Great Discoveries

Rare first edition, printed in a small number of copies and illustrated with 3 plates, including 2 folding colour maps.
A very good copy despite some minor foxing to the wrappers and a vertical crease to the front wrapper.

The text presents the conclusions reached by the naturalist William Carpenter (1813-1885) following the deep-sea exploration carried out off the north of Ireland from 1868 to 1870 alongside Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (1830–1882). 

Copy belonging to the biologist Jean-Louis-Armand Quatrefages de Bréau (1810-1892), with his ink stamp in the upper right-hand corner of the title page.

First edition of the French translation, one of 35 numbered copies on alfa paper, this copy No. 1, the only deluxe issue.

Rare and attractive copy.

Rare second edition, illustrated with 13 figures in the text.

Spine and boards slightly sunned at the edges, losses to the spine, which has been reinforced; front wrapper tending to detach; one gathering bound in reverse order (pages 89 to 91).

The obstetrician Charles Maygrier (1849-1926) was an obstetric physician at the Hôpital de la Charité and agrégé professor at the Paris Faculty of Medicine.

At the head of the front wrapper, autograph presentation inscription from Charles Maygrier to Dr Franck, a member of the Académie de médecine (Charles-Émile François-Franck, 1849-1921), a specialist in heart disease.

First edition. A few head-piece vignettes, ornamental bandeaux, decorated initials, and tailpieces.

Contemporary full mottled sheep, spine with five raised bands, gilt panels and fleurons between the bands, gilt-lettered tan leather label, doublures of French curl paper, red edges. Upper corners lightly bumped, a few rubbed patches and small losses, a dampstain to the first leaves, a few minor paper losses to some leaves.

Published several decades before the results of Edward Jenner's research on vaccination, this collection brings together the principal texts on inoculation, the procedure that constitutes its direct forerunner.

First edition of this pioneering work in the history of psychiatry (cf. Garrison & Morton 4920; Semelaigne I, pp. 68-73; Waller records only the 1770 German translation; Wellcome III 547; Blake 277).

Contemporary half calf with vellum-tipped corners, smooth spines gilt with decorative rolls, some rubbing and small wormholes to the spines, marbled paper boards, sprinkled edges; bindings from the early nineteenth century.

Ink stains on pp. 72–76 of the first volume, a black ink spot at the head of the lower cover of the second volume, a few minor and unobtrusive foxmarks.

For Lorry, not all melancholic patients are driven by a single fixed idea, and melancholy is a...

First edition, printed in a small run, of this offprint from the Journal des savants.

Work illustrated with a finely engraved plate printed outside the text.

Some scattered foxing internally and to the wrappers.

Appointed in 1820 to the chair of archaeology at the Sorbonne, succeeding Quatremère de Quincy, Désiré Raoul-Rochette (1789–1854) was chiefly known for his expertise in Greek antiquity. He also served as curator of the Cabinet des médailles.

On the upper cover, authorial presentation inscription from Désiré Raoul-Rochette to the physician and botanist Henri Dutrochet (1776–1847), the discoverer of the phenomena of exosmosis and...

First edition and the inaugural volumes of this significant scientific periodical, whose publication continued until 1954.

Volumes 43, 4, 5, and 6 are illustrated with respectively 332 in-text figures, 392 figures, 138 in-text figures, and 179 in-text figures.

Contemporary half-sheep bindings in brown, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets and garlands, spines rubbed, red lettering and volume labels with a few minor losses on some volumes, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, some volumes slightly rubbed at the extremities, the upper corner of the fourth volume lacking, a few snags to the board edges; period bindings.

The first...

Third edition, revised, corrected, and enlarged with several important Additions by the author published posthumously, and with Remarks by the Translator (our own translation), with the portrait of John Locke by Godfrey Kneller, engraved by François Morellon de La Cave.

Contemporary full brown calf, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments, brown morocco lettering-piece, triple fillet border to covers in blind, red edges, marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

Headcaps missing, surface...

First edition from the Imprimerie Royale, complete in nine quarto volumes with all 262 black-and-white engraved plates.

Contemporary full mottled calf, spines with raised bands decorated with guilloche tooling and gilt ornaments in the compartments, red morocco lettering-pieces and numbering-pieces, triple gilt fillet border on boards, double gilt fillet on board edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges. Minor variations in the tooling on volume 3.

In...

Exceptionally rare first edition of this remarkable photographic album, printed in Cairo by Mourès & Cie, the press operated by Antoine Mourès. Produced under the direction of Auguste Mariette, it constitutes the first illustrated photographic catalogue of the Boulaq Museum, the first Egyptian museum devoted to Pharaonic antiquities and the direct predecessor of the present Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The work comprises forty albumen prints (approximately 24.5 × 18 cm), mounted on heavy card leaves hinged on guards. Each photograph is accompanied by a printed descriptive leaf - with the exception of plates 4 and 11, which are accompanied by two - the photographs being...

First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with four hors-texte plates printed on chamois paper.

Not recorded by Brunet, who lists the author’s principal works.

