Science
Contact Andrea Mazzocchi
Science at Quaritch is broadly defined, ranging from medicine, anatomy, pharmacology (including herbals) and natural history to astronomy, physics, chemistry and mathematics.
An interest in the origins of modern chemistry has led to a specialisation in works on alchemy and distillation, and from there we have also branched out into occultism and hermeticism. We have developed an interest in gastronomy and books on nutrition and wine, an area which over the years has become one of our specialities.-
MARKHAM, Gervase.
Cavalarice, or the English Horseman: Contayning all the Art of Horse-manship, asmuch as is necessary for any...
London, Edward Allde for Edward White, [1616–] 1617.
A beautiful copy of the second edition, ‘corrected and augmented’, of Markham’s Cavalarice, exceptionally well-preserved in a contemporary binding, from the library of the antiquary Sir John Marsham.
£12000
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MARLBOROUGH, John Churchill, Duke of.
Document, signed ‘Marlborough’, appointing a gunner at the Canadian settlement...
[London,] Office of Ordnance, 24 December 1714.
A commission appointing the intended recipient (never filled in) ‘to be one of the Gunners belonging to his Ma.ties Guarrison of Annapolis Royall, you are therefore Carefully and Diligently to Discharge the Duty of a Gunner in the said service by doing performing all manner of things thereunto belonging...
£950
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MARTIN, Benjamin.
The Young Student’s Memorial Book, or pocket Library.
London: Printed for J. Noon … 1736.
First and only edition. A self-taught schoolmaster in Chichester, Benjamin Martin (1705-1782) ‘began to write, with the avowed intention of bringing down the price of books, especially for the benefit of those who were trying to educate themselves as he had done’ (Oxford DNB). ‘One of the great...
£650
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MARTINENQ, Jean Baptiste Thomas.
Codex medicamentarius, seu pharmacopoea Parisiensis, ex mandato facultatis medicinae Parisiensis...
Paris, apud Guillelmum Cavelier, 1748.
Revised and enlarged edition (first 1638) of the Parisian pharmacopoeia, edited by the dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Paris, Jean Baptiste Thomas Martinenq (d. 1758), this copy greatly enhanced by extensive critical and analytical marginalia by an experienced near contemporary...
£2500
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MARZAGLIA, Gaetano.
Fascetto di pratiche matematiche spiegate alle persone popolari per uso del comercio umano, e civile, in questa...
Verona, Dionisio Ramanzini, 1780.
A lovely copy of the second edition, considerably augmented from the first of 1754, of this book of applied mathematical problems by the Veronese mathematician Gaetano Marzaglia (or Marcegaglia, 1716–1787), heavily influenced by the work of Wolff, who provides the motto to the book, and whose works...
£650
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McWILLIAM, James Ormiston.
Medical History of the Expedition to the Niger during the Years 1841-2. Comprising an Account of the...
London: C. Adlard for John Churchill, 1843.
First edition. A classic treatise on the Niger region and the yellow fever written by the Scottish doctor James Ormiston McWilliam, the hero of a government expedition exploring the region and its commercial opportunities, and explicitly aimed at suppressing the slave trade. When the yellow fever...
£600
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MEAD, Richard.
A Short Discourse concerning pestilential Contagion, and the Methods to be used to prevent it … The third Edition.
London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Sam. Buckley … and Ralph Smith … 1720.
‘Third edition’ of the most famous medical tract on the plague scare of 1720-1, written at the request of James Craggs, the secretary of State following the bubonic outbreak in Marseilles in late 1719. There were seven London editions within the year, those from the third on being re-impressions...
£375
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MEGUSCHER, Francesco.
Memoria … in risposta al quesito additare la migliore e più facile maniera per rimittere i boschi nelle...
Milan, presso l’I.R. Istituto, 1847.
First edition of this comprehensive report on the best means to reverse the deforestation of the mountains of Lombardy, in a way that could be both environmentally sustainable and economically profitable.
£950
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MEITNER, Lise, and Otto R. FRISCH.
On the Products of the Fission of Uranium and Thorium under Neutron Bombardment.
Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1939.
First edition of this highly important paper, published in Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Mathematisk-Fysiske Meddelelser, vol. 17, no. 5.
£850
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MERCURIALE, Girolamo.
De arte gymnastica libri sex, in quibus exercitationum omnium vetustarum genera, loca, modi, facultates,...
