Milestones of Science Books Archives - Rare Book Insider

Milestones of Science Books

  • Showing all 20 results

book (2)

Die Traumdeutung.

FREUD, Sigmund 8vo (225 x 146 mm). [4], 371, [5] pp., a few text diagrams. Bound in contemporary black calico with blindstamped boards and gilt-lettered spine (joints expertly repaired, calico over lower joint partially split, corners bumped). Text bright and clean throughout, lower corner of first leaves slightly bumped, light marginal finger-soiling of title-page, clean tear at foot of p. 141/2 without loss. A very good copy. ---- FIRST EDITION of 'Die Traumdeutung' (The Interpretation of Dreams), Freud's greatest single work and the foundation of psychoanalysis. Freud's first major work on psychology, Die Traumdeutung contains "all the basic components of psychoanalytic theory and practice" (PMM): displacement, regression, the libido, Oedipal impulses and the erotic nature of dreams. "Freud gave an unprecedented precision and force to the idea of the essential similarities of normal and abnormal behaviour, opening up the door to the irrational that had been closed to Western pychology since the time of Locke" (Norman). Freud has been ranked "with Charles Darwin and Karl Marx as one of the three great revolutionary thinkers of the nineteenth century" (pace I. Bernhard Cohen, cf. Grolier Medicine). Freud's biographer and colleague Ernest Jones recorded that the manuscript of Die Traumdeutung was finished by 11 September 1899. Freud sent a copy to his close associate Wihelm Fleiss which was inscribed with the date 24 October 1899 (cf. Norman F33, Fleiss' copy). According to Jones, the work was "actually published on November 4, 1899, but the publisher chose to put the date 1900 on the title page" (Jones, I, p. 395). The first edition was of 600 copies, and as Eimas notes, the book "is now quite scarce". Initially, the work went virtually unnoticed. Jones notes that eighteen months after publication, "no scientific periodical, and only a few others, had mentioned the book. It was simply ignored [. . .] Seldon has an important book produced no echo whatever. It was ten years later, when Freud's work was coming to be recognized, that a second edition was called for" (Jones, op. cit., pp. 395-396). References and literature: PMM 389; Norman F33; Horblit 32; Grolier/Medicine 87; Heirs of Hippocrates 2176; Garrison-M. 4980; E.Jones, Sigmund Freud: Life and Work, London, 1956-1957. - Visit our website to see more images!
  • $32,778
  • $32,778
book (2)

A Practical Essay on the History and Treatment of Beriberi / With Observations on Some Forms of Rheumatism Prevailing in India.

MALCOLMSON, John Grant Two works in one volume. 8vo (215 x 133 mm). [2], iv, [2], 343, [3]; [2], 98 pp., including advert leaf after title, errata slip, one hand-coloured lithographed plate facing p. 114, and final blank in first work. Contemporary half sheep over marbled boards, spine lettered in black (joints repaired, boards rubbed and soiled, corners scuffed). Text little age-toned, pale brown stain at top gutter of title-page of first work and final gatherings of second work from binder's glue, occasional very minor spotting. ---- FIRST EDITION OF THIS RARE MEDICAL TREATISE ON BERIBERI and "A classic account, in which the author brought together all that was known about the disease in his day" (Garrion-Morton). In 1832 the Madras Medical Board offered a prize for an essay on beriberi as a way of "encouraging scientific investigation into a disease known to be 'insidious in its attack, rapid in its progress, and fatal in its termination', and apparently widespread among soldiers from the northern districts of the Madras. Of the four essays received, all written by army medical officers, the prize was awarded to John Grant Malcolmson, an assistant surgeon in a Madras European regiment. In his Practical essay, Malcolmson suggested that the name 'beriberi' was derived from the Hindustani word for a sheep and referred to the awkward, sheep-like gait that was characteristic of the disease [. . .] Although, as the Medical Board required, Malcolmson investigated 'the practice of the more intelligent native doctors' and the medicinal substance known as 'treeak farook', beriberi was not a disease in which indigenous testimony and therapeutic practice played much part. [. . .] The primary symptoms of beriberi, as Malcolmson understood them, included numbness, paralysis of the lower limbs, oedema and dropsy. Drawing on his own experience and that of other army officers, Malcolmson [. . .] was anxious to establish the likely geographical and climatic influences on beriberi. He noted that it mainly prevailed among troops stationed in the coastal tract of the Northern Circars [. . . and] helped establish the idea of beriberi in India as a highly localized disease, confined to only a small portion of the Madras Presidency and absent even from neighbouring districts" (David Arnold, British India and the "Beriberi Problem", 1798–1942, Medical History 54(3), 2010, pp. 295–296). References: Garrison-Morton 3738; Wellcome IV, p.34. - Visit our website to see more images!
  • $1,017
  • $1,017
book (2)

Medicina catholica, seu mysticum artis medicandi sacrarium / Sophiae cum moria certamen, in quo: lapis Lydius a falso structore, Fr. Marino Mersenno . . . reprobatus, examinat / Integrum morborum mysterium: sive Medicinae catholicae tomi primi tractatus secundus, in sectiones distributus duas; quorum prior generalem morborum naturam. . . / Katholicon medicorum katoptron. . . / Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia.

