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.
  1. [KNIGHT, Charles.]

    The Elephant, principally viewed in Relation to Man: A new Edition, revised by the Author.

    London, William Clowes & Sons for Charles Knight & Co., 1844.

    First editions of treatises on the elephant and the horse, from Charles Knight’s Library of Entertaining Knowledge. The equine text gives accounts of horses and related species in several cultures and climes, and, with The Elephant, forms two works from a series of three, on ‘the three...

    £275

  2. KÖLLIKER, Albert von.

    Handbuch der Gewebelehre des Menschen für Aerzte und Studierende.

    Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann, 1852.

    First edition, scarce. ‘A Swiss by birth, Kölliker received his medical education by attending Müller’s lectures in Berlin and studying at Heidelberg where he graduated. After serving as prosector for Henle in Zurich, Kölliker was called to Würzburg where he remained for half a century....

    £650

  3. LANDI, Bassiano.

    De origine et causa pestis Patauinae, anni MDLV ...

    Venice, apud Balthassarem Constantinum (colophon: ‘Ioan. Gryphius excudebat’), 1555.

    First edition of this important work investigating the causes of the plague which struck Padua in 1555, by the eminent, and controversial, professor of medicine Bassiano Landi (d. 1562). In his De origine Landi argues against the then popular belief that the plague had been caused by putrid...

    £1250

  4. LAWRENCE, Richard.

    The complete Farrier and British Sportsman, containing a systematic Enquiry into the Structure and animal Economy...

    London, W. Clowes for Thomas Kelly, [c. 1816].

    Likely first edition, dedicated ‘to the noblemen and gentlemen of the Quorn Hunt’. Much unlike his earlier scholarly work on veterinary science, Lawrence’s Complete Farrier and British Sportsman is written for gentlemen and noblemen with an interest not in farriery but in fox-hunting,...

    £250

  5. LAWRENCE, Richard.

    The complete Farrier and British Sportsman, containing a systematic Enquiry into the Structure and animal Economy...

    London, W. Clowes for Thomas Kelly, [c. 1823].

    A sporting compendium, dedicated ‘to the noblemen and gentlemen of the Quorn Hunt’. Much unlike his earlier scholarly work on veterinary science, Lawrence’s Complete Farrier and British Sportsman is written for gentlemen and noblemen with an interest not in farriery but in fox-hunting,...

    £180

  6. LEE, Edwin.

    The Principal Baths of Germany [– The Baths of Nassau Baden and the adjacent Districts; – The Baths of central...

    London, Whittaker & Cp., Paris, Galignani & Cp., and Frankfurt & Wiesbaden, Charles Jugel 1840 [– 1841].

    First edition, scarce, of Edwin Lee’s two-volume survey of palliative bathing spots in Germany, including an appendix on the ‘Cold Water Cure’, a combination of induced sweating and cold-water therapy ‘of late very much in vogue’ (appendix).

    £350

  7. 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

  8. LEIGH, William R.

    The Western Pony … Foreword by James L. Clark.

    New York, Huntington Press, 1933.

    First edition of Leigh’s finely printed account of the Western pony. A painter known primarily for his scenes of the American West, William Robinson Leigh (1866-1955) produced several equine paintings, here reproduced in colour by Max Jaffé of Vienna.

    £450

  9. LEROY, Camille.

    Instruction relative au choléra-morbus, et a l’emploi des moyens désinfectans ... imprimée par ordre de la mairie.

    Grenoble, Baratier frères et fils, 1832.

    Only edition of this very rare pamphlet published at the request of the city authorities in Grenoble to advise the public on the best ways to protect themselves against cholera at the height of the pandemic of 1831-2.

    £165

  10. LISTER, Joseph.

    Three autograph letters, signed, to Sir John Evans.

    London, 12 Park Crescent, Portland Place, 19 April 1896 and 18 February 1898, and Bath, York House Hotel, 20 November 1898.

    Three letters by the great surgeon Joseph Lister to the archaeologist and geologist Sir John Evans (1823–1908), who was treasurer of the Royal Society during Lister’s presidency.

    £750

  11. [LUXATION.]

    Sammelband of twenty-six works on dislocation.

    France, Germany, Italy, 1803–1882.

    A collection of twenty-six rare works relating to luxations, all once in the library of the Société de Chirurgie of Paris, several presented by their authors, and very few present in UK or US libraries.

