| 429C |
Albumasar, (a.k.a.
Abu Mashar Al Balkhi, Jafar Ibn Muhammad). (787-886) Flores Astrologiæ.
Venice: Jo. Baptistam Sessa, [ca. 1500].
SOLD
Quarto, 7.4 x 5.6 in. Third edition. a-e4. 19 leaves of 21; lacking
the title page a1 and final blank e4.
Lombardic woodcut initials, capitals, and 79 woodcuts are printed
throughout the text. One leaf was torn at the top and clumsily repaired
long ago, without loss. This copy is bound in full later vellum.
Abu Mashar, under the influence of Abu Yusuf (ca. 796-873), became
convinced that it was necessary to study mathematics, i.e. arithmetic,
geometry, music, astronomy, and astrology, in order to understand
philosophical arguments. He was said to have “devoted his energies
to expounding the philosophical and historical justifications of astrology,
and to discoursing on and exemplifying the practial efficacy of this
science. In this effort he drew upon elements of all the diverse intellectual
traditions to which he was almost uniquely heir... [His] renown as
an astrologer was immense, both among his contemporaries and in later
times.” (DSB)
The translation of the Flores Astrologiae in the twelfth century and
its subsequent printing history is illustrative of a longtime interest
on the part of European men-of-letters in Islamic works regarding
astronomy and astrology. Abu Mashar’s work was held in particular
esteem, and his work was widely circulated among Renaissance intellectuals,
both for its astrological insights and for its Neoplatonic implications.
“Abu Mashar was a member of the third generation of [the] Pahlavi-oriented
intellectual elite. He retained a strong commitment to the concept
of Iranian intellectual superiority [...] but he himself relied entirely
on translations for his knowledge of Sassanaian science. He mingled
his already complex cultural inheritance with various intellectual
trends current in Baghdad in his time, and became a leading exponent
of the theory that all different national systems of thought are ultimately
derived from a single revelation (thus, in a sense, paralleling in
intellectual history the Neoplatonic doctrine of emanation, which
he accepted philosophically in its Harranian guise). This theory could
be used to justify the most astonishing and inconsistent eclecticism;
it also permitted an advocate to adopt wildly heretical views while
maintaining strict adherence to the tenets of Islam. Abu Mashar’s
great reputation and usefulness as the leading astrologer of the Muslim
world also helped to preserve him from persecution.” (DSB)
Goff A-358; BMC V, 482 (IA 24575); GW
839; Hain 608*; Pell 413; Proctor 5598; Gardner #32 (dating this edition
1488); Klebs 37.3; Sander 213; Essling 437; IGI 263; Bibliotheca Astrologica
p. 4; H.E. Lowood. 1985. The Barchas Collection.
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| 070C |
Aldrovandi,
Ulisse. (1522-1605) Vlyssis Aldrovandi Patricii Bononiensis Qvadrvpedvm
Omniv[m] Bisvlcorv[m] Historia. Ioannes Cornelivs Vterverivs Belga
colligere incæpit Thomas Dempstervs Baro A Mvresk Scotvs I.C.
perfecte absoluit. Marcus Antonius Bernia Denuo in lucem edidit Ad
Illvstrissimvm Et Reverendissimvm D. Paridem Lodroniv[m] Comitem Archiepiscopvm
Et Principem Salisbvrgensem Sedis Apostolicae Legatvm Natvm. Cum Indice
copiosissimo.
[Bologna: Typis Io. Baptistae Ferronij, Impensis Marc Antonij Berniae,
1653].
SOLD
Folio, 13.75 x 9.6 in. Second edition.
[-]3, A-Z6, Aa-Zz6, Aaa-Zzz6, Aaaa-Rrrr6, Ssss4, a6.
This study of hoofed quadrupeds is generously illustrated with numerous
woodcuts depicting the animals described in the accompanying text.
Several of the woodcuts depict abnormally formed and monstrous hoofed
quadrupeds. This copy is bound in full contemporary sponged calfskin.