FLUDD, Robert Medicina catholica, seu mysticum artis medicandi sacrarium. [Tomus I, tractatus I] / Sophiae cum moria certamen, in quo: lapis Lydius a falso structore, Fr. Marino Mersenno . . . reprobatus, examinat. Two parts in two volumes. Frankfurt am Main: C. Rötel for W. Fitzner, 1629. Folio (313 x 194 mm). [20], 241 [1]; [6], 118, [2] pp., including engraved printer's device on first title, 24 engraved illustrations in text (22 in first and 2 in second part, some full-page), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Bound without the two initial blanks, the Sophiae as often without the table (found bound in between p.18 and 19). Signatures: §² )(? 2):(? A-2H?, a-p? Modern bindings re-using antiphonary manuscript on vellum with finely painted Fleuronné initials as cover material, modern endpapers. The paper somewhat browned as usual due to inferior paper stock used, repaired clean tear to first title, A1 with minor fraying of fore-edge. Provenance: inscribed on first title "ad usum P. Palladii". A very good copy. [Joined:] FLUDD, Robert. [Medicina Catholica]. I. Integrum morborum mysterium: sive Medicinae catholicae tomi primi tractatus secundus, in sectiones distributus duas; quorum prior generalem morborum naturam. . . II. Katholicon medicorum katoptron. . . III. Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia. Frankfurt am Main: Wolfgang Hofmann for Wilhelm Fitzer, 1631. Three parts in one volume. Folio (311 x 205 mm). [26], 1-105 (i.e. 100), 111-503 [1]; [2] 3-93 [1]; [4], 413 (i.e. 407) [1] pp. Each part has separate title page with large engraved vignette. First part with portrait of the author on verso of title; folding engraved plate bound after p.180. Part III with engraved plate bound after p. 8 and folding woodcut plate bound after p. 406; leaf g1 (p. 49/50) folded and with full-page engraving on verso; large folding table made of 3 sections bound at end. Woodcut initials, head- and tailpiece; several engraved and woodcut illustrations and diagrams in text. Signatures: ):(6 )(8 (-)(8), A-3R4 (-O1-3); AA-MM4 (-MM4); [par]2 a-3e4. Pagination 101-104 in part I and 353-358 in part III omitted; 3 leaves O1-3 (pp. 105-110) in part I lacking (never bound in), also bound without blank leaves )(8 and MM4. 18th-century simple cardboard (heavily rubbed and scuffed). Pages and plates with light even browning, occasional minor spotting; small burn hole in leaf Zz1 of part I affecting few letters; worming to lower blank margin of two gatherings 3B-C; first title page dust soiled, frayed at head and damaged at gutter; blank upper corner of subsequent clipped, this also creased at gutter. Despite the missing 3 text leaves a much better than average copy internally. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION of the complete set of Fludd's Medicina Catholica, the most comprehensive, 1400+ page compendium of occult medicine of the 17th-century, incorporating the other sciences in the manner customary at the time. In 1629 and 1631, Fludd had his four treatises on medicine printed, which constituted the first and only volume (the publication of the second was aborted) of the Medicina catholica: 1. Medicina catholica, Sanitatis mysterium (1629), 2. Pulsus (1631?), 3. Integrum morborum mysterium (1631), 4. Katholicon medicorum katoptron (1631). In these works, Fludd evokes the vital role of the sun and its central place within the universe, and insists at length on the parallel between the solar star and the human heart. According to him, the movement of blood in the human body mimics that of the sun in the macrocosm. He exposes his mystical theories on blood circulation in his treatise Anatomiae amphitheatrum, which prefigure the experiments of William Harvey published in 1628 in De Motu cordis. A few years later, Fludd published his Pulsus and became the first to ardently defend his colleague's ideas: Fludd was trained anatomist and had watched Harvey carry out dissections at the Royal College of Physicians. In his later writings he referred to those diss
  • $15,259
  • $15,259
book (2)

Chirurgia è Graeco in Latinum conversa, Vido Vidio Florentino interprete.

GUIDI, Guido [VIDIUS, Vidus] 30 April 1544. Folio (363 x 241 mm). [36], 533 [1] pp., 210 woodcut text illustrations (of which 30 full-page), ornamental metalcut initials, bound without final blank leaf L6. Roman and Greek types. Signatures: aa8 bb10; a-z8 A-I8 K-L6 (-L6). Bound in later green-dyed reverse calf, spine with 5 raised bands, blind-ruling and tooling of boards and spine, spine with gilt-lettered brown morocco label, red-sprinkled edges, later endpapers (spine sunned, extremities slightly rubbed, corners bumped). Text very crips and bright with very minor browning in places, some leaves with light damp-staining to lower corner and head near gutter, oversize woodcuts on pp. 497, 500 and 502 trimmed close to image at fore-margin. Provenance: Malan de Merindol library (woodcut bookplate to front-pastedown). A very good, tall copy with all the oversize woodcuts intact. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION, VARIANT WITH PRINTER'S WOODCUT DEVICE ON TITLE, of Guido Guidi's translation of Nicetas' Codex into Latin. One of the most beautiful scientific books of the Renaissance, comparable only to Vesalius's De fabrica (1543) and Estienne's De dissectione (1545), this edition includes Latin translations of treatises on surgery by Hippocrates (De ulceribus, De fistulis, and De vulneribus capitis ), Galen (De fracturis, De articulis, De officina medici, and De fasciis), Oribasius (De laquis and De machinamentis), and others, with commentaries by Galen and other ancient writers. Hippocrates' treatise on dislocations and Soranus' work on bandages are illustrated with woodcuts, many of them full-page, which illustrate the treatments discussed in the text. Both texts and illustrations derive from a tenth-century illustrated Greek manuscript compiled by the Byzantine physician Nicetas. Brought to Italy by Janus Lascaris in 1495, this codex (now Florence, Laur. Plut. LXXIV, 7) was used by the Florentine physician Guido Guidi for the preparation of this Latin translation. Guidi, a native of Florence and grandson of the painter Domenico del Ghirlandaio, was physician to King Francis I of France and the first professor of medicine at the Collge de France (1542-48). The woodcuts, probably by Francois Jollat, were based on drawings by Primaticcio and Jean Santorinos that were copied in turn from the tenth-century codex. These drawings survive, together with Guidi's reference to the artists, in the dedication manuscript of the translation presented to Francis I (Paris, BNF lat. 6866; see H. Omont, Collection des chirurgiens grecs avec dessins attribus au Primatice, Paris n.d.). The origin of the designs has been traced back to the first century B.C.; they were undoubtedly transmitted directly from Antiquity to Byzantium and so may be regarded as embodying the genuine Hippocratic tradition of surgical practice (H. Schne, Apollonius von Kitium, Leipzig 1896). "In 1542, Guidi presented an illustrated copy of this manuscript, along with his own Latin translation (likewise illustrated), to Francois 1 of France [. . .] Guidi had his Latin translation printed by Pierre Gaultier, a printer residing at the castle of Benvenuto Cellini, where Guidi also lived during the time he spent in Paris. The Chirurgia was the only one of Guidi's works published during his lifetime. The exquisite woodcuts of apparatus adorning Guidi's text are copies of the drawings in Guidi's Latin manuscript, which have been claimed, on the basis of a brief reference in the manuscript, to be the work of the. . . References and literature: Dibner 118; Norman 954; Garrison-Morton 4406.1; Heirs of Hippocrates 263; Mortimer (French) 542; NLM/Durling 2204; Wellcome I, 6596; Choulant-Frank 211 f.; Cushing G445; Osler 155; M.Hirst, Salviati illustrateur de Vidus Vidius, Revue de l'Art 6(1969), pp. 19-28; Kellett, The school of Salviati and the illustrations to the Chirurgia of Vidis Vidius, 1544, Medical history 2 (1958), pp. 264-268. Visit our website for further reading and images!
  • $31,083
  • $31,083
The Homoeopathic Medical Doctrine

