Rare and antique physics books, chemistry & scientific experiments, alchemy treatises, optics, Newton, experimental physics

Edition from the same year as the first edition, of remarkable rarity, bearing a fictitious statement of fifteenth edition, yet featuring correct colophon (1872) at the foot of p. 312: "1124-72". 

Binding in brown half sheepskin, spine with four raised bands ruled in black and decorated with double black compartments bearing central gilt fleurons, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

A few minor foxing spots of no consequence.

A fine copy attractivelyhoused in a contemporary binding, published the same year as the first edition.

First edition, one of 110 numbered copies on vergé pur fil d'arches, the most limited deluxe issue.

A blue ballpoint pen mark to the upper cover, spine and boards lightly and partially sunned, as is often the case.
Untrimmed copy with wide margins, illustrated throughout.
A typed letter of thanks from Pierre Clostermann, signed by him and addressed to Henri Torrès, bound to the left margin of the half-title page.

Our copy exceptionally contains two original watercolours (14 x 10.5 cm) depicting two R.A.F. bomber aircraft flown by Pierre Clostermann: the Vickers-Armstrong "Wellington" and the Bristol...

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 edition of the French translation, sixth edition statement.

Contemporary half blue sheepskin binding, spine with four raised bands ruled in black and decorated with gilt floral motifs, gilt initials at foot, cat’s-eye paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

A pleasant copy.

First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Holland paper, the only deluxe issue.

Contemporary half tawny marbled sheepskin binding, spine slightly sunned with five raised bands and gilt floral tooling, a few rubs to the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, wrappers preserved.

Included is a handwritten biographical note concerning the author and the subject of the work.

Third edition, revised and augmented by the author, published during his lifetime. The copy is complete with the title-frontispiece depicting a "portico of Tuscan architectural order" according to the description of the 1805 edition, whose terrace shows a man ploughing the fields, indicating the content of the book. It is likewise complete with the folding plate and the eight elaborate vignettes. The first edition of this major text was issued from the press only five years earlier, in 1600.

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.

New edition, one of 30 numbered copies on Marais wove paper, the only deluxe paper issue.

A fine copy.

Rare first edition of this collection of papers on the production and uses of India rubber.

Illustrated with 3 plates hors texte comprising 6 figures.

Only one copy recorded in the CCF (Musée de l'Homme).

Publisher's Bradel-style binding in full black cloth, smooth spine.

D. Spence, who edited the volume, appears indeed to have been, despite his young age at the time, David Spence (1881-1957), a chemist specialising in rubber manufacture.

First French edition, illustrated with 69 statistical tables on 24 folding plates (cf. Sabin 79632. Goldsmith's 22782. Kress C 619.)

Contemporary full sprinkled calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt ornamental tooling, covers framed with gilt rolls and fillets, marbled edges, gilt edge-lines.

Spine expertly restored, particularly at the upper right corner, occasional foxing.

The first French edition of this comprehensive statistical survey of the United States, covering population, commerce, navigation, fisheries, public lands, and the revenues and expenditures of the federal government.

Adam Seybert (1773-1825), a distinguished physician, chemist, and...

First edition, apparently privately printed at the author's expense, illustrated with 15 full-page plates and a folding map (Cf. Lorenz XII, 830).

Contemporary Bradel binding in full paper-covered boards with a gilt tortoiseshell pattern, smooth spine slightly sunned, navy blue shagreen lettering-piece, minor rubbing to the head and foot of the spine, brown endpapers and pastedowns, blind-stamped rules to the board edges, corners lightly bumped, bookplate mounted on the front pastedown, contemporary binding.

A few light spots of foxing.

Count Jean de Pontevès-Sabran, major in the 3rd Cuirassiers Regiment, was born at the Château de Grignols (Gironde) in...

Rare first edition, illustrated with 17 folding maps or plates.

Small tears with minor losses to the spine, light marginal spotting to the boards, library classification in blue pencil in the left margin of the upper cover.

