14.03.2014 Views

Cat. 205 illustrated.pdf - Jonathan A Hill, Bookseller

Cat. 205 illustrated.pdf - Jonathan A Hill, Bookseller

Cat. 205 illustrated.pdf - Jonathan A Hill, Bookseller

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

<strong>Jonathan</strong> A. <strong>Hill</strong><br />

<strong>Bookseller</strong><br />

<strong>Cat</strong>alogue <strong>205</strong><br />

recent acquisitions<br />

in science, medicine,<br />

natural history,<br />

chemistry, and<br />

bibliography


jonathan a. hill<br />

bookseller<br />

><br />

catalogue 2o5


Item 73. Maupertuis, 1743 (somewhat reduced)


<strong>Jonathan</strong> A. <strong>Hill</strong><br />

<strong>Bookseller</strong><br />

recent acquisitions<br />

in science, medicine,<br />

natural history,<br />

chemistry, and<br />

bibliography<br />

><br />

catalogue 2o5<br />

new york city<br />

2o13


JonAtHAn A. H I ll<br />

BooKs eller<br />

<strong>Jonathan</strong> A. <strong>Hill</strong> / Megumi <strong>Hill</strong><br />

325 West end Avenue / Apt. 10B<br />

new York, new York 10023-8143<br />

Telephone: [646] 827-0724<br />

Fax: [212] 496-9182<br />

Portable telephone: [917] 294-2678<br />

E-mail: jahillbooks@aol.com or<br />

jojohillnyc@gmail.com<br />

Home page: www.jonathanahill.com<br />

Member: International league of Antiquarian <strong>Bookseller</strong>s,<br />

Antiquarian <strong>Bookseller</strong>s’ Association of America &<br />

Verband Deutscher Antiquare<br />

Terms are as usual: Any book returnable within five days of receipt,<br />

payment due within thirty days of receipt. Persons ordering<br />

for the first time are requested to remit with order, or supply<br />

suitable trade references. residents of new York state should<br />

include appropriate sales tax.<br />

subject index at end<br />

Additional illustrations of many of these books<br />

can be found on my webpage<br />

<strong>Cat</strong>alogue format by Abe lerner,<br />

with cover and front matter design by Jerry Kelly


<strong>Cat</strong>alogue <strong>205</strong><br />

1. ACADÉMIE ROYALE DE CHIRURGIE, PARIS. Recueil des Piéces<br />

qui ont concourru pour le Prix de l’Académie Royale de Chirurgie. Five vols.<br />

Large 4to, early 19th-cent.mottled calf, sides panelled & decorated in gilt,<br />

spines richly gilt, red & green morocco lettering pieces on spines,a.e.g.<br />

Paris: 1770-57-86-78-97. $3500.00<br />

A very important collection. With Vol. IV the title becomes Mémoires sur les<br />

Sujets proposés pour le Prix de …. A mixed set from various editions.<br />

A very attractive collection in handsome state, from the library of François-<br />

Joseph Moreau (1789-1862), the well-known obstetrician-gynecologist and a<br />

highly regarded professor of these subjects (see Hirsch, IV, p. 260).<br />

2. ACADÉMIE ROYALE DE CHIRURGIE, PARIS. Mémoires de<br />

l’Académie Royale de Chirurgie. 89 engraved plates (12 folding). Five vols.<br />

Large 4to, early 19th-cent. mottled calf, sides panelled & decorated in<br />

gilt, spines richly gilt, red & green morocco lettering pieces on<br />

spines,a.e.g. Paris: 1787-69-78-84-74. $6000.00<br />

Reprint of this great collection of medical texts which had originally been<br />

published starting in 1743 and very quickly went out of print. One finds here<br />

memoirs of the most important French doctors and surgeons of the time


Items 1 & 2. Académie Royale de Chirurgie (greatly reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 7<br />

including: R.J. Croissant de Garengeot, F. de la Peyronie (Garrison-Morton<br />

4163–“La Peyronie’s disease”), A. Levret, H.F. Le Dran (Garrison-Morton<br />

2607–“Important discussion on cancer”), J.L. Petit, F. Quesnay, etc.<br />

A very fine and pretty set, from the library of François-Joseph Moreau (1789-<br />

1862), the well-known obstetrician-gynecologist and a highly regarded professor<br />

of these subjects (see Hirsch, IV, p. 260). His name is stamped at the foot of each<br />

volume. With his bookplate.<br />

3. AGRICOLA, Georg. De Re Metallica Libri XII. Quibus Officia,<br />

Instrumenta, Machinae, ac omnia denique ad Metallicam spectantia, non modo<br />

luculentissimè describuntur, sed & per effigies, suis locis insertas, adjunctis<br />

Latinis, Germanicisque appellationibus ita ob oculos ponuntur, ut clarius tradi<br />

non possint. Eiusdem de Animantibus Subterraneis Liber, ab Autore recognitus:<br />

cum Indicibus diversis… Two woodcut plates (one folding, both slightly<br />

shaved at the fore-edge, as often) & about 270 splendid woodcuts (many<br />

full-page) in the text. Froben’s woodcut device on title & on verso of final<br />

leaf. 6 p.l. (final leaf a blank), 502 pp., [37] leaves. Folio, an attractive<br />

modern binding using an old antiphonal leaf (several small wormholes<br />

in the first and last two leaves, first gathering faintly dampstained, a few<br />

gatherings light browned). Basel: Froben, 1561. $9500.00<br />

Second Latin edition, corrected, of “the first systematic treatise on mining and<br />

metallurgy and one of the first technological books of modern times…The De Re<br />

Metallica embraces everything connected with the mining industry and<br />

metallurgical processes, including administration, prospecting, the duties of<br />

officials and companies and the manufacture of glass, sulphur and alum. The<br />

magnificent series of two hundred and seventy-three large woodcut illustrations<br />

by Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch add to its value. Some of the most important<br />

sections are those on mechanical engineering and the use of water-power,<br />

hauling, pumps, ventilation, blowing of furnaces, transport of ores, etc., showing<br />

a very elaborate technique”(Printing & the Mind of Man).<br />

This second edition is almost a page-for-page reprint of the first, but is<br />

typographically superior and is printed on heavier paper. The woodcuts are the<br />

same as those in the first edition.<br />

Apart from the defects mentioned, an excellent copy.<br />

É D.S.B., I, pp. 77–79. Hoover 18. Neville I, p. 17. See Printing & the Mind of<br />

Man 79; Dibner, Heralds of Science, 88; Horblit 2b; and Sparrow, Milestones of<br />

Science, p. 8 for the first edition of 1556.


8<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

4. ALDINI, Giuseppe Antonio. Instituzioni Glittografiche, o sia Della<br />

maniera di conoscere la qualità, e natura delle gemme incise, e di giudicare del<br />

contenuto, e del pregio delle medesime. viii, 349 pp. 8vo, early 19th-cent.<br />

sheep-backed marbled boards (occasional light foxing), flat spine gilt.<br />

Cesena: G. Biasini, 1785. $2750.00<br />

First edition of a book which is rather rare on the market; I have not had a<br />

copy before and there was no copy in the Freilich sale. “Virtually an abbreviated<br />

encyclopedia of the major aspects of gem engraving. Topics include history of<br />

the art, principal gemstones and materials used, names of Greek and Roman<br />

gem engravers and their most important productions, the several gem<br />

engraving schools in Italy and elsewhere, a description of the Museum<br />

Odeschalcum, its history, contents, etc., comments on books written about<br />

engraved gems by Agostini, Gori, Passeri, Ficoroni, Galeotti and others, abraxoid<br />

gems, talismanic gems and others of supposed magical power, with remarks on<br />

the superstitions and lore attending them, fake gems and the methods of making<br />

them and how they can be detected, and lastly, remarks on the organization of<br />

engraved gem collections and some famous cabinets, especially in<br />

Italy.”–Sinkankas 66.<br />

Very nice copy.<br />

É Cicognara 2730–(with an incorrect date).<br />

Classic Commentaries<br />

5. ARISTOTELES. Commentaria…Egidii Romani in libros de generatione<br />

& corruptione Aristotelis cum textu intercluso singulis locis. Questiones…super<br />

primo libro de generatione nunc quidem primum in publicum prodeuntes.<br />

Questiones…Doctoris Marsilii Inguem in prefatos libros de generatione…Item<br />

questiones…Magistri Alberti de saxonia in eosdem libros de gene. ultra nusq<br />

impresse. Woodcut initials & woodcut publisher’s device at end. Two<br />

columns, Gothic type. 155, [1] leaves. Folio, attractive antique vellumbacked<br />

wooden boards (lower outer blank corners of a number of leaves<br />

repaired, occasional staining). [Venice: B. Locatellus for O. Scotus, 6 Sept.<br />

1504]. $6000.00<br />

An important early edition of Aristotle’s De Generatione et Corruptione; this is,<br />

I believe, the first to contain the three additional commentaries of Egidio<br />

Colonna (d. 1316), Marsilius of Inghen (d. 1396), and Albert of Saxony (ca. 1316-<br />

90). The De Generatione et Corruptione is one of Aristotle’s most important writings<br />

on physics and natural science and was written during his years at Plato’s<br />

Academy.<br />

Colonna (d. 1316), also known as Giles of Rome, was a disciple of Thomas<br />

Aquinas while a student in Paris. Colonna was the first Augustinian appointed


Item 4. Aldini, 1785


10<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

to teach in the University of Paris and his deep learning earned for him the title<br />

of Doctor fundatissimus. In 1295 he was appointed Archbishop of Bourges by Pope<br />

Boniface VIII.<br />

“Although mainly a philosopher and theologian, Giles frequently dealt with<br />

problems relating to natural philosophy, notable in his commentaries on<br />

Aristotle. Moreover, he did so in a style distinctive enough to place him in the<br />

first rank of those thinkers who have made a positive contribution to the<br />

scientific thought of their time (see Maier, Die Vorläufer Galileis, p. 2)…<br />

“[His commentary on] the De generatione et corruptione…became [a] classic, and<br />

was often utilized by such fourteenth-century physicists as Buridan and<br />

Marsilius of Inghen, who considered Giles the communis expositor of the De<br />

generatione.”–D.S.B., V, pp. 402-03.<br />

Marsilius was a high official at the Universities of Paris and Heidelberg and his<br />

“chief contributions to science lay in the field of physics…His work places him<br />

among the Parisian masters who may be considered to be the precursors of<br />

Leonardo and Galileo and the formers of the new physics of the fifteenth and<br />

sixteenth centuries.”–D.S.B., IX, p. 136.<br />

Albert of Saxony was a prominent teacher on the faculty of arts at Paris.<br />

“Albert’s significance in the history of science is primarily that of a transmitter<br />

and an intelligent compiler of scientific ideas directly drawn from the works of<br />

Buridan, Thomas Bradwardine, William of Ockham, Burley, Oresme, and other<br />

writers in the medieval scientific tradition.”–D.S.B., I, p. 94.<br />

Very good copy. No copy in N.U.C., OCLC, and RLIN.<br />

É Adams A-1792–(false collation).<br />

7. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: ……, M.). Notice des Livres de M. ……<br />

dont la vente se fera le 31 Mars et jours suivans, Rue des Bons-Enfans,<br />

no. 30. 32 pp. 8vo, attractive antique half-calf & marbled boards, flat<br />

spine gilt, uncut. [Paris]: Potey, 1813. $1500.00<br />

Very rare; not in OCLC and the Grolier Club does not own a copy. 458 lots of<br />

very mixed books, mostly of the 18th century, including travel, literature,<br />

botany, and economics. Fine copy from the library of Jean Viardot.<br />

8. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: ANON.). Notice d’un Choix de Bons<br />

Livres, presque tous en Papier Vélin, & en partie reliés par Bozerian, Simier &<br />

Courteval. Dont la Vente se fera les Lundi & Mardi 12 & 13 Avril<br />

1813…dans la salle basse de la maison Silvestre… 15 pp. 8vo, attractive<br />

antique half-calf & marbled boards, flat spine gilt. Paris: Olivier & Brunet,<br />

1813. $1500.00<br />

A very rare sale catalogue; no copy in OCLC or the Grolier Club. This<br />

catalogue, which lists 139 lots, lists recent publications and seems to have been


Item 9. Gancia, 1860 (reduced)


12<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

a dealer’s stock clearance sale. Most of the books were printed on fine paper and<br />

well bound.<br />

Fine copy from the library of Jean Viardot.<br />

“Somewhat Shadowy”<br />

9. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: [GANCIA, G.]). <strong>Cat</strong>alogue des Livres<br />

rares et précieux provenant de la Collection de M. G. G..... de Br...... . xii, 161<br />

pp., one leaf with schedule of sale. 8vo, attractive antique half-calf &<br />

paste-paper boards, flat spine gilt, uncut. Paris: L. Potier, 1860.<br />

$1250.00<br />

Very little is known about G. Gancia, described by Breslauer as a “somewhat<br />

shadowy, obviously Italian, dealer operating in Brighton, England.”<br />

Nevertheless, he was the greatest dealer in England of the period for French<br />

books. He issued a series of catalogues between 1848 and 1858 from 73 King’s<br />

Road, Brighton and was, along with Tross, the chief supplier of French books to<br />

Huth. He was also active as a publisher. Arriving at retirement age, Gancia began<br />

to consign his enormous inventory to the leading auction houses of London and<br />

Paris for nearly twenty years.<br />

The present catalogue seems to be the first of the Paris sales. It describes 1026<br />

quite extraordinary books, mostly French and Italian. We learn from the<br />

auctioneer’s introductory comments that Gancia acquired his stock, now partly<br />

sold here, at the most important sales in London and Paris since 1847: Libri,<br />

Taylor, A. Bertin, Coste, Renouard, etc. and the majority of the books were finely<br />

bound by Niedrée, Trautz-Bauzonnet, Duru, Capé, and Lortic.<br />

Fine copy from the library of Jean Viardot.<br />

É Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie <strong>Cat</strong>holique, Supp., col. 354.<br />

10. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: GOUTTARD). <strong>Cat</strong>alogue des Livres<br />

Rares et Précieux de feu M. Gouttard, par Guillaume De Bure... xvi, 246, [4],<br />

4 pp. 8vo, attractive antique half-calf & paste-paper boards, spine gilt, red<br />

morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: G. de Bure, 1780. $1500.00<br />

An important sale of 1604 lots. Gouttard’s collection was rich in first editions<br />

of classical literature and history and many of the books were on large paper or<br />

vellum and in the finest possible condition. There is a biographical sketch of<br />

Gouttard serving as the Preface in which it is noted that Gouttard edited texts<br />

of Horace and Virgil. All the great collectors and dealers of the period purchased<br />

at this sale, including Comte d’Artois; d’Hangard; Le Camus de Limaire; Loliée;<br />

Gouttard de Le Veville, “héritier du mort”; Anisson du Perron fils; Naigeon; le<br />

Président de Saint-Fargeau; Pâris de Préfond; and the booksellers Bailli, Henri,<br />

Janetus, Tillard and Ysquerdo (buying for the King of Spain).<br />

Very little is known about Gouttard, not even his first name, apart from


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 13<br />

Naigéon’s statement that he had inherited wealth and died at the age of<br />

fifty-four from a disease of the chest. De Bure’s catalogue is an excellent<br />

compilation, with extensive notes to many of the lots.<br />

Fine copy. From the library of Jean Viardot.<br />

É Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie <strong>Cat</strong>holique, col. 468–“Belle collection<br />

de classiques. Ce <strong>Cat</strong>alogue, qui renferme 1600 numéros n’est pas commun.”<br />

Grolier Club, Printed <strong>Cat</strong>alogues of French Book Auctions…1643-1830, 291. Peignot,<br />

p. 101–“Belle collection de classiques: ce catalogue n’est pas commun.” Pollard<br />

& Ehrman no. 296. Taylor, Book <strong>Cat</strong>alogues, p. 243.<br />

12. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: LEBER). <strong>Cat</strong>alogue des Livres imprimés,<br />

Manuscrits, Lettres autographes, Dessins et Estampes, provenant de la<br />

Bibliothèque de M. C. Leber…la vente aura lieu le samedi 3 novembre<br />

1860 & jours suivants… ix, [1], 117 pp., 1 leaf with schedule of sale. 8vo,<br />

attractive antique half-calf & paste-paper boards, flat spine gilt, uncut.<br />

Paris: L. Potier, 1860. $1250.00<br />

This is the second collection of Jean Michel Constant Leber (1780-1859); the<br />

first was donated to the Bibliothèque Municipale of Rouen in 1838. While not as<br />

large as his first library, the present collection — 542 lots of books, 90 lots of<br />

prints (containing altogether about 2000), and 9 lots of objets d’art — was an<br />

important one, rich in books on the arts, ornamentation, and in MSS. on the<br />

history of France.<br />

Fine copy from the library of Jean Viardot.<br />

É Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie <strong>Cat</strong>holique, Supp., cols. 358-59.<br />

The Enormous Library of a Pioneering Historian of Poetry<br />

13. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: LEYSER, Polycarp IV). <strong>Cat</strong>alogus<br />

Bibliothecæ Leyserianæ, in III. Partes distinctus, continens Apparatum librorum<br />

pretiosissimorum, rariorum & insignium, maximam partem<br />

Theologico-Historico-Philologicorum…Die XII. Augusti & seqq.…publicæ<br />

auctionis ritu distrahentur. 1 p.l., 256 pp.; 166 pp.; 79 pp.; 10 pp. Three<br />

parts & appendix bound in one vol. 8vo, cont. boards. Celle: 1726.<br />

$3500.00<br />

The extremely rare auction catalogue of the large and notable library of<br />

Polycarp Leyser (1690-1728), polymath and professor of poetry and history at the<br />

University of Helmstedt. He descended from a long line of scholars and was the<br />

author of the pioneering and still indispensable history of medieval poetry, the<br />

Historia Poetarum et Poematum medii aevi (1721). His library, comprising 25,152<br />

lots, contained many thousands of volumes of 16th- and 17th-century works of<br />

literature, history, medicine, law, and theology, as well as Latin and Oriental


14<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

manuscripts.<br />

Very fine copy.<br />

É A.D.B., Vol. 18, pp. 527-28. Loh, Vol. I, p. 203. N.B.G., Vol. 31, col. 61.<br />

De Bure Corrected<br />

14. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: [MEL DE SAINT CERAN]). <strong>Cat</strong>alogue<br />

des Livres Rares et Precieux de M.*** [Mel de Saint Ceran]. Disposé et mis<br />

en Ordre par Guillaume De Bure, fils aîné. xvi, 312 pp. 8vo, attractive<br />

antique calf, sides decorated in gilt, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece<br />

on spine. Paris: De Bure, 1780. $1750.00<br />

A rare catalogue, of the library of Mel de Saint Ceran, receiver general of<br />

finances. “<strong>Cat</strong>alogue curieux et qui peut trouver place à côté de celui de Gaignat.<br />

Il est fort bien raisonné; et plusieurs notes de l’éditeur corrigent très à propos<br />

quelques articles de la Bibliographie instructive.”–Peignot, p. 112.<br />

Nice copy from the library of Jean Viardot. 2295 lots with an author index at<br />

end. There are some fine early MSS. and bindings in this collection.<br />

É Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie <strong>Cat</strong>holique, col. 492. Grolier Club,<br />

Printed <strong>Cat</strong>alogues of French Books Auctions…1643-1830, 290.<br />

15. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: SAUVAGEOT, Charles). <strong>Cat</strong>alogue des<br />

Livres manuscrits et imprimés, composant la Bibliothèque de M. Charles<br />

Sauvageot…avec une Notice biographique par M. Le Roux de Lincy. xxxi,<br />

175 pp. 8vo, attractive antique half-calf & paste-paper boards, flat spine<br />

gilt, uncut. Paris: L. Potier, 1860. $1250.00<br />

The scarce catalogue of the important library of Sauvageot (1781-1860),<br />

“Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Conservateur honoraire des Musées du<br />