The boards are ruled in blind and gilt, and the spine is ornately
tooled in gilt compartments, the title tooled in gilt directly on
the spine. The joints are starting to crack. A small portion within
the top right corner of the engraved title has been removed, affecting
the hair and one eye of one of the cherubs at the top; the removed
part has been repaired. Another small section along the back of one
of the bearers of the architectural border has also been worn away
and replaced with pen facsimile. The leaves are in very good condition
with only very light browning.
“Aldrovandi [assumed] that he was extending, if not completing,
the scientific work of Aristotle. Texts such as Aristotle’s History
of Animals, Generation of Animals, and On the Parts of Animals were
his guides. Aldrovandi strove to reproduce the entire Aristotelian
corpus through his own publications. He reveled in the particulars
of nature. Aldrovandi’s own search for ‘reason’ led
him to privileged observation and experience in understanding nature.
He too criticized Aristotle for not checking all of his facts personally.
Thus, the museum of nature became a logical extension of the empirical
program laid out in Aristotle’s biological writings and in the
natural histories of his followers.
“Central to Aldrovandi’s fame was his museum of natural
curiosities, housed in several rooms in his family palace and open
to the learned and the curious of Europe. After his death in 1605,
it was maintained as a civic museum by the Senate of Bologna. During
Aldrovandi’s own lifetime, contemporaries expressed their awe
at his ability to amass natural objects. Learned naturalists such
as Pier Andrea Mattioli proclaimed Aldrovandi’s museum to be
the most extensive microcosm of nature of its time. ‘Thus I remain
always with heart aflutter and with baited breath until I see all
the simples you have collected,’ confessed Mattioli in 1553,
‘and really I would like to come to Bologna only for this end,
when I can.’ While many nobles and scholars visited the museum
simply to see its curiosities, others like Mattioli had more specific
goals; they wished to examine specimens to complete the research that
they too were doing in preparation for the writing of new and improved
natural histories. Their presence in the museum only added to its
luster. As a tribute to the fame and importance of his collection,
Aldrovandi proudly described his museum as the eighth wonder of the
world.” (Paula Findlen, Possessing Nature)
Aldrovandi’s thoughts, in his own words, firstly on the illustrations
prepared to accompany all of his works, and secondly on the value
of first-hand observation, reveal the seriousness with which he undertook
this endeavor. “By the means of these pictures, together with
the histories, scholars gain full knowledge of what [the plants and
animals] were according to the ancients. And one cannot imagine anything
more useful; if the ancients had drawn and painted all of the things
which they described, one would not find so many doubts and endless
errors among writers.
“[I have described only those things] that I have seen with my
own eyes, touched with my hands, dissected, and likewise conserved
one by one in my little world of nature, so that everyone may see
and contemplate them daily.” (Discorso, p. 180)
Graesse Vol. 1, p. 65.
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| 308C |
Aldrovandi,
Ulisse. (1522-1605) Vlyssis Aldrovandi Patricii Bononiensis. De Qvadrvpedibvs
Solidipedibvs Volvmen Integrvm Ioannes Cornelivs Vterverivs in Gymnasio
Bononiensi Simplicium medicamento professor collegit, & recensuit.
Hieronymvs Tambvrinvs in lucem edidit. Ad Illvstrissimvm, et Reverendissimvm
D.D. Carolvm Madrvccivm S. R. E. Cardinalem Amplissimvm Tridentiq[ue]
Episcopvm, et Principem. Cum Indice copiosissimo. Svperiorvm permissv.
Cvm priuilegio S. Cæs. Maiestatis.
Bologna: Apud Victorium Benatium, 1616.
$7,000
Folio, 9.25 x 14 in. First edition. [¶]4, A-Z6 (there is a 2
inch paper flaw on N2 beginning on the margin), Aa-Rr6, Ss4, ††4,
Tt-Yy4.