The Homoeopathic Medical Doctrine, or, “Organon of the Healing Art;” A New System of Physic, Translated from the German. by Charles H. Devrient, Esq. with Notes by Samuel Stratten, M.D.

HAHNEMANN, Friedrich 8vo (230 x 140 mm). xxv [1], 332 pp. 12 pp. publisher's advertisement bound in before title, errata on final preliminary page. Original publisher's card boards with original paper lettering piece on spine (upper joints cracked but cords holding firmly, lettering piece rubbed and chipped, spine ends scuffed, corners bumped, paper soiled and spotted). Protected in modern clamshell box. All pages uncut. Internally crisp and bright throughout, light dust-soiling to edges. Provenance: Library of William von Valtier. A very good copy internally. ---- RARE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, translated by Charles Devrient from the fourth German edition of 1829. "Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, embodied his theories in the Organon. The minute doses set down by him did much to correct the evils of the polypharmacy of his time, in which overdosage was pervasive. He professed to base medicine on a knowledge of symptoms, regarding investigation of causes of symptoms as useless; he thus rejected all the lessons of pathology and morbid anatomy. There are several English translations, the first of which appeared in 1833" (Garrison-Morton-Norman). "Hahnemann was convinced that minute doses of drugs in greatly attenuated concentrations were efficacious cures. When modern practice is compared with the indiscriminate and massive prescriptions of his own day it will be seen how much closer we are to his views than to those of his contemporaries. Certainly his treatment showed that the vis medicatrix naturae, given a chance, with occasional and gentle assistance, often suffices to effect a cure. He gave great prominence to therapeutics, introduced many new specifics, but ignored the growing science of pathology. In his emphasis on the importance of studying the patient as a whole, he foreshadowed the psychosomatic component of modern medicine" (PMM). References: Garrison-Morton-Norman 1966; Wellcome III, p. 192; PMM 265 (first edition). - Visit our website to see more images!
  • $2,034
  • $2,034
Journal für anatomische Varietäten

Journal für anatomische Varietäten, feinere und pathologische Anatomie. Erster Band, erstes Heft (all published).

MECKEL, Philipp Friedrich; MECKEL, Johann Friedrich the younger 8vo (211 x 129 mm). iv, 144 pp., 4 folding engraved plates bound at end. Original plain blue wrappers (dust-soiled at margins, chipped at corners). Text uncut and mostly unopened. Light browning and dust-soiling to outer margins; two to three broad short wormtracks to upper corner throughout but not affecting text. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION of this treatise of teratology and pathological anatomy. Philipp Friedrich Theodor Meckel (1755-1803) was a German anatomist, surgeon and obstetrician. He was born in Berlin, the son of Johann Friedrich Meckel, a professor of anatomy. Two of Philipp's sons also became anatomists, Johann Friedrich (1781–1833), a professor at the University of Halle, and August Albrecht (1790-1829), a professor in Bern. Philipp Friedrich Meckel studied medicine at the universities of Göttingen and Strasbourg, receiving his doctorate in 1777 with a dissertation on the labyrinth of the inner ear. Following graduation he took an extended study trip to Paris, London and Edinburgh. From 1779 he served as a professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Halle, and in 1788 took on additional duties as head of the surgical unit at the hospital in Glaucha. On two separate occasions (1795, 1797) he was summoned as an obstetrician to St. Petersburg by the Russian royal family. At Halle an der Saale, he maintained and expanded upon an anatomical collection ("Meckelsche Sammlungen") that was initiated by his father. In the "Journal für anatomische Varietäten, feinere und pathologische Anatomie" (Journal of Anatomical Varieties, Finer and Pathological Anatomy) Philipp Friedrich's son J.F. Meckel the Younger published in 1805 texts and copper plates of his father to various preparations, engraved by A.G. Eberhard from Halle, the edition of which Ph. Meckel had planned himself, but personally could no longer carry out. The four treatises refer to the internal female reproductive organs, the urinary system, malformed newborns and aortic arches. The first treatise is an unchanged version of Ph. Meckel on a double uterus and double vagina, an everted urinary bladder, united kidneys, etc. His observations were based on two stillbirths. The second, third and fourth treatises are elaborations of his son Meckel the Younger, whereby he adhered to the found copper plates of his father (cf. Schwarz, p. 31-33). The first volume, first number of this journal apparently is all that was published, as we are unable to trace any further issues in literature and libraries. References: S. Schwarz, Die anatomische Privatsammlung der Anatomenfamilie Meckel unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ihres präparationstechnischen Profils. Halle, Univ., Med. Fak., Diss., 1999, 135 pp.; not in Waller or Wellcome. - Visit our website to see more images!
  • $1,346
  • $1,346
Epitoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei / Almagestum . . . opus ingens ac nobile omnes celorum motus continens.

Epitoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei / Almagestum . . . opus ingens ac nobile omnes celorum motus continens.

REGIOMONTANUS, Johannes & PEURBACH, Georg. Epitoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei. Edited by Caspar Grosch and Stephan Römer. Venice: Johannes Hamman for the editors, 31 August 1496. Super-Chancery folio (303 x 212 mm). 107 (of 108) unnumbered leaves (lacking final blank). 48 lines and headline, xylographic title, full-page woodcut of Ptolemy and Regiomontanus seated beneath an armillary sphere, within a fine white-on-black woodcut border, 279 woodcut marginal diagrams (including repeats), 6-, 7-, and 14-line white-on-black floriated and historiated woodcut initials, woodcut printer's device on colophon leaf. Signatures: a10 (b-n)8.6 o6 p8 (-p8, blank). Without the bifolium containing Johannes Baptista Abiosus's letter dated 15 August 1496, inserted in a minority of copies between a1 and 2). Text generally crisp and bright with only minor occasional spotting and soiling, the final gathering p working loose, clean tear at foot of title, tear without loss in text area of f. i2; f. p2 with old paper repair at gutter; final 10 gatherings with pale dampstain to lower corner; final f. p7 with paper repairs to margins and soiled on verso. Foliation added in pencil, an additional diagram drawn by an early reader on f. b1v and a few ink annotations elsewhere. [Bound before:] PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius. Almagestum . . . opus ingens ac nobile omnes celorum motus continens. Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, 10 January 1515. [2], 152 leaves. Signatures: *2 (a-z)6 A6 B8. Woodcut initials, several woodcut diagrams at text margins, final page with woodcut printer's device printed in red and black above colophon. Text with light even browning; occational spotting, finger- and dust soiling; few pages with marginal ink smudges; title page, f. 12v and 13r soiled, faint dampstaining and fraying to fore-margin of few leaves, hole in fore-magin of f. 94 and f. 101 not affecting print, upper corner of f. 98 torn, first tables with values added in old hand, several diagrams with added ink notes. Bound in its first, early 16th-century, German (likely Saxonian*) calf over paste-paper boards, both boards with rich blind-tooling, spine with 5 raised band and ruled in blind, original pastedowns (spine ends chipped, lacking free endpapers, corners bumped and scuffed, extremities rubbed). Provenance: illegible old (16th century) inscriptions and a shelf mark (partly erased) on front pastedown and first title-page. Still readable are "Bibliotheca Magna", "Ex libris Iust . urij" and "Sum ex libris Johannis" and "publici religionis notarii iurati" (partly overwritten with ave Maria verse) and "Sum . emptus 4 fl", below "Inscriptus catalogo librorum Collegii . S[ocietatis]. I[esu]." An erased ink stamp is pasted over with a patch of paper. According to expert Felix Hartung of Hartung & Hartung, this copy comes from a reputable German private collection assembled before 1999. We were unable to find any record of similar copies of these two works in a single volume missing from known public libraries. A very good, tall copy in untouched first binding. I. ---- FIRST EDITION and the first appearance in print of Ptolemy's Almagest in any form. The Almagest (or Mathematical syntaxis), was the chief astronomical work from its composition in the second century A.D. until the end of the sixteenth century. It was largely known in the Western Middle Ages through the twelfth century Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona, but neither Gerard's version (the second work in this vol.) nor the original Greek were printed until 1515 and 1538, respectively. . . Visit our website for further reading and to see all images!
  • $145,327
  • $145,327
A Selection of Photographs of Stars

A Selection of Photographs of Stars, Star-Clusters and Nebulae. Together with methods employed in the pursuit of Celestial Photography.

ROBERTS, Isaac Folio (308 x 230 mm). 134 pp. and 53 collotype photographic plates. Bound in original blind-stamped publisher's cloth, gilt-lettered spine and upper board (boards stained, extremities rubbed, spine sunned). Text and plates littl age-toned only, otherwise crisp and clean. Provenance: Earl of Rosse, Birr Castle. ---- FIRST EDITION of Isaac Robert's first publication of his celebrated astronomical photographs, presented to the Royal College of Science. Roberts (1829-1904) was a Welsh engineer and business man best known for his work as an amateur astronomer, pioneering the field of astrophotography of nebulae. He was a member of the Liverpool Astronomical Society in England and was a fellow of the Royal Geological Society. Roberts was also awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1895. In 1878, Roberts had a 7-inch refractor at his home in Rock Ferry, Birkenhead. Although at the time he used this for visual observation, he began to explore stellar photography, his forte, a few years later. In 1883, Roberts began experimenting with astrophotography. In 1886 Roberts displayed his first photographs at the Royal Astronomical Society at Liverpool, of which he was president. These images showed, for the first time, "the vast extensions of nebulosity in the Pleiades and Orion." Most consider Roberts' magnum opus to be a photograph showing the structure of M31, the Great Nebula in Andromeda (now known as the Andromeda Galaxy) taken on 29 December 1888, shown in the present work on plate 3. An appendix volume with additional 28 photographs was published in 1899. - Visit our website to see more images!
  • $950
Opera omnia

Opera omnia, nunc primum collecta, in classes distributa, praefationibus & indicibus exornata, studio L. Dutens.

