Sophia Rare Books Flæsketorvet 68, 1711 København V, Denmark

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(The descriptions in this list are abbreviated; full descriptions are available)

Stand no. C-6

New York International Antiquarian Book Fair 11-14 April 2013

Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 22, 24, 25, 28, 30, 37, 38, 46, 48

Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 32, 33, 34, 39, 41

Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 45

Electricity, magnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 20, 27

Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 2, 3, 26, 31, 42, 43

Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 2, 3, 9, 15, 19, 25, 26, 30, 31, 37, 42, 43, 44

Mechanics, machinery, technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 32, 36

Medicine, Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 39

Navigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 47

Optics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 23

Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40

PMM*, Dibner, Horblit, Evans, Sparrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 11, 12*, 13*, 14*, 15*, 18*, 20*, 27, 29, 32, 33*, 34*, 39, 40*

Special copies, inscribed, provenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5, 11, 17, 25, 32, 42, 45

20th century science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 16, 17, 18, 21, 28, 33, 35, 40

‘One of the greatest scientific books of antiquity’ (Stillwell).

1. APOLLONIUS of Perga. Opera, Libri I-IV. Venice: Bernardinus Bindonus, 1537. $61,500

Very rare editio princeps of Apollonius’ Conics, the basic treatise on the subject, “which recognized and named the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola” (Horblit 4, on the later edition of 1566). This is one of the three greatest mathematical treatises of antiquity, alongside those of Euclid and Archimedes. This first edition is very rare, preceding by 29 years the Commandino edition of the same four books canonized by Horblit (and taken over by Dibner and Norman), and this edition is known to have been used by Tartaglia, Benedetti and, however critically, Maurolico. Books I-IV were the only ones to survive in the original Greek; Borelli discovered Arabic versions of books V-VII and published them, in Latin translation, in 1661 (see item 2). “Apollonius (ca. 245-190 BC) was the last of the great Greek mathematicians, whose treatise on conic sections represents the final flowering of Greek mathematics” (DSB). Only five copies located in America (Harvard, Louisville, MIT, UNC, Yale). ❧Horblit 4; Dibner 101; Norman 57 (citing the 1566 edition); Stillwell 139; Honeyman 117; De Vitry 27.

Large-paper copy, uncut in the original wrappers

2. APOLLONIUS of Perga. Conicorum lib. V. VI. VII. Florence: Cocchini, 1661. $12,000

Editio princeps of books V-VII of the Conics, the most original parts of Apollonius’s treatise on conic sections. Books I-IV were translated and published in 1537 (see item 1), and at the time it was believed that the remaining books were lost. “In the first half of the seventeenth century the Medici family acquired an Arabic manuscript containing Books V-VII of Apollonius’s Conics, which had been lost up to that time. In 1658, with the help of the Maronite scholar Abraham Ecchellensis, Giovanni Borelli prepared an edited Latin translation of the manuscript, which was published three years later. This was a valuable addition to the mathematical knowledge of the time, for whereas Books I-IV of the Conics dealt with information already known to Apollonius’s predecessors, Books V-VII were largely original. Book V discusses normals to conics and contains Apollonius’s proof for the construction of the evolute curve; Book VI treats congruent and similar conics and segments of conics; Book VII is concerned with propositions about inequalities between various functions of conjugate diameters” (Norman). “The fifth book reveals better than any other the giant intellect of its author. Difficult questions of maxima and minima, of which few examples are found in earlier works, are here treated most exhaustively. The subject investigated is to find the longest and shortest lines that can be drawn from a given point to a conic. Here are also found the germs of the subject of evolutes and centres of osculation” (Cajori, A History of Mathematics). The sheets of our copy measure 368 x 255 mm, significantly larger than all other copies of which we have been able to find descriptions. ❧Norman 58; Honeyman 119; De Vitry 29.

Containing a detailed account of how to make Galileo’s geometrical compass

3. ARDÜSER, Johann. Geometriae, theoricae et practicae. Zürich: Bodmer, 1627.

$15,250 Very rare first edition, and a fine copy, “of one of the fullest German works on surveying” (Zeitlinger), containing an early and highly detailed account of how to make Galileo’s geometrical compass. This work on geometry, surveying, geometric instruments, mathematical tables, map making etc., gives a full account of the mathematical and geometrical practice in central Europe in the early seventeenth century. Johann Ardüser, highly esteemed by his contemporaries, was in charge of the fortifications of Zürich from 1620, and published several works on fortification and geometry. After introductory chapters on Euclidean geometry and arithmetic the author gives a detailed description (with one plate) of the use and construction of the sector (Cirkelleiter)

which is based on Galileo’s invention (dessen erfinder Galileo de Galilei von vilen geachtet wird, f. 53 verso). Illustrations of Galileo’s sector, a sort of primitive analog calculating machine, were kept secret by its inventor to protect the ‘copyright’. Until 1640 there was no authorized illustration of Galileo’s compasso. “Galileo’s sector became a calculating instrument capable of solving quickly and easily every practical mathematical problem that was likely to arise at the time” (Drake, Galileo at work, p. 45). OCLC: Getty; UCB; Illinois; Michigan; Harvard; Trexler. ❧Honeyman 137; Kenney 4078.

The six papers in which Becquerel first announced his discoveries on radioactivity

4. BECQUEREL, Antoine Henri. $4,450

1) Sur les radiations émises par phosphorescence; 2) Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les corps phosphorescents; 3) Sur quelques propriétés nouvelles des radiations invisibles …; 4) Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les sels d'uranium; 5) Sur les propriétés différents des radiations invisibles émises …; 6) Émission de radiations nouvelles par l'uranium métallique. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1896. First edition. A very fine copy, in original wrappers, of the Comptes Rendus volume in which Becquerel first announced his discoveries on radioactivity. “On 24 February 1896, Becquerel announced to the French Academy of Sciences that fluorescent crystals of potassium uranyl sulfate had exposed a photographic plate wrapped in black paper after both had lain for several hours in direct sunlight, and on 3 March, he reported similar exposures after both crystals and plate had been kept together in total darkness. In the following two months, Becquerel determined that only crystals containing uranium emitted the penetrating rays, that non-luminescent compounds of uranium also produced radiation, and that

the rays were capable of ionizing gases. On 18 May, he reported that a disc of pure uranium produced penetrating radiation three to four times stronger than that produced by the potassium uranyl sulfate crystals. In 1903 Becquerel shared the Nobel Prize for physics with the Curies, as his investigations had opened the way for the Curies’ discovery of radium and polonium.” (Norman). ❧Grolier/Medicine 84a; Norman 157.

Bohr’s personal copy of one his most important papers

5. BOHR, Niels. On the Theory of the Decrease of Velocity of Moving Electrified Particles on Passing Through Matter. London: Taylor & Francis, 1912/1913.

$22,000 Extremely rare private offprint, dated by Bohr ‘Cambridge, August 1912’ and thus preceding the ordinary offprint issue by four months. This copy was specially bound for, and inscribed to, his wife Margrethe. This is Bohr’s first epochal paper on atomic physics and contains the founding blocks for his atom model. In the present paper (published just before his celebrated trilogy On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules), Bohr was able to conclude ‘that a hydrogen atom contains only 1 electron outside the positively charged nucleus, and that a helium atom only contains 2 electrons outside the nucleus.’ “Bohr’s 1913 paper on alpha-particles [the present work], which he had begun in Manchester, and which had led him to the question of atomic structure, marks

the transition to his great work, also of 1913, on that same problem.” (Pais, Niels Bohr’s Times).

‘The most significant treatise between Kepler and Newton’

6. BOULLIAU, Ismael. Astronomia philolaica. Paris: Simeonis Piget, 1645. $21,500

First edition, very rare, of “the first treatise after Kepler’s Rudolphine Tables to take elliptical orbits as a basis for calculating planetary tables” (The Cambridge Companion to Newton), and the first astronomical work to state that the planetary moving force “should vary inversely as the square of the distance—and not, as Kepler had held, inversely as the first power” (Boyer in DSB). “The Astronomia philolaica represents the most significant treatise between Kepler and Newton and it was praised by Newton in his Principia, particularly for the inverse square hypothesis and its accurate tables.” (O’Connor & Robertson, MacTutor History of Mathematics).

❧Sotheran I:500 (“This important work according to Newton first mentions the sun’s attraction, which decreases in inverse proportion to its distance”); Favaro, Bibliografia Galileiana #205.

