Paris: H. Estienne & W. Hopyl, 27 June 1503. First edition of this very rare collection of works, in an attractive Roger Payne binding. The individual works are all first editions with the exception of Lefèvre’s Epitome of Boethius’ De arithmetica (first, 1496) and an unattributed Opusculum de p[r]axi numerorum..... More
Item #3866

Edinburgh: 5 February. Important autograph letter from the great Scottish mathematician Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746) discussing his most important work, Treatise of Fluxions (1742), “the earliest logical and systematic publication of the Newtonian methods. It stood as a model of rigor until the appearance of Cauchy’s Cours d’analyse in 1821” (DSB)..... More
Item #3411

Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini, 1666 (dedication dated 14 July, 1667). First edition, first issue, a magnificent copy bound in contemporary Italian red morocco gilt, probably for presentation, of the only publication of the Accademia del Cimento, the first organisation founded for the sole purpose of making scientific experiments (the more common... More
Item #4707

Messina: Pietro Spira, 1558. First edition, ‘excessively rare’ (Sotheran, 1917), of Maurolico’s Latin translations of works on ‘sphaerics’ by four ancient Greek writers, Autolycus, Menelaus, Euclid and Theodosius, those of the first two authors constituting the first printed editions. Maurolico, one of the most original mathematicians of the 16th century..... More
Item #2881

[London:]: Taylor and Francis, [1867]. First edition, in the very rare original printed wrappers, of the first practical designs for a dynamo, made independently and almost simultaneously by Siemens and Wheatstone. Maxwell attended the February 1867 meeting of the Royal Society at which both papers were read, and he immediately... More
Item #4305

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1873. First edition, first issue, and a very fine copy in a contemporary prize binding, of Maxwell’s presentation of his theory of electromagnetism, advancing ideas that would become essential for modern physics, including the landmark “hypothesis that light and electricity are the same in their ultimate nature”..... More
Item #4727

Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1869. A fine copy, in original wrappers, of the first book explicitly devoted to solar energy, whose publication coincided with the unveiling of Mouchot’s largest solar steam engine, the so-called ‘Sun Engine’, in 1869, which caused a revolution in the development of solar thermal power. Auguste Mouchot was..... More
Item #3048

Cambridge / London: Typis Academicus / Benjamin Tooke, 1707. First edition of Newton’s treatise on algebra, or ‘universal arithmetic,’ his “most often read and republished mathematical work” (Whiteside). “Included are ‘Newton’s identities’ providing expressions for the sums of the ith powers of the roots of any polynomial equation, for any..... More
Item #4064

Cambridge; London: Typis Academicus; Benjamin Tooke, 1707. First edition of Newton’s treatise on algebra, or ‘universal arithmetic,’ his “most often read and republished mathematical work” (Whiteside). “Included are ‘Newton’s identities’ providing expressions for the sums of the ith powers of the roots of any polynomial equation, for any integer i...... More
Item #4639

Palermo: Reale Stamperia, 1792. A fine copy, uncut in the original boards, of Piazzi’s account of the Palermo Observatory, which he established, and where he made the observations that led to his discovery, on January 1, 1801, of the minor planet Ceres. Specola Astronomica includes Piazzi’s description of the astronomical..... More
Item #3288

Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1654. First edition (see below) of this rare and controversial work on physical, medical and natural philosophy from a Cartesian viewpoint. Among the wide variety of topics covered, there is a chapter on the circulation of the blood (p. 267 ff.), and also an interesting section on magnetism... More
Item #3222

Nuremberg: Simon Halbmayer, 1627. First complete edition and the first edition of the fourth part (the first part was published in 1616, the first three parts together in 1618). The first book is a treatise on general mathematics and the principles of geometry. The second deals entirely with techniques of... More
Item #2235

Leiden: George Abrahamsz van Maarssen for Jodocus Colster, 1617. First edition of Snel’s most important work. This was “the foundation of modern geodesy” (Galileo Project) and of great significance in the history of navigation. “With the development of their oceanic commerce, the Dutch became very interested in the most accurate..... More
Item #4229