Rare and antique mathematics books, logic & theorems, antique geometry works, mathematical discoveries, history of mathematics

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.

Second edition, revised, corrected and enlarged, illustrated with 145 figures in the text (cf. Wellcome II, 457).

Spine and covers browned, with minor marginal losses; a few light foxing spots.

The first edition was published in 1847; this work constitutes only the second systematic treatise in French devoted to the subject, following that of Carron du Villards.

A former assistant to Sichel, Louis-Auguste Desmarres (1810-1882) was among the foremost ophthalmic surgeons of the nineteenth century.

First edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from the "Gazette médicale de Paris" for 1854.

Modern bradel-style binding in full boards covered with blue paper, smooth spine, brown shagreen title label laid down lengthwise with a small abrasion, signed Honnelaître.

On the half-title, a signed autograph presentation inscription by Camille Desjardins: "Offert à M. le professeur Moreau, membre de l'Académie impériale de Médecine, hommage respectueux de l'auteur".

This refers to the celebrated physician François Joseph Moreau (1789–1862), a specialist in gynaecology and close to the Orléans family, for whom he served...

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 describing 1,539 entries.

Bound in modern brown half shagreen over marbled paper boards, smooth spine lettered in blind, corners rubbed, bookplate pasted to the front pastedown; a modest modern binding.

Occasional light foxing.

Provenance: copy from the library of the Canadian bookseller G. S. Terence Cavanagh (1923–2005), also librarian of the Trent Collection, with his bookplate pasted to the front pastedown.

First edition (cf. Neu 838.)

Light foxing.

Contemporary full tan sheep, the spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with gilt panels and gilt floral tools; some rubbing and small defects to the spine, gilt rolls to the head- and tailcaps, surface wear to the boards, red edges, gilt fillets to the board edges, corners a little softened; a period binding.

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...

Second edition of this treatise, first published in 1771 and reissued again in 1813 (see Mennessier de La Lance I, 162).

Our copy is offered stitched, in its provisional blue paper wrappers, the spine reinforced with an adhesive strip.

First edition of Étienne Bourdet’s major treatise, published in Paris in 1757 in two volumes, eleven years after the second edition of Pierre Fauchard’s Le Chirurgien Dentiste. The work is illustrated with 13 folding engraved plates depicting instruments, appliances and dental procedures.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf. Spines with five raised bands outlined in gilt and decorated with gilt floral compartments; bronze calf lettering-pieces, the volume-numbering pieces partly rubbed away; gilt rolls to the headcaps, blind fillet...

Very rare first edition of this french translation of Boerhaave’s Aphorismi (1709), issued by La Mettrie in the very year of the author’s death (most bibliographies record only the 1739 edition), (cf. Wellcome II, 185).

Contemporary half brown sheepskin with corners, spine with four raised bands ruled in blind, lacking title label, minor losses at the headcaps and rubbing to the spine, red speckled edges, period binding restored.

A collection of precepts concerning diagnosis and therapy.

La Mettrie was a pupil of Boerhaave at Leiden, which accounts for the lasting interest he showed throughout his life in the writings of the Dutch physician.

Bound...

First edition, illustrated with 883 figures in the text, some heightened with colour.

Contemporary half roan in a reddish-orange hue, the spines with five raised bands ruled in gilt dots and decorated with gilt florets, some rubbing to the spines and extremities, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Manuscript ownership inscriptions partly erased from the endpapers of the first volume; an orange pencil line to an endpaper in the second volume; occasional pencil marginalia in the margins of several paragraphs in both volumes; a marginal note in red ink in the right margin of p. 37 of the first volume.

New edition, illustrated with a large folding line-engraved plate depicting all the animals mentioned in the text (cf. Cornet-Malagies, 158).

Half mottled fawn sheep with vellum tips, smooth spine gilt-ruled and tooled with gilt fillets, garlands and floral tools, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges; a contemporary binding.

The author, a veterinary surgeon, had trained at Alfort.

Bound at the end, by DELACROIX, is a new edition of: "Le Nouveau maréchal-expert, ou Le Guide du du maréchal-ferrant, du vétérinaire, de l'écuyer, du propriétaire et de l'amateur ; avec un précis de la connaissance et du choix des chevaux, ânes et mulets ; de...

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.

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 of this thesis submitted for the agrégation examination (surgery and obstetrics section) and defended at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris on 19 July 1872.

Illustrated with 21 figures in the text.

Wrappers partially soiled, occasional foxing.

Just Lucas-Championnière (1843-1913) spent almost his entire career in the obstetrics departments of Parisian hospitals and was a pioneer in the field of antisepsis. 

Signed autograph inscription from Just Lucas-Championnière to Paul Bert on the half-title page.

A rare first edition unrecorded by Sabin.

Contemporary-style half bottle-green morocco-grained shagreen binding, spine slightly faded with five raised bands, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of marbled paper, original front wrapper preserved, modern binding signed Laurenchet.

Scattered foxing, final page of the table of contents sunned.

Very rare first edition.

According to the CCFr, copies are recorded only in Dijon and Nîmes.

Our copy is offered disbound, with a few foxing spots and a small wormhole in the left margin of all leaves, not affecting the text.

Having observed that the water supplied to Dijon was unwholesome, the author argues that the waters of the River Ouche, being of good quality, could be used for consumption.

Jean Fournier, doctor of the University of Montpellier, was successively salaried physician to the city of Dijon, physician to the Estates of Burgundy, and naval physician in the ports of Brest and Lorient.

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 (cf. Rozier 2031.)

Modern half-speckled brown calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, brown calf title label lettered lengthwise, bookseller's label pasted at the head of a pastedown. Born in Tours in 1750, Nicolas Heurteloup was appointed surgeon trainee on the island of Corsica in 1770.

