swing angle. Robins then used the ballistic pendulum to verify his interior-ballistics theory, relying on Boyle's law, the thirty-ninth proposition from book one of the Principia, and the pneumatic chemistry techniques of Francis Hauksbee the elder and Stephen Hales. By applying Newton's second law of motion to velocity measurements at varying ranges, Robins also obtained the air- resistance force acting on musket balls. This revealed the significant limitations of Galileo's vacuum ballistics theory and of Newton's air-resistance function when approaching the speed of sound" (Steele in ODNB).Robins was born of Quaker stock in Bath. He was initially self-educated but was later taught by the Newtonian editor Henry Pemberton and became a significant exponent of Newton's physics. He had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1727. His New principles of gunnery was widely-read and was translated into German by Euler and also into French. view more...

£950.00

US$1847.46*

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ROBINSON, Nicholas. ~ A new theory of physick and diseases, founded on the principles of the Newtonian philosophy. By Nicholas Robinson, M.D...

London: for C. Rivington, J. Lacy and J. Clark, 1725.

First edition. Robinson was born in Wales but gained his MD at Reims in 1718. He was also a protegé of Richard Mead to whom the present work is dedicated. Much of the work is practical (it includes several medical recipes at the end) but the theory is based on the "Newtonian" premise: "Is not the mechanism of the body conducted by the same laws that support the motions of the greater orbs of the universe?" view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

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ROURA, Jose. ~ Memoria sobre los vinos y su destilacion; y sobre los aceites.

Barcelona: J. Oliveres y Gavarro, 1839.

First edition, extremely rare, of this important treatise on viticulture and wine-making, eau de vie, and vinegar. Sections cover the chemistry involved as well as practical issues such as how to improve the colour and taste of wine. Based upon a trip that Roura took in 1834 around parts of Spain and France, the text is a technical and scientific work written to boost the Catalan economy and modernize their industry. The plates show various wine-making and distillation apparatus and the binding is sumptuous. On the upper board in gilt dentelles is a black morocco label reading "A.S.M.LA R.C. Da. Maria Cristina"; i.e. for Maria Christina of Bourbon, Princess of the Two Sicilies, Queen of Spain (1806-78). view more...

£4000.00

US$7778.78*

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SANTORINI, Giovanni Domenico, (edited by Michael GIRARDI). ~ Anatomici summi septemdecim tabulae quae nunc primum edit atque explicat iisque alias addit de structura mammarum et de tunica testica vaginali....

Parma: ex Regia Typographia, 1775.

First edition of one of the finest anatomies of the eighteenth century. Santorini (1681-1737) "worked as both a practicing physician and teacher-anatomist in Venice and was known to be one of the most careful and fastidious anatomists of his period. This work, edited by Michael Girardi (1731-97) and issued . . . after Santorini's death, contains illustrations of many parts of the human body, including the organs of smell and hearing, the pharynx, breasts, heart, stomach, liver, intestines, pancreas, and bladder. Of the 21 plates in the book, 17 were by Santorini, and each plate is accompanied by a companion outline plate that is marked with reference letters. The book is one of the finest anatomies of the 18th century because of its excellent illustrations and comprehensive commentary" (Heirs of Hippocrates)."Santorini died before the completion of these anatomical plates which he intended to be his chef d'œuvre. This elegrantly printed volume is the only significant medical book printed by the celebrated Giambattista Bodoni for the Duke of Parma... All the twenty-one prints of the work are done in a light crayon effect which, however, does not impair the anatomic clarity of the prints, but even brings out well the differences in the tissues. Each plate is accompanied by an outline plate which is marked with reference letters. The seventeen plates by Santorini have a ruled margin at the top and on the side, like the Eustachian plates, but have no signatures of the artists. They were drawn by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, who made the coppers for Tasso's Gierusalemme Liberata. A woman, Florentia Marcella, engraved Santorini's plates under Santorini's personal supervision. The work belongs to the best of its time., not only as regards the dissections and illustrations, but also as to the very elaborate commentary. The pictures deal with facial muscles, the base of the brain and other parts of the brain, the organs of smell and hearing, the pharynx, the breasts, the heart, the diaphragm with the beginning of the thoracic duct, the stomach, the liver, the intestines, the pancreas, the ileocaecal valve., the bladder, the muscles of the perineum, and the genitals. Covoli's pictures represent the breasts, the tunics of the testicle and a six months' foetus" (Choulant, pp. 263-64). Copies only rarely contain the portrait: it is lacking in the copies described in Norman, Heirs of Hippocrates and Choulant. view more...