LEIBNIZ, Gottfried Wilhelm 6 volumes. 4to (245 x 201 mm). Each volume with general title and index bound at the end; each part with separate title-page and pagination. Woodcut head- and tailpieces, author's portrait by Pierre Savart, 2 folding letterpress tables, woodcut text illustrations and diagrams, and a total 41 copper-engraved plates (several folding). Bound c. 1830 for Esquirol in uniform half-calf over marbled boards, spines with gilt lettering and decoration, marbled edges, marbled endpapers (light rubbing of extremities and leather over spines). Light uneven browning and very minor occasional spotting of text and plates, vol. IV with light waterstaining to a few pages. Provenance: Esquirol library, Maison de Charenton (ink stamps to flyleaves, title of vol. I and a few text pages). A fine, virtually unread set; exceptionally crisp, clean and wide-margined. Vol. I: [2], iv, [2], ccxliv, 790 pp. including half-title, frontispiece portrait of the author separated from title by tissue paper. Vol. II: [2], viii, 400, 291 [1] pp., 14 engraved plates (12 folding), woodcut text illustrations and diagrams. Minor browning of plates. Vol. III: [4], viii, lv [1], 663 [1] pp., woodcut diagrams, folding letterpress table facing p.375 and 25 engraved plates. Plates a bit browned and spotted, minor spotting of text, leaf Xx2 with clean tear at upper blank margin; pp. 61-64 misbound after p. 56. Vol. IV: viii, 216; 285 [1]; [2], 647 [1] pp., woodcut text diagrams, part III with engraved plate facing p. 512 and folding letterpress table facing p. 169. Light browning of text, a few leaves with light waterstaining towards lower corner. Vol. V: viii, 632 pp. Vol. VI: vi, [2], 334; 344 pp., woodcut diagram, 1 folding engraved plate facing p. 80. Bound without blank leaf Tt4 after p. 334 of part I. ---- The most important early edition of the complete works of Leibnitz. Edited by Louis Dutens, it covers a large part of the sciences and letters. Leibnitz is considered the last "universal genius" and is best known for his work in rationalist philosophy and his ontological proofs of the existence of God. His contributions to mathematics are also notable with the development of the binary system and infinitesimal calculus. "The position of Leibniz at the beginning of modern science is analogous to that of Aristotle at the beginning of ancient science" (DSB VIII, p.151). Content of the volumes: T.I Theology, T.II: Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Natural History. T. III: Mathematics. T. IV: Philosophy, History and Antiquities, Law. T.V and VI: Philology and Linguistics. References: Ravier 473; Faber du Faur 1544; Roller-G. II, 93; Cantor IV, 17; Zeitlinger 2531.
  • $5,031
  • $5,031
book (2)

Iconographie photographique de la Salpétrière. Service de M. Charcot.

1876-1880. Three parts in three volumes. 4to (227 x 165 mm). Each volume with half-title and title (printed in red and black) with collotype vignette of the Salpêtrière in Paris; woodcut text illustrations. With a total of 5 engraved plates and 115 collotype plates after Paul Regnard with printed captions (complete). Contemporary uniform half brown morocco and marbled paper over boards, spines with lettered and tooled in gilt, marbled endpapers (little rubbing to extremities, corners bumped). Light even age-toning of text, occasional very minor spotting or finger-soiling. Provenance: Monogramed G.M.C. at foots of spine, vol. III with faint ink stamp ("Guillermo Mir") to title; from a Spanish private collection. A fine set, quite crisp and clean throughout. Vol. I: 1876-1877. [4], iv, 166, [2] pp. 35 collotype and 5 engraved plates numbered I-XL. First 3 plates with light water stain to lower corner, few plates with light foxing. Vol. II: 1878. [6], ii, 232, [2] pp. Errara printed on final leaf verso, 40 collotype plates numbered I to XXXIX (including plate VI-bis). 3 plates misbound, light waterstain to plate 39. Vol. III: 1879-1880. [4], 259 [1], [4] pp. Errara leaf and final blank; woodcut text illustrations and 40 collotype plates numbered I to XL. Light foxing of text. First 8 plates with light waterstain to lower corner. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION, VOLUME I A REISSUE WITH COLLOTYPE PLATES INSTEAD OF ALBUMEN PRINTS, of this photographic atlas devoted to cases of hysteria and epilepsy, accompanied by case histories. The third volume includes discussions of hypnotism, somnambulism and magnetism. Bourneville was Charcot's assistant at the Salpetriere from 1870 to 1879. In 1862 Charcot became physician to the hospital of the Salpêtrière, with which his name will always be associated. Here, from small beginnings, he created the greatest neurological clinic of modern times, which was followed by enthusiastic students from all parts of the world. This collection of numerous cases of epilepsy, &c., is important on account of the brilliant photos taken at different stages of the attacks by two of the most gifted of Charcot's pupils. "The Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière (1876-80) is a landmark publication in medical photography. This collection of texts and photographs represents the female patients of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière hospital and asylum during the years of his tenure as director. The patients, diagnosed primarily with hysteria or epilepsy, were treated at the asylum even as they acted as experimental subjects for Charcot's development of the hysteria diagnosis. This collection represents a transformative moment in the history of the diagnosis, treatment, and representation of mental illness" (Yale University, 2022 online resources). References: Crabtree 982; Norman 291; Garrison-Morton 4558.1. - Visit our website to see more images!
book (2)
book (2)

Medicina. Ad Henricum II Galliarum Lutetiae / Enarrationum medicinalium libri sex. Item, responsionum liber unus.