    £750

  12. MAGNER, D.

    The new System of Educating Horses, including Instructions on Feeding, Watering, Stabling, Shoeing, etc., with Treatment...

    Philadelphia, Burk & M’Fetridge, 1881.

    Twelfth edition of a well illustrated manual on equestrianism, principally the training of horses. ‘The horse is an animal of high and spirited organization, endowed by his Creator with capabilities and faculties which sufficiently resemble man’s to come under the same general law of education...

    £65

  13. MANFREDI, Girolamo, and Pedro de RIBAS, translator

    Libro llamado El porque provechosissimo para la conservacion...

    Alcalá de Henares, Juan Iñiguez de Lequerica, 1587 [(colophon:) Hernan Ramirez, 1589]. 

    Extremely rare, early Alcalá-printed edition of Pedro de Ribas’s Spanish translation of Manfredi’s popular Liber de Homine, a regimen sanitatis in question-and-answer form, in part censored by the translator.  

    £1250

  14. MARINIS, Dominico de. 

    Dissertatio philosophico-medica de re monstrosa à Capuccino Pisauri per urinam excreta.  Plura de sanguinis...

    Rome, typis Iacobi Mascardi ... sumptibus Ben Carrarae, 1678. 

    First edition of this scarce dissertation on worms focussing on the extraordinary case of a Capuchin preacher from Pesaro who in 1677 passed a ‘monster’ worm in his urine, which upon subsequent examination was declared to be a serpent. 

    £1850

  15. MARKHAM, Gervase.

    Cavalarice, or the English Horseman: Contayning all the Art of Horse-manship, asmuch as is necessary for any...

    London, Edward Allde for Edward White, [1616–] 1617.

    A beautiful copy of the second edition, ‘corrected and augmented’, of Markham’s Cavalarice, exceptionally well-preserved in a contemporary binding, from the library of the antiquary Sir John Marsham.

    £12000

  16. MARKHAM, ‘J.’ [Gervase], G. JEFFERIES, ‘and Experienced INDIANS’, [and C.D. LESHER (editor)].

    The Citizen...

    Chambersburg, Thomas J. Wright, [c. 1839].

    Undated Chambersburg edition. Among the most popular farriery manuals in America, the Experienced Farrier remained in print almost a century after its first appearance, with this Chambersburg edition following those of Wilmington and Baltimore. Intended, like its predecessors, for the common...

    £250

  17. MARTINENQ, Jean Baptiste Thomas.

    Codex medicamentarius, seu pharmacopoea Parisiensis, ex mandato facultatis medicinae Parisiensis...

    Paris, apud Guillelmum Cavelier, 1748.

    Revised and enlarged edition (first 1638) of the Parisian pharmacopoeia, edited by the dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Paris, Jean Baptiste Thomas Martinenq (d. 1758), this copy greatly enhanced by extensive critical and analytical marginalia by an experienced near contemporary...

    £2500

  18. McWILLIAM, James Ormiston.

    Medical History of the Expedition to the Niger during the Years 1841-2. Comprising an Account of the...

    London: C. Adlard for John Churchill, 1843.

    First edition. A classic treatise on the Niger region and the yellow fever written by the Scottish doctor James Ormiston McWilliam, the hero of a government expedition exploring the region and its commercial opportunities, and explicitly aimed at suppressing the slave trade. When the yellow fever...

    £600

  19. MEAD, Richard.

    A Short Discourse concerning pestilential Contagion, and the Methods to be used to prevent it … The third Edition.

    London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Sam. Buckley … and Ralph Smith … 1720.

    ‘Third edition’ of the most famous medical tract on the plague scare of 1720-1, written at the request of James Craggs, the secretary of State following the bubonic outbreak in Marseilles in late 1719. There were seven London editions within the year, those from the third on being re-impressions...

    £375

  20. [MEDICAL DICTIONARY.]

    Dictionary of medical terms, Latin-English wordlist, and list of abbreviations and contractions.

    [S.l., early 1800s].

    An interesting manuscript compiled by an anonymous medical student, comprising a dictionary of medical terms, from ‘Abdomen’ to ‘Zoster’, followed by a glossary of Latin terms with their English equivalents (including ‘Machina electrica – the electric machine’), and ending with a...

    £450