First edition (? see below) of Becher’s popular alchemical handbook, which “rapidly became a standard text on elements, principles, and chemical processes” (DSB II.550) containing an engraved representation of the Prague Medal as well as a title engraving of the chemist with allegorical figures. “Becher’s views on chemistry have much..... More

Scarce first edition of Riccioli’s anti-Copernican, Tychonic geo-centrist cosmology, presenting an astronomy cleared (so he claims) of theoretical as well as observational errors. It is considered a conclusion to the Almagestum novum of 1651. “Riccioli described sunspots, compiled star catalogues, and recorded his observation of a double star; he also..... More

Extremely rare German edition (a Latin edition was published the same year) of Sturm’s enlargement of Habrecht’s famous treatise on the making of celestial and terrestrial globes, published in 1628. The Habrecht family of clock and instrument makers were famous throughout Europe from the last quarter of the sixteenth century to..... More

Rare first edition of a Hebrew/Latin/Dutch pocket-lexicon, compiled by Johannes Leusden, a follower of the famous philologist and Christian Hebraist Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629), who chaired Hebrew studies at Basel for over thirty years. The volume is comprised of four parts, with Leusden’s two philological works preceded by a supplement.  The..... More

First edition of a rare and fundamental handbook for seventeenth-century missionaries to Indochina.  The volume is a formative document by François Pallu (d. 1684) and Pierre Lambert de la Motte (d. 1679), founding members of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris and driving forces behind the establishment in 1665..... More

Scarce augmented edition of this illustrated technological classic, "second only to Agricola in the number of original contributions to the literature of mining and metallurgy and the beauty of the graphic treatment of the crafts." - Dibner 89 (1574) It is testimony to the work's usefulness as a practical handbook..... More

First edition and much scarcer than the second edition of 1683. "Troili, a pupil of the quadratura painter Michelangelo Colonna, became scene painter for the Farnese theatre at Parma. Ferdinando Bibiena saw his work there (probably after the artist's death) and absorbed its influence. This original edition of Troili's exceptionally..... More

Scarce German edition and unusually fine copy in its original binding of this machinery book devoted to pumps, presses and milling machinery by the Nuremberg architect Ber. This is unusual among Baroque machine books for primarily containing machines that had actually been realized, not simply the fantasies of those inventors..... More

Scarce first French edition (expanded from the 1673 English original) of an early illustrated British travelogue to southeastern Europe and Greece. "This account is full of acute observations and judgments; of particular importance is the information he provides on mines and mining techniques" (Leonora Navari, Blackmer Catalogue 43). Embarking on..... More

First complete edition (second; first 1674, see below) of this important Galileianum, an assembly of previously unpublished writings by Galileo, together with texts by Torricelli and Viviani himself, inscribed by Viviani to an unknown (scored) receipient. Vincenzo Viviani resided with Galileo at Arectri from October 1639 as his pupil, amanuensis..... More

Rare first edition of this illustrated biography and genealogy of Matilda of Canossa, the medieval “sublime heroine” of papal fidelity, and one of the rare medieval women remembered for her military accomplishments.  Intent on dispelling various misconceptions about her as well as honoring her kinsman Alberico Cybo Malaspina, to whom..... More

Very rare Spanish legal document concerning tithes certified between the Archbishop of Granada, Alonso Bernardo de los Rios y Guzman (served 1677-92), and the Prior of the Carthusian monastery of Granada. While the text offers a fascinating and surprisingly detailed account of this ecclesiastical suit and is especially rich in..... More

Extremely rare copy of a classic work produced in 1661 during Japan’s intellectual awakening by the important mathematician Isomura Yoshinori (d. 1710). This much enlarged third edition (1684) includes new uses for pi, such as novel calculations of the surface of a sphere. It solves other practical problems, for instance..... More