£1800.00

US$3500.45*

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SENDIVOGIUS, Michael. ~ A new light of alchymy: taken out of the fountain of nature and manual experience, to which is added a treatise of sulphur. Written by Micheel Sandivogius. i.e. anagrammatically, divi leschi genus amo. Also nine books of the nature of things, written by Paracelsus, viz. Of the generations, growths, conservations, life, death, renewing, transmutation, separation, signatures of natural things. Also a chymical dictionary explaining hard places and words met withal in the writings of Paracelsus and other obscure authors. All which are faithfully translated out of the Latin into the English tongue, by J. F. MD.

London: A. Clark for Thomas Williams, 1674.

Sendivogius was regarded by contemporary alchemists as being the true possessor of the philosopher's stone, and in orthodox scientific terms his work is important for his observations on the components of air, leading to an argument that "contains the first idea of the existence of air" (DSB XII, 307).De lapide philosophorum was first printed at Prague in 1604 and thereafter became known as Novum lumen chymicum. The Tractatus de sulphure altero naturae principio, which frequently appeared with it (as here) first appeared at Cologne in 1616. This English translation by "J.F." (either John French or John Freke) appears with an English version of De rerum naturae, the classical Paracelsian text and an alchemical dictionary. It had been first printed in English in 1650, making our edition the second. view more...

£1650.00

US$3208.75*

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(SILK). ~ A few hints on the management of silk-worms in England, viewed as a study.

London and Brighton: Arthur Wallis [Brighton] for Wertheim and Macintosh in London, 1853.

First and only edition. The female author (she speaks of "herself" in the Preface) has a didcatic intention, hoping that her little study will bring the reader to greater appreciation of "the Giver of all Good". This little Brighton-printed pamphlet perfectly exemplifies the Victorian fascination with the life of insects as emblematic of the virtues of hard-work, productivity and thrift. Much of her text is paraphrased from Lardner's Cyclopaedia and Hooke; the hand-coloured plate is most attractive. view more...

£125.00

US$243.09*

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STUART, Robert. ~ Histoire descriptive de la machine a vapeur, traduite de l'Anglais de R. Stuart; précédée d'une introduction exposant la théorie des vapeurs; suivie de la description des perfectionnements faits en France, et des considérations générales sur l'emploi de ces machines.

Paris: Malher et Compagnie, 1827.

First edition in French of Stuart's pioneering early history of the steam engine, translated (with additional notes by the French editor) from the third English edition of 1825. The work describes the major inventions from Hero of Alexandria, through Caus, Branca, the Marquis of Worcester, Moreland, Papin, Newcomen, and Hulls, to Watt, Hornblower and Trevithick. The final 60 pages contain an appendix not found in the English editions designed to demonstrate the developments in steam engineering in France since 1815. Brunel is rightly claimed as a Frenchman. The title formed part of Malher et Compagnie's Bibliothéque industrielle and is very scarce. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

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THOMSON, John. ~ The universal calculator; or the merchant's, tradesman's, and family's assistant. Being an entire, new, and complete set of tables, adapted for dealers in every branch of trade, by wholesale or retail, and all families. Shewing, at one View, The Amount or Value of any Number or Quantity of Goods or Merchandise, from One to Ten Thousand, at all the various Prices, from One Farthing, in regular progression, to Thirty Shillings; in 280 different Tables. Also, At the foot of each Table is shown the Division of the Pound, Yard, &c. into the following Particulars, entirely new, and not to be found in any other Book, viz. For Dealers by Weight, such as Grocers, &c... For Dealers by Measure, such as Milliners, Haberdashers, &c... There are also added, Twenty-Seven Tables, Shewing the Exchange on Bills, Commission or Brokerage on Goods, &c. from 1/8 to 5 per Cent. and Tables, shewing the amount of any Salary, Income, Expence, &c. by the Day, Week, Month, or Year. By John Thomson, Accomptant in Edinburgh, Author of the Tables of Interest, and Tables for Calculating the Price of all kinds of Grain.

Edinburgh: [Murray & Cochran] for W. Creech and C. Elliot, Edinburgh; and C. Dilly, in the Poultry, London, 1784.

First edition of this very scarce set of Edinburgh merchant's tables. Thomson, styled "accomptant" in the title, also prepared various tables of interest and currency for tradesman. The book is dedicated "To the honourable the Master, Assistants, and other members of the Company of Mechants, of the City of Edinburgh". As was typical for similar works of essential reference printed across the border in England, the work bears Thomson's signature, guaranteeing them to be both correct and genuine. view more...

£750.00

US$1458.52*

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[TIPHAIGNE DE LA ROCHE, Charles-François.] ~ L'Amour Dévoilé, ou le Système des Simpathistes, où l'on explique l'origine de l'Amour, des Inclinations, des Simpathies, des Aversions, des Antipathies, etc.

[n.p. ?Low Countries], 1749.