The first recognition of electrical repulsion

7. CABEO, Niccolo. Philosophia Magnetica. Ferrara: Francesco Suzzi, 1629. First edition. $15,000

“The first Italian book on magnetism and electricity, and only the second to be published on these subjects, the De Magnete (London, 1600) by William Gilbert being the first. The important discovery of electrical repulsion is here first announced (p. 194), and this phenomenon was later systematically investigated by Otto von Guericke in his Experimenta Nova (Amsterdam, 1672) (see item 27). Electrical repulsion ‘seems to have been noticed incidentally by Cabeus, who … describes how filings attracted by excited amber sometimes recoiled to a distance of several inches after making contact’ (Wolf, I, 303). Cabeo (1585-1650) taught mathematics and theology in Parma for many years and later settled in Genoa, where he taught mathematics. This work … describes many experiments on the possibility of telegraphic communication by means of magnetized needles and gives the first picture of the sympathetic telegraph, which fancifully anticipates the actual telegraph.” (Neville). ❧Wheeler Gift 97; Neville 232; Jesuit Science in the Age of Galileo 14.

Cassini’s theory of comets

8. CASSINI, Giovanni Domenico. Theoriae motus cometae anni MDCLXIV ea præferens, quæ ex primis obseruationibus ad futurorum motuum prænotionem deduci potuere, cum noua inuestigationis methodo, tum in eodem, tum in comete nouissimo anni MDCLXV ad praxim reuocata. Rome: Falco, 1665.

$48,000 First editions of these two exceptionally rare Cassini publications on the comet of 1664-5. Cassini observed the comet “in the presence of Queen Christina [to whom the first work is dedicated] and formulated on this occasion a new theory (in agreement with the Tychonian system) in which the orbit of the comet is a great circle whose center is situated in the direction of Sirius and whose perigee is beyond the orbit of Saturn” (DSB). Cassini’s detailed observations of the comet were made with a powerful new telescope. “Through his friendship with the famous Roman lensmakers Giuseppe Campani and Eustachio Divini, Cassini, beginning in 1664, was able to obtain from them powerful celestial telescopes of great focal length. He used these instruments—very delicate and

extremely accurate for the time—with great skill, and made within several years a remarkable series of observations…” In the preface to the work Cassini describes the telescopes, and the first observations made with them. The large engraved plate depicts the course of the comet in the southern celestial hemisphere from December 13, 1664 through the middle of January, 1665. It also shows the appearance and direction of the comet’s tail in a series of nightly dated observations. The great comet of 1664-5 was observed by many astronomers, including Auzout, Borelli, Fabri, Hevelius, Hooke and Petit. The second work, addressed to the archaeologist Falconieri, presents further observations on the comet, and Cassini remarks about the observations made by Auzout and Hevelius. ❧OCLC: Brown (lacking plate) for the first work, and Brown, Cornell, Ohio State for the second.

The very rare offprint

9. CAUCHY, Augustin-Louis. Mémoire sur la Théorie des Nombres, présenté à l’Académie des Sciences le 31 Mai 1830. Paris: Didot, 1840. First edition.

$3,850 Extremely rare separately-paginated offprint of Cauchy’s great memoir on number theory, which treats the theory of congruences and reciprocity, but using an approach based on the theory of indeterminate equations rather than the arithmetic method used by Gauss in Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. Although it was read to the Academy in May 1830, the memoir remained unpublished until 1840 owing to Cauchy’s self-imposed exile following the revolution of July 1830. Cauchy’s work in number theory has been overlooked by most historians in favour of his work in analysis, but it is now beginning to be reappraised (see Boucard). In 1829 he published a brief paper with the same title as the present memoir but occupying only 17 pages (Bulletin des sciences mathématiques, physiques et chimiques, t. 12, pp. 205–221). His main purpose was to study equations of the form pm = x2 + ny2, where n is a divisor of p – 1. In the first part of the paper he treats the case in which n is a prime number, and in the remaining three sections the case in which n is composite. He sketches a proof of the law of quadratic reciprocity (the “gem of arithmetic,” first proved in the Disquisitiones), and indicates that his methods enable him to discover an infinity of other reciprocity laws. The paper read to the Academy on 31 May 1830 is a further development of the 1829 paper. When it was finally published as the present memoir, it was accompanied by 14 ‘notes’, comprising more than 350 pages, providing explanations and generalizations of the material. This is a separately-paginated offprint of the paper published in Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences de l’Institut de France, vol. 17, pp. 249–768. We have located only one other copy (Free University of Brussels); not in OCLC. ❧J. Boucard, “Un “rapprochement curieux de l’algèbre et de la théorie des nombres”: études sur l’utilisation des congruences en France de 1801 à 1850”, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 2011

The most exhaustive treatise on lens making in the seventeenth century

10. CHERUBIN d’Orléans, Capuchin. La dioptrique oculaire, ou la théorique, la positive, et la mechanique de l’oculaire dioptrique en toutes ses espèces. Paris: Jolly and Benard, 1671 [1670].

$20,000 A very fresh and clean copy, without the browning that usually affects this work, of “the most exhaustive treatise on lens making in the seventeenth century. It is a six-hundred folio page long, comprehensive, cogently-argued treatise on telescope making. It contains an impressive amount of theoretical and practical, first-hand information on all of its facets — from explanations of the telescope’s working principles, to descriptions of lens grinding and polishing, to rules for the right distances between lenses, to methods to find the right apertures, to descriptions of the shapes and articulations of the wooden parts and bolts and screws needed to properly point a telescope to the skies, to the construction of tubes, and so on and so forth. The basic notions and axioms come from Kepler, including the approximate refraction law for angles of incidence no greater than 30º … (pp. 8 & 25). To Kepler’s results about the focus of convex lenses and meniscus, d’Orleans adds a few new results, but not a full treatment of the problem. He takes into consideration only the focus of radiation parallel to the axis of the lens. For it he finds the focal distance for a planoconvex lens, a biconvex symmetrical lens, a biconvex meniscus with two general radius of convexity, and a concavo-convex meniscus whose surfaces have two

general radii. He also improves Kepler’s results about the focus of two contiguous equal convex lenses. D’Orleans also takes up in full Kepler’s understanding of magnification, his procedure to measure it, and his explanations for the inversion of the image (pp. 11-13 & 158) …” (Albert et al, The Origins of the Telescope, pp. 289-291).

The copy of Carl Friedrich Gauss

11. CHLADNI, Ernst Florens Friedrich. Entdeckungen über die Theorie des Klanges. Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1787. First edition.

$7,250 A fine copy, with the most distinguished possible provenance, of the book which established the scientific study of acoustics. “The production of sound from solid bodies was not clearly understood until Chladni devised the method of sand figures to illustrate the structure of vibrations in a solid body. He spread sand over glass and copper plates and drew a violin bow over their edges, causing the plates to vibrate; the sand, agitated by vibrations, collected over the nodal curves where no motion occurred. Chladni then classified the sand figures according to geometrical shape and noted for each the corresponding pitch, thus demonstrating that the patterns and sounds of a vibrating plate are analogues of the shapes and tones of the modes in the harmonic series. The strange and beautiful ‘Chladni figures,’ first described in the above work, attracted much scientific attention in the early nineteenth century, inspiring fruitful investigation of the mathematics of elastic vibration.” (Norman). This

copy is from the personal library of Gauss. It was sold as a duplicate in 1951 by the Göttingen State and University Library, at which time it passed into private hands. ❧Dibner 150; PPM 233a; Sparrow 39; Norman 480.

One of the great landmarks in the history of scientific thought

12. COPERNICUS, Nicolaus. Astronomia instaurata, libris sex comprehensa, qui de revolutionibus orbium coelestium inscribuntur. Nunc demum post 75 ab obitu authoris annum integritati suae restituta, notisque illustrata, opera & studio D. Nicolai Mulerii. Amsterdam: Willem Blaeu, 1617.

$57,500 The important third edition, published by Tycho Brahe’s student Blaeu shortly after it was condemned. Copernicus’s De revolutionibus was first printed in 1543 and subsequently in 1566. This edition, however, is the first to contain a commentary; it was extensively corrected and annotated by Mulerius, and includes (for the first time) Copernicus’s biography. “This edition, much improved over the previous two remained the standard edition until the nineteenth century.” (Van Berkel, et al, A history of science in the Netherlands, p.35). “The publication of ‘On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres’ in 1543 was a landmark in human thought. It challenged the authority of antiquity and set the course for the modern world by its effective destruction of the anthropocentric view of the universe.” (Printing and the Mind of Man).