Pavel Passalsky (1870-1900) was appointed observer at the Meteorological Observatory of the University of Odessa in 1894, where he devoted himself primarily to magnetic measurements; this posthumous work, prefaced by Boris Weinberg, is the result.

Krivoi Rog, now in Ukraine and known as Kryvyi Rih, has, since Tsarist times, been a major industrial and metallurgical centre in a mining region.

The city extends over some fifty kilometres...

Complete year for 1787, with 50 issues, of this health journal with continuous pagination (pagination error between nos. 48 and 49).

Contemporary half marbled sheep, smooth spine, bronze sheep lettering-piece, rubbing to the spine, domino-patterned paper boards, a few scuffs to the boards, corners worn and small nicks to the edges, red edges, contemporary binding. 

The journal, founded in 1773 by Jean-Jacques Gardane, doctor-regent of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, would run for 17 years, with one volume per year, except for the years 1773-1774.

Jean-Jacques Gardane distinguished himself in the establishment in Paris of treatment houses for the poor and in the...

First edition. 

Official series not recorded by Polak. 

Contemporary full cherry-red morocco binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt Romantic arabesques, gilt roll tooling partly worn at the spine ends, covers with a wide panel of sextuple gilt fillets and Romantic arabesques, corner ornaments in gilt, crowned "FO" cipher stamped in gilt at the centre of each cover, doublures and endpapers lined with azure watered silk, gilt garland frame to the doublures, corners slightly rubbed, all edges gilt, an elegant Romantic binding of the period.

A few dark stains to the covers, occasional foxing mainly affecting the endpapers.

Copy from the library of Ferdinand-Philippe...

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...

First edition (cf. Sinkankas 3165. Lorenz X, p. 8.)

Contemporary-style binding in half tobacco calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt and blind fillets as well as blind fleurons, black morocco title label, marbled paper boards, wrappers partially soiled and preserved, modern binding signed Laurenchet.

Some foxing.

Crystallization, the diamond in antiquity, characteristics, composition, origin, attempts at artificial production, deposits (India, Oceania, Brazil, the Cape, various mines), cutting, trade, paragons or principal known diamonds.

Henri Jacobs, born in Antwerp, was a diamond merchant in Paris.

First edition.

Publisher's full blue pebbled cloth binding, smooth spine lettered in gilt to the centre of the upper cover, double blind-ruled frames to covers, some discoloration to covers.

Leaves 2, 8, 12, 14, 16 and 18 have been interleaved.

No copies traced in the CCF or WorldCat. Extremely rare.

Founded in 1864, this Indo-British lodge was affiliated with the Order of Mark Master Masons, established in 1769, a society connected with Freemasonry.

First edition of the extract from the fourth part, devoted to geology and palaeontology, of Pierre de Tchihatcheff’s work entitled: Asia Minor. A Physical, Statistical and Archaeological Description of the Region.

Contemporary full beige paper-covered boards, smooth spine lettered in black with the author's name, title and author's name neatly inscribed in ink on the upper board, bumped corners.

Our copy brings together the five palaeontological papers by the naturalist Paul-Henri Fischer (1835-1893): Middle Tertiary Fauna. - Lacustrine Tertiary Fauna. - Upper Marine Tertiary Fauna (Steppe Limestone). - Quaternary Formation (Raised Beaches). - Microscopic Organisms...

An unrecorded edition of the first of the nine geographical booklets published by Marc Bonifas, known as Du Carla (1738-1816), between 1779 and 1780. 

At the end of the volume, the work is illustrated with a folding plate.

A light dampstain to the upper margins of the final leaves.

Bradel binding in full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine, date at foot, navy blue sheep title-piece, modern binding.

Ordinary editions bear the Geneva imprint, and the pagination is more extensive. 

The author is chiefly known for having been the first to advocate the use of contour lines for the representation of terrain, extending to topography techniques already employed...

Paris, G. Masson, 1872. Quarto, 3 unnumbered leaves, ix and 196 pages, with 51 lithographed plates.