First editions. Tiphaigine de la Roche's L'Amour Dévoilé is a notable attempt to explain love and sexual attraction in mechanistic terms. The author considers the role of 'la matière Sympathique' which he believed to be a type of vapour exhaled by both animals and humans, and its action upon the senses of a member of the oppositie sex. This rational approach to the subject prefigures modern research into pheromones. Pernetti, author of the moral romance Histoire de Favoride was a canon of the cathedral at Lyon and a prominent antiquary of that city. He was also a freemason and wrote a short treatise on that subject view more...

£495.00

US$962.62*

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WICKHAM, Louis and Paul DEGRAIS. ~ Le Radium son emploi dans le Traitement du Cancer des angiomes, chéloïdes, tuberculoses locales et d'autres affections... Avec 53 figures dans le texte.

Paris: J.-B. Baillière et fils, 1913.

First edition of this pioneering text in radiotherapy, issued as part of Les Actualités Médicales series, this copy inscribed by Paul Degrais to a leading French homeopath, Léon Vannier. Wickham, a French dermatologist and pioneer of radium therapy, began treating tumours and gynaecological conditions with radium in 1908. He and his younger colleague Degrais were among the first clinicians to treat human conditions with 'radiumtherapy' having obtained radium from the Curies. Wickham died in 1913, several months before his colleague Degrais inscribed this copy to Vannier. The work also appeared in an English translation printed in London in the same year. It was preceded by the larger work Radiumthérapie; instrumentation, technique, traitement des cancers, chéloïdes, naevi, lupus, prurits, névrodermites, eczémas, applications gynécologiques (Paris, 1909). view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

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WILKINS, John. ~ Mathematicall magick. Or, The wonders that may be performed by mechanicall geometry. In two books. Concerning mechanicall powers. motions. Being one of the most easie, pleasant, usefull, (and yet most neglected) part of mathematicks. Not before treated of in this language By J.W. M.A.

London: by M[iles]. F[lesher]. for Sa. Gellibrand at the brasen Serpent in Pauls Church-yard, 1648.

Second edition, issued in the same year as the first with a new title-page. It is "the first text on mechanics available in the English language. It is divided into two parts "Archimedes or Mechanical Powers" and "Daedalus or Mechanical Motions"- the latter part describing various machines, including strange devices and possibilities, such as a land vehicle powered by wind, submarines, flying automata, clocks, magnetic perpetuum mobile, etc. His sources were Guidobaldo's Mechanicorum liber and Mersenne's Cogitata physico-mathematica... One may see Wilkins' work as a popular version of Mersenne's work" (Biblioteca Mechanica). Wilkins was a leading figure in the English scientific renaissance, being, at various times influential at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and in the Royal Society (of which he was president from 1660-1661). He is known also for his conjectures on extra-terrestrial life (The discovery of a world in the moone, 1638).Both the first and second editions bear the date 1648. view more...

£1900.00

US$3694.92*

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WILLIAMS, C[harles]. ~ Demoniacal obsession and possession as causes of insanity.

London: the Ambrose Co., Ltd, 1911.

First edition. Williams was a practical if unconventional expert in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, though this work concentrates on the possibility of possesssion from a Christian perspective. He was a prolific author on the subject and his other works included: A new method for treating the insane; A short essay on insanity; Religion and insanity; Spiritual Insanity. To judge by the adverts here they elicited a favourable response in many quarters. view more...

£75.00

US$145.85*

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WILLIS, Thomas. ~ Pathologiae cerebri, et nervosi generis specimen. In quo agitur de morbis convulsivis, et de scorbuto...

Amsterdam: Daniel Elzevir, 1670.

Willis's Pathologiae cerebri, a sequel to his great Cerebri Anatome is considered the most important early study of the pathology and neurophysiology of the brain. "Willis gave one of the most extensive accounts of the whole field of mental illness which had appeared up to that time. He attributed 'melancholy' or affective psychosis to 'passions of the heart'; and 'madness' or psychosis accompanied by thought disorder, delusions or hallucinations - that is schizophrenia - to 'vice or fault of the Brain'. He recognised the difference between the symptoms of gross brain disease and those of mental illness in which he accounted for the absence of pathological findings by postulating a disturbance of the brain and nerves in terms of disordered 'Animal Spirits'" (Hunter and Macalpine, Three Hundred Years of Psychiatry, 1535-1860). A second part of the volume is Willis's treatise on scurvy "De scorbuto".The first edition of 1667 is a work of exceptional rarity. It was reprinted in 1668 (twice, including once by the Elzevirs) and again in 1670 (our edition). view more...

£900.00

US$1750.23*

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Justin Croft : Rare & Fine Antiquarian Books - Specialist in antiquarian books, especially in the field of science and medicine

Science & Medicine