Scattered foxing, including to the boards.

The orientalist Michelangelo Lanci (1779–1867) produced a fascinating blend of genuine erudition and improbable conjectures, shaped by the pre-critical and broadly concordist mindset then prevailing without challenge in the learned circles of pontifical Rome (Lanci being a subject of the Pope).

This largely accounts for the profound neglect into which most of his works have since fallen.

Prisse d’Avennes (1807–1879), who had worked with Champollion...

First edition (cf Caillet I, 1960. Waller II, 12861a.)

A lack at the foot of the spine of the first volume, covers uniformly browned, handsome interior condition. 

Rare first edition of the author's principal work, but with a most questionable method, since he classifies under the category of alienation all the unknown or misunderstood phenomena of the period (demonolatry, lycanthropy, mysticism, vampirism, witchcraft, etc.).

It has at least the advantage of attempting the first history of psychiatry, from the 15th to the 19th century.

Louis-Florentin Calmeil (1798-1895), intern in Philippe Pinel's service, practiced at Charenton from 1823 to 1873 and was able...

Second edition.

"Magendie, pioneer experimental physiologist, regarded pathology as only a modification of physiology, 'medicine the physiology of the sick man'. By him clinical medicine was reconstructed on the physiological lines".

Spines of the first two volumes split, small losses to the other two, spines browned, some foxing.

Rare copy preserved in wrappers as issued.

First edition.

Half calf binding with small vellum corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and dentelle rolls, an old red morocco title label, marbled paper boards, sprinkled edges; a modern binding.

A few passages unfortunately underlined in red ballpoint pen on several leaves (around ten in total), a light marginal dampstain on the first two leaves, modern bookplate pasted on a pastedown.

Only edition, uncommon, of this unexpected work: the Dauphinois Claude-Pierre de Delay d'Agier (1750–1827) was above all a political figure of the Revolution and the Empire, mayor of Romans in 1789, fully committed to the new ideas. Yet he had attended in Lunéville from 1774...

First edition illustrated with two etched plates under tissue guards.

Claude Bernard’s (1813–1878) laboratory notes on alcoholic fermentation (see pp. 3–33) record his experiments on the search for yeast germs on grape clusters, the formation of alcohol in grape juice without ferment, on sound and rotten grapes, on the search for a soluble alcoholic ferment and the influence of decay, and on the production of alcohol. All these experiments were conducted on his estate at Saint-Julien in October 1877, during the grape harvest.

This conception of a soluble ferment as the origin of yeast, a living organism, marked the starting point of the famous controversy between Pasteur and...

First edition, illustrated with four plates, including a folding world map (cf. Sinkankas 3466; Agassiz III, 370).

Full fawn calf, spine with five slender raised bands, gilt-tooled compartments with occasionally softened floral tools, rubbed gilt headcaps, brown morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle framing the pastedowns, gilt fillets to board edges, marbled edges, contemporary binding.

Repairs to the spine, one joint split at head and foot, browning along the board margins with surface scratches, scattered foxing, a waterstain at the head of all leaves.

A noteworthy treatise devoted to yellow amber and above all to ambergris, the...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 34 plates, including one in colour.

See Garrison & Morton, 2465 (for the original German edition).

Contemporary full marbled cream paper boards, smooth spine with some rubbing and small losses, decorative motif of three acorns stamped in the centre of the covers, modern bookplate pasted on the verso of the front board.

Some light foxing.

First French translation of Abhandlung über die Saamen- und Infusionsthierchen, und über die Erzeugung, nebst mikroskopischen Beobachtungen des Saamens der Thiere in verschiedenen Infusionen (1778).

The biologist Wilhelm Friedich von Gleichen-Russwurm...

First edition of the thesis presented by Paul Bert to the Faculty of Sciences in Paris in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Natural Sciences.

Illustrated with two lithographed plates at the end of the volume.

Some occasional foxing.

Contemporary half red morocco-grained shagreen binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt floral tools, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved (rear cover restored with an adhesive patch), modern binding.

Rare biological thesis by Paul Bert (1833–1886), who was a physician, physiologist, educator, and above all a committed republican politician.

Inscribed...

First edition of this important account of Buffon, providing insights into his private life, his character, and his relationships with those around him; it also contains numerous references to his scientific work (cf. Quérard I, 119: "Lyon, Grabit, 1788"; Dureau, "Notice sur Joseph Aude," p. 15).

Half vellum binding, smooth spine with a red morocco title label in vertical layout, marbled paper boards, slightly rubbed corners, sprinkled edges.

Stains in the margins of the title page and final leaf.

The memoirs proper end on page 55.

The following pages contain the poems announced in the title.

The rarity of this volume was already noted by Dureau in...

Rare first edition (cf. Carrère 667).

Modern binding in half mottled calf with small sand-colored corners, spine with four raised bands decorated with double gilt fillets, brown morocco title label, marbled paper boards, yellow endpapers and pastedowns, red edges.

One of the earliest impressions from Remiremont; cited by Deschamps, col. 1102.

