Berlin: Julius Springer, 1928. First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, of Heisenberg’s solution of the problem of ferromagnetism, and a remarkable association copy linking two of the greatest figures in twentieth-century physics. Bohr and Heisenberg are also linked by the subject matter of the present work. In his..... More
Item #3526
Berlin: Julius Springer, 1929-30. First edition, journal issues in original printed wrappers, of this two-part paper which represents the “formal invention of quantum electrodynamics [QED]” (Miller, p. xiii). “Three years before the discovery of the positron Heisenberg and Pauli – in two papers ‘Zur Quantenmechanik der Wellenfelder’ and ‘Zur Quantenmechanik..... More
Item #2627
Berlin: A. Förstner, 1851. First edition, an exceptionally fine copy in original printed wrappers, of this famous work which describes Helmholtz’s announcement of his invention of the ophthalmoscope, one of the most important clinical tools in medicine, which greatly improved the ability of ophthalmologists to diagnose eye disease and revolutionized..... More
Item #4855
Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1847. First edition, rare, of “the first comprehensive statement of the first law of thermodynamics: that all modes of energy, heat, light, electricity, and all chemical phenomena, are capable of transformation from one to the other but are indestructible and cannot be created” (PMM). “On the basis..... More
Item #4842
Philadelphia: Printed by James Kay, Jun. & Brothers, 1839. First edition, author’s presentation offprint, of the third and most important part of Henry’s Contributions to Electricity and Magnetism. Following on from his discovery of electromagnetic self-induction in 1832, in the present paper Henry extends his results on ‘galvanic’ electricity (current..... More
Item #4282
Warsaw: Dziewulski, 1930. First edition, rare, and a fine copy in the original printed wrappers, of Herbrand’s doctoral dissertation, written in 1929 as a contribution to Hilbert’s programme. Bernays described Herbrand’s theorem as “the central theorem of predicate logic”, and van Heijenoort wrote that “[Frege’s] Begriffsschrift (1879), Löwenheim’s paper [‘Über..... More
Item #5040
Berlin: Verlag Öffentliches Leben, 1935. First edition, very rare offprint issue, of Hermann’s doctoral thesis. “In 1935 Hermann published an argument demonstrating an apparent flaw in John von Neumann’s 1932 proof which was widely claimed to show that a hidden variable theory of quantum mechanics was impossible. Hermann’s result went..... More
Item #5044
Amsterdam: Apud Rod. & Gerh. Wetstenios, 1716. First edition of the first textbook on theoretical mechanics based on the Leibnizian calculus, important for containing the first published discussion of the kinetic theory of gases. “This textbook concerned advanced mechanics in the modern sense and was considered an important work, very..... More
Item #4289
London: Richard Taylor, 1826. First edition, rare offprint issue, inscribed by Herschel. The work begins with a description of the reflecting telescope, with an 18-inch aperture and 20-feet focal length, the largest telescope in the world at the time, which was constructed in 1820 by John and his father William..... More
Item #4410
London: R. & J. E. Taylor, 1842. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of this seminal early work of photography, the invention of the world’s first photocopying process, ‘cyanotype,’ later called ‘blue-printing’; this remained by far the most important reprographic process for more than a century after the publication of Herschel’s..... More
Item #4782
[1813-1850]. An extraordinary collection of works by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), the outstanding astronomer and physical scientist of his day, assembled for presentation to his son William James Herschel (not to be confused with John’s father, the astronomer Frederick William). The collection includes offprints of Herschel’s three most important publications..... More
Item #4321
London: printed by W. Bulmer [for the Royal Society], 1814. Very rare separately-paginated offprint of Herschel’s account of the ‘calculus of operations,’ which formed a major part of the programme of reform promoted by the group of Cambridge mathematicians (which included Babbage and Herschel) who called themselves the ‘Analytical Society.’..... More
Item #4283