❧Cinti 58; De Caro 72; Honeyman 756.

PMM 276 – Comparative Anatomy

13. CUVIER, Georges. Le Règne Animal Distribué D’Après Son Organisation, Pour Servir De Base À L’Histoire Naturelle Des Animaux Et D’Introduction À L’Anatomie Comparée. Paris: Deterville, 1817.

$6,850 A beautiful set in fine contemporary French calf. “The most influential exposition of the typological approach to animal classification, representing the greatest body of zoological facts that had yet been assembled; it served as the standard zoological manual for most of Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century” (Norman). “Using the taxonomic system that he had introduced in 1812 in his memoire ‘Sur un nouveau rapprochement à établir entre les classes qui composent le règne animal,’ Cuvier divided the animal kingdom into four main types or embrachements: Vertebrata, Mollusca, Articulata and Radiata, each with its own subgroups. This represented an attempt at a ‘natural’ classification system, based upon the assumption that the characteristic interrelationship between an animal’s function and structure placed it within an exclusive group (i.e., that species were ‘real’), as opposed to the more artificial systems of the past, which had been based upon single features of species. Cuvier’s view of animal organization led him to an early recognition of balance of nature, both with respect to the functional balance of parts in the individual and the interdependence of groups in the ‘network of nature’.” (Norman).

❧PMM 276; Dibner 195; Sparrow, Milestone 42; Norman 567.

The foundation work of atomic theory

14. DALTON, John. A New System of Chemical Philosophy. Manchester: S. Russell for R. Bickerstaff; Russell & Allen for R. Bickerstaff; Executives of S. Russell for G. Wilson, 1808; 1810; 1827. First edition.

$60,000 Very rare complete set with all half-titles, uncut in original boards. The rarity of complete sets of this work is well known. In 1921 Sotheran’s described a complete set as being ‘excessively scarce’, and during the past thirty years only a handful of copies have appeared on the market, all inferior to ours: Richard Green 2008 (a made-up set lacking the half-titles); Friedman 2001 (modern bindings); the Freilich-Norman copy 2001/1998 (non-uniform cloth-backed boards); Honeyman 1979 (rebacked and made-up). The copy which comes closest in condition to ours is the Freilich-Norman copy (Sotheby’s 2001, $43,875). However, that copy was bound in three different types of boards (plain grey, blue, and marbled), with the cloth laid over the boards, and the spine labels were hand-lettered. All three parts of our copy are bound in uniform cloth-backed plain grey boards, with the cloth laid under the paper of the boards, and have the original printed spine labels intact. ❧PMM 261, Horblit 22, Dibner 44, Evans 54, Sparrow 47.

Exceptionally large copy in the original Dutch vellum

15. DESCARTES, René. Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences. Plus la Dioptrique, les Meteores, et la Geometrie. Qui sont des essais de cete Methode. Leiden: Jan Maire, 1637. First edition.

$190,000 A very fine and exceptionally large copy, entirely unrestored, in its original Dutch vellum binding - the birth of analytical or co-ordinate geometry, designated by John Stuart Mill as “the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences”. “It is no exaggeration to say that Descartes was the first of modern philosophers and one of the first modern scientists; in both branches of learning his influence has been vast.... The revolution he caused can be most easily found in his reassertion of the principle (lost in the middle ages) that knowledge, if it is to have any value, must be intelligence and not erudition. His application of modern algebraic arithmetic to ancient geometry created the analytical geometry which is the basis of the post-Euclidean development of that science. His statement of the elementary laws of matter and movement in the physical universe, the theory of vortices, and many other speculations threw light on every branch of science from optics to biology. Not least may be remarked his discussion of Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of blood, the first mention of it

by a prominent foreign scholar. All this found its starting point in the ‘Discourse on the Method for Proper Reasoning and Investigating Truth in the Sciences’. Descartes’s purpose is to find the simple indestructible proposition which gives to the universe and thought their order and system. Three points are made: the truth of thought, when thought is true to itself (thus cogito, ergo, sum), the inevitable elevation of its partial state in our finite consciousness to its full state in the infinite existence of God, and the ultimate reduction of the material universe to extension and local movement.” (PMM). ❧PMM 129; Grolier/Horblit 24; Dibner 81; Evans 5; Sparrow 54.

The Dirac Equation

16. DIRAC, Paul Adrien Maurice. The Quantum Theory of the Electron. London: Harrison, 1928. $6,000

A fine copy in original wrappers of the discovery of the ‘Dirac equation’. “The relativistic wave equation of the electron ranks among the highest achievements of twentieth-century science” (Pais, Inward Bound, p. 290). “What is widely regarded as Dirac’s greatest contribution to physics came in 1928, when he found an equation which incorporates both quantum physics and the requirements of the special theory of relativity to give a complete description of the electron. One of the most remarkable features of this equation was that it had two sets of solutions, corresponding to positive energy electrons and negative energy electrons; the ‘negative energy electrons’ are now called positrons. Dirac had predicted the existence of antimatter, although even Dirac was not entirely clear what the equations meant until the positron was discovered by Carl Anderson in 1932. Because they incorporated relativistic effects, Dirac’s wave equations had accurately predicted the electron’s motion, spin, and magnetic and other properties. Moreover, these equations laid the foundations for the theory of quantum electrodynamics, which incorporates both quantum and relativity theory in its descriptions of the interactions of charged particles with the electromagnetic field” (Britannica). ❧Brandt, Harvest of a Century, Episode 43.

Autograph scientific notes on relativity theory

17. EINSTEIN, Albert. 1 leaf, written on both sides. With certification in the hand of Helen Dukas, Einstein’s longtime secretary: “A. E.’s handwriting. HD.” From the library of historian of physics Jagdish Mehra (1931-2008). [Zürich or Berlin: ca. 1912-1916].

$47,950 A fascinating Einstein manuscript showing the master at work. While most Einstein autograph material on the market is in the form of letters to friends or colleagues, or drafts of papers to be published, the present manuscript gives us a glimpse of Einstein doing what he did best - original research. It clearly illustrates his highly visual way of thinking - as well as mathematical formulas there are several illustrative diagrams. The present manuscript is also earlier than most such material that appears on the market, probably dating from the period 1912-1916 (see below), during which Einstein was intensely involved in the development of general relativity. The calculations employ compact four-dimensional tensor notation, which Einstein began using only by 1912. Dating the manuscript to the years just after 1912 is confirmed by the existence of thematically similar notes in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, vol. 4, Doc. 1, sec. 4 (dated 1912-1914), and vol. 6, Doc. 7, p. 58 (dated Oct. 1914-March 1915). It is difficult to be certain about the scientific content of this manuscript - it was intended to be read by no-one other than Einstein himself, so naturally explanations were unnecessary. The use of four-vector notation is most appropriate (indeed essential) in the context of general relativity. The calculations appear to discuss the motion of

point particles and the ponderomotive forces arising from pressure gradients and from stresses. In the period when this manuscript was probably composed, such calculations would make most sense in the context of cosmology. Einstein completed the formal development of general relativity in autumn 1915 and was certainly thinking about cosmology in 1916 when he had a series of discussions with Willem de Sitter on the subject (which led to a notorious controversy).

PMM 408 – General Relativity

18. EINSTEIN, Albert. Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1916. First edition, first printing, journal issue.

$15,600 A fine copy in unrestored wrappers, as it originally appeared in the May issue of Annalen der Physik. “This paper was the first comprehensive overview of the final version of Einstein’s general theory of relativity after several expositions of preliminary versions and latest revisions of the theory in November 1915. It includes a self-contained exposition of the elements of tensor calculus that are needed for the theory” (Sauer, Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics). “Whereas Special Relativity had brought under one set of laws the electromagnetic world of Maxwell and Newtonian mechanics as far as they applied to bodies in uniform relative motion, the General Theory did the same thing for bodies with the accelerated relative motion epitomized in the acceleration of gravity. But first it had been necessary for Einstein to develop the true nature of gravity from his principle of equivalence...Basically, he proposed that gravity was a function of matter itself and that its effects were transmitted between contiguous portions of space-time… In addition, gravity affected light...exactly as it affected material particles. Thus the universe which Newton had seen, and for which he had constructed his apparently impeccable mechanical laws, was not the real universe...Einstein’s paper gave not only a correct picture of the universe but also a fresh set of mechanical laws by

which its details could be described” (R.W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times). ❧Grolier/Horblit 26c; Norman 695; PMM 408; Weil 80.

