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.-
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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MERCURIALE, Girolamo.
De arte gymnastica libri sex, in quibus exercitationum omnium vetustarum genera, loca, modi, facultates,...
Venice, [Lucantonio II] Giunta, 1587.
Third edition of ‘the first illustrated book on gymnastics’ (Morton). A physician occupying senior posts in the medical faculties of Padua, Bologna, Rome, and Pisa, Girolamo Mercuriale (1530–1606) draws heavily on accounts of ancient exercise to argue for its medical benefits, being the...
£2750
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MILES, William J., J.I. LUPTON, and Benjamin HERRING (illustrator).
Modern practical Farriery: A complete Guide to...
London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, William MacKenzie, [c. 1870].
Miles’s comprehensive and generously illustrated treatise on veterinary science. The text first appeared in sixteen monthly parts, issued between 1868 and 1869, before being published in several undated editions in quick succession, accompanied by plates by the sporting artist Benjamin Herring...
£350
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[MILITARY MEDICINE.]
Volume of nineteen items concerning the treatment and care of war wounded.
Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Milan, Paris, 1855-1875.
A remarkable sammelband of scarce works on military medicine in French, Italian, Dutch and German, including an item on Florence Nightingale and treatises on gunshot wounds, the Red Cross, field hospitals, battlefield first aid, and ambulances. Several items bear inscriptions by Félix Hippolyte...
£2250
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[MIRACLE CURE.]
Poudre suédoise.
Paris, [s.p., c.1760].
Seemingly unrecorded pamphlet extolling the virtues of ‘Swedish Powder’, sold at the Hôtel du Grand-Cerf on the rue Saint-Denis for the treatment and prevention of several ailments, but especially for the ‘most unfortunate symptoms of venereal disease’.
£600
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MÜLLER, Johann Baptist.
Erfahrungssätze über die contagiöse oder ägyptische Augenentzündung. Gesammelt am Krankenbette.
Mainz, Florian Kupferberg, 1821.
A fine presentation copy of Müller’s ophthalmological study of a disease then known as the ‘Egyptian eye infection’. A physician and surgeon with the Prussian military, Müller describes his findings in cases of eye infections amongst soldiers sometimes so severe as to result in blindness. He...
£350
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NEWTON, Isaac.
Opuscula Mathematica, philosophica et philologica. Collegit partimque Latine vertit ac recensuit Joh. Castillioneus...
Lausanne and Geneva, Bousquet & soc., 1744.
First edition of Newton’s collected works, a major tool in the dissemination of Newton’s science and a major publication in the history of science. The edition, edited and introduced by the Pisa alumnus Giovanni Salvemini da Castiglione, contains twenty-six works (which, while having appeared...
£3500
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[OBSTETRICS and GYNAECOLOGY.]
‘De morbis mulierum’.
Italy, 1779.
A most interesting unpublished manuscript on diseases in women, examining their causes, symptoms, and cure.
£950
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ORIBASIUS.
Commentaria in Aphorismos Hippocratis … Ioannis Guinterij Andernaciis medici industria velut e profundissimis tenebris...
Paris, Simon de Colines, 1533.
First edition of this commentary on Hippocrates, bound with a richly annotated copy of Galen’s works in the translation by Thomas Linacre.
£1750
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OSBALDISTON, William Augustus.
The British Sportsman, or Nobleman, Gentleman, and Farmer’s Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement,...
London, J. Stead for the Proprietor, and sold by Champante & Whitrow and at the British Directory Office, [c. 1792-6].
First edition, issued in forty-two parts, of one of the first sporting dictionaries. ‘The pleasure and convenience of being well informed in the Recreations and Amusements of a Country Life, are objects of themselves sufficiently interesting, to justify the Author in presenting this Work to...
£650
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PASCOLI, Alessandro.
Nuovo metodo per introdursi ad imitazion de’ geometri con ordine, chiarezza, e brevità nelle piu sottili...
Venice, Andrea Poletti, 1721.
Scarce second edition (first 1702) of this work of philosophy and medicine by the Perugian scholar Pascoli (1669–1757).
£450
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PASTA, Giuseppe.
Della facoltà dell’oppio nelle malattie veneree, nuove ricerche cliniche …
Bergamo, dalla stamperia Antoine, 1788.
Very rare first edition of this treatise on the use of opium in the treatment of venereal disease by the Bergamo physician Giuseppe Pasta (1742–1823).
£350
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[PHARMACOPOEIA.]
Pharmacopoea Taurinensis nunc primum edita jussu Augustissimi Regis.
Turin, Jean-Baptiste Chais, 1736.
First edition of this Turin pharmacopoeia, prepared by doctors at the city’s medical college at the order of Charles Emmanuel III, Duke of Savoy. Its first section comprises a list of all substances generally used in the preparation of medicines, with synonyms and notes to aid the user in distinguishing...
£1800