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

Second edition, partly original, as it was revised, corrected and enlarged with a handbook for the cultivation of mulberry trees, setting out the principles by which the fullest advantage may be drawn from this tree, together with the presentation of a new method of cultivation designed to prevent its mortality.

Light dampstaining to the upper outer margin of the first leaves, small losses to the head- and tail-cap of the spine, a few scattered spots.

The work was reissued in 1837 and 1848.

Charles Fraissinet (1798–1856) was a pastor of the Reformed Church at Sauve (Gard).

Although closely involved in the theological controversies of his day, he is best...

First edition.

A comprehensive work setting out in detail the legislation and regulations governing silversmiths, jewellers and watchmakers in the mid-nineteenth century.

Spine cracked with small losses; corners chipped to the boards; some light foxing.

Very rare first edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from volume XXIV of the Mémoires de la Société nationale des sciences naturelles et mathématiques de Cherbourg.

Spine split with some loss, foxing and losses to the wrappers; internally in pleasing condition.

Suffering from poor eyesight, Albert-Auguste Fauvel (1851-1909) was forced to abandon the naval career he had hoped to pursue and instead turned to travel and natural-history exploration.

A speaker of Manchu, he entered the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, where he served from 1872 to 1884. He studied the country’s fauna and flora as well as its economy. From...

First edition, illustrated with four plates, three of them folding (cf. Cordier, Sinica 442).

Losses to the head and tail of the spine, marginal tears to the covers, a light dampstain to the lower portion of the upper board, one plate torn across the centre without affecting the images, 

Text of the lecture delivered on 13 December 1878 before the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Albert-Auguste Fauvel (1851–1909), a naval officer, accompanied the Duc de Penthièvre on his voyage around the world (1866–1867).

A graduate in Manchu, he had held a post since 1872 within the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service.

A naturalist, he devoted himself...

Very rare first edition, illustrated with an inserted copper-engraved plate by Plée after Turpin (cf. Pritzel 2823).

The CCFr records copies only at the Institut, Rouen, and Montpellier.

Our copy is preserved in its original sewn state with temporary pink paper covers.

Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741–1819) is of course best known as a geologist and vulcanologist, yet his work extended to every other branch of natural history.

First edition, illustrated with a double-page folding map composed of seventeen plates, together with twelve figures in the text (cf. Hague Chahine 1504.).

Bradel binding in half glazed brown cloth, smooth spine with the date gilt at the foot, red shagreen title-label showing minor surface marks, stone-patterned paper boards, corners lightly rubbed; a contemporary binding.

Some scattered foxing.

Account of an archaeological mission including an extensive study of Safaitic inscriptions, with a glossary and an index of proper names.

Rare first edition, cf. Duvivier, I, 143.

Only 2 copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Muséum).

Half-cloth binding in black, smooth and rebacked spine, marbled paper boards, worn corners, speckled edges.

Minor foxing, not affecting the text.

The author, Father Antoine Duss (Anton Düß, 1840–1924), was a Swiss-born Spiritan missionary naturalized as a French citizen. He carried out his ministry almost exclusively in Martinique, particularly in Fort-de-France. He studied these plants "with care, consulting both ancient and modern works and illustrations published on these cryptogams growing in the Antilles in general, including those by Plumier, Swartz, Sloane, de...

First edition, illustrated with a large folding map inserted as a plate (see Gay 1114; Playfair 692; Tailliart 1290: "Livre écrit entre la première (1836) et la deuxième (1837) expédition de Constantine : étude consciencieuse, documentée, sincère").

Modern half caramel calf binding, smooth spine gilt with double fillets, marbled paper sides, original upper wrapper preserved.

Some foxing.

First edition (Pritzel, 2480.)

Our copy is issued in the original wrappers, preserved in a temporary mustard-coloured paper cover; the spine rubbed with losses to the mustard paper, and a library shelf label pasted to the verso of the upper cover.

A very rare botanical monograph written by the great navigator following the scientific expedition sent to the Black Sea and the Greek islands (aboard the vessel La Chevrette), during which he was responsible for observations in natural history and archaeology (it was in the course of this mission that the Venus de Milo was unearthed).

