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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. LEE, Henry.

    [Cover title:] The White Whale …

    London, R. K. Burt & Co. … 1878.

    First edition, an account of the white Beluga whale by Henry Lee of the Royal Aquarium in Brighton, specifically of the first such whale successfully transported to England, exhibited for four days in 1877 before its death from pneumonia; and of four further whales transported the following year....

    £225

  2. [LONDON ZOO.] HARVEY, William (illustrator).

    The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated … Quadrupeds,...

    Chiswick, Charles Whittingham, for London, Thomas Tegg and N. Hailes [– John Sharpe], 1830 [– 1831].

    First edition, first issue, of the first record of the menagerie of the Zoological Society. Founded in 1826 with botanical gardens and a zoological collection at Regent’s Park, the Zoological Society of London was soon established as the foremost natural history collection in Europe, receiving...

    £250

  3. [LONDON ZOO.] HARVEY, William (illustrator).

    The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated … Vol. I:...

    Chiswick, Charles Wittingham, for London, Charles Tilt, 1831.

    First edition, second issue, of the first record of the menagerie of the Zoological Society. Founded in 1826 with botanical gardens and a zoological collection at Regent’s Park, the Zoological Society of London was soon established as the foremost natural history collection in Europe, receiving...

    £175

  4. MAPLET, John, and W.H. DAVIES (editor).

    A greene Forest, or a naturall Historie, wherein may bee seene first the...

    London, Hesperides Press, 1930.

    Limited edition, numbered 31 of fifty copies on Millbourne pure rag hand-made paper, signed by Davies.

    £75

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. [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 eighteenth 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...

    £250

  9. 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

  10. [POETRY.]

    Anthology of manuscript floriographic poetry.

    June 1853.

    A collection of twenty-six apparently unpublished poems in manuscript, presented as an alphabetical acrostic. The poems express the perfection and the language of flowers – that is, the meaning embodied by each variety. Examples given here include ox-eye for patience, quince blossom for temptation,...

    £250

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. 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

  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. 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

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. [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

  20. 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