COPERNICUS, Nicolaus.
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, libri VI: Habes in hoc opere iam recens nato, & ædito...
Nuremberg: Johann Petreius, 1543.
First edition, and an unusually fine copy, of the most important scientific publication of the sixteenth century – a “landmark in human thought” (PMM). De revolutionibus was the first work to propose a comprehensive heliocentric theory of the cosmos, according to which the sun stood still and the earth revolved around it. It thereby inaugurated one.....
DARWIN, Charles.
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured...
London: John Murray, 1859.
First edition, presentation copy, of “the most influential scientific work of the nineteenth century” (Horblit), “the most important biological work ever written” (Freeman), and “a turning point, not only in the history of science, but in the history of ideas in general” (DSB). “Darwin not only drew an entirely new picture of the workings of organic.....
[NEWTON, Sir Isaac.]
Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two...
London: Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, at the Prince’s Arms in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1704.
First edition, first issue, and a superlative copy, presented by Newton to his close friend and collaborator Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, with an inscription recording the gift in Fatio’s hand and with his ink and pencil annotations in.....
APOLLONIUS OF PERGA (MEMO, Giovanni Battista, ed.).
Opera per doctissimum Philosophum Ioannem Baptistam Memum patritium Venetum, mathematicharumque artium in urbe Veneta lectorum...
[Colophon:] Venice: Bernardinus Bindonus, 1537.
First edition, an extraordinary copy of the greatest importance, signed and heavily annotated by the celebrated English polymath John Dee (1527-1608), and later acquired and signed by John Winthrop Jr. (1606-76), the first Governor of Connecticut, whose library was one of the most important in the early American colonies. The present volume, no. 74 in.....
DESCARTES, René.
Discours de la Methode pour bien conduire sa Raison, & chercher la Verité dans les...
Leiden: Jan Maire, 1637.
First edition of Descartes’ first and most famous work, and an extremely attractive copy in a strictly contemporary binding with the gilt arms of Louis Treslon-Cauchon, known as Hesselin, one of the most important and distinguished French bibliophiles of the 17th century. Following the Discours, now celebrated as one of the canonical texts of Western philosophy.....
GALILEI, Galileo.
Dialogo. Dove ne i congressi di quattro giornate si discorre sopra i due massimi sistemi...
Florence: Giovanni Batista Landini, 1632.
First edition, a fine, unrestored copy in contemporary binding with noble provenance, of this epoch-making work, Galileo’s celebrated defence of the Copernican view of the solar system, the most notorious banned book of the 17th century. In 1624 the new pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini, 1568-1644), Galileo’s friend, admirer and patron for more than a......
VESALIUS, Andreas [Andries van Wezel].
De Humani Corporis Fabrica librorum Epitome.
Basel: Johannes Oporinus, June 1543.
First edition, extremely rare, of the Epitome, an illustrated summary of Dehumani corporis fabrica. “The Epitome is without doubt one of the great contributions to the medical sciences, but it is a great deal more, being an exquisite piece of creative art with a perfect blend of format, typography and illustration” (Maley). “The work of.....
