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Science

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Science at Quaritch is broadly defined, ranging from medicine, anatomy, pharmacology (including herbals) and natural history to astronomy, physics, chemistry and mathematics.

An interest in the origins of modern chemistry has led to a specialisation in works on alchemy and distillation, and from there we have also branched out into occultism and hermeticism. We have developed an interest in gastronomy and books on nutrition and wine, an area which over the years has become one of our specialities.
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  1. BLAINE, Delabere Pritchett.

    The Outlines of the veterinary Art, or the Principles of Medicine as applied to a Knowledge of the...

    London, A. Strahan for T.N. Longman & O. Rees and T. Boosey, 1802.

    Very rare first edition, with contemporary manuscript notes. Blaine’s most comprehensive work, The Outlines of the veterinary Art is written in three parts, discussing the history of veterinary science, anatomy, and the practice of veterinary medicine. ‘The earliest record in the English...

    £1400

  2. PLINY the Elder.

    Historiae mundi libri XXXVII, cum castigationibus et adnotationibus doctiss. & variis praeterea lectionibus ex...

    Frankfurt, Claude de Marne and heirs of Jean Aubry, 1608.

    First Frankfurt edition of Pliny’s Natural History, here bound as an enormous single volume with strikingly decorated edges featuring acorns and scrolls.

    £1400

  3. SURTEES, Robert Smith.

    The Horseman’s Manual, being a Treatise on Soundness, the Law of Warranty, and generally on the Laws relating...

    London, M.A. Pittman for Alfred Miller, 1831.

    First edition of Surtees’s first work, the only publication to bear his name, from the family of the dedicatee. Though best known for his sporting articles and novels, Robert Smith Surtees (1805–1864) was, alongside his landed interests, a respected jurist in County Durham, serving as justice...

    £1250

  4. [TACCONI, Gaetano.]

    ‘Medicae inst[ructio]nes’, ‘Tractatus de febribus’, and ‘Compendiosa nonulloru[m] m[or]boru[m] peculiariu[m]...

    [Bologna, Italy,] 1739.

    An extensive manuscript compendium of apparently unpublished medical texts compiled by a student at the Archiginnasio of Bologna who studied under Gaetano Tacconi (1689–1782), comprising notes on the prescription and preparation of medication, on fevers, and on a wide variety of illnesses. The...

    £1250

  5. SIMON, John, Sir.

    A volume of autograph letters received by Sir John Simon from medical friends and acquaintances.

    Circa 1848-1887.

    An interesting collection of letters to Sir John Simon and Lady Simon, from many of the leading physicians and surgeons of the Victorian era. Sir John Simon (1816–1904) was a renowned surgeon, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, and an efficient and dynamic reformer of public health...

    £1250

  6. REFELL, A. 

    Trugbilder: Eine Anleitung Erscheinungen, auf optischer Täuschung beruhend, nach Belieben hervorzuheben und wissenschaftliche...

    Stuttgart, Rieger, 1865. 

    First German edition, rare, of this fascinating study of mirages and optical illusions, in particular ghostly apparitions, in which the author attempts to demonstrate using the principles of optics how they might appear, with the aim of proving the absurdity of the superstitions to which they...

    £1250

  7. [ARISTOTLE.] 

    Disputations on Aristotle’s Organon. 

    Milan, 1600-1601. 

    An interesting manuscript comprising disputations on the first four works of Aristotle’s Organon, covering logical analysis and dialectic, compiled by a Milanese student at the turn of the seventeenth century. 

    £1250

  8. MANFREDI, Girolamo, and Pedro de RIBAS, translator. 

    Libro llamado El porque provechosissimo para la conservacion...

    Alcalá de Henares, Juan Iñiguez de Lequerica, 1587 [(colophon:) Hernan Ramirez, 1589]. 

    Extremely rare, early Alcalá-printed edition of Pedro de Ribas’s Spanish translation of Manfredi’s popular Liber de Homine, a regimen sanitatis in question-and-answer form, in part censored by the translator.  

    £1250

  9. ACTON, William.

    Prostitution, considered in its moral, social, & sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities. With proposals...

    London, [Savill and Edwards for] John Churchill, 1857.

    First edition of this medico-social analysis of sex work and sexually transmitted infections in London, in which physician William Acton argues for increased governmental intervention, influential in shaping the later Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866, and 1869.