FERNEL, Jean Francoise. Medicina. Ad Henricum II Galliarum Lutetiae. Paris: Andreas Wechel, 1554. Three parts. Folio (340 x 224 mm), [12], 248 (i.e., 250); [14], 238, [18]; 90, [10] pp. Signatures: *6 a-v6 x-z4, A-T6 V4 X6 Y4 Aa-Gg6 Hh-Ii4, k signed "lz"; mispaginations in text. Woodcut printer's device on title and final leaf verso, woodcut portrait of Fernel on *3v, numerous woodcut initials. Text generally crisp and clean throughout, occasional light finger soiling (stronger on p. 5 of part II), very minor spotting in places, a few annotations in black ink in part II and III, tear at blank fore-margin of final 4 leaves. [Bound with:] VALLERIOLA, Francisco. Enarrationum medicinalium libri sex. Item, responsionum liber unus. Lyon: S. Gryphius, 1554. Folio (340 x 224 mm). [16], 466, [52] pp. Text in Latin and Greek. Woodcut printer's device on title and final leaf verso, large woodcut diagram on p. 300; numerous small and large woodcut initials, general index and final leaf of errata. Signatures: A8 a-z6 A-M6 N4 O-T6, V8, mispaginations in text. Light browning of text, occasional very minor spotting, tear at blank fore-margin of first 6 leaves, minor brown spotting to leaf m5, ink smudge on p. 322, sparse ink annotations in places. Bound in 18th century mottled calf, spine with 6 raised bands, two gilt-lettered morocco labels and some gilt ruling (joints and spine ends restored). Provenances: Isaac Schaller, MD* (contemporary inscription on first title); Franz Joseph Kinder Spital Prag (ink stamp on first title). A very good copy. Collated and complete. ---- I. RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST SYSTEMATIC TREATISE ON PATHOLOGY, a cornerstone of French Renaissance medicine, THE GREATEST MEDICAL TEXT OF THE PERIOD which profoundly influenced the practice of medicine throughout Europe. The first part is the earliest treatise devoted to physiology and using that term in its modern sense. The second part is the first medical work to be called a text of "Pathology." In this section the science is treated in its general and its special aspects, just as in a complete modern work. The book contains the only contemporary portrait of Fernel (1497-1558), court physician to Henri II and his queen Catherine de Medici; underneath the portrait is a couplet in Greek by Guillaume Plancy, the first biographer of Fernel. References: Norman 785; Sherrington 48 G1; Adams F-248; NLM/Durling 1459; Wellcome I, 2195; Garrison-M. 2271; Waller 2993; PMM 68 (note). II. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION. Contains excerpts in Greek and Latin from De flatibus and other works by Hippocrates as well as a dedicatory letter from the author to the consuls and senators of Arles. Francisco Valleriola (1504-1580) certainly practiced in Arles, as the dedicatory epistle of this book attests, nobilissimis atque prudentissimis inclytae urbis Arelatae consulibus, senatuique universo amplissimo [to the very noble and very wise consuls of the illustrious city of Arles, and to all his very ample senate]. Later, he taught and practiced in Valence in the Dauphiné, before filling one of the first chairs of the Faculty of Turin. He was a staunch follower of the doctrines of Galen. References: Adams V, 209; Osler 4153; Wellcome I, 6458. *Isaac Schaller (died 1586) was a noted physician and astronomer in Nuremberg who attended the Universities of Wittenberg and Tübingen in the 1540s and later served as the physician to Augustus the Elector of Saxony (1526–1586) in Dresden, where he died. Schaller may have been quite a book collector and scholar: his ownership signature has been found on a copies of the landmark works of Andreas Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543, and Nicolaus Copernicus' De Revolutionibus, also printed in 1543. There were numerous ties between Schaller's family and Philipp Melanchthon: Schaller's uncle, Caspar Schaller, was a minister and early follower of Melanchthon; Caspar's brother, Hieronymus Schaller, also a physician, married Melanchthon's grand-
book (2)

Academie de l’Espee [. . .] ou se demonstrent per reigles mathematiques sur le fondement d’un cercle mysterieux le theorie et pratique des vrais et jusqu’a present incognus secrets du maniement des armes a pied et a cheval.

1628-1630. Two parts in one volume. Large folio (540 x 405 mm). Engraved title, portrait of the author, preliminaries including a dedication leaf to emperor and princes, 9 leaves of engraved plates showing the coats-of-arms of the dedicatees, privilege leaf of King Louis XIII and the States-General of the Netherlands, additional imperial privilege leaf of Ferdinand II in Latin, epigramma and applausus leaf; an unnumbered leaf "Advertissement au lecteur" with colophon bound at end, 46 plates of fencing (45 double-page and mounted on stub) interleaved with explanatory text, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. The work is divided into 33 sections in the first part, and 13 sections in the second, each separately paginated and preceded by an engraved plate. Bound in early 19th century half red morocco over marbled boards, blind-tooled and gilt-lettered spine (extremities rubbed, corners worn and bumped, leather and paper over boards little cratched), marbled endpapers. Text with little uneven browning, minor occasional spotting, plate II in the second part incorrectly bound and inserted after plate II in the first part, plate I of second part slightly smaller in size, clean tear and small hole in plate VI of part II, short clean tear in plate XXXIII of part I repaired, long clean tear in plate XIII of part 2 repaired, plate XX (part I) and plate XI (part II) with light water staining to lower corners, 3 leaves (Latin privilege, epigramma and colophon) with paper repairs to blank margins. Provenance. from a private Swedish collection (bookplate to front pastedown). Complete with the 15 preliminary leaves, the final advert/colophon leaf and 46 engraved plates. ---- FIRST EDITION, AND EXCEPTIONALLY RARE IF COMPLETE AS HERE. Berghman, after 20 years of research, could only identify 5 copies, all defective (Berghman 687). "Can be reckoned, without exception, the most elaborate treatise on swordsmanship, and probably one of the most marvellous printed works extant" (Castle). Brunet gives the place of publication as Anvers, but the name of printer and place of impression can be found in the colophon leaf which also gives the year of publication with 1630 (the title page is dated 1628). On this leaf, there is also the announcement of the death of the author. The part of the work relating to the exercise on horseback was never published. Our copy well conforms to the digitized copy at Biblioteca Patrimonial of Universitat de Barcelona. The Academie de l'Espee is the finest publication of the Elzevir press, and one of the 17th-century's most lavish publications. Gerard Thibault was born at Antwerp around 1574 and followed other members of his family into the wool trade. In about 1603, he was living at Sanlucar de Barrameda, south of Seville, where he learned the mathematical method of fencing taught by the famous Luis Pacheco de Narvaez. Thibault further refined and elaborated on this system and, soon after returning to Flanders in 1611, presented himself and his system to the Dutch fencing masters assembled at Rotterdam for a competition. After further demonstrations to Prince Maurice and Prince Henry, he conceived of the idea for his book. Thibault's system is based on the 'mystic circle', a diagram drawn on the floor within a circle, the radius of which is in accurate proportion to the stature of the fencer and the length of his sword. The circle was marked according to the probabilities of strokes and parries, and one contestant was intended to traverse from one intersection to the next. If this stepping was done correctly, the result was a foregone victory, and if both contestants followed the system, they could fence without fear of injury. The book was produced during a period when the Italian rapier (or epee) held sway. . . Visit our website for further reading and images!
book (2)

Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels, oder Versuch von der Verfassung und dem mechanischen Ursprunge des ganzen Weltgebäudes nach Newtonischen Grundsätzen abgehandelt.

8vo (172 x 104 mm). [56], vi, [2], 200 pp., including section title A4 to first part (misbound before the general title a1), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Signatures: a-c8 d4, A4 2A8 B-M8 N4. Contemporary half-calf over sprinkled boards, spine with 5 raised bands, portion of hand-lettered paper label to spine, red-dyed edges, original endpapers (spine heavily worn with chipping and cracking of leather, joints split but cords holding, corners scuffed and bumped, rubbing to boards, paper over boards partly chipped at lower corner and edges). Text with minor even browning and spotting in places, ink marginal to p. 165. Provenance: Rössler (contemporary inscription to first flyleaf); Hartmut Patzke (bookplate to front pastedown dated in pencil 23.10.2012). A very good, untouched copy in original binding. ---- FIRST EDITION, AND OF UTMOST RARITY, of Immanuel Kant's Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, his anonymously published first major work which he wrote while still a tutor on the von Hülsen estate in Gross-Arnsdorf near Königsberg and with which he unsuccessfully applied for a chair at the Albertina after his return to Königsberg in 1755 (Kant did not receive the long-awaited appointment to the chair of logic and metaphysics until 1770 at the 'advanced' age of 46). Kant's important cosmogonical work received little recognition and attention, which certainly had to do with the bankruptcy of his Königsberg publisher at the time of publication. Copies of this first edition are considered sought-after rarities and are almost impossible to find on the market. We have been unable to trace any other copy that has come to auction in the past 50+ years. Our copy is the variant with the correct pagination of the last page (200); the VD18 also knows copies with the incorrect pagination "100". Kant had read a 1751 review of Thomas Wright's An original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe (1750), and he credited this with inspiring him in writing the Universal Natural History. He answered to the call of the Berlin Academy Prize in 1754 with the argument that the Moon's gravity would eventually cause its tidal locking to coincide with the Earth's rotation. The next year, he expanded this reasoning to the formation and evolution of the Solar System in the Universal Natural History. Within the work Kant quotes Pierre Louis Maupertuis, who discusses six bright celestial objects listed by Edmond Halley, including Andromeda. Most of these are nebulae, but Maupertuis notes that about one-fourth of them are collections of stars - accompanied by white glows which they would be unable to cause on their own. Halley points to light created before the birth of the Sun, while William Derham 'compares them to openings through which shines another immeasurable region and perhaps the fire of heaven.' He also observed that the collections of stars were much more distant than stars observed around them. Johannes Hevelius noted that the bright spots were massive and were flattened by a rotating motion; they are in fact galaxies. Kant's assumption of a multitude of galaxies (which he calls "islands of worlds") formulated here could be proven in the 1920s by Edwin Hubble based on exact measurements. In his nebular hypothesis, Kant proposes that solar systems are the result of nebulae (interstellar clouds of dust) coalescing into accretion disks and then forming suns and their planets from the forces of attraction and repulsion of matter as formulated by Isaac Newton in his Principia (1687). Kant is the first to put forward the theory that was confirmed not long afterwards, in 1761, by Johann Heinrich Lambert in his Cosmological Letters. Kant also discusses comets, and postulates that the Milky Way is only one of many galaxies. . . Visit our website for further reading and images!
book (2)

Tractatus de natura substantiae energetica, seu vita naturae, ejusque tribus primis facultatibus, I. perceptiva, II. appetitiva, III. motiva, & naturalibus, &c.