In 1782, he was appointed chief surgeon of the hospitals of Corsica and, in 1786, was placed in charge of the military hospital at Toulon.

Chief physician in 1790 and principal army surgeon in 1795, he became Inspector General of the Medical Service in 1804 and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Grande Armée in 1808, succeeding...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 105 full-page plates (including 2 folding tables, 21 maps and plans, and 82 views and facsimiles of documents).

Remarkable account of one of the most significant international opinion manipulations by China and North Korea at the onset of the Korean War: as early as 1952, North Korean and Chinese officials (including Zhou Enlai) claimed that the U.S. Army was deploying "insect vectors" on a large scale to spread diseases such as plague and cholera among the populations of Korea and Manchuria.

As later confirmed by Soviet documents published in 1998, the entire operation had been meticulously staged.

Spine with...

First edition of this 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.

Contemporary half tan calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt ornamental rolls, red calf lettering-piece, some rubbing and minor losses to the joints, speckled-paper boards, marbled edges.

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

Some foxing.

First edition of this thesis, illustrated with 4 plates.

Modern black half-calf binding, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled-paper boards.

A few minor spots of foxing; stamps of the Library of the Paris Faculty of Medicine on the plates and title page.

Not recorded by V. Rozier. 

The author served as chief surgeon to the First Battalion of Foot Grenadiers of the Consular Guard.

He invented an adjustable inclined bed, an instrument for the treatment of compound fractures of the lower jaw, a compression device for use in cases involving severed arteries, and an apparatus designed to transport seriously wounded men over long distances...

First edition.

The veterinarian Henri-Mamert-Onésime Delafond (1805–1861) devoted particular attention to contagious diseases of livestock, focusing especially on anthrax and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, and published several successive monographs on these subjects throughout his career; he became director of the École d’Alfort in 1860, shortly before his death.

Light foxing; a dampstain affecting the index leaves; minor losses at the corners of the boards.

Provenance: from the library of the veterinarian Jean-Henry Magne, with his manuscript ex-libris at the head of the upper cover.

Scarce first edition, privately printed in a small number of copies, issued separately from volume VII of the Annuaire de la Société météorologique de France.

According to the CCFr, copies are held by the BnF, the BIUS Pharmacy Library, the Muséum, and Besançon.

Our copy remains in its original wrappers, preserved in its plain blue paper provisional cover.

A few minor spots of foxing, not affecting the text.

Gaspard-Adolphe Chatin (1813-1901) was Professor of Botany at the École de Pharmacie, of which he became Director in 1873.

"His remarkable researches on plant anatomy, organogenesis, physiology, the composition of sap, the respiration of fruits, and the...

First edition of this essay on the etiology of contagious diseases.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in blue paper temporary covers, with printed paper spine label, partially unopened. 

Claude Balme studied medicine at Montpellier before departing for the United States.

Having returned to France at the time of the invasion by foreign armies, he enlisted as surgeon-major with the 2nd Battalion of Ain, serving in that capacity in the Italian, Egyptian, and Syrian campaigns.

Signed autograph presentation inscription from Claude Balme to Doctor Gilibert fils on the half-title.

New edition, partly original, revised and enlarged (cf. Vicaire 56; Bitting 231; Oberlé, Fastes, 466).

Contemporary-style half tan sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt and blind fillets and blind-stamped ornaments, black shagreen lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, modern binding.

A few instances of foxing. 

The author of this work, born in Grasse in 1767 and died in 1839, was appointed physician to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, in 1806.

His dictionary is a mine of highly valuable information on food products from throughout the world, with historical, literary, anecdotal, scientific, gastronomic, and medical entries. It also...

First edition (the work was reissued in 1838–1839); an atlas was planned but appears never to have been published (its prospectus is bound at the beginning of volume IV), cf. Mennessier de La Lance I, 657.

Half blond calf bindings, spines with four raised bands framed with gilt garlands and decorated with gilt fillets and vine motifs, as well as blind-stamped scrolls, marbled paper boards showing some rubbing with small losses, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, contemporary bindings.

Two headcaps shaved, some foxing, small loss along one joint of the volume entitled Elève d’Alfort. Hurtrel d’Arboval (1777–1839) was particularly interested in equine...

First edition, printed in a small run, of this offprint from the Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l’Académie des sciences, vol. XXII, no. 6.

This publication constitutes botanist Maxime Cornu’s (1843–1901) first work on phylloxera and stands among the earliest scientific studies in French devoted to the subject.

Our copy is preserved in its original plain blue waiting wrapper, showing two losses along the spine and some foxing to the panels.

Very scarce work illustrated with three plates.

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)...

Scarce sammelband comprising six treatises on dental surgery, some of which are present here in the first edition.

Half blue sheep, the smooth spine decorated with gilt romantic ornaments, marbled paper boards lightly darkened and faded at the margins, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges.

A faint dampstain to the lower margin of the initial leaves of the first work, a few occasional light spots.

Bound together are:

1. by N. Lefebvre: "La Médecine domestique, petit ouvrage… concernant les moyens de détourner & guérir les maladies par la connoissance & l'usage des plantes", printed in Le Mans by Pivron in 1782 (24 pp.).
2. by Hébert...

New edition, illustrated with a full-length portrait frontispiece of Lavater by Stober and 30 plates for volume 1, 30 for the second volume, 30 for the third, 29 for volume 4 and 2 facsimiles of his handwriting; all these plates are contained in an atlas. The four volumes are bound in two volumes. Each plate contains 2 to 12 figures.
Contemporary 3/4 burgundy shagreen binding, spine with false raised bands decorated with gilt and blind fillets, marbled paper boards, all edges marbled.
Bindings skillfully restored. Scattered foxing throughout text.