Second only to Euclid’s Elements

19. EULER, Leonhard. Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra, I-II. St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Academie der Wissenschaften, 1770.

$9,650 First edition of Euler’s great textbook of algebra in its language of composition, preceded only by an extremely rare Russian translation published in 1768-9 by two of his students. “Euler’s Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra is not only the most popular textbook on elementary algebra, with the exception of Euclid’s Elements it is the most widely printed book on mathematics” (Truesdell). Euler composed his famous ‘Algebra’ in German in 1765-6, soon after his return to St Petersburg from Berlin. He was by then partially blind, and dictated the work to a young valet. Publication of the original German version (as offered here) was, however, delayed until 1770 and thus came to be preceded by a Russian translation by his students Peter Inokhodtsev and Ivan Yudin which was issued in 1768-9. This Russian translation is practically unobtainable; OCLC locates just one copy worldwide. The offered original German edition is also very rare with just two copies being auctioned in the past fifty years. ❧Norman 735; Honeyman 1075; Eneström 387 & 388

Complete set of Faraday’s electricity papers

20. FARADAY, Michael. Experimental researches in electricity. 1st – 30th series, plus supplement to the 11th series. 31 extracts from the Philosophical Transactions (1832-56). London: 1832-56.

$12,800 All First editions. A fine complete set of Faraday’s epochal papers on electricity, as they originally appeared in the Philosophical Transactions over 24 years. Between 1832 and 1856, Faraday published a series of 30 papers (or ‘series’) entitled ‘Experimental researches in electricity,’ in which his major discoveries relating to electricity and magnetism were first announced to the world. The first 29 of these papers were collected and published in three volumes between 1839 and 1855; the 30th paper, published in 1856, never appeared in book form. ❧Dibner 64 (citing 29 parts); Evans 39 (1st paper); PMM 308 and Horblit 29 (both citing the later book-form edition).

Feynman Diagrams & the Feynman Rules of QED

21. FEYNMAN, Richard. Theory of Positrons; Space-Time Approach to Quantum Electrodynamics Lancaster, American Physical Society, 1919. First edition.

$4,200 A fine copy, in unrestored original wrappers, of these two famous papers in which the author first announced the celebrated Feynman diagrams and the Feynman rules for quantum electrodynamics. “The greatest physicist of his generation, ranking with Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, Feynman reformulated quantum mechanics to put it on a secure logical foundation in which classical mechanics is naturally incorporated (in a manner reminiscent of the way Newtonian gravitational theory is incorporated within the general theory of relativity) … He developed the path integral approach to quantum physics (using Feynman diagrams), from which he derived the clearest and most complete version of quantum electrodynamics (QED), which stands alongside the general theory of relativity as one of the two most successful and well-established theories in physics” (Gribbin). “Feynman’s two papers on QED were completed in April and May 1949. In the first one, The Theory of Positrons, he carefully explains the meaning of his diagrams beginning with their application to the Schrödinger equation. Application to the Dirac equation yields an interpretation of the positron in which Dirac’s original hole theory is no longer needed. The second paper, Space-Time Approach to Quantum Electrodynamics, contains the Feynman rules and explains their usage. By these rules, computations for specific problems are simplified so

much that Schwinger, much later, said: ‘Like the silicon chip of more recent years, the Feynman diagram was bringing computation to the masses’ ” (Brandt). ❧Brandt, Harvest of a Century, Episode 71.

Famous and beautiful collection of ancient astronomical and astrological texts

22. FIRMICUS MATERNUS, Julius. Scriptores Astronomici Veteres. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1499. $15,500

First edition of this famous and beautiful collection of ancient astronomical texts, including the first editions in Greek of Aratus’ Phaenomena and Proclus’ Sphaera. This is one of the few illustrated books issued by the Aldine Press. The first part of the work is devoted to the De nativitatibus of Firmicus Maternus (fl. AD 330-354), which “ranks as the most comprehensive textbook of astrology of ancient times” (Stillwell, Awakening, I:56). The second part of the book opens with the Astronomicon of Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD), the first printed book on astronomy (first published in 1474). “The work of Manilius was the main exemplar of that ’poetic astronomy’ which exerted such a powerful influence on German humanist thought from Regiomontanus to Conrad Celtis and beyond” (Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics, p. 105). The Greek text of Aratus, with the commentary of Theon of Alexandria, is preceded by the Latin translations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Germanicus Caesar, and Rufus Avienus. The volume is completed by the Greek text of Proclus’ Sphaera, with the commentary of the renowned English humanist Thomas Linacre (ca. 1460-1524).

Two parts in one volume, folio, ff. [376], including the blanks leaves E7 and K10, 28 leaves (G2 – I9) of Cicero’s commentary on Aratus in facsimile, otherwise complete. More than a third of all copies in Italian libraries are incomplete.

On the speed of light

23. FOUCAULT, Jean Bernard Léon. Thèse présentée à la faculté des sciences de Paris... Sur les vitesses rélatives de la lumière dans l’air et dans l’eau. Paris: Bachelier, 1853. First edition.

$22,500 An exceptionally fine copy of Foucault’s rare doctoral thesis on the speed of light, in which he provides a convincing proof for the wave theory of light. In the 1840’s Foucault undertook a series of optical experiments using an apparatus of rotating mirrors to determine the velocity of light. Foucault’s initial work was carried out in conjunction with the physicist Armand Fizeau; but a personal dispute broke up their partnership and the two collaborators became rivals, working separately on the same problem using the same technique. Both reached the same conclusion, but while Fizeau was the first to obtain, in 1849, a precision measurement of the velocity of light, Foucault pre-empted him in announcing, on 30 April 1850, that light travels faster in air than in water, a decisive argument in favour of the wave theory of light, which by the mid-nineteenth century had become generally accepted. In his thesis Foucault gave a detailed account of his experiment, illustrating his apparatus.

❧Norman 820.

First edition of Galileo’s complete works

24. GALILEI, Galileo. Opere. 2 vols. Bologna: Heredi del Dozza, 1655-56. $19,350

First collected edition of the works of Galileo, edited by Carlo Manolessi, and appearing only a year after his death. This was the edition in which Newton and his later contemporaries read their Galileo. The volumes contain not only most of the major works written and published over his lifetime, but also substantial unpublished material, both by Galileo himself as well as by his supporters and critics. Many of these items were provided to the editor by Vincenzo Viviani, Galileo’s friend and disciple, including a number of Galileo’s hitherto unpublished letters and experiments and La Bilancetta, his first scientific work, written in 1586. The Dialogo was of course on the Index and was not included in editions of the Opere until 1744. ❧Carlo & Favaro 251; Cinti 132; Riccardi I 518-9.

An important Gauss manuscript, signed and dated 1800

25. [GAUSS] PFAFF, Johann Friedrich. Programma inaugurale in quo peculiarem differentialia investigandi rationem ex theoria functionum deducit. Helmstedt: J. H. Kühlin, 1788.

$84,500 With Gauss’s autograph signature and two geometrical diagrams on front endpaper, and a 12-line mathematical proof in his hand on rear endpaper. Gauss’s own personal copy of the inaugural dissertation of Johann Friedrich Pfaff, who supervised Gauss’s doctoral thesis and was a close personal friend. This is an important Gauss manuscript, signed and dated 1800 by him, and with a mathematical calculation in his hand relating to orbital mechanics, performed at a time when Gauss was deeply involved in the calculation of the orbit of the minor planet Ceres. “In 1801 the creativity of the previous years was reflected in two extraordinary achievements, the Disquisitiones arithmeticae and the calculation of the orbit of the newly discovered planet Ceres” (DSB). The mathematical calculations performed by Gauss at the rear of the present volume are difficult to interpret precisely – they were intended only for Gauss himself so naturally detailed explanations were unnecessary. They are titled Determinatur curva per aequationem inter radios vectores...,” the determination of curves by equations given in polar coordinates (in

modern terminology). Moreover, the calculations bear a close resemblance to some of those eventually published in his Theoria motus corporum coelestium (1809), the mature expression of his work on the calculation of planetary orbits. Together with the dating of the manuscript, the conclusion is inescapable that we have here an early expression of Gauss’s thoughts on the determination of orbits, the topic which first brought his genius to the attention of the wider scientific world.

‘The first real advance in understanding the parallel postulate in 600 years’ (Martin).

