Basel: [colophon:] Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Bischof, March 1556. First edition, the Harrison D. Horblit copy, of the “first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy and one of the first technological books of modern times” (PMM). “The twelve books of Agricola’s treatise … embrace everything connected with Renaissance mining and..... More
Item #5490

London: Joannem Billium, 1620. The Devonshire-Horblit-Garden copy of the first edition, first issue, large paper copy, published in October 1620 with Norton’s name in the colophon, and printed on paper with the large crown watermark. It appears that only one other large paper copy of the first issue has appeared..... More
Item #5962

Basel: Impensis Thurnisiorum Fratum, 1713. First edition, an exceptionally fine copy, rare in this condition. “Jakob 1 Bernoulli’s posthumous treatise, edited by his nephew [Nicholas I Bernoulli], (the title literally means “the art of [dice] throwing”) was the first significant book on probability theory: it set forth the fundamental principles..... More
Item #4063

Edinburgh: G. Hamilton & J. Balfour, 1754. First edition of one of the greatest rarities in the history of science, the discovery of carbon dioxide and the foundation work of quantitative chemical analysis. “There is perhaps no other instance of a graduation thesis so weighted with significant novelty as Black’s..... More
Item #5461

Oxford: H. Hall for R. Davis & B. Took, 1680. Second edition in English (first, 1661), complete with the very rare advertisement leaf which is lacking from most copies, of this landmark in the history of science, “his most important work [where he] set down his corpuscular theory of the..... More
Item #5684

Berlin: Trowibsch and son for Ferdinand Dümmler, 1832-1837. First edition, very rare complete set of all 10 volumes, of this classic work, including Vom Kriege (vols. 1-3), “the most profound exposition of the philosophy of war” (PMM). “On War is one of the most important books ever written on the..... More
Item #3777

Manchester: S. Russell for R. Bickerstaff, Strand, London; Russell & Allen for R. Bickerstaff, Strand, London; executors of S. Russell for George Wilson; John Harrison, 1808-1810-1827; 1840. First edition, complete withall three parts inscribed by Dalton, and in original publisher’s bindings with original printed spine labels, of his classic work..... More
Item #5839

Paris: [Chardon for] Cuchet, 1783-1784. First edition, second issue of the first volume (with the four-page supplement), of the first full-length account of the historic experiments with balloon flight conducted by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, and “the first serious treatise on aerostation as a practical possibility” (PMM). The Montgolfier..... More
Item #5411

London: Printed for Dan Brown, Tim. Goodwin, John Walthoe, Tho. Newborough, John Nicholson, Tho. Benskin, Benj. Tooke, Dan. Midwinter, Tho. Leigh, and Francis Coggan, 1704-10. First edition of perhaps the most important single source for the history of science and engineering at the end of the scientific revolution. Its emphasis..... More
Item #5408

Paris: Dentu [&] the author, 1809. First edition, an extremely important association copy with extensive contemporary learned and critical annotations by a prestigious scientist and colleague of Lamarck. This was his most complete presentation of his theory of evolution, “a classic in the literature of evolutionary theory” (PMM). This copy..... More
Item #5541

Augsburg: Christoph Peter Detleffsen for the widow of Eberhard Klett, 1760. First edition, very rare, and the finest copy we have seen, of the foundation work of photometry, the measurement of the intensity of light, both objectively and as perceived by the eye; this is one of the rarest of..... More
Item #5873

Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1895. First edition, the copy of The Garden Ltd., of Lorentz’s major work on the electrodynamics of moving bodies “which soon became a classic” (Schaffner, p. 503). It was in this work that he introduced the concept of ‘local time’, a “major discovery” (Hoffmann, p. 86), and..... More
Item #4924

[London: Macmillan, 1939]. First edition, extremely rare offprints, of the discovery of nuclear fission, a process which had been observed by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann the previous year but for which they were unable to provide an explanation. “In the late 1930s, a series of experiments showed that bombarding..... More
Item #5185