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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. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. [OBSTETRICS and GYNAECOLOGY.]

    ‘De morbis mulierum’. 

    Italy, 1779.

    A most interesting unpublished manuscript on diseases in women, examining their causes, symptoms, and cure. 

    £950

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. PAGANORI, Vincenzo, photographer, and Riccardo MAGNELLI, attributed taxidermist.

    [Cover title:] Saggio della collezione...

    [c. 1880s?]

    An unusual and very rare photographic portfolio of taxidermy, featuring twelve displays – including flamingos, a brown bear, seabirds, and ibex – and one scene of work under preparation, showing the taxidermist and his young apprentice.

    £2500

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. [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

  12. [PHARMACOPOEIA.]

    Apparatus medicaminum ad usum nosocomii Ticinensis anno MDCCXC.

    Pavia, Joseph Bolzani, [1790].

    Very rare first edition of this pharmacopoeia for use at the Ospedale Grande di San Matteo, also known as the Pietà, in Pavia, one of the foremost medical schools in Europe at the time of this publication. Founded in 1449, the Ospedale remained the centre of healthcare in the city for almost...

    £750

  13. [PHARMACOPOEIA.] 

    Pharmacopoea Genevensis ad usum nosocomiorum. Auctoribus Daniele de la Roche, Ludovico Odier, Carolo-Gulielmo...

    Geneva, J.P. Bonnant, 1780. 

    A good copy of the first codified Geneva pharmacopoeia for use in the hospitals of the city, compiled by three Genevan physicians who had trained at Edinburgh, including Louis Odier (1748–1817), was to go on to be one of the leading proponents of vaccination in Continental Europe, as well as...

    £350

  14. [POETRY.] 

    ‘Trattato della [poesia Toscana]’. 

    [Asti?, 1780-1782.] 

    A manuscript treatise on the method of composing poetry in Italian, with numerous examples from renowned authors and eight apparently unpublished poems about horse-racing, with references to Arabian, Sardinian, English, and African horses, as well as to a firework display. 

    £750

  15. PONS, Blaise Morin de.

    Dissertatio medica inauguralis de inflammatione. Quam, favente summo numine, ex auctoritate rectoris magnifici,...

    Utrecht, Joannes Broedelet, ‘Academiae Typographi’, 1760.

    First and only edition, rare, of this inaugural medical dissertation on the causes and manifestations of inflammation by Blaise Morin de Pons at the University of Utrecht, illustrated with a magnificent medical frontispiece.

    £475

  16. POPE, Alexander.

    An essay on man… with illustrations, and notes, by S. R. Wells.

    New York, Wells, 1867.

    First edition thus: Pope’s Essay on man edited, with many notes, by the phrenologist Samuel Wells. ‘Looked at from a phrenological stand-point, this Poem exhibits rare beauties not seen, or rather not fully appreciated, by other eyes’ (preface). Phrenological thinking was influential in 19th-century...

    £120

  17. REFELL, A. 

    Trugbilder: Eine Anleitung Erscheinungen, auf optischer Täuschung beruhend, nach Belieben hervorzuheben und wissenschaftliche...

    Stuttgart, Rieger, 1865. 

    First German edition, rare, of this fascinating study of mirages and optical illusions, in particular ghostly apparitions, in which the author attempts to demonstrate using the principles of optics how they might appear, with the aim of proving the absurdity of the superstitions to which they...

    £1250

  18. ROBINSON, Alan James (artist), and Laurie BLOCK.

    An Odd Bestiary, or, a Compendium of instructive and entertaining Descriptions...

    [Easthampton (MA),] Cheloniidae Press, 1982.

    First edition, numbered 69 of 200 copies from a limited edition of 300 and signed by the artist.

    £500

  19. RONDINELLI, Francesco.

    Relazione del contagio stato in Firenze l’anno 1630 e 1633 con un breve ragguaglio della miracolosa immagine...

    Florence, Gio. Batista Landini, 1634.

    First edition of this official account of the Florentine plague of 1630 and 1633, commissioned by Ferdinando II de’ Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, and composed by his librarian Rondinelli from official records and interviews with survivors. Plague had been brought to Italy in 1629 by troops fighting...

    £950

  20. RUSH, John; Jacob F. SHEEK, editor.

    The Hand-Book to veterinary Homoeopathy, or the homoeopathic Treatment of the Horse,...

    New York & San Francisco, Boericke & Tafel, 1876.

    Later American edition of a rare hand-book to veterinary homoeopathy. The text, first published in 1853, offers homoeopathic remedies for a variety of ailments, prefaced by a defence of the principles of the practice.

    £275