First edition, no deluxe copies printed.

A pleasant copy.

Inscribed and signed by Yves Coppens to Emile Noël.

First edition of the French translation prepared by Joseph Lavallée.

The atlas volume is illustrated with 16 plates (portrait, views, birds, insects), 12 engraved music plates (printed on 6 leaves), and a large folding map on thick paper (cf. Quérard, I, 6; British Museum (Natural History), I, 8 for the atlas only; Pritzel, 6 for the original English edition).

Bound in contemporary half calf, smooth spines gilt-tooled with floral ornaments, rolls and motifs, sometimes slightly faded, orange calf title and volume labels, marbled paper boards, a few rubs and minor defects along the joints, sprinkled red edges; the atlas volume in contemporary half brown calf, smooth...

First edition.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under a provisional violet paper cover.

A vertical crease runs through the entirety of the booklet.

Inscribed and signed by Lambert-Adolphe Quetelet to Edmond Becquerel at the head of the title page.

A naturalist, mathematician, and astronomer, Lambert-Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) was the founder of the Brussels Observatory.

First edition illustrated with 11 plates, 10 of which are folding.

Bradel binding in full marbled paper boards, smooth spine, vertical paper title label.

"Ce sont les tables des hauteurs du soleil à toutes les heures" [Lalande]. A rare and appealing copy.

Head of the collection of this technical periodical, which appeared for only three years (1839, 1840, and 1841); this set comprises all the issues published from January 1839 to December 1840.

Half lavallière calf bindings with corners, smooth spines lightened and decorated with gilt and blind fillets, red calf title labels, green volume labels, some rubbing to the spines, marbled paper boards, marbled edges, contemporary bindings.

Some occasional foxing.

The first volume is illustrated with in-text figures and 3 plates out of text; the second contains in-text figures.

The articles abound in practical details on the state of science and technology during the July...

First edition, illustrated with an engraved portrait of Magellan as frontispiece and four folding maps and plans of the Strait of Magellan. Cf. Sabin, 16765; Leclerc, 1971; Chadenat, 552; Palau, 352513; Aguilar Piñal, VIII, 2443.

The present copy does not include the separately published appendix issued in 1793, devoted to the supplementary survey carried out by the packet vessels Santa Casilda and

New edition with hitherto unpublished material, printed three years after the first edition.
Contemporary full brown sheepskin binding, smooth spine with 7 gilt compartments decorated with friezes and classical vases, leather lettering piece, inscription "Lycée impérial de Marseille, prix de l'an XIII (1805)" gilt-stamped on upper cover, gilt rolls on board edges, tooled spine-ends, white pastedowns and endpapers, price label with the "Lycée's" header affixed to front pastedown. Usual wear to joints with a small hole, lower spine-end missing and leather loss at foot of spine, wormhole affecting several letters of the word...

Autograph postcard signed by Albert Einstein to Ludwig Hopf. 18 lines written verso and recto, address also in Einstein's handwriting. Postmarked June 21, 1910. 

Published in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 5: The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914, Princeton University Press, 1993, n°218, p. 242.

An exceptional and highly aesthetic card from Albert Einstein to "the friend of the greatest geniuses of his time" - according to Schrödinger - mathematician and physicist Ludwig Hopf, who introduced Einstein to another 20^th-century genius: Carl Jung.
The master invites his pupil Hopf to a dinner...

First edition of this important work, cf. Krivatsy 588. Garrison-Morton 1673, 5047 and 5085.

Full stiff ivory vellum, spine with four raised bands, the author’s name handwritten in black ink, one defect on the fourth band, blind-tooled rolls on the headcaps, gilt fillets highlighting the raised bands and framing the covers, small vellum losses on the covers, losses at the corners of the first and last endpaper, edges sprinkled red, contemporary binding.

Bound with this work are three further treatises by Guillaume de Baillou, all printed by Quesnel in 1640. Krivatsy, describing a...

Extremely rare first edition of the French translation prepared by Désiré Mouren.

There appears to have been no Portuguese edition of this pioneering work in the field of oceanography.

Losses to the spine, upper cover starting to detach, small marginal losses to the boards.

Francisco Calheiros da Graça (1849-1906), a Brazilian naval lieutenant, took part in the operations against Paraguay and conducted several scientific studies and hydrographic surveys.

Extremely rare.

Manuscript ex-libris on the upper cover.

Illustrated edition with a frontispiece and 60 in-text engravings.

No copy listed in the CCF.

Publisher's brown cloth binding, flat spine, spine and covers decorated with gilt African-inspired motifs, blind-stamped border on covers, marbled edges, minor bumping to lower corners.

A pleasing copy.

This work is a popular biography of David Livingstone, focused solely on his African expeditions, intended for a German-speaking readership.

First edition.

Each booklet is richly illustrated with in-text and full-page figures or photographs.

Expeditions in the Mediterranean (1952–1964), including the study of the islet of Grand Congloué, campaigns in the northeastern Mediterranean, along the coast of Provence, and in the Gulf of Genoa.