26. GIORDANO, Vitale. Euclide restituto overo gli antichi elementi geometrici ristaurati. Rome: Angelo Bernabo, 1680.

$4,650 First edition of this highly significant work in the history of non-Euclidean geometry. Giordano became friends with Giovanni Borelli, and he titled this, his first published work, after Borelli’s Euclides restitutus (1658). In that work, Borelli defined parallels as equidistant straight lines, but Giordano noted that this definition depended upon the assumption that a line everywhere equidistant from a straight line is itself straight. This in turn is due to Clavius, whose proof of the assumption in his 1574 commentary on Euclid is faulty. Giordano therefore attempted his own proof of the assumption. As Bonola shows, Giordano’s argument is itself faulty, but in the course of his attempted proof he does correctly establish the following statement: ‘if three points on a line are each equidistant from a second line, then all points are equidistant.’ “We regard this as one of the most noteworthy results in the theory of parallels obtained up to that date” (Bonola). ❧Bonola, Non-Euclidean Geometry; Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane; Sommerville, Bibliography of Non-Euclidean Geometry.

A very fine copy of one of the great classics of science

27. GUERICKE, Otto von. Experimenta Nova (ut vocantur) Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio Primùm à R.P. Gaspare Schotto . . . Amsterdam: Johanned Jansson Waesberge, 1672. First edition.

$61,800 A book of prime importance in electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump. “At Ratisbon in 1654 Guericke had performed one of the most dramatic experiments in the history of science, when, before the Imperial Diet, he showed how two teams of eight horses each could not separate a bronze pair of hemispheres from which he had exhausted the air” (Dibner, Founding Fathers of Electrical Science). To create the vacuum, Guericke invented the air-pump, and in a series of experiments that followed he demonstrated the weight and elasticity of air. The air-pump became of fundamental importance for the study of the physical properties of gases. Guericke also demonstrated electrical attraction and repulsion, the discharging power of points, and constructed the first electrical generator. “Guericke constructed a spherical rotor of sulphur mounted on a crank; its rotation and contact upon it generated the first visible and audible electric sparks” (ibid.). As the Wheeler Gift catalogue remarks, “this remarkable work on experimental philosophy ranks next to Gilbert’s in the number and importance of the electrical discoveries described.” Guericke’s experiments were motivated by his profound Copernican cosmological views on the nature and composition of space, which are fully set forth in the present work (see DSB).

❧Dibner 55; Evans 30; Horblit 44; Norman 952; Sparrow 99; Wheeler Gift 170.

‘One of the most important papers on relativity since my own’ (Einstein)

28. GÖDEL, Kurt. An Example of a New Type of Cosmological Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations of Gravitation. Lancaster: American Physical Society, 1949. First edition.

$2,300 A fine copy, in original wrappers, of Gödel’s ‘time travel paper’ – one of “the most important [papers] on relativity since my own original paper appeared” (Einstein to Morgenstern, 1952). “In the 1920s and 1930s, the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological models had been introduced as the simplest solutions of the equations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity that were consistent with the observed red-shift of distant galaxies. These models were spatially homogenous and isotropic, and were expanding but were non-rotating. Gödel was the first to consider models that were rotating. The possible rotation of the universe has a special significance in general relativity because one of the influences that led Einstein to the theory in 1915 was Mach’s principle. The exact formulation of the principle is rather obscure, but it is generally interpreted as denying the existence of absolute space. In other words, matter has inertia only relative to other matter in the universe. The principle is generally taken to imply that the local inertial frame defined by gyroscopes should be non-rotating with respect to the frame defined by distant galaxies. Gödel showed that it was possible to have solutions of the Einstein field equations in which the galaxies were rotating with respect to the local inertial frame. He therefore demonstrated that general relativity does not incorporate Mach’s principle. Whether or not this is an argument against relativity depends on your philosophical viewpoint, but most physicists nowadays would not accept Mach’s principle, because they feel that it makes an untenable restriction between the geometry of space-time, which represents the gravitational and inertial field, and other forms of fields and matter. In [the offered paper] Gödel presented a rotating solution that was not expanding but was the same at all points of space and time. This solution was the first to be discovered that had the curious property that in it was possible to travel into the past. This leads to the paradoxes such as ‘What happens if you go back and kill your father when he was a baby?’ It is generally agreed that this cannot happen in a solution that represents our universe, but Gödel was the first to show that it was not forbidden by the Einstein equations. His solution generated a lot of discussion of the relation between general relativity and the concept of causality.” (Stephen Hawking, Gödel’s Collected Works).

Bound with 21 rare pamphlets on the metric system

29. HAÜY; LAGRANGE; LAPLACE; MONGE; BORDA; LAVOISIER. Instruction sur les mesures déduites de la grandeur de la terre, uniformes pour toute la République, et sur les calculs relatifs à leur division décimale. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale exécutive du Louvre, 1793-1798. First edition, first printing.

$7,800 A large collection of official publications on the metric system – including the true first edition of the official manual with the often lacking plate. “The metric system was one of the few permanent social reforms that stemmed from the violent French Revolution. First proposed by Mouton in 1670, it is based on a decimal unit of length (meter), being one-millionth part of a quadrant of the earth through Paris. In 1790 the National Assembly appointed a commission to select a standard unit of length and the arc of a meridian between Dunkirk and Barcelona was thereafter measured. Another commission used the unit of standard length finally adopted in 1799, on which were based standards of weight and volume; the system became compulsory in France in 1801” (Dibner). “In 1793/94 (the French Revolutionary calendar year began in September), the Temporary Commission on Republican Weights and Measures published three introductory works to the metric system: the present work [offered here], which emphasized mathematics and theory; an ‘abridged’ introduction containing a shorter and simpler presentation of the system (see Norman 1504); and a précis of the system for distribution to the public. Instruction sur les mesures was also issued by several other French publishers in the same year; (see Norman 1500-1503). The offered copy is fully complete with the engraved plate which the Norman copy lacked, and is contemporarily bound with 21 other rare pamphlets on the metric system (please inquire for a full list with collations of the pamphlets). ❧Norman 1499 (that copy lacking the plate), Dibner 113 (citing a reprint).

The logarithmic tables used for the calculation of the Rudolphine Tables

30. KEPLER, Johannes & BARTSCH, Jakob. Tabulae Manuales Logarithmicae ad Calculum Astronomicum, in specie Tabb. Rudolphinarum compendiose tractandum mire utiles. Ob defectum prioris Editionis Saganensis multum hactenus desideratae. Quibus accessit in hac Editione Introductio nova curante Joh. Casp. Eisenschmid. Strasbourg: Pastorius for Lerse, 1700.

$15,500 Rare second edition (the first obtainable edition) of the logarithmic tables used in calculating the celebrated Rudolphine Tables. Caspar records only one copy of the first edition, published in Sagan in 1631, and that defective, in the University Library of Königsberg. Jacob Bartsch (1600-1633) was Kepler’s son-in-law. After Kepler died in 1630, Bartsch decided that Kepler’s logarithms should be made available in a less expensive form than the Rudolphine Tables published in 1627 (the first work to introduce logarithms into the field of astronomy). The intention was to fund the printing by collecting the salary owed to Kepler. However, due to the failure of his journey to Vienna to collect the money, the printing was stopped and the distribution of the 1631 edition was practically nil. This second edition was brought out by John Caspar Eisenschmid in 1700 and in his introduction he gives a detailed account of the fate of the first edition. This second edition is itself a rare book on the market (ABPC lists only two copies in the past fifty years; 1971 and 1984). A very fine copy, complete with the errata leaf.

❧Caspar 99; Tomash Library on the History of Computing K-28; Houzeau and Lancaster 12757.

