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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. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. KEOGH, John.

    Zoologia medicinalis hibernica, or a Treatise of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Reptiles, or Insects, which are commonly known...

    Dublin, S. Powell for the author and sold by James Kelburn, 1739.

    First edition of a scarce text on the zoology of Ireland, with an index of Irish names. An early work on Irish zoology, the Zoologia was published by John Keogh (junior, 1680/1 – 1754) shortly after his Botanologia universalis Hibernica, or, a general Irish Herbal (1735)....

    £950

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. YARRELL, William.

    A History of British Fishes … illustrated by nearly 400 Woodcuts.

    London, Samuel Bentley for John van Voorst, 1836.

    First collected editions, with an autograph letter on the Hebridal smelt from the species’ discoverer. Published serially from 1835 to 1836, Yarrell’s History of British Fishes was reprinted within a year, and followed soon after by Thomas Bell’s British Reptiles in 1839 and...

    £750

  17. 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

  18. [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

  19. 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

  20. 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