Rare first edition of this landmark of cryptography, “the first printed book on the subject” (Kahn), here in an example heavily annotated in several early modern hands, with its two woodcut title pages decorated in contemporary hand-color, and all preserved in a fine, stamped German binding dated 1587. The only..... More
First edition, first issue of this rare alchemical work, highly unusual for its early use of four-colour printing. Pantheo was a Venetian priest who published, in 1518 the alchemical Ars transmutationis metallicae. ‘Portions of this were reproduced in the Voarchadumia in 1530, but [it] is quite a distinct work and... More
Rare first edition of the author’s first work, generally regarded as the most important treatise on mechanics since Archimedes and a critical influence on Galileo. The work is notable for its commitment to establishing mechanics on a rigorously mathematical basis, for its powerful argument that mechanics and statics are separate..... More
First edition of an Archimedean work by Galileo’s friend and early patron Guidobaldo del Monte. Guidobaldo’s Liber mechanicorum (1577), regarded as the greatest work on statics since the Greeks, employed the mathematically rigorous proofs of Archimedean models in investigating static and mechanical questions; the present work develops many of those..... More
Rare first edition of this illustrated treatise on instrument making by the Ulm mathematician and military architect Johann Faulhaber (1580-1635), a work principally important in the history of science and technology for its engraved technical illustrations of Galileo Galilei’s (1564-1624) famous ‘proportional compass’ – the first such illustrations to appear..... More
Scarce edition of three alchemical texts—comprising the first illustrated appearance of the ‘Twelve Keys’ of Basil Valentine, and the first printed editions of Thomas Norton’ The Ordinall of Alchemy, and John Cremer’s ‘Testament’—collected by the pre-eminent Rosicrucian apologist Maier. The first work shows the intimate dependency of 17th C alchemy..... More
First edition of this illustrated Italian translation of the Roman poet Persius (CE 34-62) by Galileo’s correspondent, friend, and fellow member of the Accademia Linceo, containing “the first illustrations prepared with a microscope that were set forth in a printed book” (Singer p. 148), including the anatomical ‘bee’ engraving made..... More
![Opera ea quae ad inventam ab ipso artem universalem [with:] Clavis Artis Lullianae, et Verae...](/pictures/thumb/2120.jpg?v=1508791073)
Scarce Strasburg edition of the collected works of Lull, including commentaries of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and here with an important 17th-century presentation of the Lullian Ars by the encyclopedist Johann Alsted. Both were influential on Leibniz, Commenius and other 17th-century encyclopedists. "The most distinctive characteristic of Lull's Art is... More
Scarce first edition of Gilbert's only other published work, whose first section contains "an extension of the cosmological ideas Gilbert introduced into the last section of de Magnete; it is dependent on the latter work for much of its vocabulary and basic assumptions..." (DSB V.397). Posthumously published and edited by... More
First collected edition of Galileo’s works, appearing only a year after his death and of great interest for his 17th-century reception: this was the edition in which Newton and later eminent scientists read their Galileo. Included here are not only most of the seminal pieces written and published over a...... More
Scarce augmented edition of this work on the theory of machines and the nature of gravity by the young Jesuit Paolo Casati. The work imaginatively envisions a Latin dialogue between three great physicists of the preceding generation, all recently dead in the 1640s: Galileo; Marin Mersenne, his greatest champion outside... More
Extremely rare group of anatomical pamphlets in first Latin edition by Lodewijk de Bils, a nobleman from Flanders, who advertised a method of turning bodies into transparent teaching tools preserved and embalmed in a wax-like substance. The sammelband includes his treatises on the gall-bladder (Epistolica Dissertatio) and on the dissection... More
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
Extensively illustrated, visually appealing unpublished French navigational manuscript dating from the early 1670s, making it an important early witness to the maritime pedagogical reforms instituted by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) during his effort to strengthen the French navy, create a favorable balance of trade for the nation, increase France’s colonial holdings..... 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 a fine copy, of one of the great classics of science. Complete copies, such as ours, have become difficult to find on the market. This book is notable for its importance in the fields of electricity and air pressure and for its account of the discovery of... 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
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
Very rare first and only edition of this book of geometrical problems proposed by Galileo’s last disciple, including Viviani’s own solution to the Florentine Enigma he had published earlier that year under a pseudonym. In the dedication to Prince Ferdinand de Medici, he identifies himself for the first time as..... More
Two important and generously illustrated botanical works produced by respected Linnaean correspondents at the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. Amman’s Stirpium rariorum contains useful descriptions of 285 plants from Eastern Europe and “Ruthenia” (now Ukraine), enhanced with 35 clear engravings. According to Hunt, Amman “made a notable contribution..... More
Rare first edition – illustrated with a fine folding etched map – of the hydraulic engineer Jean-André Floquet’s project proposal for the ‘Canal de Provence,’ a waterway intended to link Marseille with Aix-en-Provence and the Durance River to the north. The etched map is a reduced-size version of an exceptionally..... More
Very rare first and sole edition of the first treatise published by the pioneering French mineralogist Jean-Baptiste Romé de L’Isle (1736-1780), and his sole work on marine biology, concerning the “movement, generation and nature” of the freshwater polyp. In the present work Romé hypothesizes, drawing on observations by the naturalist..... More
Scarce first edition of this work describing various species of marine life found in the Adriatic, illustrated with four plates of unusually high quality coming from a regional press, of interest for the continuing life of the Kircherian tradition in the study of Natural History in opposition to the taxonomic... More
First edition of this lavishly illustrated mining classic describing an amalgamation process for removing gold and silver from various ores. As the process did not require the usual smelting of the ore, it saved an enormous quantity of fuel and was widely adapted throughout the Habsburg Empire and elsewhere in... More
Rare first edition of this handsomely illustrated treatise on the cultivation and manufacture of linen, a staple of the textile and paper industries until the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney (a mere two years after this book was published) and cheaper methods of paper processing curtailed its... More