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.-
ALEXIS OF PIEDMONT (i.e. Girolamo RUSCELLI?).
The Secretes of the reverende Maister Alexis of Piemount: contayning excellent...
London, Henry Bynneman, for John Wight, 1568.
The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont in English, complete in all four parts – fourth edition of part I, third editions of parts II and III, and first edition of part IV.
£4500
-
COLONNA, Fabio.
Φυτοβασανος, sive Plantarum aliquot historia …
Naples, Orazio Salviani, 1592.
First edition, a landmark in botanical illustration, ‘the first strictly botanical book with intaglio prints’ (Blunt).
£4000
-
AELIANUS, Claudius, Conrad GESSNER (translator), and Pierre GILLES (editor).
Περι ζωων ιδιοτητος...
Cologny, Philippe Albert, 1616.
Uncommon Geneva edition of Aelianus’s De animalium natura, the Greek printed in parallel with Gessner’s Latin translation. A third-century work on natural history, Aelianus’s text offers accounts and anecdotes of animals, ‘an appealing collection of facts and fables about the animal...
£300
-
RUINI, Carlo.
Anatomia del cavallo, infermità, et suoi rimedii: opera nuova, degna di qualsivoglia prencipe, & cavaliere, & molto...
Venice, Fioravante Prati, 1618.
Fourth edition of the first detailed study in veterinary anatomy and an extremely important work in the history of anatomy as a discipline.
£6000
-
RAIMONDI, Eugenio.
Delle caccie … libri Quattro, aggiuntovi’n questa nuova ’mpressione il quinto libro della villa.
[Naples, Lazzaro Scoriggio, 1626.]
Second edition, expanded and extended, with a new series of striking venatic plates. The series of plates (attributable to Nicolas Perrey, who signs the title), showing composite scenes of hunters pursuing animals from birds and fish to lions and elephants, is wholly new, replacing the woodcut...
£2500
-
FRANZ, Wolfgang.
Animalium historia sacra, in qua plerorumque animalium praecipuae proprietates in gratiam studiosorum theologiae...
Amsterdam, Jan Jansson, 1643.
First Jansson edition (fifth overall). First published in Wittenberg in 1612, the Animalium historia sacra is the most successful work of the Lutheran theologian Wolfgang Franz (1564 – 1628), providing a careful study of the creatures appearing in the Bible, both real and mythical.
£75
-
[LOO, Pieter van, (attributed).]
156 watercolours of flowers, plants, and fruits.
[Holland, c. 1760–80].
A truly stunning collection of over 150 original eighteenth-century botanical watercolours, attributed to the noted Dutch botanical artist Pieter van Loo (1731–1784).
£110000
-
ASTRUC, Jean.
Tractatus de motus fermentativi causa novam et mechanicam hypothesim conteniens, authore Joanne Astruc artium liberalium...
Montpellier, Honoratus Pech, 1702.
A dissertation on fermentation published by the physician Jean Astruc (1684–1766), aged eighteen; he later taught anatomy at Toulouse and the Collège Royal in Paris, and served as consultant to Louis XV and as chief physician of August II of Poland.
£500
-
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
-
SAUNIER, Jean de, and Gaspard de SAUNIER.
La parfaite connoissance des chevaux, leur anatomie, leurs bonnes & mauvaises...
The Hague, for the Author and sold by Adrien Moetjens, 1734.
First edition of Gaspard de Saunier’s most important work, the only one published during his lifetime. Gaspard de Saunier (1663 - 1748) established his reputation with the foundation of his equestrian academy at Leiden in 1707 and as riding master to the university there, having previously served...
£1950
-
POCOCKE, Richard.
A Description of the East, and some other Countries.
London: W. Bowyer for the Author, [‘and sold by J. and P. Knapton, W. Innys, W. Meadows, G. Hawkins, S. Birt, T. Longman, C. Hitch, R. Dodsley,...
First edition, demy folio issue. The traveller and cleric Pococke (1704-1765), was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and graduated BA in 1725, BCL in 1731, and DCL in 1733. His family’s ecclesiastical connexions and his facility at navigating the complexities of clerical patronage enabled...
