Göttingen: Dieterich, 1828. First edition, the very rare separately-paginated offprint from Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Göttingensis (Vol. VI, 1828, pp. 99-146), of this “masterpiece of the mathematical literature” (Zeidler, p. 16). “... the crowning contribution of the period, and his last great breakthrough in a major new direction of mathematical..... More about Disquisitiones generales circa superficies curvas
Item #4602

Berlin: Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1828. First printing of what is now called the Gauss-Newton interpolation formula; which enables one to predict the value of a quantity given a finite number of observations. Gauss had lectured on the interpolation formula at Göttingen in 1812; his then student Encke attended Gauss’s..... More about Über Interpolation
Item #2983

New York; London: Scribners; E. Arnold, 1902. First edition, inscribed presentation copy to the great French mathematician and mathematical physicist Henri Poincaré. “Of Gibbs [Einstein] wrote in 1918: ‘[His] book is … a masterpiece, even though it is hard to read and the main points are found between the lines’”..... More about Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics Developed with Especial Reference to the Rational...
Item #4733

London: Peter Short, 1600. First edition of “the first major English scientific treatise based on experimental methods of research. Gilbert was chiefly concerned with magnetism; but as a digression he discusses in his second book the attractive effect of amber (electrum), and thus may be regarded as the founder of... More about De magnete, magneticisque corporibus, et de mango magnete tellure; Physiologia nova, plurimis...
Item #4577

Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1931; 1930. First edition, extremely rare author’s presentation offprint, of Gödel’s famous incompleteness theorem, “one of the major contributions to modern scientific thought” (Nagel & Newman). “Every system of arithmetic contains arithmetical propositions, by which is meant propositions concerned solely with relations between whole numbers, which can..... More about Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica undver wandter Systeme I. Offprint...
Item #4559

Berlin: Springer, 1926. First edition of Gordon’s account of the ‘Klein-Gordon equation’ (‘KG equation’ in what follows), the first attempt at unifying wave mechanics with special relativity. The KG equation was discovered by several authors independently, the first being the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein, although the equation appeared only incidentally..... More about Der Comptoneffekt nach der Schrödingerschen Theorie
Item #4497

La Flèche: George Griveau, 1645. Presentation copy of the first edition of this rare and richly illustrated Jesuit anti-Copernican tract by Jacques Grandami (1588-1672), rector of the Jesuit college of La Flèche, which was attended by both Descartes and Mersenne. In this work Grandami employs the ‘magnetic philosophy’ initiated by..... More about Nova demonstratio immobilitatis terrae petita ex virtut magnetica
Item #4171

Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1702. A fine copy of the first text book of astronomy based on Newtonian principles, which contains the first printings of Newton's lunar theory and his "classical scholia". Babson 71; Gray 87. "The nephew of James Gregory, the mathematician, and the son of the Laird of Kinnairdie... More about Astronomiae Physicae & Geometricae Elementa
Item #2221

Bologna: heirs of Vittorio Benacci for Girolamo Bernia, 1665. A fine copy of Grimaldi’s only publication. This very important book contains the first account of the diffraction of light discovered by the author and it marks the first scientific attempt to establish a comprehensive wave theory of light. ❧Macclesfield 943... More about Physico-mathesis de lumine, coloribus, et iride, aliisque adnexis libri duo, in quorum primo...
Item #3397

Nuremberg: printed by Christoph Gerhard for Paulus Fürst, 1666. First edition of one of the most beautiful instrument books published in the seventeenth century and certainly one of the rarest, particularly with the full complement of plates. This work is an enlargement, by his student Sturm, of Habrecht’s famous treatise..... More about Planiglobium coeleste ac terrestre: argentorati quondam … [Planiglobium celeste, Hoc est globus...
Item #4705

London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by Mr. Sandby, 1765. First edition, extremely rare, published by Harrison (1693-1776) himself with the technical assistance of the optical instrument maker James Short (1710-68), in which Harrison defended the success of his chronometer H4, and staked his claim to be awarded the... More about A Narrative of the Proceedings relative to the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea; by Mr. John...
Item #3952

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 about De motu cordis & sanguinis in animalibus, anatomica exercitation: cum refutationibus Aemylii...
Item #3607

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 about Exercitationes Duae Anatomicae De Circulatione Sanguinis Ad Joannem Riolanum filium. Rotterdam:...
Item #3630