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.-
MERULA, Gaudenzio.
Nuova selva di varia lettione di Gaudentio Merula, divisa in cinque libri; tradotta di Latino in lingua Italiana....
Venice, Giovanni Andrea Valvassori, 1559.
First edition in Italian of Merula’s encyclopaedic Memorabilium libri, as censored by the future Pope Sixtus V. Arranged in five books, the delightfully diverse contents cover demons and death; the planets and constellations; the four elements; love; fish, birds, animals and snakes; the...
£475
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MATTIOLI, Pier Andrea.
Commentarii secundo aucti, in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbe de medica materia ... His accessit...
Venice, Officina Valgrisiana, 1560.
Fourth Latin edition (first 1554) of Mattioli’s enormously popular herbal; from the library of the learned German orientalist Jakob Christmann and with his annotations in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Aramaic, and German.
£12000
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MATTIOLI, Pietro Andrea, and Francesco CALZOLARI.
Compendium de plantis omnibus, una cum earum iconibus, de quibus scripsit...
Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1571.
First edition of this scarce digest of Matthioli’s commentaries on Dioscorides’s Materia medica. A heavily illustrated compendium drawn from the author’s earlier Commentarii (Venice, 1554), the Compendium offers a practical enchiridion to medicinal botany, with almost...
£2250
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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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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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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. Influenced by Andreas Vesalius’s De fabrica corporis humani (Basel, 1543), the Anatomia del cavallo is copiously illustrated with large woodcuts,...
£6000
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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
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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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[NOBBES, Robert.]
The compleat Troller, or, the Art of Trolling, with a Description of all the Utensils, Instruments, Tackling,...
London, T. James for Thomas Helder, 1682.
First edition of ‘the earliest major work devoted to pike fishing’ (ODNB). Nobbes’s anonymous Compleat Troller is the first English book substantially on ‘trolling’, or angling for deep-freshwater fish, especially pike, with live bait or artificial lures. Though ‘trolling’...
£1450
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LISTER, Martin.
Exercitatio anatomica. In qua de cochleis, maxime terrestribus et limacibus, agitur. Omnium dissectiones tabulis...
London, Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, 1694.
Scarce first edition of the first separate work devoted to snails. ‘It is in the publications of the English physician Martin Lister (1639–1712) that we first observe a scientific approach to the study of molluscs’ (Peter Dance).
£3250
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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
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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
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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
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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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[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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[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
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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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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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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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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