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.-
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
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[BALLANTINE, E.]
Natural History of Quadrupeds, for Children, combined with an Attempt to engraft on the youthful Mind the Principles...
London, Harvey & Darton, 1824.
A scarce work, second edition, the first edition to be attributed to ‘a lady’. An attractive natural history for children, the work was first published in 1813 ‘by the Author of The Decoy’, an educational work on English grammar; this second edition is the first to credit ‘a lady’...
£400
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BARTHOLIN, Thomas, and Caspar BARTHOLIN the younger (editor).
De unicornu observationes novae. Secunda editione auctiores...
Amsterdam, Henricus Wetstein, 1678.
First illustrated edition (second overall) of Bartholin’s scarce treatise. The second of his family in a distinguished line of physicians at the University of Copenhagen, Thomas Bartholin (1616 - 1680) is remembered more for his medical discoveries than for the present work discussing single-horned...
£1500
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[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
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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
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BIGLAND, John.
Letters on natural History, exhibiting a View of the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Deity, so eminently displayed...
London, James Cundee for Longman, Hurst Rees, & Orme, and James Cundee, 1806.
Scarce first edition of Bigland’s Letters on natural History. Published ‘for the use of schools and young persons in general’, Bigland’s natural history intended to show ‘the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Deity’. Its attempts at taxonomy, however, are rudimentary, as Bigland...
£200
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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
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BODDAERT, Pieter.
Epistola ad … Hier. Dav. Gaubium … De chaetodonte diacantho, descripto atque accuratissima icone illustrata...
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.
£350
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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
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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.
£350
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[BUFFON.]
The natural History of Insects, compiled from Swammerdam, Brookes, Goldsmith, &c., embellished with Copper-Plates, intended...
Mudie, and Leith, W. Coke, 1792.
Uncommon first edition of an anonymous Scottish companion to Buffon, printed at Perth.
£175
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CLUSIUS, Charles (de l’Écluse).
Rariorum plantarum historia.
Antwerp, Jan Moretus ‘ex officina Plantiniana’, 1601.
First edition of Clusius’s magnum opus, containing approximately one hundred new species. A valuable collection of careful descriptions of rare plants, the Rariorum plantarum historia gathers accounts from Clusius’s earlier botanical tours of Spain (Rariorum aliquot stirpium...
£4800
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CUVIER, Georges, and Edward BLYTH (editor).
The animal Kingdom, arranged after its Organization, forming a natural...
London, William S. Orr & Co., 1851.
Third Blyth edition of Cuvier’s Règne animal. A seminal work of natural history and comparative anatomy, the Règne animal was first published in December 1816 and translated into English in parts issued from 1824 to 1835. The work was edited and enlarged in 1840 by the zoologist...
£175
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DARWIN, Charles.
The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., &c. In Two Volumes ....
London, John Murray, 1868.
First edition, first issue, of both volumes.
£17500
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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
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EDWARDS, James.
The hemiptera-homoptera (cicadina and psyllina) of the British Isles: A descriptive Account of the Families, Genera,...
London, Ballantyne, Hanson, & Co. for L. Reeve & Co., 1896.
First edition of Edwards’s survey of British hemiptera-heteroptera.
£75
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[FARSARI, Adolfo, Studio of.]
Japanese flower seller.
[Yokohama?, c. 1887.]
A striking image of a Japanese flower vendor, with delicate contemporary hand colouring, most notably to the flowers. After time spent in America, where he fought in the Civil War, Adolfo Farsari (1841 - 1898) moved to Japan in 1873, establishing himself in Yokohama. In 1885 he opened his own...
£200
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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
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HARRIS, Moses.
An Exposition of English Insects, including the several Classes of Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, & Diptera, or Bees,...
London, White and Robson, 1782.
Second edition of Harris’s ‘principal scientific work’ (ODNB), incorporating his important treatise establishing the classification of insects by wing venation. ‘I have kept so far as this method was agreeable to, and did not interfere with the plan, which I have adopted, of a strict adherence...
£950
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HILL, John.
The Family Herbal, or an Account of all those English Plants, which are remarkable for their Virtues, and of the Drugs...
Bungay, C. Brightly & Co, and for T. Kinnersley, 1812.
Suffolk imprint of Hill’s Family Herbal, with a new suite of hand-coloured plates. First published in 1754 with but eight plates, the text is here much revised and accompanied by fifty-four hand-coloured plates by the celebrated engraver W.H.C. Edwards.
£275