First edition of this important and very rare work, issued in a small number of copies. Catalogue Petit, 656; Bibliotheca piscatoria, p. 75; Nissen, ZBI, 1018.

Complete with all 51 plates, numbered I-L with an additional plate XXXV bis. They form two distinct series: 36 plates devoted to nets, fish-farming apparatus and fishing implements used in China, followed by 15 plates depicting fishes collected by the author, including several species then new to European science...

First edition, no copy recorded in the CCF.

Modern bradel binding in full burgundy cloth, spine ruled in gilt.

First leaf restored to the right margin with an adhesive repair, some light foxing, dampstain to the upper margin of the opening leaves.

A native of the Briançonnais (Villeneuve-la-Salle), like many booksellers who settled beyond the Alps, Yves Gravier established himself in Genoa in the second half of the eighteenth century, first in partnership with Louis Fantin, and subsequently on his own.

His parents Jean, Thomas and Simon Gravier were likewise active in Italy (Thomas in Rome itself).

In 1839, the firm was placed into liquidation.

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 of the final work devoted to the Canary Islands by the zoologist and ethnographer Sabin Berthelot (1794-1880), whose first stay in the islands dates back to 1820.

From that time onward, he resided for the most part in Tenerife and devoted himself to the study of his adopted country.

At the end of the volume, the work is illustrated with 20 plates printed outside the text, some with coloured subjects.

A few minor spots of foxing.

First edition illustrated with 1 plate printed outside the text (graph), cf. Vicaire 85. Frère I 96.

Bradel binding in full pebble-grained paper boards, smooth spine, black oasis leather title label, original wrappers preserved though spotted, modern binding.

Scattered foxing.

Bergasse, a learned lawyer and no less distinguished magistrate, born in Lyon on 22 September 1792, died in Paris on 6 July 1853. A member of the Académie de Rouen, of which he served as president, he enriched the proceedings of that Society with several interesting memoirs" [Frère].

The present work provides valuable information on the economic condition of the butchery trade of wide...

New edition, partly original, constituting a revised and expanded version of the author’s doctoral thesis.

A few minor spots of foxing. 

Contemporary full fawn calf, smooth spine gilt with decorative friezes and floral tools, slight rubbing to the joints, red shagreen title label, gilt rolls to the spine ends, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, gilt fillets to the board edges, period binding. 

A military physician, the author took part in the Russian campaign and was attached to the Imperial Guard field hospitals in Vilna under the command of Larrey. 

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...

Expanded new edition including a notice and an appendix providing a catalogue of the principal violin makers from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, a description of the most sought-after violins, their dates of manufacture, their market value, and the distinguishing features by which they may be identified, by L. de Pratis.

Half chocolate-brown morocco binding with corners, spine with five raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and doublures, illustrated wrappers and spine preserved (with a small loss at foot), gilt top edge, signed binding by H. Blanchetière.

A fine copy attractively bound in a signed binding.

First edition, illustrated with in-text and full-page black-and-white and colour drawings by Albert Robida.
Publisher’s original illustrated cloth binding in full green percaline, signed Engel, smooth spine, featuring a large polychrome illustration heightened with gold and palladium by Souze extending across the spine and boards; the original front cover in colour preserved; all edges gilt.
"Ceci qui va suivre sous un titre ambitieux pris simplement comme une étiquette en chiffres, n'est, bien entendu, pas une histoire, ni un tableau, ni un résumé, c'est une série d'esquisses, de croquis à la plume et à la mine de plomb, de portraits familiers de notre Siècle à différentes époques...

First edition, complete with the two posthumous volumes issued in 1800 and written by Chaptal, Parmentier, Biot, and others. It is illustrated with 248 plates, several of them folding, a frontispiece in volume 10, and a map of France in volume 1; together with several folding tables. Text printed in double columns.