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.

First edition.

"Voulons & Nous plaist, qu'à commencer au premier Mars prochain, aucuns de nos Sujets de quelque estat, condition & sexe qu'ils soient, à l'Exception de ceux qui en auront obtenu nostre permission par Ecrit, ne puissent porter des Diamans, Perles et Pierres precieuses, à peine de confiscation & de Dix mille livres d'amende : Faisons deffenses sous la mesme peine, à compter du premier Avril prochain d'en faire entrer dans le Royaume ; N'entendons néantmoins comprendre dans la presente prohibition les Bagues Episcopales & les Pierreries employées aux Ornemens des Eglises".

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...

New edition illustrated with 66 plates and maps printed outside the text, most of them folding: 3 frontispieces, 39 plates and 24 maps, including a world map and charts of the various islands, some printed with coastal profiles, as well as views of ports (Manila, Bahia, Scio), of islands (the Canaries, Cape Verde), monuments, a shipwreck, battle scenes, indigenous peoples, flora (apricot, cocoa), and fauna (birds, fish), together with a curious depiction of the “hippopotamus or sea-horse” (vol. 3, p. 361).

Cf. Sabin, 18382. Borba de Moraes, I, 243-244. Leclerc (1867), 416. Cordier, Bibl. Indosinica, 1459-1460. Boucher de La Richarderie, I, 121-122. Hoefer, XII, 881-885.

First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1643).

Small tear and minor loss at the head of the spine; covers slightly soiled.

A highly interesting trilingual lexicon, presenting Chinese ideograms alongside their phonetic transcription, published in the immediate aftermath of the French expedition of 1858.

It includes, for example, practical phrases such as how to ask "Quelle est la nature de la rade ?" or how to reply that a general is "très brave ; il ne recule devant rien".

Claude-Philibert Dabry de Thiersant (1826–1898) began his career as a naval officer before turning to diplomacy, a path that led him to hold several consular posts in the Far East...

First edition.

Our copy is offered in loose sheets, unbound.

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. Quérard II, 140).

Our copy is preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, under the plain pink provisional cover; the spine is split and faded with losses, and there are small marginal tears to the covers.

A scholar and statesman from Île de France (present-day Mauritius), J.-F. Charpentier de Cossigny (1736–1809) was elected deputy for the island to the Constituent Assembly. He returned there in 1800, sent by Bonaparte to announce the advent of the Consular regime and to serve as Director of gunpowder manufacture in Port Louis.

But because he sought to employ enslaved workers while paying them as free men, he encountered such fierce opposition...

First edition of this remarkable collection illustrated with five finely engraved outline plates by Adrien-Louis-Marie Cavelier and Pierron after designs by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (cf. Collection Émile Brouwet, II, 168).

Large quarto (27.8 × 40.5 cm). Two pages of text and five engraved plates.

Mid-nineteenth-century half black goatskin, smooth spine decorated in gilt and...

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...

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).

Rare first edition. 

Full blue cloth Bradel binding, flat spine, black sheepskin title label lettered lengthwise, original wrappers preserved; a modest binding.

Colour-illustrated wrapper by J.A. Josse; the volume is illustrated with a portrait of the author, a portrait of Ettore Bugatti, one map and 29 photographic reproductions depicting the HP 10 in numerous settings.

Right margin of the upper wrapper and the table of contents at the end of the volume restored with an adhesive strip. 

Second edition (cf. Quérard I, 529: records “Broussonnet”. Colas 457.)

Reflections on fashion and elegant dress in antiquity; the first edition, published in 1799, appeared under the name of one of the author’s pupils. 

Rare copy preserved in the original wrappers.

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.

Second edition, partly original, as enlarged (cf. Barbier II, 241: gives "Deslandes". Polak 1130. INED 737. See Sabin 19744 for the first English edition published the same year.)

Full brown sheep binding, smooth spine gilt-ruled and decorated with gilt compartments and floral tools, rubbing to the joints, gilt rolls on the head- and tailcaps partly dulled, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on the board edges faint in places, red edges, a period binding.