One of the most influential works in the history of non-Euclidean geometry

31. KLÜGEL, Georg Simon. Conatuum praecipuorum theoriam parallelarum demonstrandi recensio…. Göttingen: Schultz, 1763.

$28,600 Extremely rare first edition of Klügel’s thesis in which he criticized some thirty attempted proofs of the Parallel Postulate. “If one means by the creation of non-Euclidean geometry the recognition that there can be geometries alternative to Euclid’s then Klügel and Lambert deserve the credit” (Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times). Klügel’s most detailed analysis is reserved for Girolamo Saccheri’s Euclides ab omni naevo vindicates (1733). In this work, Saccheri denies the truth of the Parallel Postulate and draws a series of conclusions which, in retrospect, constitute many of the basic results of non-Euclidean geometry. Saccheri believed he had reached a contradiction, thus establishing the truth of the Parallel Postulate by reductio ad absurdam, but Klügel showed that he had done so by assuming certain properties of figures at infinite distance that are only known at finite distances. Despite its importance, Saccheri’s work was not widely known, and it was largely via Klügel’s thesis that its influence

began to be felt. Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-77) quotes Klügel’s thesis in his important Theorie der Parallellinien and probably learned of Saccheri’s work from it. It is probable that Janos Bolyai learned of Saccheri’s work from his father Farkas, who studied at Göttingen in 1796-8 and became interested in the parallel postulate under Kästner’s influence; he will inevitably have been directed by Kästner to study Klügel’s thesis. Bonola speculates that the other founder of non-Euclidean geometry, Nicolai Lobachevsky, may also have learned about Saccheri’s work via Klügel’s thesis. Thus, Klügel’s thesis provided the starting point for the most important developments in non-Euclidean geometry in the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries.

From the Riccati library

32. LANA TERZI, Francesco. Magisterium naturae, et artis. [with:] Prodromo overo saggio di alcune inventioni nuove premesso all’arte maestra. Brescia & Parma: Raccardi & Rosati, 1684-1686-1692; 1670. $52,000

An exceptionally fine and complete set of the Magisterium offered here together with Lana’s Prodromo - both works fine copies from the distinguished Riccati library. The Magisterium is hardly ever found complete or free of defects as here; the Macclesfield copy was lacking several quires; the Honeyman copy had a large hole in one leaf, tears to several quires, and was worn and repaired; the copy in the Goldschmidt catalogue from 1924 lacked a plate. The three folio volumes of the Magisterium constitute a massive and important encyclopedia of natural philosophy by one of the leading Jesuit scientists of the seventeenth century. Lana Terzi’s celebrated Prodromo, in which his design for an air-ship is published, was intended as a ‘portico’ to the Magisterium , which was originally planned to contain nine volumes. A myriad of subjects, experiments, and machines are described, including the pendulum, perpetual motion, problems of motion and percussion, hydraulics, elasticity, alchemical and chemical experiments, distillation, the vacuum, sound and acoustics, electricity and magnetism, meteorology – indeed as stated in the Libri sale catalogue, ‘it would require an explanatory

volume to give an idea of this work’. ❧Dibner 125; Norman 1272 [for the Prodromo]; Macclesfield 1194; Honeyman 1904 [Magisterium].

‘One of the most beautiful discoveries in physics’ (Einstein)

33. LAUE, Max von, Walter FRIEDRICH & Paul KNIPPING. Interferenz-Erscheinungen bei Röntgenstrahlen. [with:] Eine quantitative Prüfung der Theorie für den Interferenz-Erscheinungen bei Röntgenstrahlen. München: F. Straub, 1912.

$19,500 Very rare first edition, offprint issue, of Laue’s Nobel Prize-winning papers. X-rays had been in wide use since their discovery in 1895 but their exact nature as electromagnetic waves of short wavelength was first elucidated by Laue and his collaborators in the present papers. “Laue had the crucial idea of sending X-rays through crystals. At this time scientists were very far from having proven the supposition that the radiation that Röntgen had discovered in 1895 actually consisted of very short electromagnetic waves. Similarly, the physical composition of crystals was in dispute, although it was frequently stated that a regular structure of atoms was the characteristic property of crystals. Laue argued that if these suppositions were correct, then the behavior of X-radiation upon penetrating a crystal should be approximately the same as that of light upon striking a diffraction grating” (DSB), an instrument used for measuring the wavelength of light, inapplicable to X-rays because their wavelength is too short. Sommerfeld was initially skeptical but Laue persisted, enlisting the help of Sommerfeld’s experimental assistant Walter Friedrich in his spare time as well as that of the doctoral student Paul Knipping. On April 12, 1912, Friedrich and Knipping succeeded in producing a regular pattern of dark spots on a photographic plate placed behind a copper sulphate cyrstal

which had been bombarded with X-rays. “The awarding of the Nobel Prize in physics for 1914 to Laue indicated the significance of the discovery that Albert Einstein called ‘one of the most beautiful in physics.’ Subsequently it was possible to investigate X-radiation itself by means of wavelength determinations as well as to study the structure of the irradiated material. In the truest sense of the word scientists began to cast light on the structure of matter” (DSB). The following year the Prize was granted to the father and son team W. H. and W. L. Bragg for their exploration of crystal structure using X-rays. ❧PMM 406a; Norman 1283.

PMM 238 – A new epoch in chemistry

34. LAVOISIER, Antoine-Laurent de Traité élémentaire de Chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau, et d'après les découvertes modernes. Paris: Chez Cuchet, 1789. First edition.

$7,850 A fine copy of “one of the great milestones in the history of chemical literature. By common consent modern chemistry begins with this work” (Neville), “which finally freed the science from its phlogiston chains and formed the starting point of its modern progress. It may be said to have done almost as much for chemistry as Newton’s Principia did for physics.” (Zeitlinger). “Lavoisier’s chemical textbook includes the unified exposition of his four most significant contributions to chemistry. These are first, the use of accurate measurements for chemical researches, such as the balance for weight distribution at every chemical change; second, researches on combustion which effectively overthrew the phlogiston theory of Stahl; third, the law of conservation of mass; and fourth, the reform of chemical nomenclature, whereby every substance was assigned a definite name based upon the elements of which it was composed.” (Norman). ❧PMM 238; Grolier/Horblit 64; Dibner 43; Evans 53; Sparrow 127.

‘The paper that led to Einstein being awarded the Nobel Prize’

35. MILLIKAN, Robert Andrews. A Direct Photoelectric Determination of Planck’s “h”. [Lancaster: American Physical Society], 1916. First edition.

$5,400 Rare offprint issue of Millikan’s famous determination of Planck’s constant “that led to Einstein being awarded the Nobel Prize for his theory of the photoelectric effect (the citation of Einstein’s prize specifically mentions Millikan’s work), and to the notion of light quanta becoming firmly established as respectable physics.” (Gribbin). “In 1915, Millikan experimentally verified Einstein’s all-important photoelectric equation, and made the first direct photoelectric determination of Planck’s constant h. Einstein’s 1905 paper proposed the simple description of ‘light quanta,’ or photons, and showed how they explained the photoelectric effect. By assuming that light actually consisted of discrete energy packets, Einstein proposed a linear relationship between the maximum energy of electrons ejected from a surface, and the frequency of the incident light. The slope of the line was Planck’s constant, introduced 5 years earlier by Planck. Millikan was convinced that the equation had to be wrong, because of the vast body of evidence that had already shown that light was a wave. If Einstein was correct, his equation for the photoelectric effect suggested a completely different way

to measure Planck’s constant. Millikan undertook a decade-long experimental program to test Einstein’s theory by careful measurement of the photoelectric effect, and even devised techniques for scraping clean the metal surfaces inside the vacuum tube needed for an uncontaminated experiment. For all his efforts Millikan found what to him were disappointing results: he confirmed Einstein’s predictions in every detail, measuring Planck’s constant to within 0.5% by his method. … [Millikan] received the Nobel Prize in part for this discovery.” (APS biography of Millikan).

‘The most important book on mechanics published in the sixteenth century’ (Drake)

36. MONTE, Guidobaldo, Marchese Del. Mechanicorum Liber. Pesaro: Hieronymus Concordia, 1577. First edition.

$20,000 Monte’s theories were most influential for Galileo’s discoveries in the field of applied mechanics as expressly stated by Galileo in his Discorsi. According to Lagrange (Mécanique analytique, 1811) Monte was the first to apply the theory of momentum to simple machines, and to discover the principle of virtual velocities in the lever and the pulley. “From the time of its publication in 1577 [it was] the most authoritative treatise on statics to emerge since antiquity, and it remained pre-eminent until the appearance of Galileo’s Two New Sciences in 1638. It marks the high point of the Archimedean revival of the Renaissance.” (Rose). The Liber mechanicorum “was regarded by contemporaries as the greatest work on statics since the Greeks. It was intended as a return to classical Archimedean models of rigorous mathematical proof and as a rejection of the ‘barbaric’ medieval proofs of Jordanus de Nemore (revived by Tartaglia in his Quesiti of 1546), which mixed dynamic principles with mathematical analysis.” (DSB). A fine copy with contemporary annotations. ❧Bibliotheca Mechanica 229.

