Scientific editiones princeps, medical discoveries, scientific and technical treatises

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, printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from the "Recueil industriel, Manufacturier (…) et des Beaux-Arts", published by M. de Moléon.

Our copy is preserved in its original state, in plain yellow wrappers, and housed in a modern green-paper chemise and slipcase with black morocco spine.

Jean-Pierre-Joseph d'Arcet (1777-1844), a chemist and the son of a chemist, was appointed Inspector-General of Assays at the Mint in 1807, examined the alloys used for the Vendôme Column in 1811, and installed the baths and fumigation apparatus at the Hôpital Saint-Louis. He devoted himself with particular zeal to research into public health and hygiene...

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Annales d'Hygiène publique et de médecine Légale, 1849, vol. XLII.

Modern Bradel binding in marbled-paper-covered boards, smooth spine without lettering.

Only three copies recorded in the CCF.

This memoir offers a detailed study of the physical characteristics associated with various occupations: laundresses, hairdressers, writers, prostitutes, bookbinders, dyers, etc.

Son of the draughtsman and cartographer Ambroise Tardieu, Auguste-Ambroise Tardieu (1818-1879) was one of the founders of forensic medicine; he published numerous monographs on medical questions relating to...

First edition (cf. Wellcome, II, 340).

Our copy is preserved in its original sewn state, in provisional cream paper wrappers.

Signed presentation inscription from Charles-Irénée Jacquin to his colleague Dr Long, physician at Die.

Accompanied by a dated autograph letter signed by Charles-Irénée Jacquin, one page written on both sides, discussing his work and thanking his correspondent for the advice he had given him in the preparation of the present volume.

First edition, illustrated with seven folding plates.

Preserved in its original state, sewn and issued in plain blue paper wrappers with an added inner lining.

This volume gathers eight short papers previously published in the annual reports of the Kew Observatory.

Francis Ronalds (1788–1873), a largely self-taught engineer, became in 1843 the director and superintendent of the Kew meteorological observatory.

His work included, among other tasks, the development of a system for recording meteorological data.

On the front flyleaf, autograph presentation from Francis Ronalds to a member of the Becquerel family, most likely Antoine-César (1788–1878)...

A substantially posthumous publication, prepared by Ayres de Sá from the notes and papers of the second Viscount of Santarém (1791–1856), who, in addition to his diplomatic and political roles amid the turbulent struggle between Marianist and Miguelist factions in Portugal, was the first historian to develop the study of cartography in a methodical manner.

The work is illustrated with 97 plates in the first volume and 40 plates in the second.

Cherry half-shagreen bindings with corners, spines with five raised bands framed by black fillets and showing some rubbing, marbled paper sides, a scratch to the left margin of the upper cover of the first volume, endpapers and pastedowns...

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.

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.

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...

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, 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, 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, with no deluxe copies printed.

Publisher's full blue cloth binding, smooth spine, copy complete with its photographic dust jacket, showing minor tears at the head and tail of the spine without loss.

Text by Françoise Dolto, photographs by Alecio de Andrade.

Inscribed and signed by Françoise Dolto and Alecio de Andrade on the front free endpaper.

First edition, illustrated with a folding map bound at the end (cf. Quérard I 529).

Copy preserved in its original plain green wrappers,

uncut, some foxing to the map.

"Tableau des stations géodésiques et astronomiques choisies pour déterminer la mesure de l'arc du parallèle terrestre compris entre les tours de Cordouan et de Fiume, et qui doit s'étendre jusqu'à Orsowa en Transilvanie".

Inscribed and signed by Joseph-François Nicollet on the title-page, addressed to a Monsieur Pouillet.

First edition of José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage's Ornithologie d'Angola, published in Lisbon by the Imprimerie Nationale under the auspices of the Ministry of Marine and Colonies, in two successive parts, in 1877 and 1881. The title-page to the first part has been retained in this copy and bound before the second title-page, dated 1881 and bearing the final date of publication.

Illustrated with ten coloured plates by John Gerrard Keulemans, lithographed, hand-coloured and finished with gum arabic, and printed in London by Mintern Bros. "Pas dans Gay. Nissen, Illustrierten Vogelbücher, 74. Anker, Bird books...

Rare illustrated first edition, with 4 plates at the end of the volume, including two folding maps.

Small tears neatly repaired to the spine, minor angular losses to the boards, heavy foxing.

Joseph Lartigue (1791-1876), a naval captain, distinguished himself through his work in nautical meteorology and cartography. 

Copy from the physicist Edmond Becquerel (1820-1891), member of the Académie des sciences, with an autograph signed presentation inscription from Joseph Lartigue at the head of the upper cover.

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...

Rare first edition printed in a small number of copies.

Our copy is preserved in its original blue paper provisional wrappers.

Born at Annonay in 1811, Auguste Bravais entered the École Polytechnique in 1829.