Some repairs to the spine.

Pages 191 to 252 contain the "Mémoire historique sur les Indes Braves, et les Forbans François du Golfe de Darien".

This edition appeared in the same year as the...

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...

Important dossier of documents relating to a dispute between the bakers of Le Mans and the city’s mayor and aldermen, comprising the following items:

• Avis donné par le lieutenant général de la Senechaussée du Maine, en exécution de l'Arrest du 17 décembre 1749. Sur la confection, la qualité & le prix du pain, & autres choses en dépendante (sic). 4 pp.
• Mémoire dans la Cause indiquée au Samedi 24. Avril 1751. Pour les Boulangers du Mans, Demandeurs. Contre les Maire & Echevins de la même Ville, Deffendeurs. 12 pp. "Les Boulangers demandent la nullité d'un essai fait au Mans en conséquence d'un Arrêt de la cour du 17 Décembre 1749, dans lequel en...

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.

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...

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...

Rare group of six fascicules, all in the original edition.

Bradel-style binding in green mottled boards, smooth unlettered spine, printed title label mounted at the centre of the upper cover; modern binding.

Not recorded by Polak. Apparently no copy located in the CCFr.

A stain at the head of the title page.

This curious compilation, bearing almost no identifying information, appears to be particularly rare.

It contains:

- 1. A notice to mariners concerning the change in the lighting of the lighthouse in the Bay of the Somme, scheduled for 25 Pluviôse, Year IX [14 February 1801].

- 2. An instruction on filters for purifying water, signed by the...

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.

Unpublished manuscript comprising 17 original signed and captioned watercolours executed in 1873 by a certain A. Poquet, an illustrator whose name has not been traced in the principal artists' dictionaries. The work announced on the calligraphic title page, Vues et types du Sénégal (Views and Types of Senegal), appears never to have been published; these watercolours almost certainly constitute the original maquette, or preparatory artwork, intended for its illustration.

The volume comprises a calligraphic title leaf, with a table of plates on the verso, followed by thirteen leaves on which the seventeen watercolours are mounted, one or two to a page...

First edition of the illustrated French translation, embellished in the second volume with a plate, a folding table, and a large folding map printed as a separate leaf (cf. Gay 2996).

Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spines gilt with fillets, garlands, and floral tools, red morocco title and volume labels, with the volume labels inlaid with green morocco, gilt rolls at the headcaps, minor rubbing to the spines, dentelle, single gilt fillet and gilt garland framing the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the board edges, lemon edges; bindings of the period.

In 1797, John Barrow (1764–1848) accompanied Lord Macartney, as his...

First edition.

Endpapers partially toned, a few scattered foxmarks.

Contemporary half brown cloth, smooth spine ruled in blind, marbled paper boards, a few snags to the extremities, Masonic ex-libris label pasted to the inner board.

The petition under discussion sought to have the Banque de France adopt measures to counter fluctuations in the discount rate.

Provenance: from the library of the Château de Villardonnel (Aude), belonging to the Mahul family, with their pictorial ex-libris label pasted to the inner board.

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 collective edition (cf. Cordier, Indosinica IV, 2297).

Light creasing to the foot of the upper cover; a few spots of foxing.

This volume unites in a single work the Grammar of the Annamite language, published in 1864, together with the Vocabulary, first issued in 1861.

A naval officer and Orientalist, Commander Gabriel Aubaret (1825–1894) was appointed the first French Consul in Bangkok in 1863; his true mission, however, was to negotiate with the Imperial Court at Hué for the cession to France of the provinces of Cochinchina. On 21 June 1864 Aubaret signed at Hué a new treaty on the terms desired by the court of Annam.

The three eastern provinces were...

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.

Bradel binding in modern paper-covered boards of grey-blue stock, smooth spine lettered in black, original wrappers preserved; binding signed Laurenchet.

Label of the fishing library of M. Albert Petit pasted to the upper cover, no. 100.

The species are described in French, with their Latin and Greek names.

Stamp of the Société d'Acclimatation on the title-page.