First appearance of Halley’s lunar theory

37. MOORE; PERKINS; FLAMSTEED; HALLEY. A New Systeme of the Mathematicks. London: Godbid and Playford, for Robert Scott. 1681.

$32,000 First edition of Moore’s principal work, incorporating one of the three main works of his protégé, John Flamsteed, and a treatise on geography by Edmund Halley illustrated with 61 maps including nine of America. Moore himself wrote the first section of volume I, which covers arithmetic and algebra, practical geometry, trigonometry and cosmology, including 6 finely engraved star charts. This is followed by a long chapter on navigation, which Moore had intended to write, but which could not be found at his death and so was contributed by his pupil Peter Perkins. Volume I also contains Perkins’s Arithmetick, with a title page dated 1680. This contains, with separate titles, ‘The first six books of Euclid’s elements’; ‘The eleventh and twelfth books of Euclid’s elements’; and ‘The doctrine of surds’. Then comes Flamsteed’s Doctrine of the sphere, grounded on the motion of the earth and the antient Pythagorean or Copernican system of the world, which has a separate title page dated 1680. It contains Flamsteed’s important lunar theory and his very accurate solar tables (see DSB). He introduces his method of

calculating parallaxes invented in 1676. Halley himself contributed A New Geography, with maps to each country in Vol. II, with a title page dated 1681, in which several parts of America are described. The first part of Vol. II is an extensive set of astronomical, logarithmic, trigonometric and other tables, with instructions for their use. Left unfinished at Moore’s death in 1679, the work was completed by Flamsteed and Perkins and edited by his sons-in-law William Hanway and John Potenger.

First English edition of the Principia

38. NEWTON, Isaac. The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy... Translated... by Andrew Motte. To which are added, the lawes of the moon’s motion, according to gravity. By John Machin... London: Benjamin Motte, 1729.

$68,000 This first English translation, published two years after Newton’s death, was prepared by Andrew Motte (1696-1734). The son of the well-known printer Benjamin Motte, who printed Andrew Motte’s Treatise on the mechanical powers (1727), as well as the present work, Motte was very briefly a lecturer on geometry at Gresham College. The translation is based on the 1726 third edition of the Latin text, edited by Henry Pemberton, and is dedicated to Sir Hans Sloane as President of the Royal Society. John Machin’s attempt to rectify Newton's lunar theory is appended to the main work.

❧Babson 20; Norman 1587.

Dibner 125 - ‘The best and most complete edition’ (Neville)’

39. PARACELSUS, Theophrastus. Opera Omnia Medico-Chemico-Chirurgica, tribus voluminibus comprehensa. Editio novissima et emendatissima ad Germanica & Latina exemplaria accuratissime collata. Geneva: Sumptibus Joan. Antonii, & Samuelis De Tournes. 1658. First Tournes edition.

$20,000 A very fine copy, in contemporary vellum and with the often missing portrait, of “the best and most complete edition of Paracelsus’s collected works” (Neville). “According to Sudhoff, bibliographer of Paracelsus’s works, this compendium of the works of Paracelsus, edited by Friedrich Bitiskius, is the most complete of the Latin collected editions. It contains virtually all of Paracelsus’s medical and philosophical writings, as well as Tintoretto’s beautiful portrait of Paracelsus, which is often missing” (Heirs of Hippocrates). “Philippus Aureolus Theophratus Bobastus von Hohenheim, also known as Paracelsus, remains one of the most controversial and remarkable personalities of the Renaissance. He has been described as a quack, a magician, an astrologer, and alchemist, as well as a brilliant physician, prophet, and genius. Sir William Osler called him the ‘Luther of medicine,’ and Fielding Garrison lauded him as ‘the most original thinker of the sixteenth century.’ “Paracelsus was a voluminous writer …, but his controversial views and antagonistic personality alienated publishers, and only a few of his books appeared during his lifetime.” (Haskell F. Norman in One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine).

❧Dibner 124; Heirs of Hippocrates 215; Neville 250.

The beginning of quantum theory

40. PLANCK, Max. Zur Theorie des Gesetzes der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1900. First edition, first printing.

$22,000 A fine copy of the founding document of quantum theory, “marking the dividing line between classical and modern physics” (Norman). In this celebrated first announcement of quantum theory, Planck derived his radiation law based upon the assumption that energy is emitted and absorbed in discrete quanta. “In this important paper he stated that energy flowed not in continuous, indefinitely divisible currents, but in pulses or bursts of action [or quanta]” (Dibner). Planck determined a unit of energy in a system showing a natural frequency and proposed a constant of angular momentum, the value of which is known as ‘Planck's constant.’ This ‘quantum’ of energy led to explanations of the specific heats of solids, the photo-chemical effects of light, the orbits of electrons in the atom, the spectra of Röntgen rays, the velocity of rotating gas molecules, and the distances between the particles of a crystal. “It contradicted the mechanics of Newton and the electromagnetics of Faraday and Maxwell. Moreover it challenged the notion of the continuity of nature” (PMM). Published by the Berlin Physics Society, the first appearance of Planck’s revolutionary work is very rare. (It was later published, in 1901, in the more widely distributed Annalen der Physik). ❧PMM 391, Dibner 166, Horblit 26a, Evans 47, Sparrow 162.

‘As rare as beautiful’ (Duveen)

41. PORTA, Giovanni Battista della. De Distillatione Lib. IX. Rome: Ex Typographia Reu, Camerae Apostolicae, 1608. First edition.

$13,500 A very fine copy of “the most comprehensive view of the applications of distillation of the period” (Norman). “This book is as rare as beautiful. Ferguson, speaking of the reimpression (Strassburg, 1609), says that ‘the Roman edition is a much finer book.’ (Duveen). “Porta published in 1608 at Rome a work on distillation, its methods, apparatus and applications, which is of interest as giving a more comprehensive view of the application of distillation in the sixteenth century than is found in any other work of the period.” (Stillman). “The first and longest, and the most fully illustrated, of the nine books deals with different forms of stills. Porta describes various forms of distilling apparatus for various uses including the preparation of essential oils, on which Forbes says he is a very good authority having had occasion to observe the industry in Naples. Porta was the first to give yields from different materials. He also deals with various stills designed to produce different strengths of alcohol, all with air cooled condensers; one still is heated by the sun. In the same spirit as his Physiognomonia and Phytognomonica, in one section he compares the stills and their functions with animals. Hot

things require a still with a short thick neck, just as nature has given ‘angry and furious creatures’ like the bear and the lion short strong necks. After this preliminary treatise on stills, the other 8 books give more specific details of the preparation of perfumes and the distillation of essential oils; resins; and woods; and the extraction of virtues of substances, such as aqua vita essential, that is alcohol. ❧Norman 1725; Honeyman 2521; Neville 323.

The first work on non-Euclidean geometry 42. PROCLUS Diadochus.

Procli... in primum Euclidis Elementorum librum commentariorum libri IIII. Padua: Perchacino, 1560. $32,500

A magnificent copy, with a very distinguished provenance, of the first Latin edition of Proclus’ commentary on the first book of Euclid’s Elements, edited by Federico Barozzi. The text appeared previously in the Greek Euclid of 1533 (Basel), but lacked illustrations, and contained other deficiencies, remarked upon by Barozzi in the preface to the present edition. Proclus’ commentary can be regarded as the first work on non-Euclidean geometry (Sommerville). It gives a penetrating discussion of Euclid's fifth postulate, also known as the ‘parallel postulate’. He criticizes Ptolemy’s proof of the fifth postulate, and points out with the example of the straight line asymptote to a hyperbola that it is possible for two lines to get closer and closer together without ever meeting. He goes on to show that the parallel postulate is equivalent to what later became known as Playfair’s axion (introduced in John Playfair’s 1795 commentary on Euclid), that ‘Through a given point, only one line can be drawn parallel to a given line’. He then attempts a proof of this new postulate, but his proof is vitiated by his assumption that parallel lines are a bounded distance apart (which can be shown to be equivalent to the parallel postulate).

Provenance: Pierre Daniel Huet, Bishop of Avranches with bookplate commemorating his legacy in 1692 to; Jesuit College at Paris, with printed pressmark label XLVII.C, and with label on title-page ‘Ne extra hanc bibliothecam efferatur. Ex obedientia.’; Michel Chasles (bookplate), bought at his sale Paris, 7 July 1881 by; P. Laffite.