Louvre.” From Le Roux de Lincy’s valuable biographical sketch, we learn that<br />

Sauvageot bought primarily from De Bure, Crozet, Techener, and Potier. The<br />

library was particularly rich in early French books, especially literature and<br />

history; there are some early manuscripts as well.<br />

Fine copy from the library of Jean Viardot. 1691 lots.<br />

Priced Throughout in a Contemporary Hand<br />

16. (AUCTION CATALOGUE: [TURGOT, M.É., prob. owner]).<br />

<strong>Cat</strong>alogue des Livres de la Bibliotheque de M.*** [“Turgot” supplied in a<br />

contemporary hand]. Dont la Vente se fera à l’amiable le [blank space to<br />

be filled in] Janvier 1744. dans une des Salles du Couvent des RR. PP.<br />

Augustins. 1 p.l., xi, [1], 514 pp. 8vo, cont. mottled calf (corners a bit


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 15<br />

worn, some worming in blank margin at foot), spine gilt, red morocco<br />

lettering piece on spine. Paris: Piget, 1744. $2500.00<br />

There is considerable confusion regarding the owner of this catalogue; OCLC<br />

offers three possibilities: one is probable, one is possible but unlikely, and the<br />

third is impossible.<br />

1. Probable: Michel Étienne Turgot (1690-1751), the “provost of the merchants”<br />

of Paris and the father of the celebrated economist and minister to Louis XVI.<br />

As a leading merchant and high government official, Michel Étienne was<br />

charged with making Paris a healthier place to live and supervised the<br />

construction of the enormous and controversial sewer along the right bank of<br />

the Seine. Brunet (see below) attributes the catalogue to this Turgot and I agree;<br />

he would have had the intellectual background and financial resources to create<br />

such a large library.<br />

2. Possible but unlikely: Marc Antoine Turgot de Saint-Clair (1668-1748),<br />

“maître des requettes” and “intendant de moulins.” While Bléchet and the<br />

Grolier Club are in favor of this Turgot, I doubt it: he lived in the provinces and<br />

I do not believe he would have had the background or resources to build this<br />

library.<br />

3. Impossible: Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1726-81), the great economist. This<br />

Turgot would have been only 18 years old when the sale occurred.<br />

Turgot’s library was one of the largest in France at the time; the Preface states<br />

that there were about 10,000 volumes (in 5552 lots). Priced throughout in a<br />

contemporary hand.<br />

É Bléchet, p. 114. Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie <strong>Cat</strong>holique, cols.<br />

537-38–“L’ancienne littérature française offrait un assez grand nombre de<br />

volumes rares et devenus aujourd’hui très-recherchés…Les ouvrages italiens<br />

étaient nombreux et bien choisis…La classe de l’histoire offre une foule de ces<br />

livrets du XVIe siècle relatifs aux troubles de la Ligue et aujourd’hui fort<br />

convoités des amateurs.” Grolier Club, Printed <strong>Cat</strong>alogues of French Books<br />

Auctions…1643-1830, 73. Peignot, p. 128.<br />

17. BAIER, Johann Jakob. Biographiae Professorum Medicinae qui in<br />

Academia Altorfina unquam vixerunt. Engraved frontis. port. of the author,<br />

large engraved vignette on title, & 14 engraved plates, each with a<br />

portrait. Title printed in red & black. 6 p.l. (incl. frontis.), 195, [5] pp. 4to,<br />

attractive antique calf-backed speckled boards, spine gilt, red morocco<br />

lettering piece on spine. Nuremberg & Altdorf: J.D. Tauber, 1728.<br />

$1350.00<br />

First edition of this handsomely <strong>illustrated</strong> work which provides biographical<br />

accounts of the fifteen most important professors of medicine at the University<br />

of Altdorf, near Nuremberg. They include Lorenz Heister, Johann Ludwig


Item 17. Baier, 1728 (much reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 17<br />

Apinus, various members of the Hoffmann family, Johann Jakob Jantke, Georg<br />

Noessler, and Baier himself (his autobiographical account is the longest of all).<br />

For each of the fifteen professors, a finely engraved portrait has been prepared.<br />

Baier (1677-1735), professor of medicine at Altdorf, is best known for his<br />

important studies of minerals and fossils (see D.S.B., I, pp. 392-93).<br />

Fine copy.<br />

18. BEAUFOY, Mark. Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with numerous<br />

Scientific Miscellanies. Vol. I [all published]. Engraved frontis. port., 16<br />

engraved plates, & 8 double-page printed tables. 3 p.l., cxix, [1], 688 pp.<br />

Large thick 4to, orig. patterned cloth (a bit worn at extremities), printed<br />

paper label on spine, entirely uncut. London: Printed at the Private Press<br />

of Henry Beaufoy, May 1834. $1500.00<br />

First edition of these important experiments. Beaufoy (1764-1827), the first<br />

Englishman to ascend Mont Blanc, was a founder of the Society for the<br />

Improvement of Naval Architecture, the first such organization to exist. “Under<br />

its auspices an important series of experiments was conducted at the Greenland<br />

Dock during the years 1793-9 by the care, and in part at the cost, of Colonel<br />

Beaufoy. Many useful results in shipbuilding were thus obtained, as well as the<br />

first practical verification in England of Euler’s theorems on the resistance of<br />

fluids. The details were printed in 1834.”–D.N.B., II, p. 51.<br />

This copy has bound-in the extra engraved presentation leaf, inscribed to the<br />

Library of the Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh.<br />

A fine and clean copy of this handsome book. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.<br />

É Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 28.<br />

19. BECCARIA, Giovanni Battista. Dell’ Elettricismo Artificiale, e<br />

Naturale libri due. Woodcut device on title. 4 p.l., 245, [1] pp. 4to, cont.<br />

vellum over boards (somewhat browned as usual). Torino: F.A.<br />

Campana, 1753. $1000.00<br />

First edition of Beccaria’s first book. “The results of Beccaria’s brief, vigorous<br />

study of electricity appeared in his first book, Dell’ elettricismo artificiale e naturale<br />

(1753). The volume, which Franklin praised, presents the elements of the new<br />

theory clearly and logically; illustrates them with variations of Franklin’s<br />

experiments, to which Beccaria primarily added observations of the different<br />

appearances of discharges from positively and negatively electrified points;<br />

modifies secondary aspects of the theory and applies it to new territory; and<br />

seeks to explain meteorological and geophysical phenomena as manifestations<br />

of ‘natural’ electricity…The book also contains a long letter to the Abbé J.A.<br />

Nollet, who had raised objections against Franklin’s system. The Parisian


18<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

Franklinistes thought the letter successful, translated it into French, and thus<br />

temporarily made Beccaria the leading champion of the new system.”–D.S.B., I,<br />

p. 547. Very good copy, printed on thick paper, with half-title.<br />

É Wheeler Gift. <strong>Cat</strong>. 375.<br />

20. BERKELEY, George. Siris: a Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and<br />

Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar Water, and divers other Subjects<br />

connected together and arising one from another…The Second Edition,<br />

Improved and Corrected by the Author. 174, [2] pp. 8vo, modern halfcalf<br />

& marbled boards. “Dublin Printed, London Re-printed, for W.<br />

Innys, and C. Hitch…and C. Davis,” 1744.<br />

[bound with]:<br />

HALES, Stephen. An Account of some Experiments and Observations on<br />

Tar-Water: wherein is shown the Quantity of Tar that is therein…To which is<br />

added, A Letter from Mr. Reid, to Dr. Hales, Concerning the Nature of Tar, and<br />

a Method of obtaining it’s Medical Virtues, free from it’s hurtful Oils: Whereby<br />

also the Strength of each Dose may be the better ascertained…The Second<br />

Edition. 1 p.l., 74 pp. 8vo. London: R. Manby & H.S. Cox, 1747.<br />

[bound with]:<br />

PRIOR, Thomas. An Authentick Narrative of the Success of Tar-Water, in<br />

curing a great Number and Variety of Distempers, with Remarks, and<br />

Occasional Papers relative to the subject. To which are subjoined, Two Letters<br />

from the Author of Siris, Shewing the Medicinal Properties of Tar-Water, and<br />

the best Manner of making it. 4, 192 pp. 8vo. “Dublin Printed, London Reprinted,<br />

for W. Innys, C. Hitch, and M. Cooper…and C. Davis,” 1746.<br />

$1750.00<br />

A most attractive sammelband, including Berkeley’s last major work. Siris<br />

“begins as an investigation of the medicinal virtues of tar water and ends with<br />

a disquisition on Platonic philosophy. The body of the book consists, on the one<br />

hand, of a discussion of contemporary chemical theory and, on the other, of a<br />

critique of Newtonian principles of explanation, of space and time, and of the<br />

true interpretation of the concept of causation. The sections on chemistry are of<br />

particular interest, for they display considerable acquaintance with most of the<br />

major chemical doctrines of Berkeley’s period (e.g., Boerhaave, Homberg, Hales,<br />

the younger Lemery, etc.)…Siris thus involves an attempt to assimilate<br />

Newtonian concepts to the more complex phenomena of chemistry and animal<br />

physiology.”–D.S.B., II, pp. 16-17.<br />

Very good copies.<br />

É I. Keynes 67.


Item 21. Berlin, 1711 (reduced)


20<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

21. BERLIN, KÖNIGLICHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN.<br />

Kurtze Erzehlung, Welchergestalt von Sr. Kön. Maj. in Preußen Friederich dem<br />

I. in Dero Hauptsitz Berlin die Societæt der Wissenschafften oder zu mehrer<br />

Aufnahme des gelehrten Wesens abzielende Gesellschafft gestiftet worden und<br />

wie dieselbe zu ihrer völligen Niedersetzung gediehen. Mit beifügung des<br />

Stiftungs-Briefs, der Einrichtungs-Gesetze, derer bey der Niedersetzung<br />

gehaltenen Reden und des <strong>Cat</strong>alogi Membrorum Societatis. Engraved vignette<br />

of the Royal observatory on title & one engraving in the text. [60] pp.<br />

Small 4to, cont. vellum over boards. Berlin: G. Schlechtiger for J.D. Pape,<br />

1711. $2950.00<br />

First edition of one of the earliest publications concerning the Berlin Academy,<br />

founded in 1700 by under Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg at the initiative<br />

of Leibniz. The Academy became active in 1710 when it began to publish the<br />

Miscellanea Berolinensia. The present work, which is very rare — OCLC locates<br />

only one copy in the U.S. — describes the organization of the Academy, provides<br />

a brief history of its creation, and gives a list of its members from 1700 to 1711<br />

(which is a roll-call of the leading northern German scientific and literary men<br />

of the period).<br />

Fine copy.<br />

“This Classic Work”<br />

22. BERTHIER, Pierre. Traité des Essais par la Voie Sèche; ou des<br />

Propriétés, de la Composition et de l’Essai des Substances Métalliques et des<br />

Combustibles. 13 folding engraved plates. xxiii, [1], 654 pp.; xxxv, [3], 1008<br />

pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. marbled boards (heads & tails of spines very<br />

neatly restored, occasional browning or foxing), spines decorated in gilt.<br />

Paris: Thomine, 1834. $950.00<br />

First edition. Berthier (1782-1861), professor of assaying and chief of the<br />

laboratory at the École des Mines, did important work on mineral analysis and<br />

compounds of metals. The present work “was widely used by mineralogists and<br />

mining engineers because his analytical procedures were simple, relatively<br />

accurate, and practical.”–D.S.B., II, p. 72.<br />

Fine and handsome set. Signature of “Chasalle” on both titles.<br />

É Neville, I, p. 135–“This classic work.” Partington, IV, p. 98–“Berthier’s book<br />

on assaying and chemical metallurgy, including some general chemistry, is still<br />

quoted in large treatises.”


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 21<br />

“Very Rare”<br />

23. BERTHOLLET, Claude Louis. Über die Gesetze der Verwandschaft in<br />

der Chemie. Aus dem französischen übersetzt mit Anmerkungen<br />

Zusätzen und einer synthetischen Darstellung von Berthollets Theorie<br />

versehen von Ernst Gottfried Fischer. xii, 332 pp. 8vo, cont. paste-paper<br />

board, red leather lettering piece on spine. Berlin: G.C. Nauck, 1802.<br />

$2950.00<br />

First edition in German of the Recherches sur les lois de l’affinité (Paris, 1801). “In<br />

the preface the translator, Fischer (1754-1831), gives a brief biography of<br />

Berthollet, praising him and listing the titles of his works on the reform of<br />

chemical nomenclature, bleaching, and dyeing. ‘Fischer found Berthollet’s new<br />

view of chemical phenomena so convincing that it is impossible to maintain the<br />

old theory’ (Partington, III, 652). Fischer was professor of physics and<br />

mathematics in the Gymnasium zum grauen Kloster, Berlin, and, on page 232<br />

he ‘gives a clear summary of Richter’s views…and a table of equivalent weights<br />

of acids and bases referred to 1000 parts of sulphuric acid as a single standard’<br />

(Partington, III, 678). ‘This table contains thirteen acids and eight bases,…the<br />

same standard that Richter…had consistently used. At the same time, however,<br />

Fischer criticizes Richter’s series of masses as unacceptable hypotheses’ (D.S.B.,<br />

XI, 437). The section entitled ‘Versuch einer synthetischen Darstellung von<br />

Berthollet’s Theorie’ (pp. 263-332) summarizes the ramifications of the laws of<br />

affinity and mass in chemical reactions. Very rare.”<br />

An early supporter of Jeremias Benjamin Richter (1762-1807), the discoverer<br />

of the law of neutrality, Fischer was instrumental in making Richter’s theories<br />

better known (see Partington, III, pp. 678-79).<br />

Fine copy. Old library stamp on title.<br />

A Proper Basis for Chemistry<br />

24. BERTHOLLET, Claude Louis, Comte. Essai de Statique Chimique.<br />

viii, 543 pp.; viii, 555, [1] pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. mauve calf (spines<br />

faded to brown, short crack at top of one joint), sides blind-stamped with<br />

an ornate floral pattern, flat spines gilt, single gilt fillet round sides,<br />

ornate ex-libris of the Collège Royale d’Orléans in centers of upper<br />

covers. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1803. $1750.00<br />

First edition of Berthollet’s most important work in which he attempted to<br />

provide a proper basis for chemistry, so that its experimental results could be<br />

viewed in light of theoretical first principles. Here Berthollet laid the foundations<br />

of our understanding of the causes of chemical affinities and reactions.<br />

A fine and attractive set of a rare and important book. There were translations<br />

into English, Italian, and German.<br />

É Cole 122. D.S.B., II, pp. 73-82. Duveen, p. 75. Neville I, p. 138–“One of the


22<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

great milestone books in the development of chemical theory.” Partington, III,<br />

pp. 644-46 & IV, pp. 576-79.<br />

Presentation Inscription to His Mother;<br />

Printed on Thick Paper in Fine Viennese Bindings<br />

25. BISCHOFF, Ignaz Rudolph. Grundsätze der praktischen Heilkunde<br />

durch Krankheitsfälle erläutert. Zum Gebrauche für Wundärzte. xii, 280, [2]<br />

pp., one leaf of errata; 3 p.l., 224, [6] pp., one leaf of errata; xx, 216 pp.,<br />

one leaf of errata. Two vols. in three. 8vo, cont. green sheep, single gilt<br />

fillet round sides, flat spines richly gilt, each in a different pattern, a.e.g.,<br />

rose, orange, & pink endpapers. Prague: G. Haase, 1823-23; Calve, 1825.<br />

$3500.00<br />

First edition of Bischoff’s main work; this is a presentation set, inscribed to the<br />

author’s mother on 9 April 1823, and elaborately bound in luxury green sheep<br />

with each volume bound with a different and elaborate spine design. Each<br />

volume has been printed on thick paper. Vol. I deals with fevers and the second<br />

volume (in two parts) is concerned with thoracic and abdominal illnesses.<br />

Bischoff, Edler von Alternstern (1784-1850), was born in Kremsmünster. In<br />

1813 he became professor at the medical clinic at Prague where he proved to be<br />

a very able specialist in internal diseases. Three years later he was appointed<br />

chief physician at the main hospital of Prague, and in 1826 he came to Vienna to<br />

take the position of director of the medical clinic and professor of clinical<br />

medicine at the famous Josephinum or Medico-Chirurgical Academy, founded by<br />

Joseph II in 1785. Bischoff is an outstanding example of a Viennese physician<br />

who, on the one hand, demonstrated a tendency to clinical observation of the<br />

expiring Stoll-Hildenbrand era while, on the other hand, showed some of the<br />

ideas of the Romantic medicine of the New Viennese school.<br />

He is especially remembered for his efforts in combating the first cholera<br />

epidemic in Vienna and for directing the vaccination program against small pox<br />

in Bohemia. His chief contributions were made as an outstanding practicing<br />

physician and a teacher of clinical methods. His many books demonstrate a<br />

level-headed point of view and a clarity of description.<br />

A fine set bound in handsomely decorated contemporary Viennese bindings.<br />

Rare.<br />

É A.D.B., II, p. 674. Hirsch, I, p. 550. Lesky, The Vienna Medical School of the 19th<br />

Century, pp. 23 & 34. N.B.G., Vol. 6, col. 135. Wurzbach, I, 410–“Bischoff<br />

entwickelte nach den verschiedensten Seiten eine fast unglaubliche<br />

Tätigkeit…Bedeutend sind Bischoffs Verdienste als praktischer Arzt und Lehrer,<br />

aber auch als Schriftsteller hat sich Bischoff um die Wissenschaft durch tüchtige<br />

Werke selbst im Ausland anerkannte Verdienste erworben.”


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 23<br />

26. BOSSUT, Charles. Traité Théorique et Expérimental<br />

d’Hydrodynamique. 23 folding engraved plates. 3 p.l., xviii, 545, [3] pp.; 4<br />

p.l., 515, [1] pp. Two vols. Thick 8vo, orig. boards (extremities a bit worn),<br />

red vellum lettering pieces on spines, uncut. Paris: Imprimerie Royale,<br />

1786-87. $2500.00<br />

First edition of one of the classic works in hydrodynamics and hydraulics. The<br />

second volume is particularly interesting as it describes numerous hydraulic<br />

experiments. The handsome plates illustrate many hydraulic machines including<br />

two devices which produce steam.<br />

Bossut (1730-1814), assumed the chair of hydrodynamics established by Turgot<br />

at the Louvre. He was a major contributor to European scientific education and<br />

his texts represent the emergence of a standardized, rigorous system of<br />

engineering physics textbooks.<br />

A very fine and attractive set in remarkable original state.<br />

É D.S.B., II, pp. 334-35. Rouse & Ince, History of Hydraulics, pp. 126-27.<br />

Presentation Copy<br />

27. BOTFIELD, Beriah. Prefaces to the First Editions of the Greek and<br />

Roman Classics and of the Sacred Scriptures. Collected and edited by… 3<br />

p.l., lxxvi, 674 pp. Large thick 4to, orig. green leather backed boards<br />

(extremities a little worn & scuffed), spine lettered in gilt. London: H.G.<br />

Bohn, 1861. $300.00<br />

First edition of this useful work which has not been superseded within a single<br />

pair of covers. Tipped-in is a brief letter from Botfield presenting this copy to “Sir<br />

Thomas” (no, not that Sir Thomas) at Stanford, dated 11 June 1862.<br />

From 1850, Botfield (1807-63), antiquary and industrialist, alone controlled the<br />

Shropshire collieries and ironworks which were the basis of the Botfield fortune.<br />

A notable book collector and member of the Roxburghe Club, he produced a<br />

number of volumes that reflected his interests in early printed books and<br />

manuscripts.<br />

Very good copy. Armorial bookplate signed “T.E. Winnington.”<br />

28. BOYLE, Robert. The Works…to which is Prefixed the Life of the<br />

Author. Engraved frontis. port. of Boyle, engraved vignettes on titles, &<br />

24 engraved plates on 15 folding sheets. Titles printed in red & black.<br />

Five vols. Large folio, a prize binding of cont. calf (several joints cracked<br />

but strong, some rubbing & wear), arms in gilt of Trinity College, Dublin,<br />

on covers, spines gilt, contrasting leather lettering pieces on spines.


