pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

This is the second of two catalogues of books from the library of
Walter Pagel (1896–1983), one of the most influential historians of
science of the twentieth century. The first, Catalogue 41, with a biographical
introduction, described books printed in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries; this one, books printed from the seventeenth to the
twentieth centuries. The books reflect Pagel’s major areas of historical
research, centred on the figures of William Harvey (1578–1667), Jean
Baptiste van Helmont (1577–1644) and Paracelsus (1493–1541). Major
themes in this catalogue are alchemy; the Harveian subjects of the
circulation of the blood and theories of generation; and the history of
optics. And, there are works by some of the key figures in the history
of science, including Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Einstein.
Before his death in 1983, Walter Pagel selected from his large library
the rarest, the most valuable, and the most significant books to leave to
his son Bernard Pagel, FRS (1930–2007). These are the books offered
in my two catalogues of the Pagel books. The rest of Walter Pagel’s
library was sold at Sotheby’s in 1984 and his papers were given to the
Wellcome Library.
pagel’s ownership marks
All the books in this catalogue are from the library of Walter Pagel
(1893–1983). Almost all carry the ex­libris of his son Bernard Pagel
on a slip of paper pasted to the inside of the upper board, typed or
written in Walter Pagel’s own hand. This he did as he selected books
to leave to his son and segregated them from the rest of the collection
before it was consigned to Sotheby’s. In one case, at an earlier date, he
inscribed a more elaborate dedication: ‘Walter Pagel. d.d.d. Bernardo
E. J. Pagel. MCMLX’ (no. 112). Walter Pagel signed a minority of
his books with his own name, in some cases with a date, and two are
inscribed or initialled with the names of Walter Pagel and his wife
Magdelene (nos 123 and 186). Pagel did not annotate his books, except
for some rare notes on the endleaves or on inserted scraps of paper.