4to (204 x 148 mm). [52], 534, [2] pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait of the author, title-page printed in red and black, type-set initials, 2 engraved folding plates, small woodcut text diagrams on pp. 384 and 456, erata leaf at end, bound without blank leaf f4 of preliminaries. Signatures: A4 a-f4 (-f4) B-Z4 Aa-Zz4 Aaa-Yyy4. Bound in contemporary French calf, gilt-decorated spine with 5 raised bands and gilt-lettering in second compartment, board edges tooled in gilt, red-sprinkled edges, original endpapers (corners bumped and scuffed, spine ends slightly chipped, few worm-holes to joints, wear to extremities, tight binding). Traces of pale dampstaining to outer margins of first leaves, light brown staining to gutter of a few gatherings at beginning and end, but generally crisp and clean throughout. Provenance: ownership inscription in French to first flyleaf. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION of Glisson's philosophical treatise concerning the nature of living matter. Francis Glisson (1599-1677) was a British anatomist and philosopher who held major positions in the academic and scientific life of 17th-century England (president of the London College of Physicians, Professor at University of Cambridge, and fellow of the Royal Society). Glisson was one of the leading lights of post-Harveian physiology and wrote important works on the anatomy of the liver and the abdominal organs. He also published this philosophical treatise concerning the nature of living matter, De natura substantiae energetica. "The work attempts to prove there is life in all bodies. In so-called inanimate bodies it is specified by their forms, whereas in plants and animals life is modified to become the vegetative soul and the sensitive soul, respectively. In animals the implanted life (vita insita) is duplicated and triplicated by the influx of the blood (vita influens) and by the psychic regulations. This philosophical work, even more than Glisson's medical books, has a strictly scholastic form of argumentation; large parts are a running debate with Francisco Suarez, whom Glisson held in the highest esteem. Among other modern authors, Glisson pays particular attention to Bacon, Scaliger, Harvey, and Descartes. He often refers to the vis plastica, which he identifies with van Helmont’s archeus. Although the terminology is reminiscent of the Cambridge Platonists, it should not be overlooked that Glisson's metaphysics was fundamentally hylozoistic and thus hardly acceptable to Ralph Cudworth, who thought of 'plastic nature' as incorporeal. Glisson's doctrine of irritability acquired fame because in later years Haller traced the origin of the term back to Glisson. But in limiting irritability to muscle contractility, Haller defined it experimentally, depriving the concept of its broad biological significance" (DSB). References: O.Temkin, Glisson, Francis, in: DSB V, pp. 426-27; NLM/Krivatsy 4827; Wellcome III, p.126; Wing G858; DSB V, p.426; K.Hartbecke, Francis Glissons Substanztheorie in ihrem ideengeschichtlichen Kontext. In: Metaphysik und Naturphilosophie im 17. Jahrhundert, 2006, 298 pp. - Visit our website to see more images!
book (2)

De sedibus, et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis libri quinque.

Two parts in one volume. Folio (370 x 231 mm). xcvi, 298; 452 pp., including half-title, engraved portrait frontispiece in volume one, titles with engraved vignettes, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Main-body text printed in two columns. Bound without blank leaf Oo6 at end of first part. Near contemporary calf, spine with 6 raised bands and gilt-lettered red morocco label in second compartment and some gilt tooling in the others, red-sprinkled edges, original endpapers (minor rubbing of extremities, corners slightly bumped). Text bright and clean throughout with only very little even age-toning, faint spotting to p.95 of part II. A near fine copy. Provenance: from a French private collection. ---- FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE (with the titles printed in black only) of Morgagni's main work and ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. "Morgagni was the true founder of modern pathological anatomy" (Garrison-Morton). Morgagni, Professor of Anatomy at Padua, used evidence from his experience and records of some 700 post-mortem dissections, to establish a procedure of basing diagnosis and treatment on a detailed knowledge of the anatomical conditions of common diseases, i.e. a classification of symptoms rather than diseases. "Theophilus Bonetus, in his Sepulchretum, Geneva, 1679, collected three thousand post mortem reports of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Morgagni found their brevity and inaccuracy unsatisfactory and began to compile written records of his own. This book, 'The Origins and Causes of Diseases anatomically investigated', contained reports on an extensive series of post mortems performed by himself, his teacher, Valsalva, and other members of his circle. By comparing the clinical symptoms with the post mortem findings Morgagni laid the foundations of pathological anatomy. The study of diseased organs finally ousted the old humoral pathology. Morgagni could not have succeeded in 'introducing the anatomical idea into medicine' (Virchow) without the advancement of physiology in the period immediately preceding him. There can be no knowledge of morbid symptoms without the knowledge of normal organ function - physiology. Morgagni's classification was thus one of symptoms rather than of diseases. The book includes a number of brilliant descriptions of new diseases, some of which have remained classics until our own day, particularly those of the heart, blood vessels, lungs and throat. He described syphiltic tumours (gummata) in the brain, recorded a case of heart-block (Stokes Adams disease), identified the clinical features of pneumonia with consolidation of the lungs, described lesions in angina pectoris, acute yellow atrophy of the liver, tuberculosis of the kidney, etc. Morgagni [. . .] systematized a branch of medicine hitherto studied in isolation and without method. Rudolf Virchow [. . .], one of the greatest of modem pathologists, acknowledged his indebtedness to Morgagni" (PMM). References: PMM 206; Dibner 125; Norman 1547; Grolier Medicine 46; Heirs of Hippocrates 792; Wellcome IV, 178; Garrison-M. 2276; NLM/Blake 312; Osler 1178; Waller 6672. - Visit our website to see more images!
book (2)

Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery, Trepan, Hernia, Amputation, Aneurism, and Lithotomy.

Oblong folio (274 x 380 mm). viii, 134 pp., 20 etched plates (of which 17 with full or partial hand-coloring), woodcut text illustration. Bound in original publisher's morocco-backed cloth, gilt-lettered morocco label to upper board, gilt-lettered spine (upper joint partly split, heavy rubbing of spine, cloth over boards creased, soiled and with tear, corners bumped; top edge of endpaper torn and creased). Text and plates with dust-soiling and some light foxing, lower corner of p. 43/44 torn with loss (well away from text area). ---- Norman 174; Eimas, Heirs of Hippocrates 1305; Garrison-Morton 5588; Waller 857; Wellcome II, p.136. One of the most dramatically and beautifully illustrated books in the entire literature of surgery. Hand-coloured copies show more blood than is usual for surgical treatises of this period." FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM, FIRST ISSUE, with "Hurst" and a date in the imprint, and Bell's title not mentioning the University of London. RARE with some of the plates printed in sepia. "One of the most remarkable illustrated books in the history of surgery" (Norman). Great Operations was issued in parts during 1820-1821, and the first complete version was printed during the latter year. The plates were prepared after Bell's drawings by Thomas Landseer (1795-1880), brother of Edwin Landseer. "Most copies have the plates printed in black, but at least one copy exists with the plates in sepia" (Norman). - Visit our website to see more images!