Campaigns in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean (1951–1954), and in the tropical Atlantic (1956–1962), including missions in the Gulf of Guinea, the Cape Verde Islands, and off the Atlantic coasts of South America. General index for volumes I to XI.

Back cover of the first volume soiled; small tear at the top of the front cover of the third booklet.

A rare and appealing...

Rare first edition.

Contemporary full black cloth, spine gilt-stamped with a floral tool, double gilt fillet at foot of spine, red shagreen lettering-piece, blue paper endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, slightly frayed corners, contemporary binding.

A pleasing copy.

Very rare signed and inscribed copy by Georges Gilles de la Tourette: “À mon cher confrère et ami le Dr Diamantberger. Gilles de La Tourette.”

Rare first edition.

Small tears and corner losses to the spine and boards.

Signed autograph inscription from Joseph Louis Trouessart to Sainte-Beuve on the half-title.

First edition of the French translation (cf. Sabin, 33726 (original edition). Humboldt Library, 4696.)

Complete text, without the Atlas, which was published many years later (1867) and is frequently lacking.

Tears and small marginal losses to some leaves, spine of the second volume split, slight splitting at head and tail of the other volumes, foot of the spine of the first volume restored, some minor foxing.

First complete French edition, translated by H. Faye, of this seminal work by one of the greatest scholars and explorers of the nineteenth century; a masterful synthesis through which Alexander von Humboldt founded physical geography (P. Rousseau, Hist. de la...

Rare first edition of the French translation prepared by Thomas-François Dalibard at the request of the Comte de Buffon (cf Wheeler Gift 367d. Waller 11339. DSB V, pp. 129-139).

Full mottled calf, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with double gilt compartments with floral tools, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt rolls on the caps (partly rubbed), restorations to head and tail of spine as well as to the corners of the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on the edges, marbled edges, contemporary binding.

Some foxing, a dampstain to the upper right corner of the first endpaper.

The English first edition was published in London in...

First edition, printed in very small numbers, of this offprint from the Bulletins de l'Académie royale de Belgique, 3rd series, vol. IV, no. 12.

No copy in the CCF. A single copy in Worldcat.

Traces of a label and of a distribution stamp in the left margin of the upper cover, a few small spots of foxing.

The physicist Charles Montigny (1819-1890) was director of the science section of the Académie royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Bruxelles, of which he had been a member since 1867.

Inscribed by Charles Montigny to Admiral Ernest Mouchez (1821-1892), a specialist in hydrological and astronomical observations, director of the Paris...

First edition of Leonhard Euler’s first book devoted entirely to astronomy, published in Berlin by Ambrosius Haude in 1744, with no date printed on the title-page. Quarto, illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece after F. H. Frisch, engraved by Berot, and four folding plates of astronomical and geometrical diagrams. The frontispiece was printed on leaf A4, which would normally have contained pages 7 and 8, and was then placed facing the title-page: the pagination consequently passes directly from 6 to 9, with no loss of text. 185 pages, numbered through 187.

Modern...

First edition of the most significant 19th-century scientific expedition to Iceland and Greenland.

A few light spots of foxing, otherwise a very good copy.

The 8 volumes of text include:

- History of the voyage, by Joseph-Paul Gaimard and Eugène Robert: 2 volumes with a portrait.

- History of Iceland, by Xavier Marmier: 1 volume.

- Icelandic Literature, by Xavier Marmier: 1 volume.

- Travel journal, by E. Mecquet: 1 volume.

- Zoology and medicine, by Eugène Robert: 1 volume, with folding table.

- Physics, by V. Lottin: 1 volume.

The 4 atlas volumes comprise:

- Mineralogy and geology, by Eugène Robert: 1 volume...

First and only edition, with a tumultuous publishing history: the first volume had been printed as early as 1835 by Paulin, but the entire edition was destroyed in the fire on rue du Pot-au-Fer. The author subsequently revised his work and published a new version in 1838, simultaneously with the second volume.

Minor marginal defects to spines and covers; the second volume is bound in a temporary plain wrapper (lacking the printed covers); scattered foxing.

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Annales des sciences physiques et naturelles, d'agriculture et d'industrie de Lyon, I, 1838, illustrated with 3 lithographed plates including one folding. (cf. Stafleu, II, 2645. Not in Pritzel.)

Upper right corner of the front wrapper restored.

An appealing copy, bearing a presentation inscription from the author on the front wrapper: "Hommage à M. Lemaire. Offert par l'auteur". This may refer to the botanist Charles Lemaire (1800–1871), author of the Flore des serres et des jardins de l'Europe and a specialist in cacti—plants that are almost exclusively native to the...

First edition of this major work, illustrated with 12 engraved plates and 85 figures in the text (cf. Garrison-Morton 2485. Osler 1550. Duveen 461. Cushing P/139. Waller 10966. Norman 1658).

In studying the process of fermentation, Pasteur demonstrated that the spoilage of beer was caused by airborne microorganisms, and not by spontaneous generation as previously believed.

His research contributed significantly to the treatment and preservation of perishable beverages such as beer, wine, and milk.