24<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

London: A. Millar, 1744. $9500.00<br />

First edition of Boyle’s Works in English. “The first complete edition of his<br />

writings was published by Birch in 1744…It included his posthumous remains<br />

and correspondence, with a life of the author founded on materials collected<br />

with abortive biographical designs by Burnet and Wotton, and embracing<br />

Boyle’s unfinished narrative of his early years entitled ‘An account of Philaretus<br />

during his Minority.’ More or less complete Latin editions of his works were<br />

issued at Geneva in 1677, 1680, and 1714; at Cologne in 1680-95; and at Venice<br />

in 1695.”–D.N.B., II, p. 1030.<br />

“During Robert Boyle’s lifetime there was a great demand for his writings not<br />

only in England but on the Continent, this no doubt reflecting the dramatic<br />

upsurge of interest in the sciences and particularly in those having a bearing on<br />

biology and medicine. But his work must have been equally in demand by<br />

physical scientists. Hence it is no surprise that a collected edition appeared<br />

during his lifetime, to wit, the Geneva Opera Varia of 1677 (reprinted in 1680)…In<br />

English there were two collected editions: the five-volume folio edited by<br />

Thomas Birch and published at London in 1744 and the six-volume quarto of<br />

1772 based on the earlier folio edition.”–Fulton p. 143.<br />

Very good set with the engraved prize bookplate in each volume.<br />

É Fulton 240.<br />

29. BOYLE, Robert. The Works…to which is Prefixed The Life of the<br />

Author. Engraved frontis. port. of Boyle, engraved vignettes on titles, &<br />

24 engraved plates on 16 sheets (mostly folding). Six vols. Large 4to, cont.<br />

russia (rebacked, hinges strengthened with tape, corners rounded), a.e.g.<br />

London: J. & F. Rivington et al., 1772. $6750.00<br />

Second edition of Boyle’s Works in English. “The first complete edition of his<br />

writings was published by Birch in 1744…It included his posthumous remains<br />

and correspondence, with a life of the author founded on materials collected<br />

with abortive biographical designs by Burnet and Wotton, and embracing<br />

Boyle’s unfinished narrative of his early years entitled ‘An account of Philaretus<br />

during his Minority.’ More or less complete Latin editions of his works were<br />

issued at Geneva in 1677, 1680, and 1714; at Cologne in 1680-95; and at Venice<br />

in 1695.”–D.N.B., II, p. 1030.<br />

“During Robert Boyle’s lifetime there was a great demand for his writings not<br />

only in England but on the Continent, this no doubt reflecting the dramatic<br />

upsurge of interest in the sciences and particularly in those having a bearing on<br />

biology and medicine. But his work must have been equally in demand by<br />

physical scientists. Hence it is no surprise that a collected edition appeared<br />

during his lifetime, to wit, the Geneva Opera Varia of 1677 (reprinted in 1680)…In<br />

English there were two collected editions: the five-volume folio edited by<br />

Thomas Birch and published at London in 1744 and the six-volume quarto of


Item 30. Brahe, 1792 (reduced)


26<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

1772 based on the earlier folio edition.”–Fulton p. 143.<br />

This edition contains a new appendix to the Life and is the edition which has<br />

been used as the standard reference for all scholarly work on Boyle.<br />

Good set, fine inside. Armorial bookplate of J.H. Loft.<br />

É Fulton 241.<br />

30. (BRAHE, Tycho). De Meritis Tychonis Brahe in Astronomiam<br />

Mechanicam Dissertatio. By O. Schilling (präses) & Adolph. P. Weller<br />

(resp). One folding engraved plate. 13 pp. Small 4to, stitched as issued.<br />

Uppsala: J. Edman, 1792. $950.00<br />

First edition of this very rare dissertation describing the celestial mechanics of<br />

Brahe. Schilling (1758-1829), was an astronomer at the Uppsala University<br />

observatory. The attractive engraved plate depicts a number of the astronomical<br />

instruments devised by Tycho.<br />

Fine copy.<br />

É Poggendorff, II, 798.<br />

31. BRANDE, William Thomas. A Manual of Chemistry; containing the<br />

Principal Facts of the Science, arranged in the Order in which They are discussed<br />

and <strong>illustrated</strong> in the Lectures at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Second<br />

edition. Folding engraved frontis., three engraved plates (two are<br />

folding), & woodcut illus. in the text. xvi, 470 pp.; vii, [1], 546 pp.; viii,<br />

350, [105] pp., one leaf with imprint. Three vols. 8vo, cont. half-calf<br />

(minor foxing), blue & green morocco labels on spines. London: J.<br />

Murray, 1821. $400.00<br />

Second edition, much enlarged, of the principal textbook of chemistry of its<br />

day, with a greatly expanded history of chemistry and index, and additional text.<br />

“The Manual of Chemistry became a hugely successful and influential textbook<br />

and formed the model for many subsequent chemical textbooks by other<br />

authors.”–O.D.N.B. Michael Faraday was Brande’s assistant at the Royal<br />

Institution, where much of this work was written in the laboratory, described in<br />

the O.D.N.B. as “the best-equipped laboratory in Britain.” It is <strong>illustrated</strong> in the<br />

fine folding frontispiece.<br />

A nice set but lacking the final leaf in Vol. I (containing imprint only).<br />

É Cole 196. Duveen, p. 99. Partington IV, pp. 75–76.


Item 33. Busch, 1573 (reduced)


28<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

Presentation Copy to Duhamel du Monceau<br />

A “Celebrated Classic”<br />

32. BRISSON, Mathurin-Jacques. Regnum Animale in Classes IX<br />

distributum, sive Synopsis Methodica Sistens Generalem Animalium<br />

distributionem in Classes IX, & duarum primarum Classium, Quadrupedum<br />

scilicet & Cetaceorum, particularem divisionem in Ordines, Sectiones, Genera<br />

& Species [with facing title-page in French]. Two folding printed tables &<br />

one folding engraved plate. 3 p.l., [iii]-vi, [2], 382, [2] pp. 4to, cont. calf<br />

(corners a bit worn), triple gilt fillet round sides, spine nicely gilt, red &<br />

brown morocco lettering pieces on spine, a.e.g. Paris: C.J.B. Bauche, 1756.<br />

$1750.00<br />

First edition “of this celebrated classic...[it] is regarded as next in authority to<br />

the Linnaean productions.”–Wood, p. 257. This is a fine presentation copy from<br />

Brisson to Duhamel du Monceau (1700-82), French polymath, who made notable<br />

contributions in agronomy, chemistry, botany, and naval technology. Brisson<br />

has inscribed on the free front-endpaper: “A Monsieur Duhamel, de la part de<br />

son tres humble serviteur. Brisson.”<br />

Brisson (1723-1806), was a close collaborator of Lavoisier and successor of<br />

Nollet to the chair of experimental physics at the Collège de Navarre. He was an<br />

important and influential disseminator of the ideas of physics through his<br />

teaching and writings. In 1756, Brisson “published the Règne animal, a bilingual<br />

work with Latin and French texts printed side by side. In it he announced the<br />

project [to give a general description of the animal world], presented the<br />

classification, and dealt with the study of the first two classes: quadrupeds and<br />

cetaceans.”–D.S.B., II, p. 474.<br />

Fine and pretty example and a very appealing association copy. Text in Latin<br />

and French in parallel columns.<br />

The Nova of 1572<br />

33. BUSCH, Georg. Von dem Cometen, Welcher in diesem 1572. Jar, in dem<br />

Monat Novembris erschienen… Woodcut illus. on title of the new star in<br />

the heavens. 14 unnumbered leaves. Small 4to, attractive modern<br />

vellum-backed marbled boards. N.p.: [1573]. $5500.00<br />

An early edition of this extremely rare work on the famous new star of 1572,<br />

one of the most important events in 16th-century astronomical history. Partly<br />

because of its long duration, and also because of the interesting problems which<br />

it presented, nearly every astronomer in Europe directed his attention to the<br />

nova, including Dee and Digges in England and Tycho Brahe (to which he<br />

devoted his rare first book). The star’s appearance greatly contributed to the<br />

gradual acceptance of the Copernican theory due to the controversy it caused


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 29<br />

amongst astronomers.<br />

In this work, Busch (d. 1590?), a native of Nuremberg and an artist and<br />

amateur astronomer, found a parallax of 22 0 40’ for the nova. He provides a very<br />

detailed account of his observations of the new star. Busch also observed the<br />

comet of 1577 and published a work on it.<br />

Books on the 1572 nova are extremely rare today on the market. This work was<br />

apparently first published in Augsburg in 1572 (Zinner 2574) and Zinner lists<br />

about six editions in 1573 (but the texts may vary).<br />

Very good and large copy. Bookplate of Marcel Destombes.<br />

É Gingerich, Rara Astronomica, 18–(Augsburg ed.). H. Ludendorff, “Die<br />

Kometen-Flugschriften des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts” in Zeitschrift für<br />

Bücherfreunde (1908-09), pp. 503-04. Poggendorff, I, 350. Zinner 2612.<br />

34. [BUSSON-DESCARS, Pierre]. Essai sur le Nivellement. Nine folding<br />

engraved plates. 2 p.l., 218 pp. 8vo, cont. marbled calf, flat spine nicely<br />

gilt. Paris: Firmin-Didot & Delance, 1805. $1500.00<br />

First edition, and a very pretty copy, of this popular work on surveying which<br />

saw a second edition in 1813. The book was written upon the retirement of<br />

Busson-Descars (1764-1825), who had spent 25 years as a practicing engineer and<br />

surveyor. He describes a number of surveying instruments, including several of<br />

his own invention. The plates are particularly well-engraved and depict in 68<br />

figures various parts of surveying instruments and methods of surveying.<br />

Fine copy.<br />

Making Alcoholic Cider<br />

35. CHAMBRAY, Louis, Marquis de. L’Art de faire le Bon Cidre, avec la<br />

maniere de cultiver les Pommiers et Poiriers, selon l’usage de la Normandie. 66,<br />

[2] pp. 12mo, orig. blue wrappers, uncut. Paris: Lamy, 1782. $1250.00<br />

Second edition with this title; the text was originally published in 1765 with<br />

the title L’Art de cultiver les Pommiers, les Poiriers…. This work was extremely<br />

successful; it describes the making of alcoholic drinks from apples and pears.<br />

Tracing the custom of making and drinking of cider from Africa to Spain and<br />

then to Normandy, Chambray recommends cider as an alternative to wine when<br />

the soil does not permit the cultivation of the vine. Chapters discuss the<br />

cultivation of apple and pear trees, grafting, the best species of apples from<br />

which to make cider, when and how to harvest apples, methods of making cider,<br />

and a final chapter on pears.<br />

Fine copy in original state.<br />

É Vicaire, p. 159.


30<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

36. CHAPTAL, Jean Antoine Claude. Élémens de Chimie. Quatrième<br />

édition. 3 p.l., [iii]-xcii, 361 pp.; 2 p.l., 458 pp.; 2 p.l., 496 pp. Three vols.<br />

8vo, cont. calf-backed boards (mild foxing at beginning of Vol. I, three<br />

joints a bit cracked), spines gilt, red leather lettering pieces on spines.<br />

Paris: Deterville, 1803. $550.00<br />

Fourth edition, essentially a reprint of the revised and expanded third edition.<br />

This was one of the most important textbooks of chemistry of the period; it was<br />

written for the course of chemistry which Chaptal gave at Montpellier where he<br />

was appointed to the new chair of chemistry in 1780. In this work, Chaptal<br />

“develops the general principles, pointing out their consequences and their<br />

applications. He adopts Lavoisier’s oxygen theory which he found of great<br />

benefit in both theoretical and practical chemistry. In this work he proposes that<br />

the name azote be changed to nitrogene.”–Cole, p. 105.<br />

A very clean and attractive set.<br />

É Cole 257. D.S.B., III, pp. 198–203. Partington, III, pp. 557–560.<br />

Placed in the First Rank of Scientific Thinkers<br />

37. COLONNA, Egidio, Archbishop. Commentaria in octo libros<br />

phisicorum Aristotelis. 229 numbered leaves. Two columns, Gothic type.<br />

Folio, attractive antique vellum-backed wooden boards (55 mm. blank<br />

portion at head of first leaf renewed, occasional light staining). [Venice:<br />

A. de Torresano de Asola, 26 Sept. 1502]. $4500.00<br />

Early edition (1st ed.: Padua,1493) of this rare commentary on Aristotle’s<br />

Physics by Colonna (d. 1316), also known as Giles of Rome. A disciple of Thomas<br />

Aquinas while a student in Paris, Colonna was the first Augustinian appointed<br />

to teach in the University of Paris and his deep learning earned for him the title<br />

of Doctor fundatissimus. In 1295 he was appointed Archbishop of Bourges by Pope<br />

Boniface VIII.<br />

“Although mainly a philosopher and theologian, Giles frequently dealt with<br />

problems relating to natural philosophy, notable in his commentaries on<br />

Aristotle. Moreover, he did so in a style distinctive enough to place him in the<br />

first rank of those thinkers who have made a positive contribution to the<br />

scientific thought of their time (see Maier, Die Vorläufer Galileis, p. 2). It is chiefly<br />

in his commentary on the Physics, written around 1277, that he considered<br />

scientific problems…<br />

“Among Giles’s theses that have attracted the attention of more recent<br />

historians of science are those relating to quantity, which led him to admit the<br />

existence of natural minima below which concrete material substance cannot<br />

exist and which thus imply an atomistic theory of matter. The study of<br />

movement induced him to investigate the nature of a vacuum, to which he<br />

attributed a kind of suction force, observable with the aid of the clepsydra, the


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 31<br />

cupping glass, or the siphon…His observations on the accelerated motion of<br />

falling bodies have similarly been noted.”–D.S.B., V, p. 402.<br />

Very good copy.<br />

É Sarton, Vol. II, Pt. II, pp. 922-26.<br />

With a Contribution by Newton<br />

38. CRAIG, John. De Calculo Fluentium Libri Duo. Quibus Subjunguntur<br />

Libri Duo De Optica Analytica. Numerous woodcut diagrams in the text.<br />

[8], 92 pp. Large 4to, cont. panelled calf (well-rebacked by Middleton, a<br />

little spotted at end). London: ex Officina Pearsoniana, 1718. $5500.00<br />

First edition of the third of Craig’s major books but the first in order of<br />

composition. Craig (d. 1731), a fellow of the Royal Society and a good friend of<br />

Newton, was one of the very few in Britain to realize the vast possibilities of the<br />

calculus and was the most zealous of all English mathematicians in its use.<br />

The present work, important for its advances in the calculus, is particularly<br />

interesting for the Preface in which Craig states that he showed the manuscript<br />

of the present book to Newton in 1685. Newton corroborated several objections<br />

raised by Craig to Tschirnhausen and contributed two equations of curves. Craig<br />

also provides an account of the steps that led to his interest in the fluxional<br />

calculus.<br />

Craig’s writings on optics (the second part of this book) have been largely<br />

ignored by historians of science.<br />

A fine crisp copy. Early engraved armorial bookplate of W. C. Mylne.<br />

É D.S.B., III, pp. 458-59.<br />

“Le Plus Grand Ouvrage d’Astronomie Analytique”<br />

39. DIONIS DU SÉJOUR, Achille Pierre. Traité Analytique des<br />

Mouvemens apparens des Corps célestes. Seven folding engraved plates. 2<br />

p.l., xxxx, 738 pp., 1 leaf of errata; 2 p.l., 680, lvi pp. Two vols. Large 4to,<br />

cont. sheep (a little rubbed, head of spine of Vol. I a bit chipped), spines<br />

gilt, red & green morocco lettering pieces on spines. Paris: la Veuve<br />

Valade, 1786-89. $5750.00<br />

First edition. “From 1764 to 1783 he [Dionis] wrote a series of important<br />

memoirs on the application of the most recent analytic methods to the study of<br />

the principal astronomical phenomena (eclipses, occultations, reductions of<br />

observations, determination of planetary orbits, etc.). Revised and coordinated,<br />

these memoirs were reprinted in the two-volume Traité analytique des mouvements<br />

apparents [sic] des corps célestes (1786-1789), of which Delambre gives a detailed<br />

analysis…All these works are dominated by an obvious concern for rigor and by<br />

a great familiarity with analytical methods…their reexamination in the light of


32<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

present possibilities of calculation would certainly be fruitful.”–D.S.B., IV, p. 107.<br />

Very good set.<br />

É Lalande, p. 599–“Le plus grand ouvrage d’astronomie analytique.”<br />

The Facsimile of the Famous Byzantine Dioscorides MS.<br />

at the Morgan Library<br />

40. DIOSCORIDES. Pedanii Dioscuridis Anazarbaei De Materia Medica<br />

Libri VII. Accedunt Nicandri et Eutecnii Opuscula Medica. Codex<br />

Constantinopolitanus Saeculo X. exaratus et picturis illustratus olim<br />

Manuelis Eugenici, Caroli Rinuccini Florentini, Thomae Phillipps angli<br />

nunc inter Thesauros Pierpont Morgan Bibliothecae asservatus. 771<br />

magnificent black & white photographic reproductions of the binding,<br />

endpapers, and every page of the manuscript. One blank leaf, one title<br />

leaf, 200 sheets with 399 plates, one blank leaf; one blank leaf, one title<br />

leaf, 187 sheets with 372 plates, one blank leaf. Two vols. Large folio (480<br />

x 375 mm.), loose in sheets, each volume contained in modern strong &<br />

handsome boxes. Paris: [Privately Printed], 1935. $1250.00<br />

The magnificent facsimile, privately printed in 200 sets only, of one of the<br />

greatest medieval MSS. in the Morgan Library: the famous Byzantine<br />

Dioscorides Materia Medica, written in Greek minuscule and <strong>illustrated</strong> with 769<br />

gouache illustrations on 385 leaves about 930-70 in Constantinople. The<br />

manuscript was bound in Byzantium in the 14th or 15th century in dark brown<br />

leather blind tooled in a lozenge pattern over heavy boards. It was in<br />

Constantinople in the 15th century and came to Italy in the beginning of the<br />

19th century. Purchased by Payne from the Rinuccini family in Florence, it was<br />

sent to auction on the 30th of April 1857 in London. Sir Thomas Phillipps bought<br />

it; this manuscript was apparently the most expensive single item ever<br />

purchased by him. In 1920, J.P. Morgan, Jr. acquired the manuscript from<br />

Phillipps’s estate and it is now Pierpont Morgan Library MS. No. 652.<br />

Dioscorides (fl. A.D. 50-70), “wrote an encyclopaedia of materia medica in five<br />

books which embodied the results of Greek research in pharmacy and applied<br />

botany and was far better arranged and more complete than the earlier<br />

compilations. This work remained authoritative for more than fifteen<br />

centuries…Dioscorides’s work is of importance also for the history of ancient<br />

chemistry, as it describes simple chemical preparations…mentions the earliest<br />

reaction of wet analysis…”–Sarton, I, pp. 258-59.<br />

Fine set with the plates superbly printed on heavy BFK Rives paper.


