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

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: W. Godbid for J. Martyn, 1672-73. First edition, very rare, of the principal published source of the short-lived “pride and boast of British astronomy,” as he was later described by Sir John Herschel. The works published here posthumously, edited by John Wallis, constitute almost all of Horrocks’ writings that..... More
Item #5368

N.p. N.p, 1925-1943. A remarkable and comprehensive collection of offprints, including 15 by Hubble (1889-1953) and two by his assistant Milton Humason (1891-1972), tracing the evolving understanding of galaxies in the period 1925-43. The present volume contains all but two of the papers published in this period singled out for..... More
Item #5430

[Edinburgh: N.p., 1785]. First edition, inscribed presentation copy from Hutton to Matthew Boulton, of one of the great rarities in the history of science, Hutton’s first announcement of his revolutionary view that our earth was shaped by slow, steady forces acting over a long period of time – the doctrine..... More
Item #5349

Leiden: Pieter van der Aa, 1690. First edition, probable second issue with Huygens’s full name on title, of Huygens’ path-breaking exposition of his wave or pulse theory of light. Huygens had developed his theory of light in 1676 and 1677, and “completed the Traité in 1678, but left it unpublished for..... More
Item #5350

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

Frankfurt: Godefrid Tampach, 1611. First edition, extremely rare, of the first scientific treatise on crystallography. Written in the form of a letter, this small tract was presented to Kepler’s friend at court, Matthäus Wackher von Wackenfels (who had informed Kepler of the discoveries Galileo had made with the telescope in..... More
Item #4960

Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt & Soner, 1904. First edition, extremely rare offprint issue, inscribed by the author to Fredholm, of von Koch’s paper, which contains the first examples of geometric fractals, the famous ‘Koch curve’ and ‘Koch snowflake’. The term ‘fractal’ was coined much later, by Benoit Mandelbrot in his 1975..... More
Item #3660

Augsburg: Christoph Peter Detleffsen for the widow of Eberhard Klett, 1760. First edition, and a remarkably fine copy, of this cornerstone of modern optics, with applications which touch on astronomy and photography; this is one of the rarest of modern science books of this stature. “It established a complete system..... More
Item #4778

N.p. n.d., ca. 1766-1780. A unique collection of maps prepared for the first geological atlas of France. “These maps, so far as I know, were the first ever constructed to express the superficial distribution of minerals and rocks. The gifted Frenchman [Guettard] who produced them is thus the father of..... More
Item #5379