London: Richard Taylor, 1833. First edition, the very rare offprint issue, of Herschel’s famous ‘Slough Catalogue,’ which includes 2306 nebulae and star clusters, 525 of which were discovered by Herschel himself. (Parkinson, Breakthroughs 296). He was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1836 for this work..... More
Item #3162
Leipzig; Berlin: Johann Ambrosius Barth; George Reimer for the Königlich Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1887-1892. First edition, extremely rare offprint, of the first of Hertz’s papers on electromagnetic waves, accompanied by offprints of six further papers on the same subject, including ‘Ueber elektrodynamische Wellen im Luftraume und deren Reflexion’, in which..... More
Item #4863
New York: The American Physical Society, 1964. First editions of the first published papers to propose the existence of what are now known as the ‘Higgs mechanism’ and the ‘Higgs boson’, “the key element of the electroweak theory that forms part of the Standard Model of particle physics, and of..... More
Item #4550
Berlin: Julius Springer, 1923. First edition, the extremely rare author’s presentation offprint issue, of the second major paper in the development of the 'Hilbert programme.' Based upon a lecture given at Leipzig in September 1923, it is the sequel to Hilbert's Neubegründung der Mathematik (1922), in which Hilbert had put forward his proposal..... More
Item #4475
Hamburg: Verlag des mathematischen Seminars, 1922. First edition, journal issue in the original printed wrappers, and a copy with excellent provenance, of the first major paper in the development of the ‘Hilbert programme,’ in which Hilbert put forward his proposal for a foundation for all of mathematics based on axiomatics and logic..... More
Item #4823
[Berlin: Springer, 1925]. First edition, very rare offprint, of this famous lecture which contains Hilbert’s most detailed exposition of his proposal for the foundation of classical mathematics, which became known as Hilbert’s Programme. “No one shall expel us from the paradise which Cantor has created for us,” Hilbert famously declared..... More
Item #3181
Königsberg: Leupold, 1885. First edition, very rare, of Hilbert’s inaugural dissertation at the University of Königsberg, ‘On the invariant properties of special binary forms, in particular the spherical functions,’ in which he began his study of invariant theory. This subject was at the forefront of mathematics in the second half..... More
Item #4944
Florence: In officina Iuntarum, Bernardi filiorum, 1567. First edition, very rare, of the only surviving work of Hipparchus (c. 190-127 BC). “Even the most casual discussion of ancient astronomy will not fail to call Hipparchus of Nicaea in Bithynia ‘the greatest astronomer of antiquity’” (Neugebauer, p. 320). Our knowledge of..... More
Item #3643
London; Amsterdam: J. Windet and sold by S. Shorter; Jacob van Velsen for the author, [1598]; 1672. One of the most remarkable sammelbands from the Macclesfield library, containing the extremely rare first edition of the first published work on the ‘sector’, also called the ‘geometrical compass’ by Galileo who developed..... More
Item #4635
Leipzig: Wolfgang Stöckel, 1501. An outstanding copy, in untouched contemporary binding from the collection of Jean Blondelet, of one of the earliest works with anatomical illustrations, “includes the first illustrations of the viscera in a printed book” (GM). “Hundt’s best-known work, Antropologia de hominis dignitate, natura et proprietatibus de elementis..... More
Item #4830
Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1870. First edition, very rare, of “the book that established group theory as a subject in its own right in mathematics” (Gray, p. 149). “Jordan’s monumental work, Traité des Substitutions et des Équations algébriques, published in 1870, is a masterpiece of mathematical architecture. The beauty of the edifice..... More
Item #4912
Leiden: Eduard Ijdo, 1911. First printing of the first announcement of the discovery of superconductivity, the disappearance of electrical resistance in certain materials at very low temperatures. “Of all the discoveries in condensed matter physics during the 20th century, some might call superconductivity the “crown jewel”. Others might say that..... More
Item #3538
Linz: Hans Blanck, 1616. First edition, a considerably revised, rearranged and augmented version of Kepler’s Nova Stereometria published the year before, a work which is “generally regarded as one of the significant works in the prehistory of the calculus” (Gingerich in DSB). “Desiring to outfit his new household with the..... More
Item #5003