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 33<br />

41. DUBLIN PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL, AND SCIENTIFIC<br />

REVIEW. Vols. I & II [all published]. Plates (some folding). Two vols.<br />

8vo, cont. half-sheep & marbled boards (rubbed). Dublin: Hodges &<br />

McArthur; London: Longman et al., 1825-26. $2750.00<br />

This is a very rare journal and the contributors, who include John Brinkley,<br />

Bartholomew Lloyd, Dionysius Lardner, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Alexander<br />

Nimmo, and Charles Giesecke, represent the efforts of scientific pioneers to put<br />

Ireland on the scientific map.<br />

This set lacks Part VI of Vol. II (pp. 443-608). The set at the National Library of<br />

Ireland also lacks this final part.<br />

Very good set. Bookplate of Robert Montgomery Convoy.<br />

Forests<br />

42. DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU, Henri Louis. Des Semis et Plantations<br />

des Arbres, et de leur Culture; ou Méthodes pour multiplier et élever les Arbres,<br />

les planter en Massifs & en Avenues; former les Forêts & les Bois; les entretenir,<br />

& rétablir ceux qui sont dégradés: faisant partie du Traité complet des Bois & des<br />

Forêts. Seventeen folding engraved plates & engraved vignettes. 2 p.l.,<br />

lxxx, 383, 27, 10 pp. Large 4to, cont. marbled calf (corners a little worn,<br />

upper joint with short crack at foot), triple gilt fillet round sides, spine<br />

nicely gilt, a.e.g., red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: H.L. Guerin<br />

& L.F. Delatour, 1760. $3750.00<br />

First edition and an attractive copy, complete with the two Additions. Duhamel<br />

(1700-82), French polymath, made notable contributions in agronomy, chemistry,<br />

botany, and naval technology. His major interest and contribution to technology<br />

and society was in agriculture. Duhamel “adapted Tull’s system to France based<br />

on his own wide reading in French agronomy and on original<br />

experiments.”–D.S.B., IV, p. 224.<br />

One of Duhamel’s main interests was the cultivation and use of timber; this<br />

is one of his chief books on the subject. “The sections of the book discuss the soil,<br />

the climate, and the choice of trees; their propagation; nursery gardens;<br />

planting; forests; and maintenance and re-afforestation, with all instructions<br />

based firmly on the author’s long experience of forestry.”–Raphael, An Oak<br />

Spring Sylva, 34.<br />

The attractive plates depict methods of grafting, agricultural implements, etc.<br />

Fine copy. 19th-century bookplate of F. Allard.<br />

É Stafleu & Cowan 1545.


34<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

The Natural History Collections at Dresden<br />

43. [EILENBURG, Christian Heinrich]. Description du Cabinet Roial de<br />

Dresde touchant l’Histoire Naturelle [with facing title in German]. Engraved<br />

arms on each title, two engraved folding plates, & two engraved<br />

headpieces depicting the Zwinger. 2 p.l., 102, 102, [1] pp. Large 4to, orig.<br />

blue wrappers (a little soiled). Dresden & Leipzig: G.C. Walther, 1755.<br />

$5000.00<br />

First edition of “the first separate catalogue of the Dresden natural history<br />

collections housed in the magnificent baroque Zwinger (built by Poeppelmann<br />

in 1711), which also accommodated the Dresden print cabinet. This catalogue is<br />

one of the fruits of Augustus the Strong’s reorganisation of the old Dresden<br />

Wunderkammer into a number of specialised collections. The collection of ancient<br />

marbles was similarly catalogued in 1733, and the prehistoric and mineralogical<br />

collections in 1749; other departments of the museum followed in the nineteenth<br />

century…<br />

“Fossils and petrifactions, animal skeletons and specimens, corals and shells<br />

were all represented in profusion, but oddities and natural curiosities still<br />

abound in the form of ‘Missgeburten’, peculiarly shaped plants, and two pieces<br />

of gold and silver supposedly transmuted from copper and lead by Johann<br />

Friedrich Boettger, better known for his rediscovery of the art of making<br />

porcelain. The final chapter is devoted to a model of Solomon’s temple,<br />

constructed over a period of twenty years from Biblical references by a Hamburg<br />

gentleman named Schott. The model had been admired by Peter the Great and<br />

exhibited in London where a pamphlet about it was issued in 1725. The folding<br />

plates give ground-plans of the Zwinger.”–Grinke, From Wunderkammer to<br />

Museum, 50.<br />

Very nice and large copy. This is the issue interleaved with both the French<br />

and German text. Titles a little soiled.<br />

É Murray, I, pp. 207-8.<br />

Bought By Bünau<br />

44. (ENGEL, Samuel). Bibliotheca Selectissima sive <strong>Cat</strong>alogus Librorum in<br />

omni genere scientiarum rarissimorum. Quos maximis sumptibus,<br />

summoque Studio ac Cura, per plurimos Annos collegit, nunc vero<br />

Venum exponit Samuel Engel… Title in red & black. 8 p.l., 186, 39, 62 pp.<br />

8vo, cont. half-sheep & speckled boards over wooden boards (one corner<br />

defective), spine nicely gilt, contrasting leather lettering piece on spine.<br />

Bern: Typis F.S. Faetscher, 1743. $2500.00<br />

The inventory sale catalogue of the library of books and MSS. of Engel<br />

(1702-84), the Swiss geographer and economist who played an important role in


Item 43. Eilenburg, 1755


36<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

the internal and external affairs of Switzerland. This was a fine library with<br />

many outstanding books and MSS.; it was purchased en bloc by Count Bünau<br />

in 1744.<br />

Very good copy.<br />

É Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie <strong>Cat</strong>holique, cols. 594-95. Peignot, p.<br />

392. Pollard & Ehrman, p. 215 & number 221. Taylor, Book <strong>Cat</strong>alogues, pp. 8, 14,<br />

& 239-40.<br />

Three Rare Electrical Works with<br />

References to Franklin<br />

45. FELBIGER, Johann Ignaz. Die Kunst Thürme oder andere Gebäude vor<br />

den schädlichen Wirkungen des Blitzes durch Ableitungen zu bewahren,<br />

angebracht an dem Thurm der Saganischen Stifts- und Pfarrkirche. One large<br />

folding engraved plate. 110, [2] pp. 8vo, cont. half-pigskin & paste-paper<br />

boards (light foxing). Breslau: J.F. Korn, 1771.<br />

[bound with]:<br />

—. Wie weit gewähren wohl Gewitterableiter Sicherheit für umstehende<br />

Gebäude? Aus Erfahrungen und darauf sich beziehenden Schlüssen beantwortet.<br />

Two folding engraved plates on one sheet. 38 pp. 8vo. Pressburg:<br />

Schauff, 1786.<br />

[bound with]:<br />

WEBER, Joseph. Neue elektrische Versuche. 24 pp. 8vo (some foxing).<br />

Salzburg: im Verlage der Hochfürstl. Akad. Waisenhausbuchhandlung,<br />

1786. $2950.00<br />

First editions and an attractive sammelband of three rare electrical works.<br />

I & II. Felbiger (1724-88), a German educational reformer, pedagogical writer,<br />

and canon regular of the Order of St. Augustine, became abbot of the monastery<br />

of Sagan in 1758. Noting the sad condition of the local <strong>Cat</strong>holic schools, he strove<br />

to remedy the evil by publishing his first school-ordinance in 1761, which soon<br />

attracted the attention of <strong>Cat</strong>holics and Protestants alike.<br />

In addition to his education reforms, Felbiger was an early and ardent<br />

advocate of constructing lightning rods on public and church buildings to<br />

prevent fires. There are numerous references to Franklin. The attractive plates<br />

depict the proper placement of lightning rods in the church buildings of Sagan<br />

and Pressburg.<br />

III. Weber (1753-1837), is one of the most interesting and appealing of the<br />

second rank scientists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A <strong>Cat</strong>holic priest<br />

who studied with the Jesuits at Augsburg, he was appointed professor of physics<br />

and philosophy at the University of Dillingen and later became professor of


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 37<br />

physics and chemistry at the University of Ingolstadt. Weber was the inventor<br />

of an important linen electrophorous and wrote a series of books which<br />

described his own investigations in physics, chemistry, and electricity.<br />

The present work describes his most recent electrical researches.<br />

Fine copies.<br />

É Ronalds <strong>Cat</strong>. pp. 170 (I), 171 (II, but erroneously giving the date as 1787), &<br />

p. 536 (III).<br />

46. FLEURET, —. L’Art de composer des Pierres factices aussi dures que le<br />

Caillou, et Recherches sur la manière de bâtir des Anciens, sur la préparation,<br />

l’emploi et les causes du durcissement de leurs mortiers. 32 folding or doublepage<br />

engraved plates. 2 p.l., 298 pp. Large 4to, cont. marbled sheep (head<br />

of spine with one small defect), flat spine gilt, contrasting leather<br />

lettering piece on spine. Pont-a-Mousson: chez l’Auteur, 1807.<br />

$2500.00<br />

First edition. Fleuret (ca. 1755-1817), “professor of architecture at the École<br />

Royale Militaire in Paris, took up with enthusiasm de La Faye’s researches into<br />

ancient construction techniques and particularly the making of artificial stone<br />

or concrete. He went so far as to set up his own manufactory at Pont-a-Mousson,<br />

where he poured in and rammed the ingredients into moulds, considering La<br />

Faye’s method of slaking lime by immersion as a crucial factor for the mortar. In<br />

his book he discusses his studies of historic buildings before going on to<br />

demonstrate some of his concrete products, which include pipes, pumps,<br />

ornamental basins, terraces, tiles and stuccoed panels, and mosaic pavements<br />

made with coloured mortars to imitate marble. He also shows the machinery<br />

used to make up the material. He seems to have had some success but also some<br />

major failures since he failed to realise the difference between ordinary and<br />

hydraulic limes. However, as a whole the work forms an interesting episode in<br />

the history of building construction.”–Elton Engineering Books, <strong>Cat</strong>. 6, 211.<br />

Very fine and handsome copy.<br />

A Very Pretty Set<br />

47. FOURCROY, Antoine François de, Comte. Elementary Lectures on<br />

Chemistry and Natural History…Translated…by Thomas Elliot. With Many<br />

Additions, Notes, and Illustrations, by the Translator. xxviii, 520 pp.; viii,<br />

[9]-496 pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. polished calf, flat spines gilt, red & green<br />

morocco lettering pieces on spines. Edinburgh: C. Elliot, 1785.<br />

$1650.00<br />

First edition in English (1st ed.: 1782) of the author’s first important<br />

publication. It derives from a course of seventy lectures which Fourcroy gave


Item 47. Fourcroy, 1785 (reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 39<br />

each winter in his laboratory and it discusses all aspects of chemistry, including<br />

the recent work on gases. In all his lectures, Fourcroy emphasized the relations<br />

between chemistry and natural history and their applications to medicine.<br />

Very fine set. Early armorial bookplate of “Story” in each volume.<br />

É Cole 463. D.S.B., V, pp. 89-93. Partington, III, pp. 535-51. Smeaton 9.<br />

48. FRISI, Paolo. Operum. Engraved medallion portrait on title of Vol.<br />

I & 14 folding engraved plates. 2 p.l., 466, [2] pp.; 2 p.l., 533, [3] pp.; 3 p.l.,<br />

561, [3] pp. 3 vols. Large 4to, slightly later vellum-backed marbled boards<br />

(some dustiness & occasional light foxing), arms of The Society of Writers<br />

to the Signet on covers, later red morocco lettering pieces on spines.<br />

Milan: J. Galeati, 1782-83-85. $3000.00<br />

First collected edition of Frisi’s important scientific writings on mathematics,<br />

physics, hydraulics, and astronomy. “In physics his research must be evaluated<br />

in relation to the concepts dominant in his time, which led him to justify and<br />

interpret certain phenomena of light and aspects of electricity, referring to the<br />

vibratory motion of ether and other properties attributed to it. As an astronomer<br />

he concerned himself with the daily movement of the earth (in De motu diurno<br />

terrae, awarded a prize by the Berlin Academy), the obliquity of the ecliptic, the<br />

movement of the moon, the determination of the meridian circle, and matters<br />

concerning gravity in relation to Newton’s general theories. His mathematical<br />

activity included studies on kinematics (composition of rotatory movements,<br />

etc.) and, notably, on isoperimetry. He also did work in hydraulics and was<br />

called upon to plan works for the regulation of rivers and canals in various parts<br />

of northern Italy. He was responsible for laying out the canal built in 1819<br />

between Milan and Pavia.”–D.S.B., V, p. 195.<br />

Frisi (1728-84), was an ardent admirer of Newton. As editor of Il Caffe, a<br />

newspaper that was influenced by the thought of the French Illuminati, Frisi<br />

exerted a notable influence on the cultural, social, and political life of Milan in<br />

the later part of the 18th century.<br />

Very good set. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.<br />

É Houzeau & Lancaster 3493. Riccardi, I, 490–“Bella ediz.”<br />

A Woman Chemist<br />

49. FULHAME, Mrs. [Elizabeth]. Versuche über die Wiederherstellung der<br />

Metalle durch Wasserstoffgas, Phosphor, Schwefel, Schwefelleber, geschwefeltes<br />

Wasserstoffgas, gephosphortes Wasserstoffgas, Kohle, Licht und Säuren. Aus<br />

dem Englischen übersetzt von A.G. L. Lentin. xvi, 262 pp. 8vo, cont. halfsheep<br />

& paste-paper boards (nicely rebacked with a portion of the spine


40<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

laid-down, some light browning). Göttingen: J.C. Dieterich, 1798.<br />

$2500.00<br />

First edition in German of her An Essay on Combustion (1794). “Mrs. Elizabeth<br />

Fulhame, of whom nothing seems to be known except that she was the wife of<br />

a doctor, was an early convert to Lavoisier’s theory. In 1794 she published a very<br />

interesting Essay on Combustion (now very scarce), which attracted general<br />

attention. She was elected an honorary member of the Philadelphia Chemical<br />

Society.”–Partington, III, p. 708.<br />

In the present work, Mrs. Fulhame presents her experiments and the<br />

discovery that moisture is necessary in certain chemical reactions. From this<br />

discovery she develops a new theory of reduction and oxidation. There is much<br />

on dyeing and bleaching. Priestley read Mrs. Fulhame’s book and visited her in<br />

London, witnessing several of her experiments.<br />

Lentin (1764-1823), was an instructor at the University of Göttingen and<br />

inspector of saltworks at Sülbeck. He wrote several other chemical and<br />

metallurgical works including one on the famous copper mine in the Parys<br />

Mountain on the Welsh island of Angelsea. He constructed a large metallurgical<br />

furnace at Rammelsberg.<br />

Fine copy and very rare.<br />

ÉSee Cole 495 for the first edition.<br />

One of the Great Classics of French Engineering<br />

50. GAUTHEY, Émiland Marie. [General title from half-title]: Oeuvres.<br />

37 folding engraved plates. xxxi, 403, [1] pp.; 4 p.l., 399, [1] pp.; 4 p.l., 420<br />

pp. Three vols. Large 4to, cont. paste-paper boards (minor wear, a bit<br />

foxed), red leather lettering pieces on spines. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1809-<br />

13-16. $4750.00<br />

First edition of the works of Gauthey (1732-1806), France’s leading engineer of<br />

the period. This edition is especially notable for having been edited by Gauthey’s<br />

grandnephew, Claude Louis Marie Navier (1785-1836), who has added his own<br />

extensive notes and commentaries which were the result of his research in<br />

analytical mechanics and its application to the strength of materials. In this<br />

edition, “Navier added notes which drew on the research of Coulomb and on<br />

the experimental tradition of eighteenth-century physics that had given him<br />

data for tables of the strength of stone and of wood. He appealed for further<br />

experiments on the strength of materials so that they could be used well in<br />

construction.”–D.S.B., X, p. 3–(& see pp. 2-3 for Navier’s fundamental<br />

contributions to the properties of bodies which were first expressed in the<br />

present edition of his granduncle’s works).<br />

Gauthey is best-known for his role in the controversy over the dome of<br />

Ste-Geneviève (later the Panthéon Français) at Paris and for his construction of


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 41<br />

the Canal du Centre which completed the first inland route from the English<br />

Channel to the Mediterranean.<br />

“The first two volumes contain the treatise on bridges which was to supersede<br />

Gautier’s Traité, originally published nearly a century before, remaining the<br />

standard work on the subject until well into the 19th century and going into a<br />

third corrected edition as late as 1843. The work opens with an historical survey<br />

which gives a remarkably complete record of bridges built all over Europe before<br />

1800. It is primarily concerned, however, with laying down a rational approach<br />

to bridge design and planning, giving general principles for foundations, curve<br />

of arches, thickness of piers and abutments, centring etc. Gauthey draws on his<br />

own considerable experience and observations, closely following the precepts<br />

of Perronet, whose pupil he was. The treatise also contains the compression tests<br />

on stone carried out with Soufflot…<br />

“Much of the third volume, on canals, is devoted to the Canal du Centre, his<br />

major achievement in the field. Joining the Loire and Saône, it was the first link,<br />

by way of the Loire, between the Seine and the Mediterranean. 70 miles long, it<br />

required 30 locks from Digoin on the Loire to take it 250ft up to the summit level,<br />

and 50 more down the 430ft drop to Chalon-sur-Saône. Gauthey’s discussion of<br />

the economic use of water to supply the very high summit, and the siting and<br />

optimum dimensions of locks to conserve as much as possible, is one of the most<br />

interesting features of the work. The volume also contains other, more general,<br />

Mémoires on locks (required reading for Ponts et Chaussées students), water<br />

supply etc. as well as appraisals of various canals such as the Briare, Orléans,<br />

Bourgogne and Languedoc. As a whole the volumes form one of the great classic<br />

works on French engineering.”– Elton, <strong>Cat</strong>. 5, 19.<br />

Fine set and quite scarce on the market. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.<br />

É Poggendorff, I, 857. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 133-34.<br />

Surveying<br />

51. GINET, N. Manuel de l’Arpenteur. 21 folding engraved plates. xii,<br />

[13]-354, [2] pp. & a 4-page publisher’s catalogue at end. 8vo, cont. cat’s<br />

paw calf, spine nicely gilt. Paris: C.A. Jombert, 1770.<br />

[with]:<br />

—. Supplément au Manuel de l’Arpenteur. Ten engraved plates (8 are<br />

folding). viii, 143 pp.; 252, [4] pp. Two parts in one vol. 8vo, cont. mottled<br />

calf, spine nicely gilt. Paris: Brunet, 1775. $2950.00<br />

First edition of this rare work on land surveying which was one of the<br />

standard books of its time on the subject. Ginet, “Arpenteur royal en la Maîtrise<br />

des Eaux & Forêts de Paris & Isle-de-France,” describes the various methods of<br />

surveying and preparing maps and has provided a very valuable dictionary of<br />

terms used in surveying (pp. 284-322 in Vol. I), and numerous tables. The second


Item 51. Ginet, 1770-75 (reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 43<br />

part of Vol. II is devoted to the construction and use of a four-legged compass<br />

of proportion.<br />

A fine but slightly unmatched set.<br />

É François de Dainville, “Enseignement des ‘Géographes’ et des ‘Géomètres’,”<br />

in Enseignement et diffusion des sciences en France au dix-huitième siècle (René Taton,<br />

ed.), pp. 490-91.<br />

“A Work of Utmost Consequence in the Development<br />

of the Theory of Evolution”<br />

52. GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Versuch die Metamorphose der<br />

Pflanzen zu erklären. 3 p.l., 86 pp. 8vo, cont. speckled boards (spine &<br />

corners a little worn, rectangular hole in blank portion of title repaired<br />

on verso). Gotha: C.W. Ettinger, 1790. $2500.00<br />

First edition. “A work of utmost consequence in the development of the theory<br />

of evolution…A forerunner of Darwin in many respects, [Goethe] believed in<br />

organic evolution. He coined the word ‘morphology.’ In Versuch die<br />

metamorphose der pflanzen zu erklären (1790), Goethe advanced the theory that all<br />

parts of flowers are metamorphosed or modified.”–Sparrow, Milestones of Science,<br />

p. 30 & number 86–(their collation is that of the second edition, issued sometime<br />

after 1810 but dated 1790. See Sotheby’s, Stiftung für Botanik, Part I, no. 293 for<br />

reproduction of the title-pages of the two editions).<br />

Good copy.<br />

É Pritzel 3452. Singer, A History of Biology, pp. 215-17.<br />

53. GOETTLING, Johann Friedrich August. Chemische Versuche über<br />

eine verbesserte Methode den Salmiak zu bereiten, nebst einem Vorschlage diese<br />

Bereitung fabrikmässig zu betreiben, und Beschreibung einiger chemischen<br />

Produkte so mit einer solchen Fabrik zu verbinden sind. xvi, 140, [2] pp., one<br />

leaf of errata. Small 8vo, cont. blue boards (a little worn). Weimar: C.L.<br />

Hoffmann’s Widow & Heirs, 1782. $1950.00<br />

First edition and very rare on the manufacture and uses of ammonium<br />

chloride in the textile and leather industry for dyeing, tanning, textile printing,<br />

and to add luster to cotton. Göttling (1755-1809), through the influence of<br />

Goethe, became the first independent professor of chemistry in Jena, although<br />

he combined the subject with pharmacy and technology. He visited Holland and<br />

England and was an early convert to the new chemistry.<br />

Old stamp on title. Nice copy.<br />

É Hufbauer, The Formation of the German Chemical Community (1720-1795), pp.<br />

207-08. Partington, III, pp. 595-96.


