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
Paris: Jean Dedin, 1631-39. Extremely rare first edition, author’s presentation copy, of all four books of this important work on conic sections, intended to provide the geometrical basis for the study of optics. “Mydorge’s work on conic sections contains hundreds of problems published for the first time, as well as..... More
Item #3576
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
Leipzig: Grossius and J.F. Gleditsch, 1688. First edition of the important Acta Eruditorum review of the Principia. There were four reviews of the Principia, of which this is chronologically the third. It is “the most detailed and serious of the four reviews. It was comprehensive enough to provide many people..... More
Item #4463
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
London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1756. First printing, very rare, of these letters of Newton which Koyré has described as “one of the most precious and important documents for the study and interpretation of Newtonian thought” (Koyré, p. 202). Newton here gives his views on the nature of..... More
Item #3537
Paris: Desaint & Saillant; Lambert, 1759. First edition in French of Newton’s Principia, “the greatest work in the history of science” (PMM), translated by Madame du Châtelet, intimate of Voltaire, with the assistance of Alexis-Claude Clairaut; this is an exceptional copy in original wrappers. Begun in 1745 but published posthumously..... More
Item #4937
London: E. Allde, for H. Astley, 1562 [i.e., 1592]. Third edition (first, 1581) of one of the greatest rarities in the entire literature of navigation and magnetism, and “one of the first truly scientific books published in England” (Waters, The Art of Navigation, p. 153). “It is usual to ascribe..... More
Item #4986
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
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
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
Important letter from Rutherford to Charles Herman Viol requesting information about the production of radium, in preparation for a series of lectures he was to deliver at The Royal Institution. “From 1921, when he succeeded [J. J.] Thomson, until his death, Rutherford was professor of natural philosophy at the Royal..... More
Item #3663
Ingolstadt: Eder for Elisabeth Angermaria, 1614 & 1615. First edition, in a beautiful contemporary binding, of Scheiner’s very rare work containing the second earliest map of the moon – but the first to give topographical details – as well as the first illustrations of a telescope. It builds upon Scheiner’s..... More
Item #4126
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
Frankfurt: Paul Jacobi for Luca Jennis, 1618. First edition, extremely rare, of “the first book about the telescope, its invention and use” (Zinner). Written by the Milanese scholar Girolamo Sirtori in 1612, only four years after the telescope was invented, it contained a complete set of instructions and diagrams for..... More
Item #4706
![Limenheuretica [Greek], sive porluum investigandorum ratio. Metaphraste Hug. Grotio Batavo. Simon...](/pictures/thumb/3954.jpg?v=1592228784)
Leiden: Ex officina Plantiniana apud Christophorum Raphelengium. Academiae Lugduno-Batavae Typographum, 1599. First Latin edition of Stevin’s extremely rare and important work on the determination of longitude using magnetic variation. Originally published in Dutch as De Havenvinding, “the [Latin] translation appeared almost simultaneously with the original Dutch version” (Crone et al...... More
Item #3954
Cologne: Johann Birkmann, 1562. First edition of this exceptionally rare, interesting, and notorious work – the second printed work on magnetism, preceded only by the Epistola de magnete of Peregrinus (1558) (which is virtually unobtainable). Taisnier’s work, in fact, contains a plagiarism of Peregrinus, which it reprints verbatim, and of..... More
Item #4307
![Quesiti, et inventioni diverse. [Colophon:] Venice: Venturino Ruffinelli, 1546. [Bound with:]...](/pictures/thumb/4938.jpg?v=1592230381)
Venice: Giovanni Padovano for Curzio Troiano Navò, 1550. First edition of Tartaglia’s Quesiti, second edition of the other two works. The Quesiti continues the discussion of ballistics in Tartaglia’s Nova scientia (first published in 1537), pointing out for the first time that the trajectory of a projectile is curved throughout..... More
Item #4938
[New York: James Kempster Printing Company for the National Electric Light Association, 1893]. First edition, extremely rare offprint, inscribed by Tesla to the great American astronomer George Ellery Hale, of this famous lecture. “At St. Louis [Tesla] made the first public demonstration ever of radio communication, although Marconi is generally..... More
Item #4832
St. Petersburg: E. L. Porokhovshchikov, 1903. First edition, extraordinarily rare, of the first published work on space rockets, preceding by 16 years the first publication on rockets by Robert Goddard and by 20 years that of Hermann Oberth. In his bibliography of works on spaceflight, NASA engineer Michael L. Ciancone..... More
Item #4929
Kaluga: by the author, 1914. First edition, very rare, published by the author at his own expense, of the first separately-printed scientific work on space rockets, preceding by five years the first publication on rockets by Robert Goddard. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) began research into rocket propulsion and the theoretical and practical..... More
Item #4700
![De Centro Gravitatis Solidorum Libri Tres. Rome: B[artolomeo] Bonfadino, 1604. [Bound with]:...](/pictures/thumb/4695.jpg?v=1592229823)
Rome: Bonfadino; Facio, 1604; 1606. First editions of these two rare and fundamental works on determining centres of gravity – these are fascinating copies with numerous contemporary annotations in an untouched contemporary binding. In these books Valerio transformed the Archimedean ‘method of exhaustion’ into a series of important theorems “so..... More
Item #4695
Amsterdam: Etienne Ledet et Compagnie, 1738. First edition, first issue, extremely rare large and thick paper copy, and in a beautiful contemporary binding, of Voltaire's only scientific work. “Owing to Descartes' great influence and Newton’s dispute with Leibnitz, the spread of his [Newton’s] thought on the continent took about fifty..... More
Item #4104