[London]: Prynted in Southwarke in Saynt Thomas hospitall, by me James Nicolson, [1537]. First edition of “the first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying” (Buisseret, p. 39), an outstanding copy untouched in its original binding, and extremely rare thus. Benese’s Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande marks an..... More
Item #5983

Kaluga: Gostipografiia, 1927. First edition, extremely rare, of this important sequel to Tsiolkovsky’s multi-part work of 1903-14 in which he first set out the basic principles of the construction of space rockets. While these earlier articles dealt mainly with the theoretical aspects of space flight, in the present work, Tsiolkovsky..... More
Item #5974

Berlin: Springer, 1943. First edition, extremely rare offprints, of Heisenberg’s S-matrix approach to the study of elementary particles. “Heisenberg’s prewar researches in quantum field theory, undertaken in part with Pauli, had led him to the study of cosmic rays, the highest energy particles then available for research. When an extremely..... More
Item #5971

London: Joannem Billium, 1620. The Devonshire-Horblit-Garden copy of the first edition, first issue, large paper copy, published in October 1620 with Norton’s name in the colophon, and printed on paper with the large crown watermark. It appears that only one other large paper copy of the first issue has appeared..... More
Item #5962

London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans and Williams & Norgate, 1856. First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, and a remarkable association copy, of this important contribution of Darwin to biogeography. This copy was presented by John Stevens Henslow, perhaps the single most influential person in leading Darwin onto..... More
Item #5958

Bologna & Rome: Dozza & Di Falco, 1656-1666. An extraordinary sammelband containing the first editions of seven exceptionally rare works documenting Cassini’s very accurate observations of the motion of the Sun relative to the Earth, which enabled him to confirm Kepler’s second law, of the comets of 1664-5, of Jupiter’s..... More
Item #5938

Stockholm: Lars Salvius, 1764. First edition in book form, rare, of this seminal treatise on paediatrics. “Sir Frederic Still considered this work ‘the most progressive which had yet been written;’ it gave an impetus to research which influenced the future course of paediatrics. Rosen was particularly interested in infant feeding..... More
Item #5929

Göttingen: Dieterich, 1830. First edition, the rare separately-paginated offprint, and a fine copy in original state, of this early contribution of Gauss (1777-1855) to mathematical physics, which contains a fundamental and groundbreaking contribution to the calculus of variations. “Gauss ranks, together with Archimedes and Newton, as one of the greatest..... More
Item #5927

Paris: Antoine Dezallier, 1679. First and only edition, incredibly rare, of the last (surviving) contribution published by the brilliant French mathematician Girard Desargues in the notorious ‘perspective wars’ – Desargues was “the greatest perspectivist and projective geometer of his generation” (Kemp, The Science of Art, p. 120). Desargues published his..... More
Item #5918

Basel: Henric Petri, 1570. First edition of Cardano’s mathematical treatment of mechanics, the Opus novum, together with the revised, second edition of his Ars Magna (first 1545) – the greatest work of 16th century algebra – and with the first edition of a supplement to that work, the De Aliza..... More
Item #5904

London: John Murray, 1859. First edition, presentation copy, of “the most influential scientific work of the nineteenth century” (Horblit), “the most important biological work ever written” (Freeman), and “a turning point, not only in the history of science, but in the history of ideas in general” (DSB). “Darwin not only..... More
Item #5894

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930. First edition, and a fine copy with the dust-wrapper, of Dirac’s famous and hugely influential textbook, which “summarized the foundations of a new science, much of which was his own creation. It expressed the spirit of the new quantum mechanics, creating a descriptive language that we..... More
Item #5883

Edinburgh; London: Sutherland and Knox, Princes Street; Samuel Highley, 32 Fleet Street, 1847 [Postscript dated 15 November 1847]. Second edition, extremely rare first issue, inscribed presentation copy, of the first use of chloroform as an anaesthetic. This is the earliest obtainable version of Simpson’s discovery – the first edition, published..... More
Item #5874