Item 54. Greifswald, 1775-76 (much reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 45<br />

“The First Subject Index of an Institutional Library”<br />

54. UNIVERSITAETSBIBLIOTHEK, GREIFSWALD. Academiae<br />

Grypeswaldensis Bibliotheca. <strong>Cat</strong>alogo Auctorum et Repertorio Reali Universali.<br />

Compiled by Johann Carl Dähnert. Finely engraved double-page<br />

frontispiece depicting a view of the main room of the library. 4 p.l., 8,<br />

1230 pp.; 1 p.l., 1046 pp.; 1 p.l., 2006 [i.e., 1106] pp. Three vols. in two.<br />

Thick 8vo, cont. half-sheep & marbled boards (upper joint of Vol. II a bit<br />

wormed, some rubbing), orange & green vellum lettering pieces on<br />

spines (one label partly flaked, one perished). Greifswald: A.F. Röse,<br />

1775-75-76. $3250.00<br />

First edition of the monumental and bibliographically important catalogue of<br />

the library of the University of Greifswald, which was founded in 1456. The<br />

library grew enormously after the appointment as librarian of Dähnert (1719-85),<br />

in 1747. A number of large and important collections were incorporated into the<br />

library during Dähnert’s long tenure (see Schwenke for a listing). By the time<br />

this catalogue was published, about 53,000 titles were present in the library. This<br />

is the first catalogue of the library.<br />

The catalogue is notable for its arrangement: “Perhaps the first subject index<br />

of an institutional library that can be clearly set apart from a classified catalogue<br />

or a shelf-list is J.C. Daehnert’s catalogue of the library of the University of<br />

Greifswald. Its three thick volumes, more than three thousand pages in all,<br />

contain a very detailed tabulation of books and journals according to subjects…I<br />

cannot cite another subject index to an institutional library before very recent<br />

times.”–Taylor, Book <strong>Cat</strong>alogues, pp. 52-53.<br />

The main reading room, <strong>illustrated</strong> on the double-page frontispiece, is a wellknown<br />

masterpiece of baroque architecture.<br />

Very nice set.<br />

É Buzas, Deutsche Bibliotheksgeschichte der Neuzeit (1500-1800), pp. 42 &<br />

151–“Besondere Erwähnung verdient der alphabetische, mit einem Sachregister<br />

versehene Katalog der UB Greifswald (1775-1776).” Schwenke, Adressbuch der<br />

Deutschen Bibliotheken, 598.<br />

55. HAUSMANN, Johann Friedrich Ludwig. Versuch eines Entwurfs<br />

zu einer Einleitung in die Oryktognosie. xiv, 188 pp. 8vo, cont. marbled halfcalf<br />

& marbled boards, flat spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on<br />

spine. Braunschweig & Helmstedt: C.G. Fleckeisen, 1805. $1950.00<br />

First edition. Hausmann (1782-1859), professor of mineralogy and technology<br />

at the University of Göttingen and later general inspector of the mining,<br />

metallurgical, and salt factories of Westphalia, was one of the first geologists to<br />

accurately describe the geology of Scandinavia (see Zittel, p. 118).<br />

The present book, a descriptive mineralogy, is the author’s second publication.


46<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

“Very scarce. Considered very valuable as an introduction to mineralogy,<br />

Hausmann has carefully compiled and digested everything known about<br />

mineralogical science, occasionally interweaving the text with his own personal<br />

views. After a short introduction to mineralogy, a long section giving definitions<br />

of terminology and another covering systematics is presented. A general index<br />

completes the work.”–Schuh, Mineralogy & Crystallography: A Biobibliography, 1469<br />

to 1920, 2110.<br />

Fine copy.<br />

É Poggendorff, I, 1035-37.<br />

Making British-Style Beer in Germany<br />

56. HEUN, Friedrich Wilhelm. Versuch der Kunst alle Arten Biere nach<br />

englischen Grundsätzen zu brauen…Erster Theil [all published]. xxiv, 318 pp.<br />

8vo, cont. blue boards (a little foxed), flat spine gilt, red leather lettering<br />

piece on spine. Leipzig: J.F. Junius, 1777. $1750.00<br />

First edition of this very rare book — no copy in the U.S., according to OCLC<br />

— on the brewing of beer according to British methods. Heun employed<br />

Combrune’s The Theory and Practice of Brewing (1762) as his guide to the varied<br />

methods of making beer throughout Britain. During the 18th century, the price<br />

of hops was very unstable and new materials were sought to manufacture beer.<br />

Heun suggests that German brewers should consider using many of the<br />

techniques and materials used in Britain, which are described here. Combrune<br />

was the first to use the thermometer in the brewery and Heun discusses its<br />

potential use in Germany.<br />

Heun also translated into German Brownrigg’s book on the manufacture of<br />

salt.<br />

Very good copy. Old library stamp on title and verso (with release stamp).<br />

É Schoellhorn 247.<br />

“A Classic Work on the Chemistry of Dyeing & Bleaching”<br />

57. HOMASSEL, —. Cours théorique et pratique sur l’Art de la Teinture en<br />

Laine, Soie, Fil, Coton, Fabrique d’indienne en grand et petit teint; Suivi de l’Art<br />

du Teinturier Dégraisseur, du blanchiment des toiles, fils, coton, chanvre, lin,<br />

gravures, etc. par l’acide muriatique oxigéné… 2 p.l., 420 pp. 8vo, cont.<br />

sheep-backed mottled boards, flat spine gilt, orange leather lettering<br />

piece on spine. Paris: Courcier, 1807. $1350.00<br />

Second edition, “revue corrigée et augmentée” by Bouillon-Lagrange, of this<br />

“classic work on the chemistry of dyeing and bleaching, written during the<br />

flourishing period of Hellot and Berthollet. Homassel (dates unknown) was<br />

‘Chef des Teintures de la manufacture nationale des Gobelins”(1778-1787)…He<br />

spent thirty years of research experimenting on the techniques of dyeing, the


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 47<br />

results of which are presented in this book. It is a milestone work on the dyes<br />

and dyeing processes used in France in the second half of the eighteenth<br />

century.”–Neville, I, p. 653–(1st ed. of 1799).<br />

Bouillon-Lagrange (1764-1844), was Fourcroy’s assistant from 1788 and later<br />

professor in the École de Pharmacie. He was an early follower of Lavoisier.<br />

A nice copy of a rare edition; OCLC locates no copy in the U.S. There were<br />

later editions — 1818 and 1857 — attesting to the importance of this work.<br />

É Ron, Bibliotheca Tinctoria, 542.<br />

A “Useful” Dictionary<br />

58. KELS, Heinrich Wilhelm. Onomatologia Chymica Practica, oder<br />

vollständig practisches Handbuch der Chemie in alphabetischer Ordnung zum<br />

Nutzen und Gebrauch für Aerzte, Apotheker, Fabrikanten, Künstler und andere<br />

Personen…unter der Aufsicht und mit einer Vorrede von Johann<br />

Friedrich Gmelin… 5 p.l., 722 columns, [29] pp. 8vo, cont. half-calf &<br />

marbled boards (corners a bit worn), flat spine gilt, black leather lettering<br />

piece on spine (flaked). Ulm: Stettin, 1791. $1950.00<br />

First edition of this “useful” dictionary (Cole) prepared by Kels (1759-92),<br />

apothecary at Hannover. He later studied medicine at Göttingen from 1787 to<br />

1791 and went in 1791 to Surinam as second chief-surgeon to the military<br />

hospital of the Dutch West India Company. He died there in 1792.<br />

In the compilation of this extensive dictionary, Kels has used unpublished<br />

material gathered by Johannes Zorn (1739-99), under the supervision of the<br />

Gmelin (1748-1804), professor, variously, of philosophy, medicine, chemistry,<br />

botany, and mineralogy at the University of Tübingen.<br />

Fine copy. Old stamp of “G. Jordan” on title.<br />

É Cole 711. Ferguson, I, p. 457.<br />

Ready for Annotations<br />

59. KESTNER, Christian Wilhelm. Bibliotheca Medica, optimorum per<br />

singulas Medicinae Partes Auctorum delectu circumscripta… Engraved<br />

vignette on title which is printed in red & black. 4 p.l., 728, [40] pp. Two<br />

vols. 8vo, cont. half-sheep & paper boards (upper cover of Vol. I a little<br />

defective), contrasting leather lettering pieces on spines. Jena: C.H.<br />

Cuno, 1746. $1500.00<br />

First edition of this important medical bibliography, listing about 5000 titles<br />

with valuable historical notes. It is arranged by subject and has an excellent<br />

author index at end. The first chapter is devoted to bibliographies, histories,<br />

biographies, and dictionaries of medicine and there are sections on botany,


48<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

pharmacy, and mineralogy.<br />

Kestner (1694-1747), studied medicine but never practiced, devoting himself<br />

instead to research in the history and bibliography of medicine.<br />

Nice copy, interleaved throughout.<br />

É Besterman 3779. Hirsch, III, p. 514. Osler 7143. Petzholdt, pp. 574-75.<br />

The Milky Way<br />

60. LAMBERT, Johann Heinrich. Cosmologische Briefe über die<br />

Einrichtung des Weltbaues. One folding printed table. xxviii, 318 pp. 8vo,<br />

attractive early 19th-cent. blue marbled boards with red paper spine<br />

(lower joint with a few chips), spine gilt. Augsburg: E. Kletts, 1761.<br />

$5000.00<br />

First edition of one of the most important works in stellar astronomy. “Lambert<br />

had the idea (in 1749) [but published here for the first time] that what appears<br />

as the Milky Way might be the visual effect of a lens-shaped universe. On this<br />

basis he elaborated a theory according to which the thousands of stars<br />

surrounding the sun constituted a system. Moreover, he considered the Milky<br />

Way as a large number of such systems, that is, a system of higher order…These<br />

bold speculations, born of the Leibnizian belief in the most perfect of all possible<br />

worlds, far transcended astronomy…the Cosmologische Briefe was a great<br />

sensation and was translated into French, Russian, and English. Only when<br />

William Herschel systematically examined the heavens telescopically and<br />

discovered numerous nebulae and ‘telescopic milky-ways’ did it become obvious<br />

that Lambert’s description was not mere science fiction but to a large extent a<br />

bold vision of the basic features of the universe.”–D.S.B., VII, p. 598.<br />

A fine copy.<br />

61. LAMPADIUS, Wilhelm August. Handbuch zur chemischen Analyse<br />

der Mineralkörper. One folding engraved plate. viii, 362 pp., 1 leaf of<br />

errata. 8vo, cont. marbled sheep (some foxing), spine gilt, contrasting<br />

leather lettering piece on spine. Freiberg: Craz, 1801.<br />

[bound with]:<br />

TROMMSDORFF, Johann Bartholmäus. Chemisches Probircabinet oder<br />

Nachricht von der Bereitung, den Eigenschaften und dem Gebrauche der<br />

Reagentien. 64 pp. 8vo. Erfurt: Henning, 1801. $2500.00<br />

I. First edition of a scarce book. Lampadius (1772-1842), pharmacist and later<br />

professor of chemistry and mineralogy at the famous Mining Academy at<br />

Freiberg, is best known for his discovery of carbon disulfide. He is considered to


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 49<br />

be one of the founders of metallurgy.<br />

This is a significant work in the transition from the Wernerian belief in the<br />

importance of the external characteristics of minerals to the modern emphasis<br />

on chemical composition. In fact, Werner engaged Lampadius as professor of<br />

chemistry at Freiberg and the two worked together analyzing minerals in the<br />

Academy's laboratory.<br />

II. First edition and very rare. Trommsdorff (1770-1837), was professor of<br />

chemistry and physics at Erfurt. “The great aim of his life was to improve the<br />

scientific position of pharmacy, and the value and success of his efforts were<br />

universally recognized…His library, laboratory and apparatus, all provided by<br />

himself, were superior to those of many public institutions.”–Ferguson, II, p. 473.<br />

In the Foreword, the author describes a “probircabinet” which he first offered<br />

for sale in 1799. It was designed to assist chemists, interested amateurs,<br />

mineralogists, and manufacturers to perform chemical analyses. We learn that<br />

Trommsdorff sold these cabinets throughout Germany, and in Sweden,<br />

Denmark, Norway, Hungary, and Russia. Humboldt took them on his travels to<br />

Peru and Mexico.<br />

Fine copies.<br />

É I. Partington, III, pp. 596-97. Schuh, Mineralogy & Crystallography: A<br />

Biobibliography, 1469 to 1920, 2874–“Rare. Gives details of the equipment<br />

necessary for the analysis of minerals, as well as instructions for their use. It also<br />

describes various analytical methods, giving a list of reagents. The analysis of<br />

individual minerals is then described. Lampadius’ methods are generally as<br />

good as Klaproth’s, and there are portions of the book that foreshadow<br />

textbooks of a later period. For example, it contains a detailed list of equipment<br />

and apparatus required for analysis, as well as instructions for their use. In the<br />

introduction a long passage describes the preparation of the necessary reagents,<br />

and methods for testing their purity. Szabadváry (1966) says these ‘descriptions<br />

are the earliest record of standard<br />

methods used for testing the purity of analytical grade reagents and in many<br />

cases are very similar to present day methods’.” II. D.S.B., XIII, pp. 465-66.<br />

Poggendorff, II, 1136-37.<br />

The Last True Believer<br />

62. LANG, Carl Nicolaus. Historia Lapidum figuratorum Helvetiæ,<br />

eiusque Viciniae, in quâ non solùm enarrantur omnia eorum Genera, Species et<br />

Vires æneisque tabulis repræsentantur. Sed insuper adducuntur eorum Loca<br />

Nativa, in quibus reperiri solent, ut cuilibet facile sit eos colligere, modo adducta<br />

loca adire libeat. Added engraved title & 54 engraved plates. Printed title<br />

in red & black. 15 p.l. (incl. added engraved title), 165 pp. Small 4to,<br />

attractive early 19th-cent. half-sheep & marbled boards, flat spine gilt.


Item 62. Lang, 1708 (reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 51<br />

Venice: J. Tomasini for the Author, 1708. $7500.00<br />

First edition of this handsomely <strong>illustrated</strong> work on Swiss fossils. Lang (1670-<br />

1741), studied medicine in Bologna and Rome and held many official medical<br />

positions in the forest cantons of Switzerland. He “was a collector of fossils who<br />

gave original descriptions of many of the fossils of Switzerland. He was<br />

categorically opposed to the idea of their organic origin and particularly argued<br />

against the conception of the diluvialists that fossils were animals destroyed in<br />

the Flood…<br />

“According to Lang the fossils originated from tiny, seminal seeds of living<br />

marine animals that were scattered around the earth by the air. Once distributed<br />

in this manner the seeds were carried into and through the earth by water. The<br />

heat of the earth activated a plastic force inherent in each seed, and the aura<br />

seminalis, or seminal breeze, gave the seed shape. Because this force was<br />

particularly strong in the icy waters and snow of the mountain tops, the fossils<br />

were more common in these areas.”–D.S.B., VIII, p. 4.<br />

“Lang is one of the last authors who believed in the direct origin of the fossils<br />

in the rocks.”–Zittel, p. 18.<br />

A fine and handsome copy. The handsome engraved title depicts a room with<br />

many labeled drawers containing fossils. Old stamp — “Bibliotheca Bernensis”<br />

— on blank portion of title.<br />

É Geikie, The Founders of Geology, p. 98. Hoover 505.<br />

63. LANGSDORF, Johann Wilhelm. Ausführlichere Abhandlung von<br />

Anlegung, Verbesserung und zweckmäsiger Verwaltung derer Salzwerke, nebst<br />

einem Anhang von denen Rechten und Befugnissen eines Landesherrn auf<br />

Salzquellen und auf den Alleinhandel des Salzes. Folding engraved silhouette<br />

frontis. port. of the author & ten folding engraved plates. 9 p.l., 780 pp.<br />

Small thickish quarto, cont. boards (minor foxing), contrasting leather<br />

lettering piece on spine. Giessen: J.C. Krieger the younger, 1781.<br />

$2500.00<br />

First edition of this extensive work on salt-mining and refining; according to<br />

N.D.B., XIII, p. 611, this is “the first extensive and systematic publication on this<br />

subject” (in trans.). There is a substantial section at the end on the laws<br />

governing salt mines and the economics of the industry.<br />

Langsdorf (1745-1827), was director of several salt mines and a prominent<br />

government official.<br />

Fine and attractive copy.<br />

É Ferchl, p. 295. Poggendorff, I, 1371-72.<br />

See illustration of this item on following page


Item 63. Langsdorf, 1781 (much reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 53<br />

64. LE CLERC, Sebastien. Discours touchant le Point de Vue, Dans lequel<br />

il est prouvé que les choses qu’on voit distinctement, ne sont vues que d’un oeil.<br />

One engraved plate, an engraved head-piece, 24 full-page engravings,<br />

& 9 full-page woodcut diagrams. 6 p.l., 86 pp. 8vo, cont. calf, single gilt<br />

fillet round sides, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris:<br />

A. Cailleau, 1719. $2950.00<br />

Second edition (1st ed.: 1679). “An unusual work on the physiology of vision,<br />

with special regard to its implications for artistic perspective. A well-known<br />

engraver and geometrician, Le Clerc was professor of perspective at the<br />

Académie Royale de Peinture for thirty years…His explanations in this treatise<br />

are <strong>illustrated</strong> with twenty-four engravings of his own devising.”–Becker 235.<br />

Le Clerc (1637-1714), following the lead of Jacques Callot and Stefano della<br />

Bella, helped to create the vignette style so popular in the French book of the<br />

following century.<br />

Fine copy from the Macclesfield library with embossed stamp on title.<br />

Large & Thick Paper Set<br />

65. LE SEUR, Thomas & JACQUIER, François. Elemens du Calcul<br />

Integral. Engraved arms of Duke Ferdinand on titles & eleven folding<br />

engraved plates. xii, 548, [1] pp.; vii (first leaf a blank), 591 pp. Two vols.<br />

4to, cont. mottled sheep (joints and head & tail of spines with several<br />

careful repairs), gilt fleurons in each corner of covers, triple gilt fillet<br />

round sides, spines gilt, red & green morocco lettering pieces on spines.<br />

Parma: [pasted-over label]: “Chez les Freres Faure Libraires de Son<br />

Altesse Royale,” 1768. $6500.00<br />

First edition and a fine large and thick paper set of this work which is now<br />

scarce on the market. This is one of the major works in the history of calculus,<br />

written by the editors of the Jesuits’ edition of Newton’s Principia. The authors<br />

were the principal expositors of Newtonian mathematics and physics in Italy.<br />

They resided in Parma from 1763 to 1773 as tutors to the young Duke Ferdinand<br />

were intimate friends of many of the leading scientists of the time including<br />

Clairaut, Boscovich, and Mme. du Châtelet.<br />

“Utterly Fascinating”–Sinkankas<br />

66. LESSER, Friedrich Christian. Lithotheologie, Das ist: Natürliche<br />

Historie und geistliche Betrachtung derer Steine, Also abgefasst, dass daraus die<br />