The title page has an engraved architectural border with an elephant,
a horse, a unicorn, two donkeys and a zebra. The text contains twelve
woodcut illustrations of hoofed quadrupeds, monstrous hoofed quadrupeds,
and items relating to both sorts, including unicorn horns and the
“catarrh” of an elephant. This copy is bound in handsome
modern quarter sheepskin and paste paper. There is light dampstaining
throughout and some browning. The two inch paper flaw on N2 affects
the text but not its readability. There are other paper flaws, none
affecting the text. The top outside blank corner of the final leaf
was torn away but has been most unobtrusively repaired, and affects
no text. Despite these small imperfections, this is a very nice example.
Graesse V. 1:65; Nissen 72 (ZBI); cf. Wood p. 185.
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| 893C |
Aldrovandi,
Ulysses. (1522-1605) Vlyssis Aldrovandi Philosophi Ac Medici Bononiensis.
Historiam Naturalem in Gymnasio Bononiensi Progitentis, Ornithologiae
Hoc Est De Avibus Historiae Libri XII. In Quibus Aves Describuntur,
Descriptae legentibus delineatae ob oculos ponuntur, natura earum,
mores &proprietates ita declarantur, vt facile quicquid de Auibus
dici queat, hinc petipossit. Adiectus est Index geminus: alter capitum;
alter rerum & Verborum. Cum Gratia & priuilegio Sacr. Cæs.
Maiest.
[bound with]
Vlyssis Aldrovandi Philosophi et Medici Bononiensis, Historiam Naturalem
in Gymnasio Bononiensi olim profitentis, Ornithologiæ Tomvs
Alter, quiest de avibvs, qvæ vel in mensæ vsum cedunt,
vel propter cantus sui dulcedinem atq. suauitatem domi passim a multis
aluntur. Adiectus est Index geminus: alter Capitum; alter rerum &
Verborum. Cum Gratia & priuilegio Sacr. Cæs. Maiest.
[1] Frankfurt: Typis Wolffgangi Richteri, sumptibus heredum Nicolai
Bassæi, 1649.
[2] Frankfurt: Typis Wolffgangi Richteri, impensis heredum Nicolai
Bassæi, 1610.
SOLD
Folio, 9.5 x 15 in. First published 1599-1603. ):(6, A-Z6, Aa-Mm6,
Nn4, Oo6, þ2, *4, AA-ZZ6, AAa-IIi6, þ2.
There are two engraved frontispieces, one for the title of each book:
):(1, *1. Also, throughout the text are 28 full pages of engraved
plates of birds. Two of the plate leaves are bound twice in the book:
table 12 is included twice as is table 8 in Book Two. Table 10 in
Book One and table 9 in Book Two are to be lacking. This book bound
in worn speckled calfskin contains two volumes of a three volume set.
The pages are very clean with some minor worming in the margins, but
nothing that impairs legibility. Some of the leaves are loose.
“An encyclopedic naturalist, Aldrovandi began his projected 14-volume
natural history with three volumes on birds, entitled Ornithologiae
hoc est de avibus historiae libri XII, published from 1599 to 1603.
Much of the material he assembled was taken from the writings of earlier
authors, particularly Belon and Gesner, but new information was added
based on his own researches. The best artists of Europe were engaged
to execute the woodcuts, with varied results in quality and accuracy.
Aldrovandi's grouping of species was new, rejecting Gesner's unsystematic
alphabetical arrangement, but contributed little in the long run to
a rational classification scheme.” (Cornell) “Among the
great naturalists of the sixteenth century... the name of Ulisse Aldrovandi
holds a particular distinction.” Born in Bologna to a noble family,
he studied mathematics under Anibale dalla Nave. Later, gaining interest
in the natural sciences, “he made a collection of specimens in
his own home which gradually became known to many scholars as his
museum... Medicine, including anatomy, engaged his interest because
of its manifold relations with plants, animals, and minerals...