Bound in sixteenth century red morocco

43. PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius. Clavdii Ptolemaei liber de analemmate. Rome: Paulum Manutius, 1562. $12,250

First edition of Ptolemy’s Analemma, which “explained how to determine the position of the sun at a given moment in any latitude by an orthogonal projection using three mutually perpendicular planes… [The] Analemma [survives], apart from a few palimpsest fragments, only in William of Moerbeke’s Latin translation from the Greek. It is an explanation of a method for finding angles used in the construction of sundials, involving projection onto the plane of the meridian and swinging other planes into that plane. The actual determination of the angles is achieved not by trigonometry (although Ptolemy shows how that is theoretically possible) but by an ingenious graphical technique which in modern terms would be classified as nomographic. Although the basic idea was not new (Ptolemy criticizes his predecessors, and a similar procedure is described by Vitruvius ca. 30 BC), the sophisticated development is probably Ptolemy’s... [As] in the case of Ptolemy’s Planisphere, no Greek text was available to Commandino (a portion was later recovered from a palimpsest); but an Arabic version had been translated into Latin. This was edited from the manuscript by Commandino (Rome, 1562). Besides his customary commentary, he added his own essay On the Calibration of Sundials of various types, since he felt that Ptolemy’s discussion was theoretical rather than practical” (DSB).

Arithmetization of the theory of proportion

44. RIDOLFI, Volumnio, Spoletano. De proportione proportionum disputatio. Rome: Mazzochi, 1516. $23,250

Extremely rare first edition of this influential and controversial work, an important step towards the arithmetization of the theory of proportion. In the Eudoxian theory of proportion, treated in Book V of Euclid’s Elements, proportion is a relation between magnitudes of the same kind, and is not identified with a numerical value. Thus, the ratio of the diagonal of a square to a side is a valid concept in the Euclidean theory of proportion, although it is not identified with a number as this number would (in modern terms) be irrational. The evolution from proportion to numerical ratio began with Umar al-Khayyam in the 12th century and was continued by Nicole Oresme in the 14th. The most decisive progress in the modern era was made by Clavius in his great commentary on Euclid (first published in 1574). Clavius there criticized and completed the Euclidean theory of proportion, and took the first steps toward its arithmetization. According to Rommevaux (p. 72), Clavius’s critique was ‘certainly inspired’ by the present work of Ridolfi, which treats proportions as quantities, so that proportions are just the same as proportions of quantities.

❧Smith, Rara Arithmetica, addenda, p. 11; Riccardi I 387; STC Italian, Vol. 3, p. 35. S. Rommevaux, Clavius: Une Clé pour Euclide au XVI Siècle, 2006. OCLC lists copies at Brown, Columbia, Madison Wisconsin, Michigan and Tübingen; not in COPAC

Author’s presentation copy

45. SANGRO, Raimondo di. Lettera apologetica dell'esercitato accademico della Crusca contenente la Difesa del Libro Intitolato Lettere d'una Peruana per rispetto alla supposizione de'Quipu. Naples: Gennaro Morelli, 1750.

$38,500 First edition, author’s presentation copy, of the first extensive treatise on the Peruvian knot-based counting language Quipu. This celebrated and beautiful book by the Neapolitan polymath Prince Raimondi di Sangro, was produced using his own polychromatic printing process. The Quipu, a method used by the Inca administration for recording data and performing calculations by means of knots made along cords of various colours, is currently attracting renewed interest due to its similarities to the binary system used in modern digital computers. Quipu used a decimal positional system: a knot in a row farthest from the main strand represented one, next farthest ten, etc.; the absence of knots on a cord implied zero. The colours of the cords, the way the cords are connected together, the relative placement of the cords, the spaces between the cords, the types of knots on the individual cords, and the relative placement of the knots are all important parts of the recording system. ‘Quipucamayocs,’ the accountants of the Inca Empire, created and deciphered the Quipu knots, and were also capable of performing simple mathematical calculations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and

dividing. Quipu accounts were kept by court historians in Peru that covered hundreds of years of history, but after the Conquest, the Spaniards began to resent having this second set of record-keepers contradict them. The Quipu was classified as idolatrous at the Third Council of Lima (1581-3), and all examples found were to be burned.

❧Erwin Tomash S-12 ; Not in Origins of Cyberspace.

The first original star catalogue since Ptolemy

46. ULUGH BEG, ibn Shahrukh. Tabulae long. ac lat. stellarum fixarum: additur demum elenchus nominum stellarum. In calce libri accesserunt Mohammedis Tizini tabulae declinationum et rectarum accensionum. Oxford: Henry Hall for the author, to be sold by Richard Davis, 1665.

$16,250 Editio princeps, a fine copy in original boards. Ulugh Beg (1394-1449) was a Timurid astronomer, mathematician and sultan. “In 1428 he built an enormous observatory, called the Gurkhani Zij, similar to Tycho Brahe’s later Uranienborg. Lacking telescopes to work with, he increased his accuracy by increasing the length of his sextant; the so-called Fakhri Sextant had a radius of circa 36 meters and the optical separability of 180". Using it he compiled the 1437 Zij-i Sultani of 994 stars, generally considered the greatest of star catalogues between those of Ptolemy and Brahe. The serious errors which he found in the Arabian star catalogues (which were simply copied from Ptolemy, adding the effect of precession to the longitudes) induced him to redetermine the positions of 992 fixed stars, to which he added 27 stars from Al Sufi’s catalogue from 964, which were too far south to be observed at Samarkand. This catalogue, the first original one since Ptolemy, was edited by Th. Hyde at Oxford in 1665 (Tabulae longitudinis …).” (Encyclopedia Britannica.)

❧Horblit (Kraus catalogue 169, item 173); Macclesfield 2025; Houzeau & Lancaster 1329.

A rarissimum of cartography and navigation

47. WERNER, Johannes. In hoc opere haec co[n]tinentur: Noua translatio primi libri Geographiæ Cl. Ptolomæi Geographia quæ quidem translatio verbum habet e verbo fideliter expressum Præceptio super plana terraru[m] orbis descriptione Libellus de quatuor terrarum orbis in plano figurationibus Epistola ad Bessarionem de compositione et usu cuiusd. Nürnberg: Stuchs, 1514.

$96,500 Extremely rare first edition of Werner’s most important book, containing the first published direct translation of any part of Ptolemy’s Geography from the original Greek. Werner made this translation in an attempt to rectify the many errors in the earlier translation of Jacobus Anglicus, which found their way into earlier published Latin translations. In preparing it he may have had access to Regiomontanus’s notes for his own translation of the Geography which he had planned but failed to complete before his death in 1476.

The book also contains several ‘firsts’ of the greatest importance in the history of cartography and navigation. It includes the first publication of the Werner map projection, which was widely used for world and continental maps through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably by Mercator, Oronce Finé and Ortelius. The book also contains the invention of the lunar distance method of longitude determination, and of the cross-staff, an instrument designed to make the necessary astronomical observations at sea. A decade later, Apianus was advocating the use of Werner’s cross-staff to measure lunar distances in his Cosmographicus liber (Landshut, 1524), and by the mid-sixteenth

century Portuguese navigators were using it in their southward exploration by sea of the Atlantic Ocean. It was eventually to displace both the seaman’s quadrant and astrolabe.

❧ OCLC locates just three copies in America (Folger, University of Illinois, and John Carter Brown).

The shape of the Milky Way explained

48. WRIGHT, Thomas. An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe. London: Chapelle, 1750.

$30,000 First edition of this extraordinary work, remarkable for its influential theory of the Milky Way, and for its beautiful mezzotints. Wright’s physico-philosophical system of the universe is the first after Newton, carrying Newton’s theories forward and providing a basis for the theories of Laplace and Kant. “The first to form any definite idea as to the constitution of the stellar system was Thomas Wright… With him originated what has been called the ‘Grindstone Theory’ of the universe, which regarded the Milky Way as the projection on the sphere of a stratum or disk of stars (our sun occupying a position near the centre), similar in magnitude and distribution to the lucid orbs of the constellations” (Clerke). Wright also suggested with “perfect definiteness” that the rings of Saturn consisted of an aggregated multitude of unconnected particles, each revolving independently round the planet. James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated this as the only scientifically tenable theory against the hypotheses of fluid or solid rings.

“These views were more than 150 years ahead of their time and did not become accepted by the scientific community until they were substantiated by observational evidence in the 1920’s.” (The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists).

❧Norman 2265; Honeyman 3143.