First edition of the penultimate royal military yearbook issued (cf. Grand-Carteret, Almanachs, 158; Saffroy, Almanachs et annuaires, 306).

This comparatively scarce state was published without interruption from 1744 to 1789.

A transverse fold affecting the upper cover, with a tear to the verso.

Contemporary old red morocco, smooth spine gilt with friezes and fleurs-de-lys, covers framed with triple gilt fillets, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt rules to the edges, corners rubbed, all edges gilt; contemporary binding.

Our copy contains numerous contemporary cancellations and manuscript additions within the text; followed by 15 unnumbered leaves filled...

First edition (cf. Grand-Carteret, Almanachs, 158; Saffroy, Almanachs et annuaires, 306).

Contemporary full old red morocco, smooth spine gilt with friezes and fleurs-de-lys, one joint split at the head, boards framed with triple gilt fillets, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bookplate laid down on a pastedown, gilt edges to the boards, corners slightly rubbed, all edges gilt; binding of the period.

This rather scarce issue was published without interruption from 1744 to 1789. 

Provenance: from the library of the heraldist Olivier Le Bas, with bookplate laid down on a pastedown.

An attractive copy, handsomely bound in contemporary full red morocco.

First separate illustrated edition, with a large folding map printed on a separate sheet and hand-coloured in outline bound at the end of the volume.

This geographical study is in fact an extract from Volume II of the first French translation by Stanislas Julien of the Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang), the literary account of Xuanzang's nineteen-year journey (626–645, during the Tang dynasty), from Chang'an across Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent.

The two-volume work had previously been published by the Imprimerie impériale in 1857 and 1858.

Spine split, restored with minor losses, some foxing.

First edition, printed in a very small run as a separate issue.

No copies recorded in the CCFr or WorldCat.

Our copy is presented in its original wrappers, preserved under the original cream paper dust wrapper.

Oxford antiquary and numismatist, William Sandys Wright Vaux (1818–1885) was also closely associated with the Oxford Movement.

On the front cover, autograph inscription from William Sandys Wright Vaux to Count Melchior de Vogüé (1829–1916), the renowned French archaeologist.

First edition issued as offprint no. 13 for the year 1849 from the "Journal Asiatique".

Not recorded by Lorenz.

Our copy is preserved in the original plain blue wrappers, title pencilled on the upper cover.

Some foxing.

Rare first edition. 

Some occasional foxing.

Contemporary-style bradel binding in full blue marbled paper-covered boards, smooth spine, printed wrappers preserved, modern binding.

The author (not to be confused with the diplomat André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, who died in 1830) was in 1836 the guest of Count Mikhaïl Semionovitch Vorontsov (1782-1856), Governor-General of New Russia and namestnik of Bessarabia since 1823.

Under his administration, Crimea and Odessa in particular experienced rapid development, and he was the first to introduce steamships on the Black Sea in 1828. This brief account provides an interesting testimony to the condition of these southern...

First edition, privately printed in a small number of copies as an offprint from La Patrie of 16 and 18 November 1883.

The CCFr records copies only at the BnF, the Bibliothèque Thiers and Compiègne.

Contemporary navy-blue half morocco over marbled-paper boards, with corners, spine with five raised bands, boards framed with blind fillets, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original front wrapper bound in, corners rubbed, top edge gilt.

Some foxing.

The text is a funeral tribute to Odilon Barrot’s last surviving brother, who, like him, was both a lawyer and a politician, though as staunchly Bonapartist as his elder brother was a leading figure of left-wing...

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.

Second edition, partly original as enlarged, illustrated with a lithographed frontispiece and two lithographed plates printed hors-texte.

Bradel binding in full paper boards covered with red shell-patterned paper, smooth spine, red shagreen title label, restored wrappers preserved and mounted on guards, modern binding.

This memoir, published by order of the Royal Academic Society of Savoy, of which the Comte de Boigne was president, notably recounts his travels in India.

Benoît Leborgne, Comte de Boigne, served in India and received from Prince Sindiah the supreme command of his troops, to whom he imparted European discipline and manoeuvres.

With them he won...

