Basel: [colophon:] Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Bischof, March 1556. First edition, an exceptional copy, the finest we have seen, of the “first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy and one of the first technological books of modern times” (PMM). “The twelve books of Agricola’s treatise … embrace everything connected with..... More
Item #4953

Leiden: Jan Maire, 1637. First edition, a fine, large copy, of Descartes’ first and most famous work. Following the Discours, now celebrated as one of the canonical texts of Western philosophy, are three ‘Essais’, the last of which, La Géométrie, contains the birth of analytical or co-ordinate geometry, “of epoch-making..... More
Item #4982

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

[Colophon:] Venice: Paganinus de Paganinis, 10-20 November 1494. First edition, first issue (see below), very rare, this is a remarkable copy in entirely original condition and with a distinguished provenance, having been in the famous Giustiniani family from publication to the present day. The Summa is a work of enormous..... More
Item #4844

Venice: Johannes Hamman, 31 August 1496. First edition, and a beautiful, large and fresh copy in an outstanding contemporary Italian binding preserved in its original state, of this epochal work by the leading astronomer of the fifteenth century. “The importance of this book lies in the fact that it enshrines..... More
Item #4813

Basel: [Robert Winter, 1539 (colophon)]. First edition, and a truly wonderful copy in a dated contemporary binding, of Vesalius’s ‘venesection letter,’ one of his rarest works, embodying what may be the earliest approach to an area of medicine which may be called scientific in the modern sense. This is a...... More
Item #4765