“Aldrovandi was an indefatigable worker who knew many famous
men and corresponded with them. He spent large sums of money on artists
who made pictures and designs for his books, on specimens and seeds
sent him from various parts of Europe.”
The impact of Aldrovandi’s work on later scientists is apparent
in the many references to him throughout the past several centuries.
The Eighteenth century naturalist Buffon wrote in an essay on natural
history that ‘Aldrovandi, the most laborious and most learned
of all the naturalists, left, after a labor of sixty years, some immense
volumes of natural history which have been successfully reprinted,
most of them after his death...’
“Saint Lager in 1885 wrote with more entusiasm of Aldrovandi:
‘It has not been understood that the chief portion of Aldrovandi’s
work was his museum, his herbarium, his botanical garden, and his
collection of designs. One must seek among these the great thought
and the true claim to glory of this man in whom was incarnated the
genius of collection’...
“Aldrovandi was ‘one of the first zoologists to give a skeletal
representation of his subjects where possible.’ He continued
the work of Gesner in the encyclopedic cataloguing of animals, plants,
insects, and fossils... His repetition of the experiment of opening
eggs in the process of incubation at regular intervals in order to
study the development of the embryo has been already mentioned; he
also explained how the eggs passed from the ovary into the oviduct.
Perhaps one of the most attractive aspects of his work, for Americans,
was his relationship to the first natural historical investigations
made in the new world of America, which had been discovered only thirty
years before his birth.” (Lind)
See Grasse vol. 1, 65.
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| 932C |
Aquinas,
Thomas. (1227-1274) Summa theologicae pars secunda: prima pars.
Venice: Andreas Torresanus, de Astuli, et socii, 1483.
SOLD
Folio, 7.75 x 11.75 in. Third edition. a-z8, ^8, ?6, %5.
This book is bound in recent vellum with yapp edges. The original
endbands are intact. The title and date are on the spine. The last
blank leaf is lacking (203 of 204 leaves). There are notes in a contemporary
hand on the first blank leaf and an old ownership inscription. There
is some light waterstaining in places and some contemporary notes
in the margins which together with the original endbands attest to
the fact that the margins have never been trimmed. The book is overall
in good condition.
“Since the days of Aristotle, probably no one man has exercised
such a powerful influence on the thinking world as did Saint Thomas.
[…] His paramount importance and influence may be explained by
considering him as the Christian Aristotle, combining in his person
the best that the world has known in philosophy and theology.”
(Schaff-Herzog)
“It is not possible to characterize the method of St.Thomas by
one word, unless it can be called eclectic. It is Aristotelean, Platonic,
and Socratic; it is inductive and deductive; it is analytic and synthetic.
He chose the best that could be found in those who preceded him, carefully
sifting the chaff from the wheat, approving what was true, rejecting
the false. His powers of synthesis were extraordinary. No writer surpassed
him in the faculty of expressing in a few well-chosen words the truth
gathered from a multitude of varying and conflicting opinions; and
in almost every instance the student sees the truth and is perfectly
satisfied with St. Thomas’ summary and statement. Not that he
would have students swear by the words of a master. In philosophy,
he says, arguments from authority are of secondary importance; philosophy
does not consist in knowing what men have said, but in knowing the
truth.” (CE)
“In the year 1251 or 1252 the master general of the order, by
the advice of Albertus Magnus and Hugo S. Charo, sent Thomas to fill
the office of Bachelor (sub-regent) in the Dominican studium at Paris.
This appointment may be regarded as the beginning of his public career,
for his teaching soon attracted the attention both of the professors
and of the students. His duties consisted principally in explaining
the Sentences of Peter Lombard, and his commentaries on that text-book
of theology furnished the materials and, in great part, the plan for
his chief work, the Summa theologica. In fact, “when Thomas Aquinas
left his Summa theologica uncompleted, his friend Reginald of Piperno
was able, after his death, to supply the missing material from Thomas’
early commentary on the Sentences -- and so well does the material
work in that we must look very closely indeed to notice the seam.”
