Toulouse: Bernard Bosc, 1670. First edition of Fermat’s annotated edition of Diophantus’ Arithmetica. This is the first printing of Fermat’s contributions to the theory of numbers, of which he is the undisputed founder, including his famous statement of ‘Fermat’s last theorem.’ Since most of Fermat’s work in number theory remained..... More
Item #4489

[Lancaster, PA & New York, NY: American Institute of Physics for the American Physical Society, 1939]. First edition, extremely rare offprint, inscribed by Feynman, of Feynman’s senior undergraduate thesis at MIT, a fundamental discovery “that has played an important role in theoretical chemistry and condensed matter physics” (Selected Papers, p...... More
Item #4833

London: John Matthews, 1712. The true first edition, extremely rare, of Flamsteed’s catalogue of fixed stars and sextant observations, the foundation of modern observational astronomy. Flamsteed’s catalogue was far more extensive and accurate than anything that had gone before. It was the first constructed with instruments using telescopic sights and..... More
Item #5074

Paris: Firmin Didot, 1822. First edition of the first mathematical study of heat diffusion, the first major mathematization of a branch of physics outside mechanics. “This work marks an epoch in the history of both pure and applied mathematics. It is the source of all modern methods in mathematical physics..... More
Item #3841

Münich: Lentner, [1822?]. First edition, the rare offprint issue, of the first quantitative discussion of the diffraction of light. Four years earlier, Fraunhofer had published his epochal discovery of dark lines in the solar spectrum, now called ‘Fraunhofer lines,’ which inaugurated the fields of spectroscopy and astrophysics. “In 1821 and..... More
Item #4436

[Vienna: Karl Gerold’s Sohn, 1877]. First edition, extremely rare separately-paginated offprint (journal pagination 15-27), of Freud’s first published paper. In 1876, three years after entering the University of Vienna as a medical student, Freud joined the laboratory of the eminent physiologist Ernst Brücke where he began studying the histology of..... More
Item #4111

Leiden: Elzevier, 1638. First edition, a fine copy in untouched contemporary vellum, of Galileo’s last and most important work, “the first modern textbook of physics, a foundation stone in the science of mechanics” (Grolier/Horblit); the ‘two new sciences’ were the engineering science of strength of materials and the mathematical science of..... More
Item #4985

Frankfurt: [Zacharias] Palthenius, 1610; 1611. Second edition of Galileo’s magnum opus, published just a few months after the original printing at Venice on March 10, 1610. “Galileo’s book created excitement throughout Europe and a second edition was published in the same year at Frankfurt” (DSB). This pirate edition of Sidereus..... More
Item #5062

Bologna: Press of the Academy of Sciences, 1791. First edition, incredibly rare offprint, one of 12 copies issued, of this epoch-making work, one of the most important in the history of electricity. Galvani’s paper was published in one of the ‘Opuscula’ of the journal De Bononiensi scientiarum et artium instituto..... More
Item #4822

Venice: Sumptibus Lucentonii Juntae Typographi, 1533. First edition of these very rare ephemerides by the astronomer, astrological data collector and mathematician Luca Gaurico. It contains tables as well as astrological prognostications for the years 1534 through 1551, each preceded by a special title page. According to Houzeau and Lancaster, the..... More
Item #3211

Göttingen: Dieterich, 1828. First edition, the very rare separately-paginated offprint from Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Göttingensis (Vol. VI, 1828, pp. 99-146), of this “masterpiece of the mathematical literature” (Zeidler, p. 16). “... the crowning contribution of the period, and his last great breakthrough in a major new direction of mathematical..... More
Item #4602

London: Harrison and Sons, 1909. First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, of Geiger & Marsden’s famous alpha-particle scattering experiment, which demonstrated for the first time the existence of the atomic nucleus, leading to the downfall of Thomson’s plum-pudding model of the atom, and the development of the Rutherford..... More
Item #3587

Zürich: Jacob Gesner, 1565 [–1566]. First edition and a fine copy in contemporary binding, very rare when complete, of this collection of eight treatises, the most important being De rerum fossilium [On fossil Objects], Gesner’s last work, the earliest scientific attempt to classify the mineral kingdom, and the first illustrated..... More
Item #5001