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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. SECHENOV, Ivan Mikhaylovich.

    Fisiologia nervnoy sistemy [in Cyrillic].

    St. Petersburg, 1866.

    first edition, rare, of Sechenov’s influential lectures at the St. Petersburg Medico-Surgical Academy. Sechenov states in his preface that as soon as he began to lecture (St. Petersburg in 1860 was his first professorship) he discovered the deficiencies of the existing textbooks, which tended to be...

    £2750

  2. SOLLEYSEL, Jacques de.

    Le parfait mareschal, qui enseigne a connoistre la beauté, la bonté et les défauts des chevaux, les signes...

    Paris, Gabriel Martin, Jean-Baptiste Coignard, Pierre-Jean Mariette, Hyppolite-Louis Guerin, 1744.

    Later edition in the original French of ‘this classic in the field of horse medicine’ (Dejager). OCLC records only two copies (Sainte-Genevieve and École nationale vétérinaire de Toulouse).

    £475

  3. SOLLEYSEL, Jacques de, and William HOPE (translator).

    The compleat Horseman, or perfect Farrier, in two Parts: Part...

    London, Reb. Bonwicke, T. Goodwin, M. Wotton, B. Tooke, and S. Manship, 1706.

    Second abridged edition of The compleat Horseman, as translated and augmented by Hope. Though published in smaller format as a popularly affordable edition of Solleysel’s work, the octavo retains the large folding illustrations, reengraved.

    £450

  4. SQUIRES, Richard F.

    Typescript letter to John Derek Smith, signed Rick,

    dated Gladsaxe [Denmark], December 7, 1965.

    Squires’ main research was into multiple forms of monoamine oxidases, and their inhibitors, which are nowadays used as antidepressants. Squires reports of problems not entirely unrelated with psycho-active substances:

    £180

  5. STABLES, Gordon.

    Hints about home and farm favourites for pleasure, prizes, and profit.

    London and New York, Frederick Warne, 1889.

    First edition of this charming work on the care of pets, with chapters on dogs, cats, poultry, rabbits, goats, ferrets, monkeys, guinea-pigs, ‘fancy rats’, and tortoises, as well as on ‘monkeys as pets’. The book is dedicated to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

    £250

  6. STATUTA COLLEGII DD.

    Almae Urbis Medicorum ex antiquis Romanorum Pontificum bullis congesta, & hactenùs per Sedem Apostolicam...

    Rome, Printer of the Apostolic Chamber, 1676-[c.1745].

    the very rare enlarged and updated issue of the statutes of the medical faculty of Rome, a very rare and interesting document on its internal organization.

    £550

  7. STAY, Benedict.

    Philosophiae recentioris … versibus traditae libri X … Cum adnotationibus, et supplementis P. Rogerii Josephi...

    Rome, Nicola and Marco Palearini, 1755, 1760.

    very rare first edition of the first six books (of 10, see below) of stay’s ‘elegant latin verses on newtonian philosophy’ (dsb), with extensive notes and several important supplements by roger joseph boscovich.

    £2250

  8. STEPHANUS.

    Stephani Atheniensis philosophi explanationes in Galeni priorem librum therapeuticum ad Glauconem, Augustino Gadaldino...

    Venice, Giunta, November 1554.

    First edition of Agostino Gadaldini’s Latin translation of Galen’s medical treatise Ad Glauconem and of Stephanus’ commentary upon it, enhanced with his own scholia. Galen’s Ad Glauconem is a concise introduction to the basics of diagnosis and the treatment of fevers. The work was...

    £1800

  9. ST-THOMAS, Auguste de.

    L’inondation de Saint-Pétersbourg. Le 7 Novembre 1824.

    St Petersburg, de l’imprimerie du Département de l’Instruction Publique (to front cover: chez MM. de St-Florent et Hauer), 1824.

    First edition, and the second copy recorded, of a scarce eye witness account in verse of the flooding which hit St Petersburg on 7th of November 1824, and peaked on the 19th, when the Neva breached its embankments and destroyed large parts of St. Petersburg, killing several hundred people.

    £850

  10. 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

  11. TADINO, Alessandro.

    Raguaglio dell’origine et giornali successi della gran peste contagiosa, venefica, et malefica seguita nella...

    Milan, per Filippo Ghisolfi ad istanza di Gio. Battista Bidelli, 1648.


    First edition of the most comprehensive firsthand account of the bubonic plague epidemic that ravaged particularly Northern and Central Italy from 1629 until 1632, also called the Great Plague of Milan from the city that suffered the highest number of fatalities (over 60,000 out of a total population...

    £1300

  12. 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

  13. THORNTON, Robert John (DUFFOUR, Joseph, translator).

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

    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 Guy’s and St Thomas’s...

    £200

  14. THORNTON, Robert John, HENDERSON (illustrator), and Thomas BEWICK (engraver).

    A new Family Herbal, or a popular...

    London, Richard Phillips, 1810.

    First edition of Thornton’s educational herbal, illustrated by Bewick. Though principally famous for his ‘visually magnificent failure’ the Temple of Flora (ODNB), Robert John Thornton (1768 – 1837) wrote on botany for all audiences, from treatises on Linnaeus’s system to the...

    £350

  15. 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

  16. [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

  17. [VALERIANI MOLINARI, Luigi].

    Del prezzo delle cose tutte mercatabili. Trattato legale-economico ove incidentemente si additano...

    Bologna, Ulisse Ramponi, 1806.

    Scarce first edition. ‘Valeriani (1758–1828) was something of a polyhistor and much admired in his time and country. The little steam he reserved for economics was put to good use, however, in his theory of prices (Del prezzo delle cose tutte mercatabili, 1806), which could have taught Senior and...

    £300

  18. 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

  19. WALLIS, Thomas.

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

    London, J. Beecroft, J. & F. Rivington, W. Owen, T. Lowndes, and G. Robinson, and Southampton, T. Baker, 1775.

    Third edition, from the library of Captain John Tharp of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards. Born in Jamaica, John Tharp (1769-1851) served in the Blues, as a cornet from 1792 and a captain from 1799. Evidently interested equestrianism, surviving correspondence from his father complains of his...

    £420

  20. [WARING, Sarah.]

    The Minstrelsy of the Woods, or Sketches and Songs connected with the natural History of some of the most interesting...

    London, Joseph Rickerby for Harvey & Darton, 1832.

    First edition, inscribed by the author, of a charming ornithology with exquisite hand-coloured lithographic illustrations.

    £200