Contemporary full brown calf. Spines with raised bands, decorated with two grotesque compartments and two urn tools. Black calf lettering and volume labels. Losses to the headcaps of volumes 9 and 10. In volume 1, the outer margin trimmed over approximately 10 cm. In volume 1, the headcap partly worn, and a brown dampstain in the upper margin of the final leaves. Two or...

First edition, one of 170 numbered copies on pure rag paper.

Shadowed endpapers; a small loss at the head of the upper board of the original front cover.

A pleasant copy, preserved in its double wrapper.

First edition of the French translation by Grauert from the 1835 German first edition, specially revised by the author (hence the somewhat ambiguous designation of "new edition" on the title page and front board, as there was no previous French edition).

Illustrated with five engraved plates and eight vignette illustrations.

Contemporary half black calf with corners, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt and blind fillets, slight rubbing to the spine, gilt fillet frames to the marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original pink wrappers preserved, bookplate pasted to a pastedown, contemporary binding signed J. Pernot at the foot of the spine.

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...

Fourth edition reproducing, with only minor variations, the third edition of 1916.

Half tan calf binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind fillets, cherry shagreen lettering piece, slight rubbing to the spine, handmade paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

This work is fundamental to the graphic and lexicological development of Chinese characters.

It is entirely unjust, as was done for more than fifty years, to minimise the role and contribution of the Jesuit Léon Wieger (1856–1933) to sinology, in which his work was of major importance despite the narrowness of his religious...

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 and important first edition.

Our copy is sold unbound. A minor worm-trail on all leafs' heads, not affecting text. 

The work describes the dress, headdress, arsenal and equipment of soldiers and officers of the French army; it also addresses the cavalry, dragoons, and hussars.

The chapter devoted to the distinctive uniform of each regiment includes a list of these regiments, some of which took part in the American Revolutionary War. 

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...

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.

First edition of this in-folio broadside signed "Phelypeaux", printed on one side only and in two columns.

A scarce and pleasing copy despite traces of central folding.

First edition, illustrated with five engraved plates (see Crowley 894; David 258; Poletti 182).

Scattered foxing, otherwise a pleasing copy.

Contemporary half sheep, the flat spine gilt with decorative rolls and small tools, black morocco lettering-piece, headcap worn, some rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper boards.

"… Serres did research into the development of the bones and teeth…" (D.S.B., XII, 315).

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...

Rare first edition, illustrated with four plates at the end of the volume (cf. Polak 8728).

This practical treatise was reissued repeatedly until the end of the Ancien Régime.

Our copy is offered in its original state, stitched in the temporary blue paper wrappers.

A waterstain in the right margin of the first fifty leaves, with another affecting the lower margins of the subsequent leaves; title page detached.

Gilles-François Segondat (1724–1791), deputy commissioner of the navy, was to conclude his career as an ordinary commissioner of the ports.

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...

Four-page manuscript in black ink on a folio bifolium (31.9 x 20.1 cm), entitled Compte de dépense & de recette pour l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye and, on the verso, Etat des naissances de Nègres et mortalités & crues et déficits d'animaux, together with Etat des revenus fabriqués sur l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye. Signed Pérès and Grasset frères, Pitteu & Cie, certified at Verrettes and Saint-Marc on 30 June 1785.

First edition.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers beneath a plain cover, the spine split with losses to the paper and the title label also with defects.

Pleasing condition internally, with only occasional foxing.

Among the finest works relating to naval medicine; a substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.

The author, a physician in the Dutch navy, composed this work entirely from his own firsthand observations. 

A substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.

First edition of one of the many productions of an odontological charlatan (cf. David, p. 245).

Illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece.

Spine clumsily restored with an adhesive repair and showing small losses; corner losses to the boards; foxing.

Born into a Dutch Jewish family, Benjamin Cohen (1818–1852) adopted an Anglicised pseudonym in order to facilitate his business dealings, passing himself off as a London practitioner holding a degree from the University of Edinburgh, where he claimed to have been "admitted" in 1833. In reality, he had undertaken no formal studies.

