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Science

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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.
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  1. SWOBODA, Hermann.

    Die Perioden des menschlichen Organismus: in ihrer psychologischen und biologischen Bedeutung. Leipzig, Deuticke,...

    Leipzig, Deuticke, 1904.

    First editions, all rare, the first two being foundational works in the formation of the theory of biorhythm. Swoboda’s early studies on the recurrence or periodicity in phenomena acquired a psychological character and application in his work since his encounter and brief experience of analysis with...

    £550

  2. [SYPHILIS.]

    Della tabe dorsale ovvero della cura della consunzione negli uomini e nelle donne con la spiegazione de’ sintomi,...

    Venice, Graziosi, 1785.

    First Italian translation, uncommon, of Tabes dorsalis: or, the cause of consumption in young men and women, by ‘a Physician of Bristol’.

    £135

  3. [TACCONI, Gaetano.]

    ‘Medicae inst[ructio]nes’, ‘Tractatus de febribus’, and ‘Compendiosa nonulloru[m] m[or]boru[m] peculiariu[m]...

    [Bologna, Italy,] 1739.

    An extensive manuscript compendium of apparently unpublished medical texts compiled by a student at the Archiginnasio of Bologna who studied under Gaetano Tacconi (1689–1782), comprising notes on the prescription and preparation of medication, on fevers, and on a wide variety of illnesses. The...

    £1250

  4. TALIANI, Giuseppe. 

    Orologi riflessi, per mezo di un picciolo specchio parallelo o perpendicolare all’orizonte. 

    Macerata, Filippo Camacci, 1648. 

    Only recorded edition, rare, of this work by mathematician Taliani on the construction of sundials in the interior of buildings, to be achieved through mirrors reflecting solar rays – our copy uniquely furnished with a contemporary large hand-drawn representation of the face of a sundial. ...

    £950

  5. TAPLIN, William.

    The Gentleman’s Stable Directory, or modern System of Farriery, comprehending all the most valuable Prescriptions...

    London, G.G.J. & J. Robinsons and G. Kearsley, [c. 1790].

    ‘Tenth edition, considerably enlarged and carefully corrected’, an annotated copy of one of the best known works on farriery. Though published only two years previously, the Gentleman’s Stable Directory had reached its tenth edition by 1790 and continued to be printed in extraordinary...

    £650

  6. TAYLOR, Alfred Swaine.

    On the Processes for detecting Blood in medico-legal Cases.

    [London, Guy’s Hospital Reports, 1870.]

    Taylor’s own offprint of this interesting article on detecting blood ‘for the purposes of pathology and legal medicine’, in which he publishes, for the first time, a description of the spectroscopic process developed by the eminent microscopist and geologist Henry Clifton Sorby (1826–1908),...

    £350

  7. THORNTON, Robert John, and Joseph DUFFOUR (translator).

    Preuves de l’efficacité de la vaccine, suivies d’une...

    Paris, Chomel, 1807.

    First French translation of Thornton’s Facts decisive in favour of the cow-pock, which first appeared in 1802 and swiftly ran through numerous editions. Thornton (1768–1837) attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and the University of St Andrews, before lecturing on medical botany at...

    £200

  8. TISSOT, Samuel August André David.

    Traité de l'épilepsie ...

    Paris, P.F. Didot, 1770.

    The scarce first edition of Tissot’s important monograph on epilepsy, the “first book on this subject to show all the characteristics of Enlightenment in medicine. Written in the French vernacular, it is at once learned, scientific, and readable...” (Temkin, The Falling Sickness p. 229).

    £800

  9. [TOPSELL, Edward, and PLINY the Elder.] BYRNE, M. St Clare (editor).

    The Elizabethan Zoo: A Book of Beasts, both...

    Cambridge, W. Lewis at the University Press, for London, Frederick Etchells & Hugh MacDonald, 1926.

    Limited edition, numbered 304 of 525 copies. ‘This is not a “child’s book of bad beasts”: it is composed of selections from the most serious and substantial books of zoology that were available for educated Englishmen in Shakespeare’s day. Designed originally to edify, to lead men to...