Allmacht, Weissheit, Güte und Gerechtigkeit des grossen Schöpffers gezeuget<br />

wird, anbey viel Sprüche der Heiligen Schrifft erklähret, und die menschen<br />

allesamt zur Bewunderung, Lobe und Dienste des grossen Gottes ermuntert


Item 66. Lesser, 1735


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 55<br />

werden…mit einer Vorrede begleitet von Johann. Alberto Fabricio. Ten<br />

engraved plates & three folding printed tables. xlviii, 1300, [56] pp. Thick<br />

8vo, cont. sheep (a little rubbed), spine gilt. Hamburg: C.W. Brandt, 1735.<br />

$3950.00<br />

First edition and “scarce. A complex and detailed work examining in every<br />

facet of the mineral kingdom the evidence of God’s fingerprint. Referencing and<br />

quoting hundreds of ancient and contemporary writers Lesser assembled a<br />

tremendous bank of information to support his viewpoint that God alone was<br />

responsible for geology, mineralogy, crystallography, etc. The author was so<br />

successful in selecting his evidence that the Lithotheologie is commonly viewed<br />

as one of the foundation works in reconciling theology with mineralogy and<br />

geology…<br />

“The text is divided into nine books: (1) covers the fundamental relationship<br />

between the earth, air, water and life, (2) describes the origins of rocks, fossils<br />

and minerals, (3) describes the occurrences of mineralized bodies inside the<br />

earth, (4) covers the properties of stones and minerals, (5) highlights precious<br />

and semiprecious gemstones, (6) stones used in building, manufacture and art,<br />

(7) provides descriptions of the misuse of gemstones, e.g. mythical powers, (8)<br />

covers artificial stones of all types, and (9) wondrous stones, such as Lot’s wife<br />

turned to a pillar of salt. At the end are two indexes. The first provides references<br />

to sections in the Bible, while the other lists subjects covered.”–Schuh, Mineralogy<br />

& Crystallography: A Biobibliography, 1469 to 1920 (in progress), 3016.<br />

Fine copy. Stamp of “Ex Bibliotheca Heldiana” on title.<br />

É Ferguson, II, p. 28–(Young coll. having only the 1751 ed.). Sinkankas<br />

3904–“utterly fascinating work in great detail & complexity”–(& see the rest of<br />

his long description).<br />

Beautifully Illustrated<br />

67. LEUPOLD, Jacob. Theatrum Pontificiale, oder Schau-Platz der Brücken<br />

und Brücken-Baues, Das ist, Eine deutliche Anweisung, Wie man nicht nur auf<br />

mancherley Arth über Gräben, Bäche und Flüsse gelangen, auch so gar in<br />

Wassers-Noth mit gewissen Machinen und besondern Habit sein Leben retten<br />

kan. Sixty finely engraved plates. 8 p.l., 153 pp., [5] pp. Folio, cont. boards<br />

(a bit soiled & rubbed). Leipzig: C. Zunkel, 1726. $3000.00<br />

First edition of one of the most important volumes in Leupold’s series<br />

Theatrum Machinarum, or “Theater of Machines”; this was the most complete and<br />

richly <strong>illustrated</strong> work on engineering and machinery published, not just up<br />

until that time, but for many years to follow.<br />

“Leupold’s treatise is the most comprehensive of all the early bridge books and<br />

the first to be published in Germany. It was inspired by Gautier’s influential<br />

work and covers masonry, pontoon, floating and military bridges but is


Item 68. Loescher, 1788 (reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 57<br />

particularly notable for the material on long-span timber-truss bridges. Leupold<br />

writes with authority on this type of structure, of which there was a long<br />

tradition in Germany, taking as examples some recently-built bridges and<br />

making an attempt to illustrate the behaviour of beams and trusses and to<br />

describe the properties of timber; in this he follows Galileo and anticipates<br />

Buffon.”–Elton, <strong>Cat</strong>. 2, 58.<br />

Leupold (1674-1727), a Leipzig mechanical engineer, established a workshop<br />

to manufacture mathematical and mechanical instruments. His numerous books<br />

describe the latest technological developments of the day.<br />

Fine fresh copy.<br />

Draining Mines<br />

68. LOESCHER, Carl Immanuel. Angabe einer Schwammaschine,<br />

wodurch in einem geringen Zeitraum aus einer beträchtlichen Tiefe eine<br />

ansehnliche Menge Wasser empor gebracht werden kann. Four folding<br />

engraved plates. 70 pp. 8vo, early 19th-cent. half-calf & marbled boards,<br />

flat spine gilt, orange leather lettering piece on spine. Leipzig: S.L.<br />

Crusius, 1788. $1650.00<br />

First edition of a water draining machine which employed sponges attached<br />

to ropes at regular intervals. These sponges would, in a rotary or circular fashion,<br />

descend to absorb water in mines and other flooded areas. The machine then<br />

would bring these sponges to the surface where they would be automatically<br />

squeezed dry, before returning to the wet area below. The fine plates depict in<br />

great detail the various aspects of this machine.<br />

Löscher (1750-1814), was a mining administrator to Graf Thun in Klösterle in<br />

Bohemia and later lived in Freiberg. He wrote a number of books on mining<br />

technology.<br />

Fine copy. Two old stamps on title with release stamp on verso.<br />

É Poggendorff, I, 1486-87.<br />

A Fine & Bright Set Complete in Four Volumes<br />

69. GREAT EXHIBITION, LONDON. Great Exhibition of the Works of<br />

Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official Descriptive and Illustrated <strong>Cat</strong>alogue.<br />

Edited by Robert Ellis. Very numerous plates & illus. Four vols. Large<br />

thick 8vo, cont. blue cloth, sides & spines decorated in gilt, a.e.g. London:<br />

Spicer Brothers, 1851. $3500.00<br />

First edition and a very fine and fresh set of this magnificent catalogue; it has<br />

the very uncommon fourth volume.<br />

Occasional minor foxing but a fine set.<br />

For illustration of the bindings, see following page


Item 69. London Great Exhibition, 1851 (much reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 59<br />

70. MACQUART, Louis Charles Henri. Beschreibung einer auf Befehl der<br />

Regierung nach den Norden gemachten Reise enthaltend Abhandlungen über<br />

mehrere Gegenstände der Mineralogie: Beschreibung der in die königl<br />

Sammlung abgegebenen merkwürdigsten Stücke: eine Ortbeschreibung von<br />

Moskau mit vielen interessanten statistischen Bemerkungen…aus dem<br />

Französischen übersetzt. Mit Anmerkungen begleitet von Fibig und Nau.<br />

Seven folding engraved plates. 2 p.l., 628 pp., [4] leaves. 8vo, cont. yellow<br />

boards. Frankfurt: Hermann, 1790. $2500.00<br />

First edition in German, with the valuable additions and commentaries by<br />

Johann Fibig (d. 1792) and Bernhard Sebastian Nau (1766-1845), both professors<br />

of natural history at the University of Mainz. This edition is rare with OCLC<br />

locating no copy in the U.S.<br />

“The eight memoirs comprising the text are based on the author’s travel<br />

experiences in the Urals, Siberia, the vicinity of Moscow, and Poland. Among<br />

them are several of great interest to the gemologist, e.g., the first memoir, on<br />

chalcedony pseudo-morphs after gypsum which are found in the vicinity of<br />

Cracow, Poland, with several specimens being depicted upon the first plate. A<br />

visit to the celebrated Wieliczka salt mines is narrated as well as visits to salt<br />

mines in Siberia. Memoirs three to five are mineralogically important because<br />

they describe minerals found in a number of Siberian mines, including the<br />

Beresov deposit which formerly provided splendid specimens of crocoite which<br />

Macquart calls ‘plomb rouge,’ and which he analyzed without recognizing the<br />

presence of chromium. A few remarks are made on the famous copper mine at<br />

Gumeshevsk which is best known for having yielded enormous masses of<br />

malachite suitable for overlay lapidary work. The eighth memoir is<br />

gemologically most important inasmuch as it deals with the aqua marines and<br />

topazes from Adun Chilon in Transbaikalia, and provides a catalog of specimens<br />

of aquamarine and other minerals collected. Included here are remarks on the<br />

amethyst of Siberia, several specimens of which are scepter overgrowths<br />

(<strong>illustrated</strong> on a plate), and specimens from Siberia, Saxony, and Hungary<br />

included in the catalog. Other notes treat quartzes from Siberia, agates, jaspers,<br />

and ornamental stones, with a final part on geography of Moscow and vicinity<br />

and descriptions and catalogs of fossils found here and elsewhere in<br />

Russia.”–Sinkankas 4117–(describing the first edition, in French, of 1789).<br />

Macquart (1745-1818), was professor of natural history at the Central School<br />

of the Dép. of the Seine-et-Marne and conservator of the cabinets of<br />

Fontainebleau. He wrote other works on geological, mineralogical, and medical<br />

subjects.<br />

Fine copy. Engraved bookplate of G. C. von Fechenbach.<br />

É Hoover 550–(1st ed.).


Item 71. Magalotti, 1721 (reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 61<br />

71. MAGALOTTI, Lorenzo. Lettere Scientifiche, ed Erudite. Engraved<br />

port. of the author & an engraved vignette on title. Title printed in red<br />

& black. xxiv, 303 pp. Large 4to, cont. vellum over boards (minor<br />

worming at front & back). Florence: Tartini & Franchi, 1721. $2250.00<br />

First edition of this posthumously issued collection of letters by this famous<br />

scientist who has the distinction “of having written the best scientific prose in<br />

Italian after that of Galileo; his descriptions of experiments in physics are written<br />

in colorful, almost dramatic, language.”–D.S.B., IX, p. 3. Essays include those on<br />

light (addressed to Viviani), Galileo, the effects of snow, the comet of 1664,<br />

horticulture and the culture of vines, the sense of smell, circulation of blood, and<br />

languages.<br />

Magalotti (1637-1712), was one of the first ten members of the Accademia del<br />

Cimento and was its secretary. He studied with Viviani and attended lectures<br />

given by Malpighi and Borelli.<br />

Apart from the unimportant worming, a fine copy. Bookplate of S. Villani.<br />

An Important Belgian Collection<br />

72. MAT, Pierre Joseph de, <strong>Bookseller</strong>. <strong>Cat</strong>alogue de la Bibliothéque d’un<br />

Amateur, avec des Notes et une Table Générale des Auteurs et des Matières.<br />

[Compiled by Louis François Antoine Gaudefroy]. 2 p.l., iv, lxxxviii, 20,<br />

318 pp.; 2 p.l., 319-808 pp., 12 pp. of publisher’s ads. Two vols. 8vo, cont.<br />

marbled half-sheep & marbled boards (head of spine of Vol. I a little<br />

chipped & joints a bit cracked but strong), flat spines gilt, red morocco<br />

lettering pieces on spines. Brussels: P.J. de Mat, 1823. $1750.00<br />

The bookseller Mat’s catalogue of a fine anonymous private collection,<br />

compiled and edited by Gaudefroy (1758-1839), the French bibliographer. There<br />

are 6918 items described including a goodly number of important 15th and 16th<br />

century books. The sections on science, medicine, and natural history are<br />

outstanding.<br />

Very good set with the armorial bookplate of Th. de Jonghe. This copy has<br />

pages 37bis-40bis.<br />

É Blogie col. 572.<br />

A Very Fine Copy<br />

73. MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de. Astronomie Nautique: ou<br />

Élémens d'Astronomie, Tant pour un Observatoire fixe, que pour un<br />

Observatoire mobile. Woodcut diagrams in the text. xl, [8], 98 pp. 8vo, cont.<br />

polished calf, double gilt fillet round sides, spine richly gilt, red morocco<br />

lettering piece on spine. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1743. $4950.00<br />

First edition of the second of the two major books by Maupertuis on


62<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

navigation (preceded by his 1741 Discours sur la Parallaxe de la Lune). Maupertuis<br />

devoted much time to improving navigational techniques, linking these<br />

researches to his earlier geodetical work.<br />

Maupertuis (1698-1759), was the foremost proponent of the Newtonian<br />

movement in France.<br />

Very fine copy from the Macclesfield library with bookplate.<br />

É Terrall, The Man Who Flattened the Earth. Maupertuis and the Sciences in the<br />

Enlightenment, pp. 189 & 227.<br />

See frontispiece for illustration of the binding<br />

74. MEIDINGER, Karl von. Vollständige Abhandlung über die<br />

Lohgärberey oder…Anweisung Sohl- und anderes lohgares Leder…zu<br />

verfertigen. Mit ausführlicher Beschreibung einer neuen für Handel und<br />

Gewerbe wichtigen Erfindung. 15 folding engraved plates. xxviii, 173 pp.,<br />

[1] pp. Large 4to, orig. blue wrappers (spine a little frayed), uncut.<br />

Leipzig: C.A. Hempel, 1802. $2250.00<br />

First edition of this very rare work on the preparation and dyeing of various<br />

kinds of leather, including morocco, parchment, and Russia. The author<br />

describes the necessary preparations preliminary to tanning, techniques of<br />

tanning, and the processes which follow. Pages xvii-xxi contain an interesting<br />

bibliography of English, French, and German books on tanning and dyeing of<br />

leathers. There are also sections on the trade of leather.<br />

Meidinger (1750-1820), was provincial secretary in charge of lower Austria and<br />

wrote a number of books on geology, mineralogy, mining, and technological<br />

matters.<br />

The attractive plates depict the various steps in manufacturing leathers.<br />

Fine copy. Small library stamp on verso of each plate.<br />

É Poggendorff, II, 102–(not knowing of this work).<br />

“Meyer is Best Known for Having<br />

Been Wrong”–D.S.B.<br />

75. MEYER, Johann Friedrich. Chymische Versuche, zur näheren<br />

Erkenntniss des ungelöschten Kalchs, der elastichen und electrischen Materie,<br />

des allerreinsten Feurwesens, und der ursprünglichen allgemeinen Säure. Nebst<br />

einem Anhange von den Elementen…mit dessen alchimistichen Briefen<br />

vermehrte Ausgabe. 22, [2], 418, [28], 48 pp. 8vo, cont. half-sheep &<br />

speckled boards, spine gilt, red leather lettering piece on spine.<br />

Hannover: J.W. Schmidt, 1770. $2750.00<br />

Second edition (1st ed.: 1764) of a work which became the starting point for a<br />

heated controversy among the chemists of the period. In this book, Meyer (1705-<br />

65), “develops his theory of ‘acidum pingue’ which he regarded as the universal


Item 74. Meidinger, 1802 (reduced)


64<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

primitive acid, the cause of causticity, the matter of light, the cause of the<br />

increase in weight of metals when calcined, etc. Opposed to Joseph Black’s<br />

explanation of causticity, the theory aroused considerable controversy. Lavoisier<br />

in his Opuscules Physiques et Chimiques, 1774, devoted Chapter XI in Part I to<br />

Meyer’s theory, praising the book as displaying Meyer’s genius but criticizing<br />

Meyer for applying acidum pingue ‘indiscriminately to everything’.”–Cole 936.<br />

Our edition, posthumously published, contains corrections made by the<br />

author in his own copy of the first edition.<br />

Added at the end is Meyer’s only other publication, his Letters on Alchemy (1st<br />

ed.: 1767). They contain Meyer’s experiments with a view to transmutation, in<br />

which he “incidentally made some positive observations.”–Ferguson, II, p. 93.<br />

Fine copy of a rare book. With the characteristic red stamp on verso of title of<br />

August Ferdinand, Graf von Veltheim (1741-1801), an important mining official<br />

in the Harz Mountains and the author of a number of mineralogical and mining<br />

works. He formed an important scientific library and they all seemingly have<br />

survived in fine condition.<br />

É D.S.B., IX, pp. 346-47. Neville, II, p. 168. Partington, III, pp. 145-46.<br />

76. MOLYNEUX, William. The Case of Ireland’s being bound by Acts of<br />

Parliament in England, stated…to which is added, the Case of Tenures upon the<br />

Commission of Defective Titles, argued by all the Judges of Ireland. With their<br />

Resolutions, and the Reasons of their Resolutions. xv, 236 pp. 8vo, cont. sheep<br />

(rebacked, title backed). London: W. Boreham, 1720. $950.00<br />

Later edition of this celebrated work. “The greater part of this tract was a<br />

survey of history, inaccurate or fictitious in places, and a study of precedent<br />

supported by considerable legal learning…That Ireland should be bound by<br />

English acts of parliament Molyneux held to be against reason and the common<br />

rights of mankind. Consent alone could give laws force, otherwise they offended<br />

against rights of liberty and property. The circumstance complained of offended<br />

against English common law under which representative government was the<br />

right of every subject.”–ODNB.<br />

Good copy.<br />

With an Hitherto Important Unpublished Letter by Galileo<br />

77. [MORELLI, Jacopo]. Monumenti Veneziani di varia Letteratura per la<br />

prima volta pubblicati… Engraved frontis., engraved coat-of-arms of the<br />

Pisani family on title, & three engraved headpieces. 4 p.l. (incl. frontis.),<br />

12, LI pp. Large 4to, orig. pink printed boards with the coat-of-arms of<br />

the Pisani family (head & foot of spine a bit worn). Venice: C. Palese,


Item 77. Morelli, 1796 (much reduced)


66<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

1796. $2500.00<br />

First edition of this collection of hitherto unpublished letters including an<br />

extremely important one from Galileo addressed to the Doge of Venice in which<br />

he describes his invention of the telescope and lists its many applications. He<br />

stated it was particularly useful for the military, both on land and at sea.<br />

Following Galileo’s letter is printed a decree from the Venetian Senate, dated 25<br />

August 1609, in which they thank Galileo and award him 1000 florins annually.<br />

Fine copy in original state and preserved in a box.<br />

É Carli & Favaro 629. Cinti 183. Drake, Galileo at Work, pp. 139-42.<br />

“The First Theoretical and Practical Book on<br />

Suspension Bridge Construction”–Peters<br />

78. NAVIER, Claude Louis Marie Henri. Rapport à Monsieur Becquey,<br />

Conseiller d’État, Directeur général des Ponts et Chaussées et des Mines; et<br />

Mémoire sur les Ponts Suspendus. Woodcut royal arms on title & 13 fine<br />

folding engraved plates. xxiv, 228 pp. Large 4to, later blue half-calf &<br />

marbled boards, spine gilt. Paris: de l’Imprimerie Royale, 1823.<br />

$3500.00<br />

First edition. “Navier’s ‘Rapport et Mémoire’ made it possible from this very<br />

early period of suspension bridge development to determine both the forces and<br />

the most economic dimensions of principal members. The work was the first<br />

theoretical and practical treatise on such bridges, and its influence was immense<br />

and far-reaching. It went into use immediately and was soon translated into<br />

German and Italian; copies existed in America, one of which was owned by<br />

Roebling. Within this remarkable and unprecedented book, Navier sets out to<br />

analyse the structural behaviour, tackling the problems inherent in such bridges<br />

in a clear and scientific manner. Of particular interest at such a date are his<br />

investigations into the effect of wind and vibration, both responsible for many<br />

failures and neither fully understood until after 1940 and the Tacoma bridge<br />

collapse. He applies his theories to his design for the proposed Invalides bridge<br />

in Paris with a span of 170m and to a hypothetical suspension aqueduct of 97.5m<br />

span…<br />

“The work stemmed from the visits he made to Britain to examine the bridges<br />

there on behalf of the Ponts et Chaussées, assessing the possibilities of this new<br />

structural form. In his report to Becquey he recommends its adoption, giving in<br />

the Mémoire that follows, precise plans and details of such notable examples as<br />

Brown’s Berwick bridge and those of Marc Brunel on the Isle de Bourbon as well<br />

as describing Telford’s Runcorn and Menai schemes. He also summarizes the<br />

experiments on wrought-iron chains carried out by Telford, Barlow, Brown and<br />