First edition illustrated with 4 hors-texte plates of line-engraved Greek coins.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers.

Appointed professor of archaeology at the Sorbonne in 1820, succeeding Quatremère de Quincy,

Désiré Raoul-Rochette (1789-1854) specialized principally in Greek antiquity. He also served as curator of the Cabinet des médailles.

First edition of the French translation (see Palau 246 379–80).

Spine restored, small losses at the corners of the boards.

An Italian-born naturalist and explorer, Antonio Raimondi (1826–1890) landed in Peru in 1850 and thereafter devoted himself to the study of his adopted country: through numerous expeditions, he gathered extensive data on the carbon strata of the Peruvian coastline, analysed and quantified the guano of the Chincha Islands and the potassium nitrate of Tarapacá, travelled through the gold-bearing provinces of Carabaya and Sandia, navigated the Río Marañón, the Ucayali and the Amazon — the principal eastern rivers — and drew plans of the cities of Cajamarca...

First edition for each of the volumes.

Contemporary full mottled fawn sheep binding, spine with five raised bands, tooled in gilt with alternating anchors and fleurs-de-lis, joints split and restored at head and foot, burgundy shagreen title-piece with a small angular loss, spine ends trimmed, gilt arms stamped at the centre of the covers, red edges, corners bumped, contemporary binding.

 2 ff.n.ch., 81 pp. Sabin 12235. Polak 1655 records this work from the Maurice Chamonal catalogue no. 31.

Bound after: Cyprien-Antoine de Lieudé de Sepmanville: "Détail particulier pour la carte de la Gonave, ajoutée en 1788 au Pilote de l'Isle de Saint-Domingue", printed in...

Uncommon first edition, issued anonymously: as early as 1817 the second edition bears the author's name (cf. Davois III, 117. Tulard 1194.)

Contemporary half blond sheepskin binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, joints split and repaired, blue paper-covered boards with a few scuffs, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

An interesting account of the Russian campaign, which the author, the Vicomte de Puybusque or Puibusque (1792-1841), experienced as a military intendant: it abounds in little-known details concerning the Grande Armée and the Imperial Guard.

Bound at the end is Thomas Lindley’s: "Voyage au Brésil ; où l'on trouve...

First edition, with only three copies recorded in the CCF (Institut, Nîmes and Besançon).

Copy from the library of the biologist Jean-Louis-Armand Quatrefages de Bréau (1810-1892), bearing his ink stamp at the head of the half-title.

An appealing copy despite a small tear at the foot of the spine.

First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1557.)

Contemporary half black shagreen, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets and gilt floral ornaments, slight rubbing to the spine ends, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, bumped corners, speckled edges.

The sole edition of this survey, which in fact constitutes the French adaptation, by a librarian of Sainte-Geneviève, of three highly detailed articles written by the English diplomat Thomas Francis Wade (1818-1895), then attached to the secretariat of Lord Elgin. 

Their contents were brought together in The Chinese Army : Containing Notices of Its Bannermen, Hánkiun, and Luhying Divisions: With Details...

First edition (cf. Saba Jc 3. Not in Schwab, who cites another work by this author).

Full contemporary flexible brown sheepskin binding, smooth and unlettered spine slightly darkened, cold-stamped fillets framing the boards, original covers preserved, period Oriental binding.

Spine restored.

After serving as secretary-interpreter to the Shah of Persia, J.B. Nicolas became dragoman chancellor, managing the French general consulate in Baghdad. He was a commander of the Order of the Lion and the Sun of Persia, a knight of several orders, and a member of the Institut Historique de France.

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".

Rare first edition of the French translation of the Journal of the Resolution (London, 1775), illustrated with a large folding copper-engraved map by E. Dussy, issued without legend.

Cf. O'Reilly & Reitman, 380: "Traduction de la relation apocryphe de Marra". See Hill, 60.

Scattered occasional foxing, a few abrasions to the boards.

Contemporary full marbled tan sheep, spine in five raised bands richly decorated with double gilt compartments, gilt fillets to bands partly rubbed, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt decorative tool at foot of spine, gilt rolls to board edges largely rubbed, marbled endpapers, single gilt fillet to edges, corners worn, marbled...