(Pieper)
Aquinas’ “Summa theologica remains the fundamental text
of Roman Catholic theology. Thomas was living at a time when the works
of Aristotle were being rediscovered through the writings of the Arabic
philosophers. He took the fundamental concepts of Aristotle and explained
Christian doctrines in their light. Most famous are his ‘five
ways’ to establish by natural reason the existence of God.”
(Cohn-Sherbok)
Goff T-205; BMC, V 306; HC 1449; Polain (B) 3750.
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| 207C |
Bacon,
Francis. (1561-1626) The Essayes Or, Covnsels, Civill and Morall:
of Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban. With A Table of the Colours,
or Apparances of Good and Evill, and their Degrees, as places of Perswasion,
and Disswasion, and their severall Fallaxes, and the Elenches of them.
Newly enlarged.
London: Printed by John Beale, 1639.
SOLD
Quarto, Eleventh edition. A4, B-Z8, Aa-Bb7 [Bb8 blank and missing].
“The Essays, Bacon’s first and most lasting literary success,
poses almost insuperable bibliographical problems. Unquestionably
inspired by Montaigne, but with none of Montaigne’s fascinating
egotism and winsome charm, Bacon first set down his stylistically
terse and morally callous advice to ambitious men of his own class
when he himself was pushing hard for that high position which he gained
so slowly and lost so easily. Entered in the Stationers’ Register
on February 5, 1597, ten of the essays, with a dedication to Bacon’s
brother Anthony, were published by John Windet in 1597 in Essays,
Religious Meditations, Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion. Clearly
indicative of the author’s hard, ambitious cast of mind, these
original essays (on study, discourse, ceremonies and respects, followers
and friends, suitors, expense, regiment of health, honor and reputation,
faction, and negotiating) were combined in a thin octavo with Meditationes
Sacrae, a set of religious meditations in Latin, and The Colors of
Good and Evil. The popularity and the bibliographical problems followed
apace. A second edition (with the Meditations in English) appeared
in 1598, and presumably pirated editions from the shop of John Jaggard
were issued in 1606 and 1612, as well as an apparently authorized
edition by John Beale in 1612. Finally, in 1613 Bacon himself revised
and enlarged the 1598 edition by expanding all the original essays
(except Of Honor and Reputation) and adding to them twenty-nine new
pieces for the collection that Jaggard issued at least three times
in the course of the year and that his widow Elizabeth reprinted in
1624. The third and last edition which Bacon supervised appeared in
1625, a year before his death. Containing fifty-eight essays (twenty
of them new and the others altered or enlarged from the 1613 edition),
it embodies Bacon’s maturest revisions.” (Baker)
Gibson 17; STC 1151.
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| 897C |
Bacon,
Francis. (1561-1626) Of The Advancement And Proficience Of Learning
or the Partitions Of Sciences ix Bookes Written in Latin by the Most
Eminent Illustrious & Famous Lord Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam
Vicont St Alban Counsilour of Estate and Lord Chancellor of England.
Interpreted by Gilbert Wats.
Oxford: Printed by Leon: Lichfield, Printer
to the University, for Rob: Young, & Ed: Forrest, 1640 [colophon
dated 1640].
$3,500
Small folio. First complete edition of this work in English. þ2, ¶4,
¶¶2, ¶¶¶1, A2, B-C4, aa-gg4, hh2, †4, ††2,
†1, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Qqq4, Rrr2.
