Edinburgh: Andrew Hart, 1617. First edition, very rare, of one of the earliest mechanical calculating devices, using little rods of wood or ivory now known as ‘Napier’s bones’. Napier is best known today for his invention of logarithms, published in 1614 as Mirifici logarithmorum canonis decsriptio, the most important aid..... More
Item #5172
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956. First edition of Nash’s most famous work in pure mathematics, his solution of “a deep philosophical problem concerning geometry”, first posed by Bernhard Riemann, “one of the most important pieces of mathematical analysis in this century” which “has completely changed the perspective on partial differential..... More
Item #3536
Baltimore: Waverley Press, 1953. First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, signed by John Nash, of this important paper which set a new entire research agenda that has been referred to as the "Nash program" for cooperative games. "In Nash's (1953) analysis of bargaining, the innovation was to use the..... More
Item #5030
Leipzig & Berlin: Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig & Springer, 1869-1921. A remarkable collection of offprints, a major portion of the published works of Carl Gottfried Neumann (1832-1925), representing virtually all of the areas to which he contributed, most importantly the related fields of electromagnetism and potential theory. His lasting..... More
Item #4934
London: for Benjamin Motte, 1729. First edition in English of the Principia, the magnificent Jones-Macclesfield large paper copy in contemporary morocco; with its important provenance, this is surely the most desirable copy in private hands. The first edition was published in Latin in 1687 and “is generally described as the greatest..... More
Item #5105
Cambridge; London: Typis Academicus; Benjamin Tooke, 1707. First edition of Newton’s treatise on algebra, or ‘universal arithmetic,’ his “most often read and republished mathematical work” (Whiteside). “Included are ‘Newton’s identities’ providing expressions for the sums of the ith powers of the roots of any polynomial equation, for any integer i...... More
Item #4639
London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1756. First printing, very rare, of these letters of Newton which Koyré has described as “one of the most precious and important documents for the study and interpretation of Newtonian thought” (Koyré, Newtonian Studies (1965), p. 202). Newton here gives his views on..... More
Item #3537
London: John Martyn, [1671/1672]. First printing of Newton’s seminal discoveries on the nature of light. This is Newton’s first published paper, and arguably the most important paper in the history of optics. “If he had published nothing else, it would be sufficient of itself to guarantee him a place among the..... More
Item #5191
London: by James Bettenham, at the expense of the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, and sold by John Nourse … and John Whiston … booksellers to the said Society, 1745. First edition, the superb Macclesfield copy, of the first English translations of two of Newton’s most important papers on..... More
Item #5396
Leipzig: E.W. Fritzsch, 1872. First edition in exceptionally rare original publisher's cloth binding. This copy previously handled by Bill Schaberg: "When I wrote The Nietzsche Canon: A Publication History and Bibliography (The University of Chicago Press, 1995), I had never even heard of these cloth copies of Nietzsche’s first book..... More
Item #4535
London: Allde, for Astley, 1562 [i.e., 1592]. Third edition (first, 1581) of one of the greatest rarities in the entire literature of navigation and magnetism, and “one of the first truly scientific books published in England” (Waters, The Art of Navigation, p. 153). “It is usual to ascribe to Galileo..... More
Item #4986
London: printed by Augustine Mathewes, 1633. First edition of one of the most important works in the history of computing, the first printed description of the rectilinear slide rule. Invented by Oughtred about 1621, this was a calculating device based upon Napier’s recently invented logarithms for multiplying and dividing numbers..... More
Item #5318
Paris: chez Martin le Jeune, 1580. First edition, and a very fine copy, of this famous rarity. “A book of great importance in the history of chemistry, hydrology, geology, and agriculture. Palissy, who is best known for his discovery of the secret of enamelling pottery, was far in advance of..... More