Brunel. The book as a whole is thus a brilliant synthesis of theory and<br />

practice.”–Elton, <strong>Cat</strong>. 4, item 32.<br />

“For fifty years, this report was one of the most important books covering the


Item 79. Newton, 1718 (reduced)


68<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

design of suspension bridges.”–Timoshenko, History of Strength of Materials, p. 73.<br />

Fine copy. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.<br />

É Peters, Guillaume Henri Dufour and the Early 19th Century Cable Suspension<br />

Bridges, p. 42–“the first theoretical and practical book on suspension bridge<br />

construction, giving precise plans and details, as well as the first widely used<br />

theoretical work on analytical statics.” Poggendorff, II, 260-61. Roberts & Trent,<br />

Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 234-35.<br />

With an Important Addition<br />

79. NEWTON, Isaac. Opticks: or, a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions,<br />

Inflections and Colours of Light. The Second Edition, with Additions. Twelve<br />

folding engraved plates. 4 p.l., 382 pp., one leaf of ads. 8vo, cont. English<br />

panelled calf (well-rebacked with the orig. red morocco label laid-down,<br />

two corners a bit worn, a little dusty). London: W. & J. Innys, 1718.<br />

$8500.00<br />

Second edition, revised and enlarged by Newton. This is the second issue with<br />

the title-page dated 1718 (1st issue: 1717). For this second edition, the first in<br />

octavo, the plates were newly engraved to suit the new format. While Newton<br />

left the body of the treatise largely untouched, “the number of Queries at the<br />

end was increased from 16 to 31, including the celebrated Query No. 28 on the<br />

nature of light.”–Babson, I, p. 67.<br />

Very good copy with a few plates just shaved. Contemporary signature on free<br />

front<br />

endpaper: “Ex libris Hci Jefferson. ex ColI: Div: Joh: Cant: Dec: 27mo die, 1719.<br />

Pre: 6.”<br />

É Babson 134.<br />

80. PAUPIE, Franz Andreas. Versuch einer Grundlehre der Bierbrauerey<br />

in katechetischer Form für Lehrlinge, Gesellen und Brauer, als auch für jeden<br />

Oekonomen der sich von dieser Kunst gründliche Kenntnisse zu sammeln<br />

wünschet. Nebst einer theoretisch-praktischen Einleitung warum ds alte gut<br />

seyn sollende böhmische Bier in Verfall gerathen ist. Physisch – chemisch –<br />

ökonomisch – praktisch verfasst von… 6 p.l., xx, 296, [4], [3] pp. of errata.<br />

8vo, cont. blue boards, red leather label on spine. Prague: “auf Kosten<br />

des Verfassers,” 1797. $1750.00<br />

First edition and rare; OCLC locates only one copy, in Germany. Paupie,<br />

described here on the title-page as “Braumeister zu Schlan” later was a brewer<br />

in Brno. His Die Kunst des Bierbrauens, physisch, chemisch, ökonomisch beschrieben<br />

(1794 with a third volume issued in 1821), was one of the most extensive and


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 69<br />

best books on the brewing of beer issued in 18th-century Bohemia. In the<br />

present work, Paupie describes, in a question and answer format, the proper<br />

construction of a brewery, necessary apparatus, materials such as hops and<br />

water, every step in the brewing process, problems during fermentation and<br />

storage, etc.<br />

Very good copy. Old library stamp on title and verso (with release stamp).<br />

É Schoellhorn 273.<br />

“One of Poisson’s Chief Treatises”<br />

Presentation Copy to Flourens<br />

81. POISSON, Siméon Denis. Théorie Mathématique de la Chaleur. One<br />

folding engraved plate. 2 p.l., 532, [2] pp. Large 4to, cont. sheep-backed<br />

marbled boards, vellum tips, flat spine gilt, green morocco lettering piece<br />

on spine. Paris: Bachelier, 1835. $4500.00<br />

First edition of Poisson’s important formulation of equations describing the<br />

distribution of heat within bodies. “Poisson scored a point in this work by<br />

demonstrating how the conductibility of heat in the interior of bodies, far from<br />

being contained in the notion of flux as Fourier had held, must be derived from<br />

an absorption coefficient that restores a neglected functional dimension.”–D.S.B.,<br />

XV, p. 488.<br />

A very fine and handsome copy with a presentation inscription (partly<br />

cropped by the binder’s knife) by Poisson to the great physician Marie Jean<br />

Pierre Flourens (1794-1867).<br />

É Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 260-61–“This is the first edition of<br />

an important work in which Poisson formulated equations for the distribution<br />

of heat in bodies. As opposed to Fourier, who maintained in his Mémoire<br />

analytique de la chaleur that the conductibility of heat was contained in the motion<br />

of flux, Poisson showed that it must be derived from an absorptive coefficient<br />

restoring the neglected functional dimension…One of Poisson’s chief treatises.”<br />

Classics of Italian Hydraulic Literature<br />

82. RACCOLTA D’AUTORI che Trattano del Moto dell’ Acque divisa in<br />

Tre Tomi. Engraved vignette on first title & 45 folding plates (mostly<br />

woodcut but a few engraved). xxxvii, [1], 408 pp.; 2 p.l., 713 pp.; 2 p.l., 576<br />

pp. Three vols. 4to, cont. vellum over boards, red morocco lettering piece<br />

on spines. Florence: Tartini & Franchi, 1723. $5000.00<br />

First edition of this vast and important collection of Italian hydraulic literature.<br />

Because the Italians had pressing economic reasons to manage rivers, improve<br />

drainage, and construct harbors, many of the country’s most skilled engineers<br />

and scientists over the centuries became involved in hydraulic projects.<br />

The collection contains both theoretical treatises and those dealing with<br />

specific rivers, marshes, and construction projects. The authors included are


70<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

Archimedes, Albizi, Galileo, Castelli, Michelini, Borelli, Montanari, Viviani,<br />

Cassini, Guglielmini, Grandi, Manfredi, Piccard, and Narducci.<br />

Very good set. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.<br />

É Riccardi, II, 330-31–“queste pregevoli compilazioni.”<br />

The First Comprehensive Book Devoted to the<br />

Manufacture of Steel & Iron<br />

83. RÉAUMUR, René-Antoine Ferchault de. L’Art de convertir le Fer<br />

forgé en Acier, et l’Art d’adoucir le Fer fondu, ou de faire des Ouvrages de fer<br />

fondu aussi finis que de fer forgé. Seventeen folding engraved plates. 10 p.l.,<br />

566, [2] pp. Large 4to, cont. marbled calf (upper joint with a short split at<br />

head), spine nicely gilt, contrasting leather lettering piece on spine. Paris:<br />

M. Brunet, 1722. $4000.00<br />

First edition of the first comprehensive book devoted to the manufacture of<br />

iron and steel; it “laid the foundations of the steel industry in<br />

France.”–Partington, III, p. 64. Réaumur was the first to recognize that steel was<br />

actually impure iron and set up the first scale of seven types of fracture of iron<br />

and steel.<br />

The fine plates are valuable for illustrating the contemporary apparatus and<br />

methods of converting iron into steel. For a detailed account of this book, see<br />

D.S.B., XI, pp. 328-30.<br />

A very fine and handsome copy. Later inscription on free front endpaper:<br />

“Bibliotheque du Chateau de Chatenoy en 1771.”<br />

É Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 273-74–“Réaumur’s most original<br />

contribution to industrial technology…Part one, containing twelve memoirs,<br />

deals with the production of steel from the construction of the furnaces, through<br />

the tempering process and the apparatus used to determine the hardness of the<br />

finished product. The second part, in six memoirs, describes the various kinds<br />

of cast iron, and of casting methods, moulds, additives, and furnaces. As well, it<br />

explains a process for producing cast iron using red oxide of iron, which was<br />

unique to the 19th century.”<br />

84. RICHARDSON, John. Johann Richardsons Vorschläge zu neuen<br />

Vortheilen beym Bierbrauen. Nebst Beschreibung seines neuerfundenen<br />

Instruments, um den Gehalt des Bieres zu erforschen. Aus dem Englischen mit<br />

Anmerkungen übersetzt. Mit einer Vorrede begleitet von D. Lorenz<br />

Crell. Engraved frontis. 20 p.l.(incl. frontis.), 234 pp. 8vo, cont. blue<br />

boards, flat spine gilt, red leather lettering piece on spine. Berlin &<br />

Stettin: F. Nicolai, 1788. $1250.00<br />

First edition in German, a translation of Theoretic Hints on an Improved Practice<br />

of Brewing Malt-Liquors (1st ed.: 1777) by Richardson (fl. 1778-98). The text by


Item 84. Richardson, 1788 (reduced)


72<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

Richardson has been greatly augmented with important additions by Lorenz<br />

Crell (1744-1816), professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Brunswick and later<br />

at Göttingen and an early proponent of Lavoisier. Crell was an active<br />

correspondent of all the leading chemists in Germany and other countries and<br />

his journals diffused a knowledge of the French, British, and Swedish<br />

discoveries in Germany.<br />

Fine copy.<br />

É Schoellhorn 255.<br />

85. ROBISON, John. A System of Mechanical Philosophy. [Edited] with<br />

notes, by David Brewster. 50 folding engraved plates & numerous illus.<br />

in the text. Four vols. 8vo, slightly later half-calf & pebbled cloth sides,<br />

spines gilt. Edinburgh: Printed for John Murray, London. 1822.<br />

$2500.00<br />

First edition and a fine attractive set. Robison (1739-1805), professor of natural<br />

philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, was the principal contributor to the<br />

third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; many, but not all, of the articles<br />

printed here were written for that publication and intended to instruct artisans<br />

and craftsmen.<br />

“Volume I contains articles on dynamics, and strength of materials and its<br />

applications in construction. Volume II contains his article on steam and steam<br />

engines for the Encylopaedia Britannica with the thirty-page appendix by Watt,<br />

as well as papers on machinery, the resistance of fluids, water-works, pumps,<br />

and his theory of rivers. Volume III contains his contributions on astronomy, the<br />

telescope, and on pneumatics. Volume IV contains miscellaneous contributions<br />

on electricity, magnetism, variation of the compass, music, various musical<br />

instruments, watch mechanics, and seamanship.”–Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca<br />

Mechanica, p. 280.<br />

Lacks half-titles. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.<br />

É D.S.B., XI, pp. 495-98. Wheeler Gift <strong>Cat</strong>. 791.<br />

The Chemistry of Dyes with 247 Color Samples<br />

86. RUNGE, Friedlieb Ferdinand. Grundriss der Chemie. 247 mounted<br />

color samples in the text. xxiv, 333, [1] pp.; xxxii, 316 pp., one leaf of<br />

errata. Two vols. 8vo, cont. pale blue paper-backed marbled boards<br />

(several corners a bit worn), spines gilt, orange leather lettering pieces on<br />

spines. Munich: G. Franz, 1846-47. $2750.00<br />

First edition of this rare work on the chemistry of dyes by the co-discoverer of<br />

aniline dyes in coal-tar. Runge (1795-1867), was associate professor in Breslau<br />

and later in the Prussian Marine service in Berlin and Oranienburg.<br />

Nice set with all 247 mounted color samples. Old library stamps on each title.<br />

É D.S.B., XI, pp. 615-16. Hein & Schwarz, Deutsche Apotheker-Biographie, Vol. II,


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 73<br />

p. 549–“R., der ein sehr vielseitiger Chemiker war, hat sich in erster Linie mit der<br />

Chemie des Steinkohlenteers befasst und wurde somit zum Begründer der<br />

Steinkohlenteerchemie.” Neville, II, p. 407–“An important treatise on the<br />

preparation, properties, and uses of inorganic pigments and dyes, by the<br />

codiscoverer of aniline dyes made from compounds isolated from coal tar.”<br />

Partington, IV, pp. 183-84. Poggendorff, II, 721-22. Not in Ron, Bibliotheca<br />

Tinctoria.<br />

An Ophthalmological Classic<br />

87. SCARPA, Antonio. Saggio di Osservazioni e d’Esperienze sulle<br />

Principali Malattie degli Occhi. Engraved frontis. port. & three fine<br />

engraved plates. 1 p.l., xi, 278, [1] pp. Large 4to, cont. green moroccobacked<br />

marbled boards (minor foxing & browning), flat spine gilt. Pavia:<br />

B. Comino, 1801. $3000.00<br />

First edition of the first textbook on the subject to be published in the Italian<br />

language; Scarpa has been called “the father of Italian ophthalmology.”<br />

“In this work Scarpa first described the operation of iridodialysis. The chapters<br />

on diseases of the vessels in the eye, on cataract, and on staphyloma are<br />

particularly noteworthy. Scarpa’s books were all superbly <strong>illustrated</strong> with his<br />

own drawings and the plates in this work, engraved by Faustino Anderloni, bear<br />

witness to Scarpa’s artistic talent. Duke-Elder considered this the greatest work<br />

on ophthalmology that had appeared up to its time.”–Becker <strong>Cat</strong>. 207.<br />

Garrison considered Scarpa’s illustrations to be the “crown and flower of<br />

achievement in anatomic pen-drawing.”<br />

A very good and large copy.<br />

É Garrison-Morton 5835. Waller 8543.<br />

An Incunable of Lithography<br />

88. SCHARL, Benno. Beschreibung der Braunbier-Brauerey im Königreiche<br />

Baiern. Four folding lithographed plates. 2 p.l., 150 pp. 8vo, cont. halfsheep<br />

& boards, spine gilt & attractively decorated with orange & pale<br />

blue lettering pieces. Munich: J. Lindauer, 1814. $1750.00<br />

First edition, posthumously published, and very rare with no copy in the U.S.<br />

Brown (“dunkel”) beer became popular in Bavaria in the 18th century and<br />

demand greatly increased in the following hundred years. The present work<br />

describes the ideal construction of a brewery dedicated to the production of<br />

brown beer (the materials used in brewing brown beer caused special design<br />

needs). Scharl also describes in detail the methods of brewing brown beer.<br />

Scharl (1741-1812), was an economist and brewer. Pages 1-28 provide a most<br />

detailed biography of this interesting man. The fine plates, depicting a cross-


Item 89. Schuebler, 1734 (much reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 75<br />

section view of the three story brewery (with additional basement) and a floor<br />

plan of each story, are an early use of lithography.<br />

Very good copy. Some browning.<br />

É Schoelhorn 58, 331.<br />

Magic Squares & Perspective<br />

89. SCHUEBLER, Johann Jacob. Ars Inveniendi sive Partitio MA Damae.<br />

Das ist: Die in dem Antiquen Progressions-Quadrat der Lunae durch Zahlen,<br />

Buchstaben und Linien verhüllte Entia Invisiblia, welche aud dem<br />

Pythagorischen Gedancken-Gemähld oder metathesi numerorum… Finely<br />

engraved frontis. & 34 engraved plates. 196, [4] pp. Folio, cont. calf<br />

(minor rubbing), red leather lettering piece on spine. Nuremberg: J.C.<br />

Weigel’s Widow, 1734. $7500.00<br />

First edition of this handsome and rare book; this is a very fine, fresh, and crisp<br />

copy. Schuebler (1689-1741), was a prominent Nuremberg mathematician,<br />

architect, and artist, who wrote many standard works on the design of houses,<br />

public buildings, and gardens. He was also engaged in various fields of applied<br />

mathematics and became a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences<br />

in 1735.<br />

The present work is concerned with magic squares, whose origins are Chinese,<br />

and the geometrical and perspectival construction of technical drawings. The<br />

finely engraved plates depict magic squares as well as superb technical examples<br />

of ornamental and architectural motifs.<br />

É Berlin 4731.<br />

90. SCHUEBLER, Johann Jacob. Die aus denen antiquen Principiis<br />

naturalibus Numerorum eröfnete Arithmetica Compendiosissima, oder die durch<br />

blosses Auffschlagen in einem bequemen Rechnungs-Lexicon sich<br />

selbst-rechnende Rechen-Kunst, Mit welcher alle Menschen, so nur die Zahlen<br />

kennen, vermögend seynd, die mögliche Fälle der ganzen Rechen-Kunst…behend<br />

aufzulösen…und ohne Erlernung des sogenannten Ein mal Eins…alles<br />

ausrechen können. Several woodcuts & extensive tables in the text. 24 p.l.,<br />

501, [1] pp. Large 4to, cont. polished speckled calf, initials on upper cover<br />

“F.G.Z.S.H.v.W. 1739,” spine finely gilt, red morocco lettering piece on<br />

spine. Nuremberg: J.M. Seitz & C.C. Zell, 1739. $4750.00<br />

First edition and a very fine copy from the library of [Karl] Friedrich Graf zu<br />

Sayn Hohenstein und Wittgenstein (1708-56), with his initials on the upper cover<br />

(one sees books from his library on the market from time-to-time. It must have<br />

been a fine and handsome collection).<br />

The present work is a practical introduction to all aspects of calculation


Item 90. Schuebler, 1739 (much reduced)


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 77<br />

including multiplication, division, trigonometry (with references to Napier),<br />

arithmetical and geometrical progressions, etc.<br />

A very fine copy and rare with no copy in the U.S., according to OCLC.<br />

É Poggendorff, II, 853.<br />

91. SMITH, Robert. Vollständiger Lehrbegriff der Optik nach Herrn Roberts<br />

Smiths Englischen mit Aenderungen und Zusätzen ausgearbeitet von<br />

Abraham Gotthelf Kästner. Engraved allegorical vignette on title & 22<br />

folding engraved plates. 12 p.l., 531, [5] pp. Large 4to, cont. half-sheep &<br />

speckled boards (light foxing throughout), spine gilt, contrasting leather<br />

lettering piece on spine. Altenburg: Richter, 1755. $5500.00<br />

First edition in German (1st ed.: 1738). This is an important edition, containing<br />

the valuable alterations and additions of Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (1719-1800),<br />

professor of mathematics and physics at the University of Göttingen. He became<br />

“an influential figure through his teaching and writing; Göttingen’s reputation<br />

as a center of mathematical studies dates from that time. Kaestner is also known<br />

in German literature, notably for his epigrams...Kaestner owes his place in the<br />

history of mathematics to his great success as an expositor and to the seminal<br />

character of his thought. His output as a writer in mathematics and its<br />

applications (optics, dynamics, astronomy), in the form of long works and<br />

hundreds of essays and memoirs, was prodigious.”–D.S.B., VII, p. 206.<br />

This was “the most influential optical textbook of the eighteenth<br />

century.”–D.S.B., XII, p. 477. It is largely based on the optics of Newton. “Of the<br />

four books…the first deals in a non-technical manner with the fundamental<br />

experiments in optics, while the second provides a more formal treatment of the<br />

geometrical theory of the subject. Smith studied the problem of spherical<br />

aberrations in greater generality than his predecessors, Barrow and Huygens.<br />

The third book describes apparatus for grinding and polishing lenses and<br />

specula, and it gives a complete account of the construction, adjustment, and use<br />

of the principal optical instruments, while the fourth book gives a history of<br />

telescopic discoveries in the heavens.”–Wolf, History of Science, II, p. 171. There<br />

is a long chapter on various microscopes.<br />

An absolutely lovely copy with attractive stenciled endpapers. Bookplate of the<br />

Augustiner-Chorherrenstifts Rottenbuch in upper Bavaria.<br />

É Clay & Court, History of the Microscope, pp. 46, 70, 98, 110, 116, 117, & 229-31.<br />

King, History of the Telescope, pp. 56, 78, 84-85, & 120.


