Venice: Vincentius Luchinus excudebat, 1564. First edition, very rare, of one of the most important of all anatomical books. It includes the first specific treatise on the kidney, the first account of the Eustachian tube in the ear, the first description of the thoracic duct, and the Eustachian valve, as..... More
Item #3555

Padua: Lorenzo Pasquati, 1603. First edition, very rare first separate issue (see below), “of the first systematic study of the structure, distribution and position of the venous valves. Although the valves of the veins had been observed previously by G.B. Canano and Amato Lusitano, Fabrici studied them anew on the..... More
Item #3909

Venice: Marco Antonio Ulmo and Gratioso Perchachino, 1561. First edition, very rare, of the greatest Italian anatomical book of the sixteenth century, a detailed critical commentary on Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica. This is a fascinating copy with copious annotations by an early owner, in an untouched contemporary binding. “The..... More
Item #4136

Lyon: Antoine Vincent, [1556]. First edition, in an untouched contemporary binding and with a fine provenance, of this exceptionally rare work which “includes the first recorded description of an operation for strangulated hernia” (Garrison-Morton). This work is absent from many major medical collections, which regard the expanded second edition of..... More
Item #4021

Paris: Chez l'autheur, 1663. Rare first edition of this very important chemistry text, which went through some thirteen editions between 1663 and 1710. It is one of the earliest attempts to strip chemistry from its alchemical mysticism and to describe chemical preparations in an unambiguous manner. "The work is divided..... More
Item #3412

Rotterdam: Arnold Leers, 1648. First edition of the Exercitationes, one of two issues published simultaneously (see below), of this rare and important work, a defence of his theory of the circulation of the blood against the Parisian physician Jean Riolan the younger. It is here bound after the first Rotterdam..... More
Item #3630

[1813-1850]. An extraordinary collection of works by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), the outstanding astronomer and physical scientist of his day, assembled for presentation to his son William James Herschel (not to be confused with John’s father, the astronomer Frederick William). The collection includes offprints of Herschel’s three most important publications..... More
Item #4321

Washington: Carnegie Institution. First edition, the very rare offprint issue, of the first of the papers documenting McClintock’s discovery of ‘control elements,’ for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1983. “Between 1948 and 1951, McClintock carried out a series of sophisticated experiments with variegated maize..... More
Item #3910

Upsalla: W. Schultz, 1868. First edition, a very fine copy in unrestored original printed wrappers, and rare thus, of one of the founding works of spectroscopy in which Ångström demonstrated the presence of hydrogen and a number of other elements in the sun; the atlas contains his great map of..... More
Item #4831

Geneva: Sumptibus Joan. Antonii, & Samuelis De Tournes. 1658. A fine copy, in contemporary vellum and with the often missing portrait, of “the best and most complete edition of Paracelsus’ collected works” (Neville). ❧Dibner, Heralds of Science, no. 124. “According to Sudhoff, bibliographer of Paracelsus’ works, this compendium of the..... More
Item #2753

Paris: André Wechel, 1568. First edition of Paré’s extremely rare treatise on the plague, smallpox and measles, based upon his own direct observations of these diseases, “one of his best works” (Thornton, p. 63). “Having passed the winter of 1564-65 on tour in Provence with Catherine de Medici and the..... More
Item #4567

[Paris: Mallet-Bachelier, 1863]. Extremely rare separately-paginated offprint of the ne plus ultra of Pasteur’s work on spontaneous generation, and his proof that putrefaction was, like fermentation, caused by living organisms; this paper directly influenced Joseph Lister’s research on antisepsis (see below). Pasteur himself regarded the experiments described in this work..... More
Item #3671

Paris: Victor Masson, 1858. First printing of this landmark paper, “often considered the beginning of bacteriology as a modern science, [which constitutes] the first demonstration of the connection between a specific fermentation and the activity of a specific microorganism” (Garrison & Morton). “In this epochal paper [Pasteur] first published his..... More
Item #3699