This collation represents a complete book, and is completely consistent
with that in the check-list of the Huntington Library. “And even
the title page [the engraved title page found in this copy], it now
becomes clear, announces this figure, for the Pillars of Hercules
there also represent the temple of the world through which the ship
of apocalyptic exploration passes, just as one passes through the
twin pillars before Solomon’s Temple. Thus when discussing the
Great Instauration’s motto, plus ultra, and Daniel’s prophecy
in The Advancement of Learning, Bacon says, ‘For it may be truly
affirmed to the honor of these times, and in a virtuous emulation
with antiquity, that this great building of the world had never through
lights made in it, till the age of us and our fathers.’ The engraver
Thomas Cecill [who engraved the image for the 1620 edition. The engraver
here is W. Marshall, after Cecill] saw this great building as Solomon’s
Temple.” (Whitney, Francis Bacon and Modernity, 33)
An engraved portrait of Bacon is bound before the title. It is dated
1626. This copy has the usual minor rust. Otherwise, the paper is
quite crisp and clean, with the original type impression still visible.
This is a nice copy of a very important book. The binding is full
seventeenth century calf and has been rebacked.
“Partitiones Scientiarum, a survey of the sciences, either such
as then existed or such as required to be constructed afresh—in
fact, an inventory of all the possessions of the human mind. The famous
classification on which this survey proceeds is based upon an analysis
of the faculties and objects of human knowledge. This division is
represent by the De Augmentis Scientiarum [The Advancement of Learning].
“Bacon’s grand motive in his attempt to found the sciences
anew was the intense conviction that the knowledge man possessed was
of little service to him. ‘The knowledge whereof the world is
now possessed, especially that of nature, extendeth not to magnitude
and certainty of works.’ Man’s sovereignty over nature,
which is founded on knowledge alone, had been lost, and instead of
the free relation between things and the human mind, there was nothing
but vain notions and blind experiments... Philosophy is not the science
of things divine and human; it is not the search after truth. ‘I
find that even those that have sought knowledge for itself, and not
for benefit or ostentation, or any practical enablement in the course
of their life, have nevertheless propounded to themselves a wrong
mark, namely, satisfaction (which men call Truth) and not operation.’
‘Is there any such happiness as for a man’s mind to be raised
above the confusion of things, where he may have the prospect of the
order of nature and error of man? But is this a view of delight only
and not of discovery? of contentment and not of benefit? Shall he
not as well discern the riches of nature’s warehouse as the beauty
of her shop? Is truth ever barren? Shall he not be able thereby to
produce worthy effects, and to endow the life of man with infinite
commodities?’ Philosophy is altogether practical; it is of little
matter to the fortunes of humanity what abstract notions one may entertain
concerning the nature and the principles of things. This truth, however,
has never yet been recognized; it has not yet been seen that the true
aim of all science is ‘to endow the condition and life of man
with new powers or works,’ or ‘to extend more widely the
limits of the power and greatness of man.’” (EB)
STC 1167, Gibson 141b
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| 787C |
Blaeu,
Guiliemi. (1571-1638) Gviliemi Blaev Institvtio Astronomica De usu
Globorum & Sphaerarum Caelestium ac Terrestrium: Dvabvs Partibvs
Adornata, Vna, secundum hypothesin Ptolemaei, per Terram Quiescentem.
Alterna, juxta mentem N. Copernici, per Terram Mobilem. Latine reddita
a M. Hortensio, in Ill. Amsterdamensium Schola, Matheseos Professore.
Amsterdam: Joannem Blaeu, 1655.
SOLD
Octavo, 4 x 6.75 in. Third Latin edition. *8, A-P8, Q2. B5 is mis-marked
A5. There are numerous woodcut diagrams throughout the text. This
book is bound in full contemporary calf which has been rebacked, preserving
the original spine.
Originally printed in French in 1642, this book addresses both the
Ptolomaic and Copernican astronomical systems.
Blaeu was “a celebrated Dutch geographer and typographer, born
at Amsterdam in 1571. He was a friend and disciple of Tycho Brahe.”
(Thomas) “Before beginning his scientific career, Blaeu was a
carpenter and clerk... His main interests, however, were astronomy
and navigation, so in 1595-1596 he worked with Tycho Brahe at the
latter’s observatory on the island of Hven, Denmark. He then
settled in Amsterdam... where he established himself as a merchant
of maps and globes, in the making of which he soon became proficient.
