London: John Murray, 1859. First edition, an unusually fine copy, untouched in its original binding, 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..... More
Item #5016
London: John Murray, 1872. Sixth edition (the first to employ the word ‘evolution’), inscribed by Darwin, 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..... More
Item #4981
London: John Murray, 1868. First edition, first issue, presentation copy, trimmed for presentation and with a slip of paper with inscription “From the Author” in Darwin’s hand pasted to the front free endpaper. The term “survival of the fittest” (borrowed at Wallace’s insistence from Herbert Spencer’s 1866 Principles of Biology)..... More
Item #4100
Paris: chez Henry Le Gras, au troisième pilier de la grand’ Salle du Palais, à L couronnée, 1649. First edition of Descartes’s important psychological treatise, one of his most influential works, and the last work published before his death in the following year. This is a fine copy in an..... More
Item #4125
Paris: chez Henry Le Gras, au troisième pilier de la grand’ Salle du Palais, à L couronnée, 1649. First edition, of Descartes’s important psychological treatise, one of his most influential works, and the last work published before his death in the following year. This copy made its way to England..... More
Item #4536
Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1845. First edition in English, presentation copy inscribed by the translator, of ”the first modern textbook of psychiatry” (Garrison-Morton). “Esquirol’s book … summarized the experience gained over a lifetime of observation and treatment of mental illness, in which he closely followed the humanitarian principles of his..... More
Item #3258
Venice: Vincentius Luchinus excudebat, 1564. First edition, very rare, of one of the most important of all anatomical books. “Eustachi’s first works were Ossium examen and Demotu capitis, both written in 1561 and directed against the anti-Galenism of Vesalius, for whom he had developed a unilateral hostility. Otherwise his researches..... More
Item #3555
First editions, all very rare, of four early works on animal motion and physiology by the outstanding Renaissance anatomist and surgeon and founder of embryology. They were issued separately from 1614 to 1618; after Fabrici’s death in 1619, the treatises were reissued together by Meglietti with a general title page..... More
Item #4467
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
Cologne: Arnold Birkmann, 1562. First edition, second issue, of the greatest Italian anatomical book of the sixteenth century (first published in 1561, see below). “Rather than a complete study of the whole of anatomy, Falloppio, who was a pupil of Vesalius, designed this work as a critical commentary of..... More
Item #4023
Paris: Jean Mariette, 1728. First edition of Fauchard’s pioneering work in the field of modern dentistry. “Before Fauchard’s time the profession of dentistry was truly a ‘mystery: for its practitioners had steadfastly refrained from publishing details of their technique and equipment. Fauchard summarized in his pages with numerous illustrations all..... More
Item #5119
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
[Vienna: Karl Gerold’s Sohn, 1877]. First edition, extremely rare separately-paginated offprint (journal pagination 15-27), of Freud’s first published paper. In 1876, three years after entering the University of Vienna as a medical student, Freud joined the laboratory of the eminent physiologist Ernst Brücke where he began studying the histology of..... More
Item #4111
Bologna: Press of the Academy of Sciences, 1791. First edition, incredibly rare offprint, one of 12 copies issued, of this epoch-making work, one of the most important in the history of electricity. Galvani’s paper was published in one of the ‘Opuscula’ of the journal De Bononiensi scientiarum et artium instituto..... More
Item #4822
Paris: Chez l'autheur, 1663. First edition, rare, of this very important chemistry text, which went through some thirteen editions between 1663 and 1710. “The Traité is Glaser’s only publication. Printed in a small number at the author’s expense, the first edition was sold from his house. Rapidly becoming a best..... More
Item #3412
Paris: Pierre Gaultier, 30 April 1544. First edition, an exceptionally fine, large and fresh copy, completely unsophisticated, of one of the most beautiful scientific books of the Renaissance, which well deserves the praise lavished on it by Herrlinger, who calls it “a typographically exquisite specimen of Parisian printing craft” and..... More
Item #5010
Leyden: Johann Maire, 1639. Third, but second complete, edition of the single most important and famous medical book ever published, containing Harvey’s discovery and experimental proof of the circulation of the blood, which created a revolution in physiology comparable to the Copernican revolution in astronomy. Harvey’s discovery was to become..... More
Item #3607
Paris: Gogué & Née de la Rochelle, 1784. First edition of Haüy’s first printed book, an exceptionally fine copy, very rare in this condition. “The foundation of the mathematical theory of crystal structure. Haüy proposed six types of primary crystal forms (parallelpiped, rhombic dodecahedron, hexagonal dipyramid, right hexagonal prism, octahedron..... More
Item #4871
Berlin: A. Förstner, 1851. First edition, an exceptionally fine copy in original printed wrappers, of this famous work which describes Helmholtz’s announcement of his invention of the ophthalmoscope, one of the most important clinical tools in medicine, which greatly improved the ability of ophthalmologists to diagnose eye disease and revolutionized..... More
Item #4855
Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1882-1883. First edition, extremely rare author’s presentation offprints, of all three parts of one of the founding paper of chemical thermodynamics, along with Josiah Willard Gibbs’s 1876 paper ‘On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances.’ In these papers, Helmholtz introduced the concept of ‘free energy’ and proved..... More
Item #5192
[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
London: John Murray, 1830-1832-1833. First edition of this “classic by ‘the father of modern geology’” (Grolier/Horblit), famous for “establishing a new era in geology” (DSB), presenting the doctrine of uniformitarianism, namely, that the processes of the past must be judged by those of the present. “One of the key works..... More
Item #5181
Montpelier: Daniel Pech, 1671. First edition, very rare, of this important work, of which “less than a dozen copies are known to exist, most imperfect” (The Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, vol. 2, p. 153. “Sold only by the author at his home in Montpellier, the Pratique contains clear..... More
Item #3380
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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
Paris: Antoine Boudet, 1746. First edition, rare on the market, of “the first specialized book on dental prosthetics” (G & M), and perhaps the first contribution to what would later be called “cosmetic dentistry.” “Mouton, in 1746, … gave to the light a monograph, the first extant, on mechanical dentistry..... More
Item #5166