A very attractive copy, preserved in its original wrappers.

First french translation of the article originally published in the New York Sun in August 1825 under the title Great astronomical discoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel, along with the content of the five subsequent installments.

Bradel binding in full marbled paper-covered boards, flat spine, vertical title label with a small chip, modern binding.

First edition, illustrated with four plates bound at the end of the volume, as well as figures and tables within the text.

Bound in contemporary half bottle-green shagreen, spine with five raised bands framed by gilt fillets, gilt library stamp at foot of spine, some rubbing to spine, marbled paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, upper corners slightly bumped.

Charles Edouard Guillaume [1861–1938], Swiss physicist, was the inventor of “invar”, a metal notable for its negligible thermal expansion; developed with Benoit and Carpentier.

A very good copy.

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a folding copper-engraved frontispiece by Bénard: "Mort du Capitaine Cook à Owhy-hée, Fevrier 1779," and a folding map titled "Carte montrant la route suivie par M. Cook… dans son troisième et dernier Voyage."

See O'Reilly and Reitman, 419. See also Hill, p. 253, for the first English edition. Forbes, Hawaiian National Biography, 45.

Contemporary binding in half marbled calf with vellum-tipped corners, spine decorated with gilt floral compartments, red morocco title label, marbled paper boards, red edges.

Restored loss to the title page. The half-title is lacking in our copy; the boards are modern.

"An...

First edition of the French translation established by Lallemant, illustrated with 3 folding maps with hand-colored outlines (cf. Gay 2788).

Bradel binding in full pink paper boards, smooth spine with laterally mounted paper title labels, contemporary binding.

Headcaps trimmed, some wear to the edges, marginal soiling on the lower cover, occasional foxing throughout.

Scottish surgeon and explorer Mungo Park (1771–1806) reached Pisania (Gambia) during a first expedition to Africa (1795–1797), where he stayed for a time to gather information on the Mandingo people and language. He then continued his journey to the Niger River, ascending it as far as upstream from Ségou...

First edition of this biography of the renowned explorer.

Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait and a folding lithographed map bound at the end of the volume.

Copy preserved in a plain temporary wrapper.

Some light foxing, traces of damp-staining along the lower edge of all leaves.

Rare.

First edition of the French translation, revised under the author's supervision, by Joseph Lavallée, of this highly regarded travel account.

The atlas includes 16 plates depicting views and natural history subjects, 12 pages of engraved music, and 1 folding map (cf. Monglond VI 729–730).

Contemporary bindings in half blond calf over green vellum-tipped boards, smooth spines decorated with gilt tooling, yellow edges, for the three text volumes.

Contemporary binding for the atlas in half green sheep with vellum tips, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, soft green paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Wormholes on title pages, scuffed...

First edition of this highly significant document on the state of Parisian hospitals at the end of Louis XVI's reign, written by Jacques Tenon (1724–1816), surgeon at the Salpêtrière, which remained an influential reference for French hospital policy through to the Third Republic.

The work is complete with its 17 folding plates (including 2 tables and 14 architectural plans and elevations of hospitals).

Some light foxing; the copy appears to have been rebound in this later binding.

Contemporary pastiche binding in half Havana sheep, flat spine with gilt fillets and the gilt cipher and arms of the Chodron de Courcel family, green paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers...

Composite copy: the first volume corresponds to the second American edition, which is partially original (with the shortened title Incidents of Travel in Yucatan), while the second is the first edition (with the full title); the text of the first volume being expanded compared to the 1841 edition. This title, originally printed in 15,000 copies, was a tremendous success and saw numerous reprints between 1841 and the author’s death in 1852 (cf. Sabin 91 297 and 91 299).

Illustrated with 96 engravings distributed as follows: 54 illustrations (some full-page in-text), including 21 plates out of text (among them a folding map and a folding frontispiece) for the first volume...

First edition of the author's first work; Aboal Amaro, Amerigo Vespucci, page 31. Leclerc, 263 (does not mention this edition). Sabin, 10704.

Contemporary limp cream paper boards, plain spine, original binding.

Spine worn with some loss, a marginal stain affecting two leaves at the beginning, otherwise a clean and attractive copy.

This essay, in which the author argued "with a certain force of reasoning" (Larousse) that Vespucci discovered America before Christopher Columbus, was awarded the prize of the Academy of Cortona in 1788. The Florentine scholar Stanislas Canovai (1740–1811) devoted his life to restoring the reputation of the famed navigator Amerigo...

First edition of the French translation by Marie Bonaparte, one of 70 numbered copies on pur fil, the only deluxe paper copies.

Covers slightly and marginally toned, otherwise a handsome and rare copy.

The text is preceded by a translation of the short story Gradiva by Wilhelm Jensen, rendered by E. Zak and G. Sadoul.

It is followed by a psychoanalytic study of the dream and the fascination experienced by the young archaeologist Norbert Hanold for the image of a young woman sculpted in a bas-relief from the collections of the Museum of Rome.