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.

First edition.

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Besançon and Strasbourg).

Minor spotting to the covers, a pleasant copy.

Andrés Poey y Aguirre (1826–1919) was the founder and director of the Physical and Meteorological Observatory of Havana.

At the head of the upper cover, autograph inscription from Andrés Poey to the chemist Edmond Becquerel (1820–1891).

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...

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.

First editions of each of the pamphlets.

Contemporary full speckled calf binding, smooth spine richly gilt in the grotesque style, beige calf lettering piece, patterned paper endpapers and pastedowns, worn corners, red edges, period binding.

Some rubbing to the spine.

Founded in December 1722 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, the Imperial Company of Commerce and Navigation established Ostend, in the Austrian Netherlands (roughly present-day Belgium), as its home port and warehouse. However, neighbouring powers, in particular the two Dutch East India Companies and the English East India Company, strongly opposed this new enterprise, which threatened their commercial...

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 of the second work in a set of four, published by a royal army officer between 1783 and 1788, focusing on a remedy claimed to cure numerous ailments. The remedy was prepared from a plant whose name the author deliberately withheld.

Bound in contemporary marbled paper over flexible cardboard, with wear and losses to the spine, labels pasted on the spine, and minor paper losses to the boards.

Printed stamps on some leaves.

The substance was both widely condemned as an excessively harsh purgative and praised—even by practitioners—for its apparent relief to gout sufferers.

An analysis conducted by Cadet and Parmentier failed to identify the plant used...

First edition of this essential work on the subject.

The first volume is illustrated with an engraved portrait of the author hors texte; the second contains one folding plate hors texte.

Contemporary half aubergine sheep bindings, smooth spines slightly faded and tooled with gilt and blind fillets, a few scuffs to the marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

First edition (cf. Polak, 7057; Grandidier I, 2503).

Nineteenth-century Bradel-style binding of marbled paper-covered boards, brown sheep title-label, headcaps worn away, corners bumped.

Some little foxing.

This pamphlet contains a translation of a small portion of the monumental India Directory—more precisely, Directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent ports, compiled chiefly from original journals and observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those seas (1817)—by the Scottish hydrographer James Horsburgh (1762–1836), who was employed by the British East India Company.

The...

First edition, adorned with numerous tables including 8 folding at the end of the volume, and illustrated with 62 figures in the text.

Publisher’s Bradel binding in full burgundy cloth, smooth spine lettered in gilt on the upper cover, upper headcap lacking, lower headcap worn, upper cover framed with blind-stamped typographical motifs at the corners, blue-grey endpapers and pastedowns, upper corners rubbed.

A marginal loss to the right margin of pages 97-98, not affecting the text.

A treatise on hydrography and maritime topography, the first of its kind in Brazil, intended for fourth-year students of the Brazilian Naval School.

The author, the naval officer...

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 by Barrère de Vieuzac, illustrated with 2 folding maps as plates.

Cf. Sabin 31266. Leclerc 1759.

Contemporary half aubergine basane binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes, a gilt frieze at the tail, marbled paper boards, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, period binding.

Some light water staining affecting notably the two folding maps.

Rare work, significant for its contributions to Statistics, Geography, Mineralogy, Metallurgy, Natural History, Agriculture, and Trade of South America.

The original German edition was printed in Dresden in 1798. Both translations include additional...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume.

Contemporary half-grained cherry morocco over marbled paper boards, spine faded and decorated with gilt fillets, discoloration marks to the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

A few minor foxing spots.

First French edition of this scientific expedition undertaken between 1827 and 1830 in order to refine contemporary knowledge of terrestrial magnetism.

The mathematician Kristoffer Hansteen (1784-1873), who later became director of the Observatory of Christinia (present-day Oslo), had taken an interest in these questions as early as 1807.

First edition, one of the rare copies printed on Japan paper, with no mention of such.

Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece and 15 full-page illustrations within the text.