Item #5380
![Ars Transmutationis Metallicae ... [with, as issued] Commentarium theoricae Artis Mettalicae...](/pictures/thumb/4395.jpg?v=1592229202)
[Venice: Tacuino, 1519 (colophon of part I dated September 1518)]. First edition of one of the greatest rarities in the alchemical and chemical literature; this is an exceptionally interesting copy, bound with twelve leaves of contemporary script conveying an all-encompassing ‘tree of human endeavours’, charting the features and visually suggesting..... More
Item #4395
Pesaro: Girolamo Concordia, 1588. First edition of Pappus' Collection, translated with commentary by Federico Commandino, a princely copy from the notable collection of the great Papal family and patrons of learning, the Piccolomini, Dukes of Amalfi, thence by marriage to the German nobleman von Troilo. The Collection is “by far..... More
Item #5234
Paris: André Wechel, 1572; 1568. First editions of two of Paré's most important works, both very rare, and in fine condition. “The Cinq livres contains all new material. It had been called by several serious writers Paré's chef d'oeuvre ... in it appears the first description of the fracture of..... More
Item #3697
Paris: André Wechel, 1568. First edition of Paré’s extremely rare treatise on the plague, smallpox and measles, based upon his own direct observations of these diseases, “one of his best works” (Thornton, p. 63). “Having passed the winter of 1564-65 on tour in Provence with Catherine de Medici and the..... More
Item #4567
Bath; Bath & London: printed by R. Cruttwell; and sold by Cadell and Davies; printed by R. Cruttwell & sold by Cadell and Davies, London, J. Collow, 1799; 1806. First edition, rare, of this work in which Parry was the first to make the connection between angina and coronary heart..... More
Item #5028
![Lettres de A[mos] Dettonville contenant Quelques-unes de ses Inventions de Géométrie. Sçavoir...](/pictures/thumb/4403.jpg?v=1622712733)
Paris: Guillaume Desprez, 1659. First edition, extremely rare (one of about 120 copies printed), of one of Pascal’s most brilliant works. “Édition originale, extrêmement rare, de la dernière œuvre de Pascal, l’une des plus éclatantes de son génie” (Lucien Scheler in Tchemerzine, V, pp. 54-55). “Pascal devoted himself during 1658..... More
Item #4403
Cologne [Paris]: Pierre de la Vallée, [1656-]1657; 1659. First edition, and a beautiful copy, of Pascal’s 18 Provincial letters, bound with two extremely rare works relating to Pascal. “The Lettres Provinciales, as they are called, are the first example of French prose as we know it today, perfectly finished in..... More
Item #3426
A fascinating letter with significant scientific content, providing material for an article in the French newspaper La Revue. Pasteur begins by providing Drion with a curriculum vitae up to the end of 1854: - Louis Pasteur was born in Dole (Jura) on the 27th of December1822 - Commenced studies at..... More
Item #3809
Paris: Mallet-Bachelier, 1862. First edition, very rare offprint, inscribed by Pasteur. “The longest and most important of Pasteur’s papers on spontaneous generation, describing the series of classic experiments with bent-necked and sealed flasks by which he proved conclusively that fermentation and putrefaction are not the products of spontaneous generation, but..... More
Item #5173
Berlin: Julius Springer, 1926. First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, of Pauli’s important derivation of the hydrogen spectrum from the new quantum mechanics, providing the first validation of Heisenberg’s theory. As Pauli explains in the abstract: “It is shown that the Balmer terms of an atom with a...... More
Item #3539
Turin: Bocca Brothers, 1889. First edition, and a fine copy in the original printed wrappers, of Peano’s most important work, which contains the first statement of the famous ‘Peano axioms’ for the natural numbers and which remains of seminal importance to mathematics and mathematical logic. “Peano’s most important contribution to..... More
Item #4539
Palermo: [Tipografia Matematica], 1906. First edition, extremely rare separately-paginated offprint, of this crucial paper in the development of the special theory of relativity, in which Poincaré showed that the Lorentz transformations form a group and that the Maxwell-Lorentz electromagnetic theory is invariant under this ‘Lorentz group’ (when augmented by space..... More
Item #4926