Rare first edition of this "relation (...) much sought after for its accuracy", illustrated with 19 folding plates, including 2 maps (cf. Sabin 3604, Leclerc 119).

Full marbled tan calf binding, spine with five raised bands, gilt compartments decorated with gilt floral motifs, small chip at foot of spine, scuffing to covers, red edges, bumped corners, gilt fillets along the board edges, contemporary binding.

The author, a physician and botanist born in Perpignan in 1690—where he held a post at the military hospital—was introduced by Antoine de Jussieu to the Conseil de la Marine in August 1721 and appointed royal physician and botanist in French Guiana. He landed in...

Paris, Knapen & Fils, 1782. Octavo, viii, 244 pages and 2 unnumbered leaves of approbation and privilege.

First edition, illustrated with a large folding map entitled "Terres Australes ou partie septentrionale de l'Isle de Kerguelen", surrounded by eight coastal views and profiles. The volume contains the accounts of Kerguelen's two expeditions to the southern seas between 1771 and 1774, a memoir on Madagascar on pages 154-169, and "Observations on the War in America" on pages 121-133. Cf. Sabin, 37618.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf, smooth...

First edition in French, one of 1,000 numbered copies on Annonay rag paper, the only deluxe paper copies.

Illustrated with numerous photographs. Preface by Maurice Herzog. Foreword by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Publisher’s full flexible boards binding. Lacking slipcase, spine sunned with minor tears at head and foot.

Rare and handsome autograph inscription, dated and signed by General John Hunt: "A M. Robert Moch vous témoignant notre reconnaissance de nous avoir préparé la trace jusqu'au sommet du signal de l'Iséran le 3 janvier - et pour vous exprimer nos regrets de ne pas l'avoir suivie ! John Hunt...

Original albumen print photograph depicting Louis Pasteur, in cabinet card format, mounted on thick card with Chalot's imprint, photographer, 18 rue de Vivienne, Paris.

A photograph mounted on thick card, with the photographer's address printed in red in the lower margin.

A fine copy.

Rare first edition. This first appearance of the text in book form was Jules Verne's preferred format, as Jauzac notes, instead of the more famous gilded publisher's bindings.

Contemporary brown half shagreen binding, spine with four raised bands ruled in black and decorated with double black panel compartments featuring central gilt floral tools, marbled paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges, a few small abrasions to one edge, contemporary binding.

A small black ink stain to the lower right margin of the opening leaves.

A handsome first edition copy attractively housed in a contemporary binding. This founding novel is considered one of, if...

First octavo edition, the second issue following the original quarto published in 1797. Without the atlas. At the end of volume III, tables (68 leaves) of the routes of the Astrolabe and the Boussole.
Contemporary full mottled calf binding. Smooth spine decorated in a grotesque style with lozenges, with roll tooling at head and tail framing the title label. Title and volume labels in black Russia leather. Decorative roll border to the covers. Small loss at the head of volume I, and another at the head of volume IV. Narrow split at the head of volume IV along the upper joint, and at the lower joint of volume I. Upper joints of volumes I and III slightly sunken and somewhat rubbed...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a photographic portrait of Albert Einstein as frontispiece.

A small loss at the foot of the spine, which also shows rubbing along the joints, upper right corner of the front board starting to come loose, a slight marginal tear just below, pleasant internal condition, manuscript bookplate at the head of a flyleaf.

Annotations and markings in red pen on pages 8 and 9.

Work illustrated with figures in the text.

A complete set of the astronomical writings of Jean Sylvain Bailly, partly in first edition. This is the main work of the author,  first Mayor of Paris, elected during his lifetime to three French academies, a distinction previously achieved only by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle.

The present set comprises the second edition of the Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, the new edition of the Histoire de l'astronomie moderne, and the first edition of the Traité de l'astronomie indienne et...

First edition of the French translation, one of 110 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe paper issue after 10 on Holland and 20 on pur fil.

A fine copy.

First edition, very scarce, of this important work.

Contemporary-style half speckled fawn calf binding, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, green shagreen title label, small vellum corners, marbled paper boards, bookplate pasted onto a pastedown, red edges, modern binding.

A restored loss to the left margin of the title page.

Hydrogéologie contains Lamarck’s geological observations gathered during his travels in Germany, Hungary, and France.

Its principal merit lies in demonstrating the considerable importance of plants and animals as agents of geological transformation.

It is in this work that the word biology appears for the first time, on...

First edition, illustrated with a folding map and 469 engravings within the text.

Contemporary half black shagreen, the spine with four raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with triple blind-tooled panels, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; a few small scuffs to the edges, corners slightly rubbed.

Contents include: history; construction and manufacture of telegraph cables; laying and repair of submarine cables; electrical testing; fault detection; signal transmission; and the operation of submarine lines.

The author, Jules Hippolyte Eugène Wünschendorff (1840–1901), was an engineer with the telegraph service and director of military...

New edition.

Contemporary half bottle-green sheep over green paper boards, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets and a central gilt fleuron, green endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

Some light foxing.

