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Science

Contact Andrea Mazzocchi or Barbara Scalvini

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. [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

  2. 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

  3. BOTTO, Giuseppe Domenico.

    Observations microscopiques sur les mouvements des globules végétaux suspendus dans un menstrue.

    [Turin], Imprimerie Royale, [1840].

    An extremely rare offprint from the Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino on Brownian Movement and a contribution to the ‘heated controversy with the best known botanists of the world [started by the] discovery that made [Amici] famous ... that of the fertilization of phanerogams, particularly...

    £675

  4. BRUECKMANN, Franz Ernst.

    De Cervo Volante et eius Hybernaculo.

    Wolfenbüttel, [for the author], 1739

    First and only edition of the earliest monograph on the stag beetle. The fine plate shows the insect in all its glory, also his winter quarters in the trunk of an oak tree.

    £475

  5. CADE, Tom J. and R. David DIGBY, artist.

    The Falcons of the World.

    London: William Collins and Co. Limited, 1982.

    First British edition. A comprehensive overview of the genus falco written by Tom J. Cade, Professor of Ornithology in the Division of Biological Sciences at Cornell University and Director of Raptor Research at the Laboratory of Ornithology. The first part discusses general scientific aspects...

    £45

  6. C[OLOMBO]. A[POTHECARIES]. CO. LTD.

    Caryota Urens (Kitul), Botanical Study,

    circa 1880–90s.

    Charles Scowen arrived in Ceylon around 1873 and was initially an assistant to R. Edley, the Commission Agent in Kandy before opening a photographic studio around 1876. By 1885 his photography firm had studios in Colombo and Kandy. Scowen was a later arrival to Ceylon than Skeen and his work is less...

    £250

  7. DVIGUBSKII, Ivan Alekseevich.

    Opyt estestvennoi istorii vsekh zhivotnykh Rossiiskoi Imperii … S izobrazheniiami zhivotnykh. [Fly-title:]...

    Moscow, University Press, 1831

    First edition, rare, one of a series of six works on the flora and fauna of the Russian Empire, published 1829-1833 under the same general title. The present volume covers molluscs, including cephalopods and gastropods.

    £2000

  8. ESTRIDGE, Henry Watley.

    Six Years in Seychelles; with Photographs from Original Drawings.

    [?London: ?the author], 1885.

    First edition. Following a period in the army, Estridge (1837-1902) was appointed Collector of Customs at Mahé in the Seychelles (probably in 1880), and held the position until 1885, when he returned to England. In 1886 he took up the position of Receiver and Accountant-General, British Bechuanaland...

    £6000

  9. HENREY, Blanche Elizabeth Edith.

    British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800. Comprising a History and Bibliography...

    London: Oxford University Press, 1975.

    First edition. Henrey’s comprehensive and authoritative historical and bibliographical account of early British botanical works: ‘Blanche Henrey's elegantly printed British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800 (3 vols, Oxford, 1975) is [a] useful point of entry for research and...

    £250

  10. MEŸER, Henry Leonard.

    Coloured Illustrations of British Birds, and Their Eggs.

    London: S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley for G. Willis, and (vol. VII) by S. & J. Bentley and Henry Fley for Willis and Sotheran, 1853-1857.

    Second octavo edition. Meÿer’s British Birds is, ‘[w]ith the possible exception of Lord Lilford’s Birds, [which was published some fifty years later] […] the finest and most complete atlas of portraits of British avifauna (with their eggs) ever published’ (Wood). Meÿer...

    £2800

  11. [NORTH, Roger].

    A discourse of fish and fish-ponds…

    London, E. Curll, 1713.

    First edition. A popular treatise on freshwater fisheries which was frequently reprinted throughout the 18th century, written by the lawyer politician and writer Roger North (1651-1734). North’s manual is specifically targeted at those wishing to cultivate fish in lowland clays and deals predominately...

    £650

  12. RAUCH, François Antoine.

    Harmonie hydro-végétale et météorologique, ou recherches sur les moyens de recréer avec nos fôrets...

    Paris, Levrault, 1802.

    the scarce first edition of one of the first books to develop ecological ideas, Rauch’s greatest achievement.

    £2700

  13. RÉAUMUR, René-Antoine Ferchault de.

    Pratique de l’art de faire éclorre et d’élever en toute saison des oiseaux domestiques...

    Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1751.

    The third edition (first 1749) of one of the major works of the great French scientist and naturalist Réaumur (1683-1757), on the art of hatching and rearing domestic birds. The work was translated into English in 1750. Réaumur discusses the proper temperature for incubating eggs, various types of...

    £250

  14. REDOUTÉ, Pierre Joseph.

    Les Roses, peintes par P.J.R. Descrites par Cl. Ant.Thory.

    Paris, C.F.L. Panckoucke, 1824.

    First 8vo edition of Redouté’s gargantuan masterpiece, lavishly illustrated with stipple-engravings by Bessa, Bessin, Chapuy, Charlin, Coutant, Langlois, Lemaire, Talbot, Teillard and Victor after the original aquarelles by Redouté, popularly nicknamed the ‘Raphael of Flowers’.
    Designer...

    £22500

  15. [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. This is the first monograph on this particular fish species. Boddaert substantially redescribes and for the first time illustrates the species. In his description...

    £675

  16. [SCHLOSSER, Johann Albert.] BODDAERT, Pieter.

    Epistola ad virum amplissimum W. Roell … De testudine cartilaginea, descripta atque...

    Amsterdam, Kornelis van Tongerlo, 1770.

    First and only edition of Boddaert’s description of the freshwater Southeast Asian softshell turtle found in the Schlosser natural history cabinet. This is the first monograph on (and the first illustration of) this particular species which was then as much as today priced as medicine and food.

    £675

  17. [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.

    £675

  18. SCOWEN & CO.

    Kigelia Pinnata,

    circa 1880s, printed 1890s.

    Charles Scowen arrived in Ceylon around 1873 and was initially an assistant to R. Edley, the Commission Agent in Kandy before opening a photographic studio around 1876. By 1885 his photography firm had studios in Colombo and Kandy. Scowen was a later arrival to Ceylon than Skeen and his work is less...

    £500

  19. 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

  20. 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