London: Allde, for 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 to Galileo..... More
Item #4986

Berlin: J.G.F. Kniestädt for T.H. Riemann. 1827. First edition of “Ohm’s great work” (DSB), containing the fully-developed presentation of his theory of electricity, including Ohm’s Law. “Ohm’s great contribution − ‘The Galvanic Chain Mathematically Calculated’ − was to measure the rate of current flow and the effects of resistance on..... More
Item #5475

Paris: Bachelier, 1835. First edition, presentation copy inscribed by Poisson to Marie Jean Pierre Flourens, of this classic work on the mathematical theory of heat conduction. “Poisson scored a point in this work by demonstrating how the conductibility of heat in the interior of bodies, far from being contained in..... More
Item #5242

Paris: Antoine Bertier, 1644. First edition, exceptionally rare, of Roberval’s cosmology, in which he expresses, covertly, his support for Copernicus, and also formulates for the first time the law of universal attraction – that any two material bodies in the universe attract each other. This principle is normally ascribed to..... More
Item #5431

Würzburg: Verlag und Druck der Stahel’schen K. Hof- und Universitäts-Buch und Kunsthandlung, 1895 [- 1896]. First editions, first issues, and fine copies from the collection of The Garden Ltd., of the rare offprints of Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays, the most important contribution to medical diagnosis in a century, and a...... More
Item #4932

Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer, July 12, 1493. First edition, and a remarkable wide-margined complete copy, preserved in its original binding bearing the city of Vienna’s coat of arms, of the first illustrated encyclopedia. Published in 1493, at the dawn of the discovery period, in Nuremberg by Europe’s largest..... More
Item #5643

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

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

[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

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

Nuremberg: Johann Petri, 1535. First edition, rare, a copy with numerous early annotations, of the first comprehensive European treatise on optics, and the first work to contain descriptions of medieval laboratory instruments. Witelo (born ca. AD 1230) begins with the geometrical theorems required for the optical demonstrations of the remaining..... More
Item #5498