"The author's Cosmologie, published at Paris in 1815 [?], devoted considerable space to America". (Sabin, 100990).

First edition illustrated with 59 engravings. 

A repaired tear at the head of one joint; covers marginally darkened; the interior remains in pleasing condition.

This work belongs to the first phase of the highly controversial research conducted by the French surgeon of Russian origin, Sergueï Abramovitch Voronoff (1866–1951).

Between 1917 and 1926, Voronoff carried out more than five hundred transplantations on sheep, goats, and even a bull, grafting the testicles of younger animals onto older ones.

His observations appeared to suggest that such transplantations restored vitality to ageing animals. From this, he went on to regard the transplantation of monkey...

First edition.

The association of the Lumière brothers’ name with the development of the cinematograph should not obscure the fact that Auguste Lumière (1862–1954) was first and foremost a biologist of distinction.

Having as early as 1895 left the new invention to his brother Louis, he established a laboratory of experimental physiology and pharmacodynamics in order to direct his discoveries toward experimental medicine.

This laboratory became the Lumière Laboratories in Lyon, which he personally directed until October 25th, 1940, when he transferred the presidency of the company to his son, while continuing his research until his death.

Fine copy. 

Rare first edition, illustrated with a large engraved plate depicting a lead-smelting furnace and protective masks for miners.

Norman Library 2052 (without the plate). Garrison-Morton 2098: "Classical description of the diseases found among lead-workers. Reporting on 1200 cases of lead poisoning, Tanquerel's studies were so complete that later studies added little to the knowledge of the symptoms and signs of the disease".

Spines browned, a few light spots of foxing, a small hole to the lower right corner of the front board of the first volume, upper right corner of the front board of the second volume creased.

Original wrappers, as issued.

Second edition (the dedication to Pierre Laffitte is dated 1879).

A study of madness from a positivist perspective, based on the work of Auguste Comte.

The dedicatee, Pierre Laffitte, was the editor of the review "Le Positivisme".

Spine cracked with small losses, occasional foxing, and a horizontal crease at the foot of the upper cover, small marginal tears on the cover, firts cover reattached.

With a fine signed presentation inscription from Emile François Eugène Sémérie to Émile Zola on the half-title: "A Mr. Émile Zola. Sémérie, d'Aix" (the final word underlined).

The close connections between positivism and naturalism, the literary...

First edition.

Light scuffing to the boards.

Bradel binding in half black shagreen, smooth spine lettered in gilt vertically, green paper-covered boards, modern binding.

Paper by M. Breton-Laugier, vinegar manufacturer of Orléans, on the advantages of Pasteur’s system, pp. [5]–7; Wine industry, pp. [9]–15.

Very rare first edition printed in a small number of copies of this offprint from the Fourth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, session of 5 September 1882.

Spine and boards slightly faded and yellowed at the margins; interior in pleasing condition.

In this communication, Louis Pasteur examines all the new studies carried out in collaboration with Chamberland, Roux and Thuillier since the publication of the 1880 memoir.

Its principal purpose is to provide examples of the attenuation of viruses under the influence of atmospheric oxygen. He also summarizes the criticisms that had appeared in the collected works of the German Sanitary Office.

Rare first edition of the doctoral thesis by Alexandre Marié (only two copies recorded in the CCFr: Montpellier and the BIUM).

A small nick to the left margin of the upper wrapper, which also bears a small stain; slight marginal tears to the wrappers without seriousness; occasional light foxing.

Presentation inscription signed by Alexandre Marié to Louis Alfred Becquerel at the head of the upper wrapper.

Provenance: copy of Louis Alfred Becquerel (1814–1862), eldest son of Antoine Becquerel and a physician, with the author’s signed presentation inscription. He published in 1853 Des applications de l'électricité à la thérapeutique médicale.

First edition describing 554 entries (this list was later revised in 1935 and again in 1943).

Spine and covers slightly and marginally faded, a tear to the head of the spine.

A copy complete with the inserted two-leaf addenda.

From 1893 to 1953, the year preceding his death, Auguste Lumière published no fewer than 62 major works and 784 scientific articles, particularly in the fields of medicine and biology.

First edition of Jacques Le Meilleur’s medical thesis.

Our copy is presented disbound.

Waterstaining at head throughout, not affecting the text.

First edition of the treatise "qui comprend la structure et les fonctions de la bouche, l'histoire de ses maladies, les moyens d'en conserver la santé et la beauté, et les opérations particulières à l'art du dentiste" (cf. Crowley 846. David p. 125. Poletti p. 49.)

Half brown calf binding, the smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets and gilt panels; rubbing to the spine and joints; marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; late 19th-century binding.

A few minor spots of foxing.

Illustrated with an engraved title-page, an allegorical frontispiece, and 13 copper-engraved plates printed hors texte.

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this interesting report extracted from the Annales maritimes et coloniales of 1839 (cf. Polak 2837).

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, with a plain blue-grey cover.

Tears to the spine and to the margins of the covers, some foxing, notably on the title page.