Nevertheless, he set himself up as a dentist in Paris in 1836. Lacking any...

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint.

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Sorbonne, Campus Condorcet). 

Included in the collection of studies relating to Egyptian and Assyrian philology and archaeology. Offprint from the Muséon. Louvain, Charles Peeters, 1883. Spine and covers marginally faded, with small tears and slight marginal losses, one snag with loss to the centre of the lower cover.

Félix-Marie-Louis-Jean Robiou de La Tréhonnais (1818-1894) was deputy professor at the Faculties of Letters of Strasbourg and Nancy, and Professor of Greek Literature at the Faculty of Rennes.

First edition (see Playfair 583a. Not recorded by Tailliart.)

Half black morocco binding, spine with five raised bands, sides of marbled paper, original front cover preserved, endpapers and pastedowns of comb-marbled paper; modern binding.

Loss skilfully filled at the lower right corner of the original front cover and at the upper right corners of the final two leaves.

Second edition, revised and expanded (see Backer & Sommervogel VI, 1557). Only three copies recorded in the CCFr (BnF, Dijon and Nîmes).

Contemporary full mottled calf, spine with five raised bands and richly gilt compartments, modern burgundy morocco lettering-piece, some rubbing to spine and joints, headcaps trimmed, triple gilt fillet frame on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, bookplate pasted to one pastedown.

The first edition of this small universal calendar appeared in 1711 in the form of a folio broadside. 

Each subsequent issue expanded the content: the 1731 edition was intended to serve as a supplement to the large Calendrier...

First edition (cf. Sabin, 64,876).

Spine cracked with small losses; slight marginal tears and losses to the wrappers.

The subject of this dissertation does not, of course, concern the State of the same name (a member of the Confederacy during the Civil War), but the vessel, the CSS Alabama, a sloop of war with combined steam and sail propulsion, built in Great Britain in 1862. It served in the Confederate States Navy until it was sunk on 19 June 1864 following a naval engagement with the Union sloop of war USS Kearsarge off the port of Cherbourg, France.

In the aftermath of the war arose the Alabama Claims, demands for damages brought by the Federal Government of the...

Rare first edition (cf. Pritzel 7288).

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Amiens and Montpellier).

Bound in a modern bradel binding of full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine without lettering, printed paper title label pasted at the centre of the upper cover, a small dampstain at the foot of the spine.

The author, an apothecary in Montpellier, later qualified as a doctor of medicine.

First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with a folding plate showing surgical instruments (cf. Garrison & Morton 2158.1; V. Rozier 3346).

A copy preserved in the original wrappers, in contemporary orange marbled paper without lettering.

Spine split; a light dampstain to the lower margins of the first few leaves.

Percy stresses the importance of immediate care for the wounded on the battlefield. "One of Napoleon's leading surgeons, Percy laid down his principles of the practice of military surgery in the same year he was appointed médecin consultant of the Army of the North. He divised his own instrument for bullet extraction, the tribulcon. He was...

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.

Extremely rare first edition, illustrated with two plates and issued as a separate offprint from the Phytographia Canariensis of the Histoire naturelle des Îles Canaries by Barker-Webb and Sabin Berthelot.

The plates, lithographed by J. Rigaud et Cie, were drawn by Alfred Riocreux, the gifted botanical artist and pupil of Redouté, responsible, among other works, for Choix de plantes de la Nouvelle-Zélande (1846).

Some foxing.

Contemporary binding in red half-morocco with corners, smooth spine ruled in gilt at head and foot, long-grained title, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Not recorded by Nissen.

The Vicomte de...

First edition of this in-folio printed broadside signed "Phelypeaux", printed on one side only.

Visible fold marks to the broadside.

Substantial collection of theses submitted to the Special School of Medicine of Strasbourg between 1803 and 1808, composed in Latin or French and arranged in reverse chronological order.

Contemporary binding in speckled fawn half sheep, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, black sheep lettering-piece partly rubbed, vellum tips, yellow edges, corners worn; period binding.