    £75

  10. [VENEREAL DISEASE.] 

    A collection of theses on syphilis and gonorrhea. 

    Paris, 1829-1860. 

    An interesting collection of fifteen scarce theses presented for the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the Faculty of Medecine in Paris, between 1829 and 1860, on the subject of syphilis, gonorrhea, and other sexually transmitted infections. 

    £550

  11. VILLA, Antonio, and Giovanni Battista VILLA. 

    Dispositio systematica conchyliarum terrestrium et fluviatilium quae adservantur...

    Milan, ex typis Borroni et Scotti, 1841. 

    First edition of this catalogue of molluscs and shellfish in the collection of Antonio and Giovanni Battista Villa. 

    £275

  12. VISSCHER, Nicolaes [I].

    Avium vivae et artificiosissimae delineationes.

    Amsterdam, Nicolaus [I] Visscher, 1659.

    First and only edition of this rare set of ornithological prints by the famed cartographer Nicolaes Visscher I.

    £3750

  13. 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

  14. WALLIS, Thomas.

    The Farrier’s and Horseman’s complete Dictionary, containing the Art of Farriery in all its Branches, with...

    London, W. Owen and E. Baker, 1759.

    First edition of Wallis’s scarce dictionary of farriery, with lengthy entries describing ailments and detailing their cures, alongside notes on breaking, training, feeding, surgery, equipment, and riding. The preface contains an important comment on the incipient formalisation of farriery into...

    £750

  15. [WALL, Thomas].

    A Second Christian Warning-Piece; wherein is shewed the first and chief Cause of Englands present Misery … Humbly...

    London, 1681-2.

    First edition, very rare, of a vehement anti-Catholic tract published in the context of the Exclusion Crisis; bound with the principal astrological work of John Holwell (a slightly imperfect copy).

    £1750

  16. WELLS, Edward.

    The young Gentleman’s Astronomy, Chronology, and Dialling, containing such Elements of the said Arts or Sciences,...

    London, James & John Knapton, 1725.

    Third edition of Wells’s successful mathematical handbook. Though subsequently dismissed as ‘more voluminous than distinguished’ (ODNB), the educational writings of Edward Wells (1667–1727) proved both popular with the public and profitable for their author. The best known, the present...

    £350

  17. WHITEHEAD, Alfred North.

    On mathematical concepts of the material world [in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of...

    London, Dulau & Co, 1906.


    First edition of one of the earliest of Whitehead’s works, the first attempt to tacke the question of the nature of the material world through the symbolism of formal logic.

    £1750

  18. WHITE, James.

    A Compendium of the veterinary Art, containing an accurate Description of all the Diseases to which the Horse is...

    London, J. Badcock and Longman & Co., and Canterbury, W. Bristow, [c. 1804].

    Sixth edition. Evidently a successful text, further editions appeared soon after the work’s first publication and would eventually be expanded into four volumes (the present edition is often found accompanied by The materia medica and pharmacopoeia).

    £225

  19. WHITWORTH, William Allen.

    Choice and chance.

    Cambridge, Deighton, Bell and Co.; London, Bell and Daldy, 1867.

    First edition, scarce especially in good condition, of a key work in the history of probability and statistics. Whitworth’s best-known book, an accessible presentation of problems of probability and associated areas, was derived from a series of lectures delivered before the women of Queen’s College,...

    £650

  20. WOOD, John.

    A new compendious Treatise of Farriery, wherein are set forth in a plain, familiar, and natural Manner the Disorders...

    London, Hewett for the author, and sold by J. Brindley, T. Payne, and R. Withy & J. Ryall, 1757.

    First edition of a treatise on farriery by John Wood, formerly groom to the King of Sardinia. The contemporary manuscript notes appear in several hands belonging to members of the Green family of Uppington in Shropshire, though the majority match inscriptions by Barnard and Jane Green. Several...

    £650