Contemporary half red shagreen binding with corners, spine in five compartments ruled in black, marbled paper boards, black stains at the foot of the upper cover, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.

Minor rubbing and small losses to the spine, a few light foxing marks. 

Written by one of the defenders of the citadel of Bitche during the Franco-Prussian War, this account constitutes a tribute to Colonel Louis-Casimir Teyssier (1821–1916), who managed to hold the stronghold for seven months...

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.

Bradel binding in full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine, red morocco title label.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Bibliothèque Thiers).

This rare text constitutes an extract from a larger work which appears not to have been published, the opening title bearing Chapter 15, Des Places fortes, and an advertisement on p. 139 indicating Chapter 16, De la Stratégie.

The work concludes with an interesting list of French fortified places, with an indication of the garrisons required for their defence.

Son of the celebrated René-Louis de Girardin d'Ermenonville, Lieutenant-General Count Alexandre-Louis-Robert de...

First edition in two parts, illustrated at the end of the volume with one folding table outside the text: "État des farines importées de France et de l'Etranger dans différens Ports de cette Colonie, pendant les mois d'Avril, Mai, Juin & Juillet derniers".

Not recorded by Sabin.

Ineed 2034, which does not mention the folding table: "Des rapports commerciaux qui relient la colonie à la métropole. Saint Domingue ayant souffert de disette, les députés de l'Ile demandent l'abolition du pacte colonial. Mais les députés des manufactures et du commerce de France soutiennent que leurs exportations de blé à Saint Domingue ont toujours été suffisantes et que leur prix n'a jamais...

First edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.

Illustrated pamphlet with 13 figures in the text and a double-page folding map.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Bibliothèque Mazarine).

The archaeologist Joseph-Etienne Gautier (1861-1924) conducted numerous excavation campaigns throughout the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, etc.).

A rare and attractive copy.

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. 

Contemporary blue half shagreen bindings, spines in five raised bands with a few rubs, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns. 

Frère I, 487 : "Cet ouvrage remarquable par la richesse des documents qu'il renferme, jette une vive lumière sur l'histoire du commerce de Rouen au moyen-âge. Il est divisé en 2 parties distinctes : la première contient le texte même de l'ouvrage, et la deuxième les pièces justificatives qui presque toutes sont inédites".

Rare first edition.

Our copy is offered in the original unbound state, with paper losses to the final leaf and a light waterstain affecting the opening leaves.

By General Duhesme (1766-1815), then serving with the army entrusted with the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples.

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.

First edition.

Not in Hage Chahine.

Some light foxing, imperial colportage stamps on certain pages.

Son of the former Consul General in Smyrna, Céleste-Etienne David (1802-1875) also pursued a diplomatic career (Cuba, Venezuela, etc.).

Included: "Notice biographique sur M. C.-E. David, ancien ministre plénipotentiaire, etc." Extract from volume XII of the Biographie des hommes marquants du XIXe siècle, by V. Lacaine and Ch. Laurent. (n.p., 1860, 4 pp.)

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, 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.

Rare first edition.

Losses to the spine, restored, foxing mainly at the beginning and end of the volume, manuscript ex-libris at the head of the upper cover.

The author emphasises the particular status of land ownership under Islamic rule, and proposes the establishment of a free zone on the coasts of Cyrenaica.

Rare first edition.

Minor stains on the front cover, some light foxing of no consequence.

This lesser-known pamphlet is among the military works of the future Emperor Napoleon III; its purpose, it must be said, was more electoral than purely technical, as it aimed to introduce the young deputy to the public.

Rare first edition comprising a suite of 12 lithographs printed in colour on tinted grounds, numbered 1–12.

This series by the painter and lithographer Charles-Edouard de Beaumont (1821–1888), lithographed by Jaime, addresses the theme of children compelled to work from a very early age, exposed to street trades and itinerant entertainments.

Publisher’s half brown cloth over beige paper-covered boards, title stamped on the upper cover.

Some small tears and rubbing to the cloth spine, light dampstaining to the margins of the boards, occasional foxing, a small black mark to the upper cover.

The suite may be read either romantically or socially; in both cases it...

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.