I. ORDINAIRE (Désiré): Dissertation sur l'influence de l'habitude sur les facultés physiques et morales de l'homme (2 ll. unnumbered, 33 pp.). The Fourierist Désiré Ordinaire (1773-1847) was professor of natural history, then academy inspector and rector of the Academies of Besançon...

Substantial compilation of these three texts setting forth the statutes of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, together with the related legal instruments: royal declarations or edicts, rulings of the Parlement, and a judgment of the Châtelet of Paris. 

The second part sets out in detail the conditions governing the conferral of degrees, while the final section comprises several discourses on medicine.

Bound after the principal work are Hyacinthe Théodore Baron’s "Ritus usus et laudabiles Facultatis medicinae parisiensis consuetudines" and Gabriel Naudé’s "De Antiquitate et dignitate Scolae medicae parisiensis panegyris", published in  Paris by G.F...

First edition.

Our copy is offered unbound.

The dissertation concerned "Les Loix du choc des corps à ressort"; the R. P. Mazière was a priest of the Oratory, born in Pontoise.

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.

A very rare first edition printed on blue paper (only four copies recorded in the CCFr: Aix-en-Provence (2), Angers and Avignon).

Not recorded in Monglond.

Contemporary flexible boards covered in blue marbled paper, speckled edges.

A few scuffs to the covers, spine restored.

With an additional pierced copper plate indicating units and fractions.

The author, a clerk in the Imperial Navy at Toulon, here sets out, in tabular form, a method enabling the rapid conversion of former units of measurement into the metric system, instituted in 1795 but still little used at the time.

The accompanying copper plate bears the engraved inscription: "Le...

Folio manuscript from the second half of the 18th century, comprising 2 unnumbered leaves and 258 foliated pages, containing extracts and summaries of royal orders and dispatches of the Conseil de Marine from September 1715 to March 1723. The volume therefore covers the entire period of activity of this institution, created at the beginning of the Regency as part of the polysynody and maintained until its disappearance in 1723.

Contemporary restored full tan calf. Smooth spine decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools, partly faded, lettering-piece lacking, a gilt rampant lion stamped at the centre of...

Manuscript of unnumbered leaves comprising a digest of ordinances and regulations relating to the French naval troops, most promulgated between 1690 and 1751.

The manuscript is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, in contemporary paper covers with manuscript annotations; tears to the opening leaves affecting the text; housed in a cream card portfolio. 

It contains: Royal regulation of 1690 concerning the levy, pay and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal regulation of 1691 governing the billeting, conduct, march, policing and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal ordinances of 1695 and 1700 on the policing and discipline of the compagnies franches. – Ordinance of...

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.

Manuscript drawing consisting of a coloured sketch of one of the fort’s bastions, with scale in toises.

Construction of the Fort de Lamalgue, situated on the hill of the same name and intended to secure the landward approaches to Toulon while also protecting Fort Saint-Louis (Mourillon), which had been bombarded and abandoned during the siege of 1707, began in 1764 under the direction of Milet de Monville.

Works continued until 1792.

Traces of folding to the sheet.

First edition of this uncommon work, printed at Saint-Denis, Réunion, and illustrated by the local photographer E. Vidal, expanding upon a brief notice published as early as 1899 (cf. Ryckebusch II, 5358.)

Illustrated with a frontispiece map and 20 photographic plates hors-texte.

With a preface by M. Garsault.

Spine lacking, wrappers in poor condition, light waterstaining.

Scarce, offered in its present condition.

Born in Rennes, the military physician Jean-Marie Mac-Auliffe (1837-1908) was stationed in Réunion in 1864, and again from 1874 until his death, notably as physician to the thermal baths of Cilaos. In this remote locality he developed considerable...

Very rare first edition.

A single copy is held at the Municipal Archives of Lyon. Absent from the CCFr.

Not recorded in Goldsmith, Kress, Einaudi, or Higgs.

Modern Bradel-style binding in full beige boards, printed title label, signed by Hervé.