Rare first edition of Louis Pasteur’s text: "Recherches sur la dissymétrie moléculaire des produits organiques naturels" (pp. 1–48, also issued separately as an offprint).

The other papers included in this volume are: "Histoire des radicaux organiques", "Recherches sur les glycols", "De la synthèse en chimie organique", "Des lois des nombres en chimie et de la variation de leurs constantes", "De l’influence exercée par l’atmosphère sur la végétation", and "Pièces historiques concernant Lavoisier et N. Le Blanc".

Some scattered foxing, notably to the edges.

Half black shagreen binding, spine with four...

First edition of this treatise, long regarded as the finest French-language work in its field (cf. Wellcome II, 305; Garrison & Morton 5853).

Contemporary-style half calf over marbled boards, the spine smooth and gilt with decorative garlands at head and tail, a reused black calf lettering-piece, marbled paper sides, blue-sprinkled edges, bookseller’s ticket of a distinguished firm mounted to a pastedown; a later binding.

Illustrated with 4 folding plates.

Foxing and some dampstaining to the plates, otherwise a clean and agreeable copy.

Carron du Villards (1801–1860), the son of a military physician distinguished during the Napoleonic campaigns, taught...

First edition (cf. En français dans le texte, 288. Horblit, 11b. Printing and the mind of man, 353.)

Full black cloth binding, smooth spine, headcaps slightly softened, corners slightly frayed, contemporary binding,

Printed stamps on the title page and on the final page of the table of contents, which bears, on the facing page, a numerical annotation in black ink.

Very scarce first edition, issued in a small printing, of this offprint from the Annales des Sciences naturelles for September 1828 (cf. Engelmann I, 315).

This paper is preceded by "Extrait du rapport fait à l’Académie royale des sciences sur le mémoire présenté par MM. Audouin et Milne-Edwards, par MM. Cuvier et Duméril".

The CCF records only two copies, in Paris (Muséum) and Montpellier.

The author of several entomological papers published from 1821 onwards, Victor Audouin also took an interest in marine biology: in 1826, 1828 and 1829 he undertook, together with Henri Milne-Edwards, three field trips to Brittany and Normandy.

The present...

Exceptionally rare first edition of this study in applied mathematics, which had been the subject of a report presented to the Class of Physical Sciences and Mathematics of the Academy of Turin on 26 Ventôse, Year XIII. 

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in provisional speckled green paper covers with a few small losses at the corners.

Some foxing.

Not in Quérard. Only two copies recorded in WorldCat.

Tommaso Valperga di Caluso (1737-1815), Piedmontese orientalist and mathematician, was one of the two signatories of this report.

First edition, with three folding plates and numerous hieroglyphs in the text.

A copy preserved in its original wrappers with temporary green paper covers, a title label affixed at the head of the spine.

Occasional foxing.

The German traveller and Orientalist Julius von Klaproth (1783–1835), one of the foremost linguists of his time, devoted himself chiefly to the languages of Asia, which he spoke almost all.

In this vehement critique of Champollion, published six months after the latter’s untimely death, he seeks—though not entirely in good faith—to call into question the method and results of the scholar from Grenoble, disputing in particular the priority and...

New edition.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt garlands and floral tools, black morocco lettering-piece, blind-tooled rolls to the spine ends, boards framed with a gilt fillet and palmette border, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges partly rubbed, marbled edges, one lower corner bumped, contemporary Restoration-period binding, 88 pp.

The first edition had been published in 1794; this reissue attests to the persistence of the epizootic outbreak in the Île-de-France region.

This work has been bound together with ten additional texts relating to epizootic diseases in the early nineteenth century:

I. CHABERT...

First edition, illustrated, featuring at the end of the volume a folding plate bringing together two figures (cf. Quérard II, 130. Poggendorff I, 420. Not in Duveen.)

Bradel binding in full brick-coloured boards, smooth spine, green morocco title label, modern binding.

Chaptal develops ideas he had already set out some ten years earlier in volume VI of the "Mémoires de l'institut, sciences physiques et mathématiques" : he examines the art of restoring faded colours.

Some light, harmless foxing.

First edition illustrated with a large folding plate inserted out of text reproducing the Greek portion of the Rosetta Stone (cf. Quérard I, 48.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in temporary root-pattern paper covers.

A key figure in the establishment of literary repositories during the Revolution, and their transformation into libraries, the antiquarian Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon (1730-1811) remains an important, though far too neglected, figure in bibliography and the sciences.

This relative oblivion owes much to the small number of works published during his lifetime : the work offered here constitutes an essential link in the decipherment of the...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with an engraved portrait by Verzy after Longhi as a frontispiece to the first volume, together with five folding tables and five folding plates out of text in the second volume.

Half brown sheepskin bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt garlands now partly faded, some rubbing to spines, modern brown sheepskin title labels, vellum corners, pink paper-covered boards, a few scuffs to the covers, wear to the edges, corners bumped, red edges, contemporary bindings.

Uncommon sole French translation of the Farmacopia generale by the Italian practitioner Brugnatelli (whose given names vary across sources, 1761–1818)...