£8000
-
BERRYAT, Jean, et al., editors.
Receuil de Mémoires, ou Collection de Pièces Académiques, concernant la Médicine, l’Anatomie...
Dijon, Auxerre, Paris and Liège, F. Desventes, F. Fournier, et al., 1754-86.
The scarce first collected edition of these scientific papers from all over Europe (lacking only the last five volumes of the Partie Française), including among its contributors such famous names as Huygens, Leeuwenhoek, Hevelius, De La Hire, Mariotte, Réaumur, La Condamine, Haller, Maupertuis, Boyle,...
£6000
-
SHELDRAKE, Timothy.
The Causes of Heat and Cold in the several Climates and Situations of this Globe, so far as they depend upon...
London, printed for and sold by the author … and by M. Cooper, 1756.
First edition, rare on the market, of this work on climate by the botanist Timothy Sheldrake (c. 1691–c. 1759) evidencing his interest in tropical plants.
£1275
-
[BERKENHOUT, John].
Clavis anglica Linguæ botanicæ; or, a botanical Lexicon; in which the Terms of Botany, particularly those...
London: Printed for the Author. Sold by T. Becket, and A. de Hondt … and Mess. Hawes, Clarke, and Collins … 1764.
First edition, dedicated to John Hope of the University of Edinburgh, and written with the assistance of Arthur Lee of Virginia, winner of the Hope Medal in 1763.
£325
-
GARSAULT, François-Alexandre de.
Le nouveau parfait maréchal, ou la connoissance générale et universelle du cheval, divisé...
Paris, Moreau for Hochereau, 1770.
Fourth edition of one of the most popular French horsemanship manuals. First published in 1741 as a successor to Solleysel’s famous Parfait maréchal and reprinted in at least sixteen editions over the following century, Le nouveau parfait maréchal ‘is considered to be the best...
£650
-
[SCHLOSSER, Johann Albert.] BODDAERT, Pieter.
Epistola ad virum celeberrimum Johannem Burmannum … De Chaetodonte Argo descripto...
Amsterdam, apud Cornelium van Tongerlo, 1770.
First and only edition of Boddaert’s description of this Indo-West Pacific fish species found in the Schlosser natural history cabinet.
£500
-
[SCHLOSSER, Johann Albert]. BODDAERT, Pieter.
Epistola ad … Hier. Dav. Gaubium … De chaetodonte diacantho, descripto atque...
Amsterdam, apud M. Magerum, 1772.
First and only edition of Boddaert’s description of the Royal Angelfish found in the Schlosser natural history cabinet. This is the first monograph on the Royal Angelfish (and its first illustration), a now common species of coral fish in the Pacific and Indian Ocean.
£500
-
WALCOTT, John.
The Figures, Description, and History of exotic Animals, comprised under the Classes Amphibia and Pisces of Linnaeus.
London, W. Justins for the Author, and sold by White & son, Robson & Clarke, and J. Mathews, 1788.
First and only edition, very rare, published in parts. The engraved figures and their descriptions comprise a variety of turtles, snakes, frogs, and fish, including several notable species from America. Though Walcott writes in his preface of the prospect of ‘a Second Part, which will contain...
£3500
-
LINNAEUS, Carl (or von LINNÉ), and James JENKINSON (translator).
A generic and specific Description of...
Ashburner, and Lancaster, A. Ashburner, 1775.
First edition of this provincially printed partial translation of Linnaeus’s Genera plantarum. It precedes both William Withering’s The Botanical Arrangement of all the Vegetables naturally growing in Great Britain (1776), the first such work to be based on Linnaean taxonomy,...
£225
-
BINGLEY, William.
Animal Biography, or authentic Anecdotes of the Lives, Manners, and Economy of the animal Creation, arranged...
London, R. Taylor & Co. for Richard Phillips, 1805.
Third edition of Bingley’s most popular zoological work. First published in 1802, the Animal Biography provides accounts of the form and behaviour of a wide variety of mammals, birds, fish, and insects.
£175