Lengthy discussion of the trade in tallow, animal fats used in the manufacture of candles.

The authors argue that butchers are not responsible for the high price of tallow, and that the ordinance of 16 April 1771, which prohibited its export, in fact hampers the trade in this commodity. In conclusion, the butchers request not to be placed at the mercy of the chandlers, whether in terms of price or outlets.

Corner...

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.

Rare illustrated first edition with two large folding plates (Lugeol system; regulatory system) (see Polak 6168).

Lettered spine restored and reattached; pleasing internal condition.

The only edition of this scarce work (the 1845 edition noted by the Bibliothèque nationale appears to be a misreading).

Jean-Gustave Lugeol (1799–1866), who entered the navy in 1813, held the rank of captain in 1843; he took part in most naval campaigns of the Restoration and the July Monarchy; promoted to rear admiral in 1852, he remained on active service until 1864.

Rare first edition.

Our copy is offered unbound, preserved in comb-marbled paper wrappers, red edges.

The sole and scarce edition of this treatise written by a surgeon-major of the Santerre and Touraine regiments.

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...

An offprint from the Description de l'Égypte; the paper was read during the expedition itself before the members of the Institut d'Égypte on 1 Frimaire, Year IX [22 November 1800].

See Meulenaere, p. 125.

Bradel binding in full red boards, smooth spine, red title label mounted lengthwise, the upper cover very lightly and marginally faded; modern binding.

A civil engineer with the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, Michel-Ange Lancret (1774–1807) had been tasked with gathering the movable goods abandoned by the Mamluks during their flight, which in part supplied the material for this memoir.

Second edition, illustrated with a large folding plate bringing together five figures (referred to as “plates”).

Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, in the blank provisional waiting cover, with manuscript annotations in ink on the upper cover.

Two faint waterstains, one at the foot of the first page and the other at the head of the last.

The author, formerly florist-gardener on the Brunoy estates of Monsieur (Louis XVIII), was at the time a nurseryman at Mandres [les-Roses].

First edition printed on laid paper and illustrated with numerous tables embellished with Chinese ideograms.
Contemporary full brown Russia morocco binding, spine slightly faded, with five raised bands decorated with triple black panels, a few rubs to the spine, gilt initials W. H. W. to the centre of the upper cover, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, triple gilt fillet border to the pastedowns, all edges gilt, double gilt fillets to the turn-ins, corners slightly bumped, unsigned period binding attributable to R. Petit.
Born in Poland, Michel-Alexandre Kleczkowski (1818–1886) served as Consul General of France, Minister Plenipotentiary in China, and Professor...

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Mémoires de la Société naturelle des sciences naturelles de Cherbourg, vol. XX (1876).

See O'Reilly, Tahiti, 2693. Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Aix-Marseille, Cherbourg).

Bradel binding in blue half cloth, smooth spine, long red marbled morocco title label, marbled paper sides, original wrappers preserved, modern signed binding by Boichot.

This pamphlet, which contains a large number of botanical entries on the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, etc., is a continuation of the study entitled Les Plantes alimentaires de l'Océanie (1875).

A...

First edition.

Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spine gilt with floral tools and gilt geometric tooling, tan calf lettering-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps now largely faded, a small loss to the upper headcap, some rubbing to the joints, single blind fillet framing the covers, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges of the boards mostly worn away, yellow sprinkled edges, corners just a little softened; a period binding.

Sole edition of this history of travel since Antiquity, considered from the standpoint of its benefits to trade and commerce.

The work is nominally presented as a translation, though it is in fact by the Marseille man of letters...

Scarce new edition, illustrated with a folding plate printed on a separate leaf.

According to the CCF, copies are recorded only under the date 1826.

Bound in full fawn marbled paper boards, smooth spine, unlettered; modern binding.

A rare edition, though not the first: the approval printed at the end of the volume is dated 30 August 1766 for the censor’s permission (yet no public holding records a copy earlier than 1799). Contemporary manuscript ex-libris of Gabory Dodin, dated 24 July 1817.