Having become a hydrographic engineer, he undertook several expeditions before embarking, in 1835, aboard the Recherche, dispatched to the Arctic regions in an attempt to locate Blosseville's Lilloise. There he carried out numerous observations in meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, and astronomy.

Appointed Professor of Mathematics Applied to Astronomy at the Faculty of Sciences in Lyon in 1840, he gave up seafaring and devoted himself...

First edition illustrated with a folding lithographed plate.

No copy recorded in the CCF.

Minor tears with small losses to the margins of the boards and to the spine.

Autograph inscription, in French, by José Vicente Barbosa do Bocage on the half-title.

José Vicente Barboza (Barbosa) du (do) Bocage (1823–1908), Portuguese statesman and zoologist, served as director of the National Museum of Zoology in Lisbon. He is unrelated to his namesakes, the French geographers of the Barbier du Bocage family.

Bound in, and by the same author: "Noticia acerca da descoberta nas costas de Portugal d'um zoophyto da familia hyalochaetides, Brandt...

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...

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 of the French translation prepared by J. de Rey-Pailhade and Henry-Joseph Sauvaire, issued in a small printing as an offprint from the Journal asiatique.

A few small spots of foxing; a pleasing and uncommon copy.

Half green cloth, smooth spine with red morocco title-label, ‘œil-de-chat’ patterned paper over boards, sprinkled edges.

Illustrated with two double-page plates outside the text.

Born in Marseille, Henri Sauvaire (1831–1896) began his career in the consular service before turning to Near-Eastern archaeology.

On the half-title, a presentation inscription in the hand of Henri-Joseph Sauvaire to the archaeologist...

First edition.

Small losses to the head and tail of the spine, tears to one joint and to the spine neatly restored, a stain at the foot of the upper cover, slight corner losses to the boards; a clean and attractive copy internally.

At the head of the upper cover, an autograph presentation inscription by Édouard Maurel to a colleague.

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 of this rare offprint from the "Revue médicale et journal de clinique"

A single copy recorded in the CCFr (BnF).

Bradel binding in full boards covered with dark blue marbled paper, red shagreen spine label, pasted ex-libris on the inside board; modern binding signed Lobstein-Laurenchet.

Jean-Louis Lassaigne (1800–1859) taught chemistry at the Veterinary School of Alfort until 1854 and devoted particular attention to the medical applications of chemistry.

Bound at the end, by the same author: "Mémoire sur la possibilité de reconnaître, par les moyens chimiques, la présence de l'acétate de morphine chez les animaux empoisonnés par cette...

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...

First edition illustrated with a colour plate and five folding tables at the end of the volume.

Heavy foxing throughout.

Modern half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands, marbled paper sides, original front cover mounted and preserved in poor condition.

Signed autograph inscription by Prosper-Ferdinand Burot to Dr Auguste-Ernest Breucq of Bayonne (born 1856).

First separate edition, printed in a small number of copies, taken from the Annales des sciences naturelles; the work was later republished by Baillière in 1876 (cf. O'Reilly, Nouvelle-Calédonie, 608, which records only the periodical publication).

Bradel case-binding in full green paper-covered boards, brown morocco lettering-piece lettered vertically; the original provisional upper wrapper preserved; modern binding.

The issue is illustrated at the end of the volume with an engraved plate.

A clear waterstain in the outer margins of the leaves.

Émile Bescherelle (1828–1903), president of the Société botanique de France, was a leading specialist in...

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...

First edition.

Not recorded by Vicaire or Bitting.

Contemporary-style half red shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands, very slightly sunned, marbled paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers, original wrappers and spine preserved, modern binding signed by Laurenchet.

Restored marginal tear to page 43 with a slight loss affecting a few letters of the text.

Signed autograph presentation inscription by Emile Mouchon on the half-title: "A la Société impériale d'agriculture de Lyon, hommage empressé".

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.

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.

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 number of copies, of this offprint from the Bulletin de la Société géographique de Paris.

Copies recorded in the CCFr only at the BnF, BULAC, and Tarbes libraries.

Half hazel shagreen binding with corners, smooth spine slightly faded with minor rubbing, boards, endpapers and pastedowns in olive-green paper, top edge gilt, original wrappers and spine preserved; modern binding.

The Fourierist Armand-Jules Duval (1813–1870), an influential member of the Société de géographie, was a staunch advocate of the colonisation of Algeria.

He had himself lived in the colony from 1847 to 1862, overseeing the fortunes of an agricultural...

Typescript with one autograph page by Saint-Exupéry in pencil, Method for Guiding Aeroplanes [the title is in English], followed by Letters-Patent of Invention. A New Method for the Landing of Aeroplanes without Visibility with instruments and apparatus for its realization [also in English], 8 October 1937

Rust stains from staple holes and light dampstaining.

Original typescript of Saint-Exupéry patent titled "Method for Guiding Aeroplanes", addressing in particular the problem of piloting and guiding aircraft without visibility: a problem which, as he explains, is virtually solved... His demonstrations are illustrated with geometric diagrams (6 plates). The...