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

Paris: André Wechel, 1572; 1568. First editions of two of Paré's most important works, both very rare, and in fine condition. “The Cinq livres contains all new material. It had been called by several serious writers Paré's chef d'oeuvre ... in it appears the first description of the fracture of..... More
Item #3697

Paris: for the author, 1588. First edition, a magnificent copy bound in contemporary gilt vellum, and with outstanding provenance, of one of the most famous illustrated books of the sixteenth century and a landmark in book design. “The plates in Ramelli’s treatise are artistically as well as technologically superb, the..... More
Item #3694

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