First edition, issued in a very small number as an offprint from the Bulletins de la Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, t. CXCI et CXCII.

Not recorded by Quérard.

The pamphlet is illustrated with three folding technical plates, engraved by Normand fils.

Bradel binding in paper-covered boards entirely clad in blue paper, with a black vertical spine label showing minor losses; a modern binding.

The work describes the apparatus devised by the chocolatier Auger, which made it possible to reduce any animal, vegetable or mineral substance to "poussières impalpables, aériformes ou éthérées".

Héricart de Thury, Chief Engineer in the Royal...

First edition, illustrated with 46 wood-engraved figures in the text, including 2 full-page plates (cf. Lorentz, IX, 740; not in Nissen).

Contemporary half red shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands showing some rubbing and a small loss at the foot, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners rubbed.

Some scattered foxing; a light waterstain in the lower right margin of the final leaves, without affecting the text.

An interesting work awarded the Montyon Prize by the Académie française, addressing the appearance of instinct in the mineral and vegetal worlds; the journey of pollen; carnivorous plants; constructive, maternal, and migratory...

First edition.

Minor marginal tears to the boards, a few spots of foxing.

Not recorded by Sabin.

First separately issued edition, illustrated with a large folding map, issued as a plate outside the text (cf. Sabin 94850).

The work was first published in 1838 in the Notices statistiques sur les colonies françaises.

"La lecture des documents officiels réunis dans la Notice statistique laissera déjà dans tous les esprits cette conviction que la Guyane française offre de nombreux éléments de richesse et de prospérité, et que, pour les avoir laissés improductifs pendant deux siècles, la France ne peut avoir renoncé à les mettre un jour en valeur".

Some light foxing, otherwise a pleasing copy.

First edition, printed in a limited number, of this extract from the Mémoires de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France, volume XXXIX.

Only two copies recorded in the CCFr (BnF and BULAC). Not listed in Hage Chahine.

This fascicle is illustrated with one in-text figure and two folding plates; our copy is exceptionally enhanced with an additional hand-coloured plan, featuring manuscript annotations in pencil.

Contemporary half-cloth binding in almond percaline, smooth spine with a central gilt ornament and double gilt fillet at the tail, red morocco leather title label, pebbled paper boards, original rear wrapper preserved.

Archaeologist and...

First edition, illustrated with 11 plates printed outside the text and bound in at the end of the volume.

Some tears with small losses to the spine and to the margins of the covers, a dampstain to the right-hand margin (not affecting the text) on the text leaves.

A copy preserved in its original wrappers.

First edition (cf. Crowley 931. David 132. Poletti 92: "Rara").

Contemporary half tan sheep, smooth spine tooled in gilt with floral motifs and gilt fillets, red morocco lettering-piece with a small loss and a scuff, lower headcap lacking, marbled paper boards, marbled edges, period binding.

This celebrated "Manuel du Dentiste permit d'acquérir les indispensables connaissances théoriques…" (Besombes, Hist. de l'Art Dentaire, 282)."

First edition of the illustrated French translation, with 2 plates outside the text, one of which folding.

Bindings in contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spines richly gilt with panelled compartments, joints split and restored, some rubbing and small wormholes to the spines, marbled paper endleaves and pastedowns, gilt fillet to the board edges, marbled edges, two rather clumsy restorations to two corners; bindings of the period.

Pleasing internal condition.

This is an abridged translation (but, unusually, explicitly stated as such) of the major work Reise durch Sibirien, published in Göttingen in 1751–1752, comprising 4 quarto volumes and an abundant...

First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with a folding plate entitled "Système dentaire des oiseaux" (see Crowley 916; David, p. 127; Poletti 90).

Occasional light foxing; a tear along the left margin of the plate not touching the engraved figures.

Contemporary half tawny calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt tools and fillets; a restored snag at the head of the spine, which also shows some rubbing; marbled paper boards, marbled edges.

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.