List New York Antiquarian Book Fair - Antiquariat - Michael Kühn

vatory magnets--big magnets, slow to respond, later replaced by more nimble instruments. In 1832 Gauss and
Weber also devised a clever method of using an auxiliary magnet to measure not only the direction of the Earth's
magnetic force, but also its intensity. Today undergraduate physics students use the Gauss method for measuring
the strength of the Earth's field as a standard lab experiment, not realizing its historical significance. Actually it
made possible for the first time a global network of magnetic observatories, because now every instrument could
be calibrated locally, independently of any others. But perhaps the most lasting contribution was the use of a precise
mathematical method to represent the global magnetic field of the Earth and to combine observations at
many locations. That was spherical harmonic analysis, previously used for analyzing gravitational fields in celestial
mechanics. According to Sidney Chapman, it was introduced to geomagnetism by the French mathematician
Simeon Denis Poisson (1781-1840).- DSB. V, 298-315; Wheeler Gift Cat. 920; Ronalds 195; Bakken 205;
Ekelöf Cat. 899. Dibner, Heralds of Science 66; Norman 883 & 882; not in Barchas Coll.
Catalogue of a Mechanical cabinet
[Mechanical Cabinet] Gabinetto Tecnologico dell’ I. R. Istituto Lombardo di Scienze, Lettere
ed Arti.- Milano: coi Tipo di Giuseppe Bernardoni di Gio, 1846. 8° [220 x 154 mm] 55
pp., [1, blank] Plain blue Wrappers, title stamped, fine uncut & unopened copy. $ 1600.-
Rare Catalogue of the inventory of a technical cabinet in Milano. A lot of the machines / items were constructed
& built by the Milanese engineer Luigi de Cristoforis (1798-1862) , who is renowned for the development of an
early internal combustion engine: he was the first to use liquid fuel to fire an internal combustion engine, in
1841, in a naphtha-fuelled machine. In 1857 he had settled in London, living at 67 Lower-Thames Street and
working on a series of improvements and patents on wheeled vehicles.
Das Mailänder “Raritätenkabinett” aus der Frühzeit der Industrialisierung enthielt in sechs Räumen Objekte wie
ein “Veicolo che progredisce sopra palle”, sowie andere Fortbewegungsmittel, verschiedene Sägen, ein speziell
konstruiertes Krankenbett, exotische Hölzer, Dampfmaschinen, Meßgeräte, Öfen, einen ‘Chiave con misura del
tiempo’ et al. Alle vorgestellten Objekte mit kurzer Erläuterung.
Astronomical Incunabla
Gerard de Cremona [attr.] Theorica planetarum.- Venedig: Franz Renner von Heilbronn,
1478. 20 Bll. Mit Gedicht an den Leser von Pescennius Franciscus Niger, Antiqua-Type, 25
Zeilen. Mit Holzschnitt-Initialen, 8 astronomischen Holzschnitten. Halblederbd. d. 18. Jahrhunderts.
$ 12000.-
Early edition, first published in 1472. The authorship of the Theorica planterum has been controversial.
According to a medieval tradition, the work was written by Gerard of Cremona. In the (older) scholarly literature
(Nallino, Carmody, et al.), however, the work was attributed to Gerard of Sabbioneta. On the basis of newer
manuscript evidence, it is highly likely that the Theorica planetarum was translated by Gerard of Cremona or
someone from his circle. Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–1187) was an Italian translator of Arabic scientific works
found in the aban-doned Arab libraries of Toledo. He was one of the most important scholars among the Toledo
School of Trans-lators who invigorated medieval Europe in the twelfth century by transmitting ancient Arabic,
Greek and Jewish knowledge in astronomy, medicine and other sciences, and making them available to every
literate person in Europe. One of his most famous translations is of Ptolemy's Almagest from Arabic texts found
in Toledo. The text was often given with Sacrobosco’s Sphaera mundi, but a lot of libraries have the text alone
and Bibl. cite it often separate.- Goff J-402; Proctor, 4175 Hain, 14108; Stillwell. The awakening interest in
science no. 63. BSB I-500; GW M14655; The Theorica planetarum is usually considered to be by the Cremona
astrologer Gherardo da Sab-bioneta, although some authorities ascribe it to the Gerardus Cremonensis who died
1187.– DSB, Suppl., 189 for a summary of the evidence. Graziella Federici-Vescovini. Michel Scot et La "Theorica
Planetarum Gerardi in: Early Science and Medicine 1 (1996), 272-282.
Lavoisier as the Newton of Chemistry
Girtanner, Christoph. Anfangsgründe der antiphlogistischen Chemie… zweite, verbesserte
und stark vermehrte Auflage.- Berlin: bei Johann Friedrich Unger, 1795. 8°. [16], 466 pp. with
engraved frontispiece portrait of Girtanner (D. Berger sc. 1795). Fine crisp copy in contemporary
half calf, gilt spine. Ownership inscript. On front-fly. $ 700.-