New York: The Association for Symbolic Logic, Inc., 1936. First edition, journal issue in the original printed wrappers, of Church’s solution to the ‘Entschedungsproblem’ (‘decision problem’). “Church’s paper, submitted on April 15, 1936, was the first to contain a demonstration that David Hilbert’s Entscheidungsproblem – i.e., the question as to..... More
Item #5483

Paris: Nyon, Didot and Quillau, 1731. First edition, very rare, of Clairaut’s first publication, the first extended treatment of the geometry of curves in three dimensions, written when he was only sixteen. In it Clairaut demonstrates a claim made by Newton that all cubic curves in three dimensions are projections..... More
Item #5816

Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1832. First edition, complete journal volume in original printed wrappers, of this important work on the theory of machines, a follow-up to his Du calcul de l’effet des machines, published in 1829 (but begun a decade earlier) in which he studied dynamical problems associated with rotating machinery. “His..... More
Item #5019

Paris: Béthune and Plon for Susse frères and Delloye, 1839. First edition, the true first issue (see below), of Daguerre’s exposition of his photographic process, “the beginnings of photography” (Horblit); this is an excellent unrestored copy in original printed wrappers, and very rare in this condition. “Perhaps no other invention..... More
Item #5602

Manchester: S. Russell for R. Bickerstaff; Russell & Allen for R. Bickerstaff; Executives of S. Russell for G. Wilson, 1808; 1810; 1827. First edition, untouched in uniform original publisher’s bindings with original printed spine labels, of Dalton’s classic work on the atomic theory of matter. “Dalton reconstructed Newton's speculations on..... More
Item #5935

Cambridge: [the University Press for the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1835. First edition, very rare, inscribed by John Stevens Henslow, of Darwin’s first separately printed work and his first account in print of his discoveries on the Beagle. “During his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle, Darwin maintained a correspondence with John..... More
Item #5657

Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg, 1872. First edition, very rare in commerce, of Dedekind’s great work on the foundations of mathematics. “This short work [Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen] marks a significant epoch in the movement known as the arithmetization of analysis, that is, the replacement of intuitive geometric notions by concepts described..... More
Item #4558

London: Abell Jeffes, 1591. Second and best edition of this important Elizabethan work on practical geometry, in which “for the first time, we have indications of an instrument which we may call a reflecting telescope” (King, The History of the Telescope, p. 29). This second edition contains several appendices by Thomas..... More
Item #5131

[London: Harrison & Sons for the Royal Society, 1927]. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of Dirac’s quantum theory of the electromagnetic field, which for the first time reconciled the wave and particle nature of light. “This paper marks the birth of quantum electrodynamics. In his ‘Introduction and Summary,’ Dirac noted..... More
Item #5979

Paris: Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy at l’Imprimerie Royale, 1675 [colophon date]-1676 [title page date]. First edition of “one of the great books in the history of botanical illustration, where all the technical resources of engraving were utilized in presenting the plants as accurately as possible” (Hunt), here accompanied by 5 additional engraved..... More
Item #5358

Prague: Gottlieb Haase & Sons, 1846. First edition, very rare separately-paginated offprint, of this important complement to Doppler’s epoch-making discovery in 1842 of the principle named after him. The three articles comprising this offprint contain extensions of the Doppler principle, as well as the first suggestion to use photographic and..... More
Item #4936

Berlin: Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1915. First editions, very rare offprint, of the first two of the papers published in November 1915 that document Einstein’s final version of the general theory of relativity. “In the half century and more of Einstein’s work in science, one discovery stands above all as..... More
Item #5863

[Pennsylvania: n.p., ca. 1945]. Rare photograph, much reproduced in the computer literature, of “the world’s first large-scale general-purpose electronic digital computer” (OOC, p. 532). ENIAC was “built during World War II by the United States. American physicist John Mauchly, American engineer J. Presper Eckert, Jr., and their colleagues at the..... More
Item #5514