78<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

Haller Amplified & Corrected<br />

92. SPALLANZANI, Lazzaro. Dell’ Azione del Cuore ne’ Vasi Sanguigni.<br />

Nuove Osservazioni. 1 p.l., 71, [1] pp. Small 4to, orig. semi-stiff boards,<br />

uncut. [Modena: 1768]. $3950.00<br />

First edition and a lovely copy of one of the author’s scarcer books.<br />

Spallanzani’s Dell’ azione del cuore ne’ vasi sanguini, “outlined his findings on the<br />

action of the heart upon the blood vessels and was addressed to the great<br />

physiologist Albrecht von Haller…<br />

“Haller’s microscopic observations of blood movements in his Deux mémoires<br />

sur le mouvement du sang (1756) had been made by refracted light on<br />

medium-sized vessels in the isolated mesentery of the frog. Spallanzani, using<br />

P. Lyonet’s novel dissecting apparatus, conducted his observations mostly in a<br />

darkened room with reflected light from sunbeams impinging upon exposed<br />

parts of the aquatic salamander. He systematically noted how the cardiac systolic<br />

force motivated the blood circulation. The rhythmic inequality of blood flow in<br />

the aorta and large vessels disappeared in medium and small arteries, becoming<br />

regular and uniform. The velocity diminished in the smaller vessels, but<br />

sinuosities did not retard the flow. In the smallest vessels, individual red<br />

corpuscles negotiated acute angles and folds by elastically changing shape. The<br />

blood velocity in the venous system increased as the caliber of the vessels<br />

enlarged. Haller responded to the many amplifications and corrections of his<br />

work by securing Spallanzani’s election to the Royal Society of Sciences of<br />

Göttingen.”–D.S.B., XII, p. 556.<br />

Fine copy.<br />

É Prandi, pp. 32-33.<br />

Presented by Senebier to Charles Bonnet<br />

93. SPALLANZANI, Lazzaro. Opuscules de Physique, Animale et<br />

Végétale…traduits de l’Italien, et augmentés d’une Introduction dans<br />

laquelle on fait connoître les découvertes microscopiques dans les trois<br />

Règnes de la Nature…par Jean Senebier…On y a joint plusieurs Lettres<br />

rélatives à ces Opuscules écrites…par Mr. Charles Bonnet & par d’autres<br />

Naturalistes célébres. Six folding engraved plates. 2 p.l., cxxiv, 255, [6]<br />

pp.; 1 p.l., 405, [3] pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. sheep (corners & heads of<br />

spines a bit worn), spines nicely gilt, green & brown vellum lettering<br />

pieces on spines. Geneva: B. Chirol, 1777. $3250.00<br />

First edition in French (1st ed., in Italian: 1776) of one of Spallanzani’s most<br />

important works, containing “five reports that displayed unexcelled<br />

experimental skill, remarkable powers of observation and lucid literary<br />

talent.”–D.S.B., XII, p. 557–(& see pp. 557-58 for a full discussion of this book’s


Item 92. Spallanzani, 1768 (reduced)


80<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

contents).<br />

The first volume contains Spallanzani’s refutation of Needham’s theories on<br />

spontaneous generation. The main treatise in the second volume confirmed and<br />

extended Leeuwenhoek’s observations on spermatozoa and refuted Buffon’s<br />

concepts of their nature and origin.<br />

The translation into French by Senebier is known for its accuracy.<br />

A fine, pretty, and fresh copy, with the contemporary inscription on each title:<br />

“Donné par le Trad: Charles Bonnet.”<br />

É Garrison-Morton 102–(1st ed.)–“Later confutation of the theory of<br />

spontaneous generation. Spallanzani’s conclusions were similar to those<br />

expressed by Pasteur nearly a century later.” Prandi, Spallanzani, p. 80–“Bella<br />

edizione, non comune.”<br />

The Bell Rock Lighthouse<br />

94. STEVENSON, Robert. An Account of the Bell Rock Light-House,<br />

including the Details of the Erection and Peculiar Structure of that Edifice. To<br />

which is prefixed a Historical View of the Institution and Progress of the<br />

Northern Light-Houses…Drawn up by desire of the Commissioners of the<br />

Northern Light-Houses. Twenty-three engraved plates (mostly doublepage<br />

or folding), including a frontispiece drawn by J.M.W. Turner. xix,<br />

533, [2] pp. Large thick 4to, later 19th-cent. morocco (joints carefully<br />

repaired, foot of spine a little chipped), sides panelled in gilt, spine gilt,<br />

entirely uncut. Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1824. $4500.00<br />

First edition and a fine copy of this handsomely <strong>illustrated</strong> account of the<br />

construction of the Bell Rock lighthouse. In the last years of the 18th century,<br />

Stevenson was named engineer to the Scottish lighthouse board. “He<br />

inaugurated the Scottish lighthouse system, which is still conducted on the lines<br />

he initiated. Under his superintendence no fewer than twenty lighthouses were<br />

designed and constructed, and many improvements, now in universal use, were<br />

due to his ingenuity. He brought the catoptric or reflecting system of lighting to<br />

perfection, advocated the adoption of the dioptric or refracting system with its<br />

central lamp, and invented the intermittent and flashing lights…The most<br />

important of his lighthouses was the famous Bell Rock tower, erected on a<br />

dangerous reef submerged by every tide to the depth of twelve feet, and lying<br />

in the fairway of ships making for the estuaries of the Tay and Forth. Previous<br />

attempts made by Captain Brodie to erect beacons upon it had failed. In the<br />

storm of 1799 seventy sail were wrecked off the reef, among them the York,<br />

74-gun ship. After a careful survey Stevenson designed and modelled a tower,<br />

and reported on 28 Dec. 1800 to his board that the erection of a stone tower on<br />

the reef was practicable…<br />

“After five years of arduous labour the lighthouse was in working order…The<br />

tower, which, as in all Stevenson’s lighthouses, is free from architectural


Item 95. Struve, 1822


82<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

adornment, rises to the height of 100 ft. ; the diameter at the base is 42 ft.,<br />

diminishing to 16 ft. at the top. Above the solid, which is 80 ft. in height, is the<br />

entrance doorway, the interior being divided into six stories. Smeaton in his<br />

Eddystone tower adopted an arched form of floor, rendering it necessary to<br />

insert chains embedded in the masonry to counteract the outward thrust ; but<br />

in the Bell Rock tower, by an ingenious arrangement of the masonry, the stone<br />

floors were converted into effective ‘bonds,’ thus tying the walls together, for as<br />

the stone floors form part of the walls, outward thrust is prevented. All<br />

subsequent rock towers have this form of floor. The cubic contents of the tower<br />

are more than double those of the Eddystone, from which it differs in many<br />

respects owing to its far more difficult and dangerous site…The optical<br />

apparatus consisted of parabolic reflectors of silvered copper, combined with<br />

argand burners, arranged on a four-sided frame, the best and most complete<br />

apparatus then known…Since the lighting of the Bell Rock not a single wreck<br />

has taken place on the reef…<br />

“Not only was the tower itself novel in design, but the implements used in its<br />

erection had to be invented. The balance and movable jib cranes were for the<br />

first time used at the Bell Rock. The latter is now in universal use. Ball-bearing<br />

were also introduced into the cranes at the Bell Rock for the first time. Stevenson<br />

further designed for the temporary lightship moored off the Bell Rock tower<br />

during its construction — the first lightship placed in so deep water — a lantern<br />

to surround the mast, instead of small lanterns hung from the yard-arms or<br />

frames. This improvement is now universally adopted.”–D.N.B., XVIII, pp. 1130-<br />

31.<br />

The frontispiece illustration of the lighthouse during a storm is drawn by<br />

J.M.W. Turner.<br />

A handsome copy. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.<br />

An Early Study of the Mineralogy & Geology of North America<br />

95. STRUVE, Heinrich Christian Gottfried von. Beiträge zur<br />

Mineralogie und Geologie des nördlichen Amerika’s. Nach Amerikanischen<br />

Zeitschriften bearbeitet. Title with engraved vignette of “Gediegener<br />

Kupferfels am See Superior.” 3 p.l., 124 pp. 8vo, cont. half-calf & marbled<br />

boards, spine gilt, black leather lettering piece on spine. Hamburg:<br />

Perthes & Bessel 1822. $3500.00<br />

First edition and rather scarce on the market. “Rare. The state of mineralogy<br />

in the free states of America is so little known that this treatise was deemed<br />

necessary for the friends of nature. In its preparation, the American journals of<br />

Benjamin Silliman, the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences in<br />

Philadelphia and Cleaveland’s Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology have been<br />

consulted. The first 22 pages contain a listing of minerals found in North<br />

America by Struve. The remainder of the volume is devoted to extracts of articles


Item 96. Trecco, 1792 (reduced)


84<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

by Schoolcraft, Jessup, Dickson, Troost, among others.”–Schuh, Mineralogy &<br />

Crystallography: A Biobibliography, 1469 to 1920, 4547.<br />

Struve (1772-1851), was secretary of the Russian delegation to various German<br />

cities.<br />

Fine copy.<br />

É Poggendorff, II, 1035-36.<br />

Flax<br />

96. TRECCO, Giovanni Battista. Coltivazione e Governo del Lino<br />

Marzuolo. Fine engraved title & 12 finely engraved plates. 1 p.l., viii, 80<br />

pp. Large 4to, orig. semi-stiff boards, many edges uncut. Vicenza: D.<br />

Bardella, 1792. $3250.00<br />

First edition of this handsomely <strong>illustrated</strong> work which describes the<br />

cultivation of the land to grow flax, and the entire process — harvesting, retting,<br />

breaking, scutching, cleaning, spinning, weaving, and bleaching — of flax to<br />

manufacture linen. The twelve plates depict methods of cultivation and<br />

processing of flax, including the tools employed and workers in contemporary<br />

dress. Flax was, without any competitor, the most important of all vegetable<br />

fibers until the close of the 18th century when cotton took its place as the<br />

supreme vegetable fiber of commerce.<br />

Trecco (1747-1830), abbot at the cathedral at Vicenza, was greatly interested in<br />

improving the agricultural methods used in Italy. His tireless efforts won him<br />

considerable local fame.<br />

Fine and handsome copy in original state.<br />

The Theory of the Origin of Ore Deposits;<br />

An Uncut Copy<br />

97. WERNER, Abraham Gottlob. Neue Theorie von der Entstehung der<br />

Gänge, mit Anwendung auf den Bergbau besonders den freibergischen. xxxx,<br />

256 pp. 8vo, cont. paste-paper boards (minor foxing), uncut. Freiberg:<br />

Gerlach, 1791. $2500.00<br />

First edition. This work by Werner, who is known as the father of historical<br />

geology, describes his “theory of the origin of ore deposits which would be<br />

consistent with his general theory of the origin of the earth’s crust…Many of its<br />

elements were of lasting value. Werner formulated basic questions about the<br />

origin and history of veins and their contents, established criteria for<br />

determining the relative age of veins and vein materials, and presented a<br />

comparative study of the structure of veins and rock masses…Perhaps the most<br />

important contribution of Von den Entstehung der Gänge, however, was that it<br />

made the study of vein formation an integral part of historical geology.”–D.S.B.,


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 85<br />

XIV, pp. 262-63.<br />

Fine copy.<br />

É Hoover 878.<br />

His Final Thoughts on the Subject;<br />

In Original State<br />

98. WERNER, Abraham Gottlob. Letztes Mineral-System. Aus dessen<br />

Nachlasse auf oberbergamtliche Anordnung herausgegeben und mit<br />

Erläuterungen versehen. xiv, 58 pp. 8vo, orig. printed wrappers (slightly<br />

frayed), uncut. Freiberg & Vienna: Craz, Gerlach, & Gerold, 1817.<br />

$1500.00<br />

First edition. Werner’s famous and influential mineral system was published<br />

three times, each with substantial revisions and enlargements, in 1789, 1816, and<br />

1817. The present edition, published posthumously by order of the Saxon<br />

government, was prepared from Werner’s notes by his students J.C. Freiesleben,<br />

August Breithaupt, and A.W. Köhler. “This was his last work on his beloved<br />

science of mineralogy.”–Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological<br />

Sciences, p, 204–(with a detailed outline of the system).<br />

The long introduction gives curious details about Werner’s life and the<br />

disposition of his estate.<br />

Very good copy in original state. Old library stamp on upper cover and title.<br />

É Hoover 877.<br />

A Landmark in the History of Embryology<br />

99. WOLFF, Caspar Friedrich. Über die Bildung des Darmkanals im<br />

bebrüteten Hühnchen. Uebersetzt und mit einleitenden Abhandlung und<br />

Anmerkungen versehen von Johann Friedrich Meckel. Two folding<br />

engraved plates. 263, [1] pp. 8vo, orig. German marbled boards<br />

(extremities with minor wear & rubbing), orig. label on spine. Halle:<br />

Renger, 1812. $4500.00<br />

First separate edition and the first edition in German. “One of the<br />

acknowledged classics of embryology.”–Garrison-Morton 471–(describing the<br />

publication of the Latin original in the journal of the St. Petersburg Academy of<br />

Sciences in 1768-69). Wolff’s description of the formation of the chick’s intestine<br />

by the rolling inward of the leaf-like layer of the blastoderm was important for<br />

proving his theory of epigenesis, and at the same time disproving<br />

preformationism. These leaf-like layers were a potent influence in the work of<br />

Pander and Baer, who praised this book highly.<br />

Wolff’s paper was largely ignored until the appearance of this translation into<br />

Germany by Meckel, who added a 56-page introduction and notes. “The<br />

publication of Meckel’s translation of Wolff’s treatise on the formation of the


Item 100. Zueckert, 1769


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 87<br />

intestines of the chick was an event whose importance, in view of the profound<br />

influence which this work exerted upon Pander and von Baer, it would be<br />

difficult to overestimate.”–Adelmann, Marcel Malpighi and the Evolution of<br />

Embryology, IV, pp. 1652-1702.<br />

“It is interesting to note that the facts brought forward by Wolff have never<br />

been contradicted, but have been used as a foundation to which numberless<br />

morphological embryologists have added facts discovered by<br />

themselves.”–Needham, A History of Embryology, pp. 221-23. In several places<br />

Wolff describes the mesonephroi, the renal organs now known as “Wolffian<br />

bodies.” These descriptions are briefer than the ones in his Theoria Generationis<br />

(1759), “but are in some respects a distinct improvement on his earlier accounts”<br />

(Adelmann).<br />

Very good clean copy. Blind library stamp on title and on p. 259. Inked<br />

withdrawn stamp on verso of title and a small hole in blank margin of first plate.<br />

100. ZUECKERT, Johann Friedrich. Materia Alimentaria in Genera,<br />

Classes, et Species disposita. Engraved vignette on title. 4 p.l., 427, [1] pp.<br />

8vo, cont. speckled half-sheep & speckled boards (minor browning),<br />

spine richly gilt. Berlin: A. Mylius, 1769. $2250.00<br />

First edition of a rather scarce book in which the author classifies and describes<br />

all foods and beverages consumed by humans. A work clearly inspired by<br />

Linnaeus, Zückert provides a history of nutrition and dietetics and describes his<br />

method of classification. For each foodstuff and drink, he gives alternate names<br />

in various languages, a careful scientific description, references, etc.<br />

Zückert (1737-78), was a physician at Berlin and the author of many books on<br />

medicine, balneology, and geology.<br />

Fine and fresh copy.<br />

É Schraemli 46.<br />

Selective Subject Index begins on following page


88<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

Selective Subject Index<br />

Agriculture: 35, 42, 96<br />

Alchemy: 75<br />

Americana: 95<br />

Anatomy: 87<br />

Architecture: 46, 50, 88, 89<br />

Art: 4, 46, 58, 64, 89<br />

Astronomy: 21, 30, 33, 39, 48, 60, 71, 73, 77, 85<br />

Auction <strong>Cat</strong>alogues: 7-16<br />

Bibliography: 7-16, 27, 44, 54, 59, 72<br />

Biography: 17<br />

Biology: 93, 99<br />

Botany: 40, 42, 52<br />

Bridges: 50, 67, 78<br />

Calculus: 38, 65<br />

Canals: 48, 50<br />

Cancer: 2<br />

Cardiology: 92<br />

Cartography: 51<br />

<strong>Cat</strong>alogues: 6-16, 44, 54, 72<br />

Ceramics: 43<br />

Chemistry: 3, 11, 20, 22-24, 28, 29, 31, 36, 40, 41, 46, 47, 49, 53, 57, 58, 61,<br />

74, 75, 80, 83, 84, 86, 100<br />

Comets: 33, 71<br />

Conchology: 43<br />

Crystallography: 66<br />

Dibner items: 3<br />

Dictionaries: 51, 58, 59<br />

Dietetics: 100<br />

Dyeing & Bleaching: 49, 53, 57, 58, 74, 86, 96<br />

Early Printed Books (before 1601): 3, 5, 33, 37<br />

Electricity & Magnetism: 19, 45, 85<br />

Embryology: 93, 99<br />

Engineering: 22, 46, 50, 67, 68, 78, 82, 85, 94<br />

Evolution: 52<br />

Forests: 42<br />

Galileo: 5, 77<br />

Gardens: 42<br />

Garrison-Morton items: 2, 87, 93, 99


CATALOGUE T WO H UNDRED & F IVE 89<br />

Gastronomy: 35, 80, 84, 88, 100<br />

Gems: 4, 28, 29, 43, 66, 70<br />

Geography: 70<br />

Geology: 3, 4, 55, 62, 66, 70, 95, 97, 98<br />

Geometry: 51, 64, 89, 90, 91<br />

Glass: 3<br />

History: 17, 76<br />

Hoover items: 3, 62, 70, 97, 98<br />

Horblit items: 3<br />

Horology: 85<br />

Horticulture: 42, 71<br />

Hydraulics: 18, 26, 48, 68, 82, 85<br />

Instruments: 30, 34, 51, 61, 77, 85, 91<br />

Law: 63<br />

Literature: 27<br />

Machines: 26, 67, 68, 85<br />

Magic: 4, 89<br />

Mathematics: 38, 39, 48, 65, 73, 79, 81, 89, 90<br />

Mechanics: 18, 30, 50, 78, 81, 85<br />

Medicine: 1, 2, 17, 20, 25, 28, 29, 47, 59, 64, 85, 87, 92, 93, 99, 100<br />

Metallurgy: 3, 22, 49, 61, 83<br />

Meteorology: 19<br />

Microscopy: 91<br />

Military History: 77<br />

Mineralogy: 3, 43, 55, 59, 61, 66, 70, 95, 97, 98<br />

Mining: 3, 63, 68, 69<br />

Museums & Cabinets: 4, 62<br />

Music: 85<br />

Natural History: 3, 28, 29, 32, 40-43, 47, 52, 55, 59, 62, 66, 70, 93, 95, 97, 98<br />

Navigation: 73<br />

Newtoniana: 20, 38, 65<br />

Nutrition: 100<br />

Ophthalmology: 64, 85, 87<br />

Optics: 38, 64, 91<br />

Paleontology: 43, 62<br />

Perspective: 64, 89<br />

Pharmacology: 40, 59<br />

Philosophy: 20<br />

Physics: 5, 18, 26, 37, 38, 45, 78, 79, 81, 85<br />

Physiology: 20, 64, 93, 100


90<br />

JONATHAN A. HILL<br />

Printing & the Mind of Man items: 3<br />

Surgery: 1, 2<br />

Surveying: 34, 51<br />

Technology: 3, 22, 26, 43, 49, 53, 57, 58, 63, 67-69, 74, 80, 84-86, 94<br />

Textbooks: 31, 36, 86<br />

Textiles: 49, 53, 57, 96<br />

Transport: 3<br />

Trigonometry: 90<br />

Wine & Beer: 35, 71, 80, 84, 88, 100<br />

Women: 49


<strong>Jonathan</strong> A. <strong>Hill</strong><br />

<strong>Bookseller</strong><br />

325 West End Avenue / Apt. 10b<br />

New York, New York 10023-8143<br />

<<br />

telephone: [646] 827-0724<br />

fax: [212] 496-9182<br />

mobile: [917] 294-2678<br />

<<br />

e-mail:<br />

jahillbooks@aol.com or<br />

jojohillnyc@gmail.com<br />

<<br />

home page:<br />

www.jonathanahill.com<br />

jonathan a. hill, bookseller catalogue 2o5

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!