Venice, [Lucantonio II] Giunta, 1587.
Third edition of ‘the first illustrated book on gymnastics’ (Morton). A physician occupying senior posts in the medical faculties of Padua, Bologna, Rome, and Pisa, Girolamo Mercuriale (1530–1606) draws heavily on accounts of ancient exercise to argue for its medical benefits, being the...
£2750
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MILES, William J., J.I. LUPTON, and Benjamin HERRING (illustrator).
Modern practical Farriery: A complete Guide to...
London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, William MacKenzie, [c. 1870].
Miles’s comprehensive and generously illustrated treatise on veterinary science. The text first appeared in sixteen monthly parts, issued between 1868 and 1869, before being published in several undated editions in quick succession, accompanied by plates by the sporting artist Benjamin Herring...
£350
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[MILITARY MEDICINE.]
Volume of nineteen items concerning the treatment and care of war wounded.
Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Milan, Paris, 1855-1875.
A remarkable sammelband of scarce works on military medicine in French, Italian, Dutch and German, including an item on Florence Nightingale and treatises on gunshot wounds, the Red Cross, field hospitals, battlefield first aid, and ambulances. Several items bear inscriptions by Félix Hippolyte...
£2250
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MILL, John Stuart, and Edward Livingston YOUMANS.
Новѣйшее образованiе: его истинныя цѣли и требованiя....
St Petersburg, Izdanie “Russkoi knizhnoi torgovli”, 1867.
First edition in Russian of these two works, published in the original that same year.
£100
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[MIRACLE CURE.]
Poudre suédoise.
Paris, [s.p., c.1760].
Seemingly unrecorded pamphlet extolling the virtues of ‘Swedish Powder’, sold at the Hôtel du Grand-Cerf on the rue Saint-Denis for the treatment and prevention of several ailments, but especially for the ‘most unfortunate symptoms of venereal disease’.
£600
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MORTON, John.
The natural History of Northampton-Shire, with some Account of the Antiquities, to which is annex’d a Transcript...
London, R. Knaplock and R. Wilkin, 1712.
First edition of Morton’s systematic natural history of Northamptonshire. Compiled over the course of a decade, Morton’s Natural History provides a careful account of the natural history, minerals, fossils, and geography of the county, accompanied by fourteen large copper-engravings....
£775
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MÜLLER, Johann Baptist.
Erfahrungssätze über die contagiöse oder ägyptische Augenentzündung. Gesammelt am Krankenbette.
Mainz, Florian Kupferberg, 1821.
A fine presentation copy of Müller’s ophthalmological study of a disease then known as the ‘Egyptian eye infection’. A physician and surgeon with the Prussian military, Müller describes his findings in cases of eye infections amongst soldiers sometimes so severe as to result in blindness. He...
£350
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NEWTON, Isaac.
Opuscula Mathematica, philosophica et philologica. Collegit partimque Latine vertit ac recensuit Joh. Castillioneus...
Lausanne and Geneva, Bousquet & soc., 1744.
First edition of Newton’s collected works, a major tool in the dissemination of Newton’s science and a major publication in the history of science. The edition, edited and introduced by the Pisa alumnus Giovanni Salvemini da Castiglione, contains twenty-six works (which, while having appeared...
£3500
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[OBSTETRICS and GYNAECOLOGY.]
‘De morbis mulierum’.
Italy, 1779.
A most interesting unpublished manuscript on diseases in women, examining their causes, symptoms, and cure.
£950
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ORIBASIUS.
Commentaria in Aphorismos Hippocratis … Ioannis Guinterij Andernaciis medici industria velut e profundissimis tenebris...
Paris, Simon de Colines, 1533.
First edition of this commentary on Hippocrates, bound with a richly annotated copy of Galen’s works in the translation by Thomas Linacre.
£1750
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OSBALDISTON, William Augustus.
The British Sportsman, or Nobleman, Gentleman, and Farmer’s Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement,...
London, J. Stead for the Proprietor, and sold by Champante & Whitrow and at the British Directory Office, [c. 1792-6].
First edition, issued in forty-two parts, of one of the first sporting dictionaries. ‘The pleasure and convenience of being well informed in the Recreations and Amusements of a Country Life, are objects of themselves sufficiently interesting, to justify the Author in presenting this Work to...
£650