    £1250

  10. ‘WOODLAND SKETCHES.

    With poetical Selections …

    Frome. 1836’.

    A delightful illustrated manuscript commonplace of uncommonly coherent design, assembling relevant quotations from Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Cowper, Spenser, Coleridge, and others, alongside illustrations of ten British trees – Beech, Willow, White Poplar, Cedar, Elm, Pine, Oak, Birch, Yew,...

    £1250

  11. MASSARI, Francesco.

    In nonum Plinii de naturali historia librum castigationes & annotationes.

    Basel, [Hieronymus] Froben [and Nikolaus Bischof], [March] 1537.

    First edition of Massari’s commentary on the ninth book of Pliny’s Natural History, on fish and marine life, bound for – and quite possibly by – Flavio Floriani using printed waste from his own library.

    £1250

  12. LANDI, Bassiano.

    De origine et causa pestis Patauinae, anni MDLV ...

    Venice, apud Balthassarem Constantinum (colophon: ‘Ioan. Gryphius excudebat’), 1555.

    First edition of this important work investigating the causes of the plague which struck Padua in 1555, by the eminent, and controversial, professor of medicine Bassiano Landi (d. 1562). In his De origine Landi argues against the then popular belief that the plague had been caused by putrid...

    £1250

  13. BRAUN, Adolphe.

    Untitled flower study (orchids).

    c. 1870?

    A stunning monumental flower study by Adolphe Braun (1811–1877). Born in Besançon, Braun’s first career was a designer of textiles, and his first exercises in flower photography in the late 1840s and early 1850s were intended as compositional aids. His album of Fleurs photographiées...

    £1200

  14. BRAUN, Adolphe.

    Untitled flower study (camellia).

    c. 1870?

    An exquisite monumental flower study by Adolphe Braun (1811–1877). Born in Besançon, Braun’s first career was a designer of textiles, and his first exercises in flower photography in the late 1840s and early 1850s were intended as compositional aids. His album of Fleurs photographiées...

    £1200

  15. DURHAM, Arthur E. 

    Transverse Section of Wood (Salisburia). 

    Circa 1870s. 

    A rare and attractive microphotograph of a transverse section of Ginkgo biloba wood, traditionally used in Chinese medicine and homeopathy. 

    £1100

  16. RONDINELLI, Francesco.

    Relazione del contagio stato in Firenze l’anno 1630 e 1633 con un breve ragguaglio della miracolosa immagine...

    Florence, Gio. Batista Landini, 1634.

    First edition of this official account of the Florentine plague of 1630 and 1633, commissioned by Ferdinando II de’ Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, and composed by his librarian Rondinelli from official records and interviews with survivors. Plague had been brought to Italy in 1629 by troops fighting...

    £950

  17. MEGUSCHER, Francesco.

    Memoria … in risposta al quesito additare la migliore e più facile maniera per rimittere i boschi nelle...

    Milan, presso l’I.R. Istituto, 1847.

    First edition of this comprehensive report on the best means to reverse the deforestation of the mountains of Lombardy, in a way that could be both environmentally sustainable and economically profitable.

    £950

  18. TALIANI, Giuseppe. 

    Orologi riflessi, per mezo di un picciolo specchio parallelo o perpendicolare all’orizonte. 

    Macerata, Filippo Camacci, 1648. 

    Only recorded edition, rare, of this work by mathematician Taliani on the construction of sundials in the interior of buildings, to be achieved through mirrors reflecting solar rays – our copy uniquely furnished with a contemporary large hand-drawn representation of the face of a sundial. ...

    £950

  19. PONCELET, Jean-Victoire.

    Traité des propriétés projectives des figures, ouvrage utile à ceux qui s’occupent des applications...

    Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1865-1866.

    Second edition, revised and enlarged, Émile Borel’s prize copy. A finely bound, well-preserved, and prestigious association set.

    Borel (1871–1956), the French mathematician best known for his work in measure theory and probability theory, was awarded several honours in the early...

    £950

  20. [GALEN.] STEPHANUS.   

    Stephani Atheniensis philosophi explanationes in Galeni priorem librum therapeuticum ad Glauconem, Augustino...

    Venice, Giunta, November 1554. 

    First edition of Agostino Gadaldini’s Latin translation of Galen’s medical treatise Ad Glauconem and of Stephanus’ commentary upon it, enhanced with his own scholia.

    £950