In constant contact with merchants and navigators, Blaeu was well
informed on their latest discoveries. At this time Holland was beginning
to send its fleets to Asia, Africa, America, and the Arctic Ocean,
and interest in navigation and cartography grew by leaps and bounds....
In 1633 Blaeu became the official cartographer of the East India Company.”
(DSB)
Gardner 131; Graesse 435.
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| 917C |
Boodt,
Anselmus de. (1550-1632) Germmarum et Lapidum Historia. Quam Olim
edidit Anselmus Boetius de Boot Brugensis, Rudolphi II. Imperatoris
Medicus. Nunc vero Recensuit, a mendis repurgavit, Commentariis, &
pluribus, meliorbusque Figuris illustravit, & multo locupletiore
indice auxit, Adrianus Toll Lugd. Bat.
Leiden, Ex officina Joannis Maire, 1636.
$3,500
Octavo, 6.75 x 4.3 in. Second edition (First edition, 1609). (?)4
A-Z8, Aa-Nn8, Oo-Qq4 (Qq4 blank). With two folding tables bound afer
A7 and B3. The text is illustrated with forty-eight illustrations
of gems and minerals. This edition features new illustrations of geodes,
hematite, crystals, corral, and fossils. Bound in contemporary limp
vellum, with some wear to the extremities. The author’s name
and the title are neatly written in in on the spine. Internally, this
copy is in excellent condition with only some light waterstaining
to the lower margin.
“In his Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia Boodt, court physician to
Rudolf II of Bohemia, made the first attempt at a systematic description
of minerals, dividing the minerals into: great and small, rare and
common, hard and soft, combustible and incombustible, transparent
and opaque. He uses a scale of hardness expressed in three degrees
and notes the crystalline forms of some minerals (trianglular, quadratic,
and hexangular). Boodt criticizes some of the views of Aristotle,
Pliny, Paracelsus, and others, but accepts the existence of the four
elements and three principles, although he also mentions atoms. He
enumerates 600 minerals that he knows from personal observation, and
describes their properties, values, limitations and medical applications.
There are also tables of values of diamonds according to their size
and a short description of the polishing of precious stones. Boodt
cites nineteen authors and, besides the minerals known to him, gives
a list of 233 minerals whose names he knows from Pliny and Bartholomeus
Anglicus, among others.” (DSB)
“De Boodt assembled virtually all of the knowledge then extant...
by far the most thorough and complete up to date... it is further
distinguished by its intimate knowledge of the art of the lapidary
and must therefore be regarded as the first treatise to offer more
than the briefest views of gem cutting.” (Sinkankas)
Ward and Carozzi 251; Sinkankas 779
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| 756C |
Boyle,
Robert. (1627-1691) Observationes de salsedine maris, Authore Roberto
Boyle nobili Anglo, Societatis Regiæ Membro dignissimo.
Geneva: Samvelem de Tovrnes, 1686.
SOLD
Quarto, 8.25 x 6.5 in. Second Latin edition. A-C4. This copy is bound
in modern calf boards with a spine label.
"In the late seventeenth century there was still a great confusion
over the identity, not to mention the composition, of various simple
substances. Boyle found it necessary on the one hand to insist that
all salts were not common salt, but on the other that salt of tartar,
hart shorn, and vegetable alkali were all one salt a point not always
appreciated by his contemporaries... [His] tests enabled him to discuss
the composition of substances in what can only be called positivistic
terms that is, in terms of empirically determined components rather
than in terms of metaphysical 'a priori' elements. This was perhaps
Boyle's greatest contribution to chemistry." (DSB)
Fulton 115; Ferguson 1,121 (citing the 1675 edition); Duveen 95; Poggendorff
1, 268.
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| 655C |
Browne,
John. (1642-1700?) A Compleat Treatise Of The Muscles, As they appear
in Humane Body, And arise in Dissection; With Diverse Anatomical Observations
Not yet Discover’d. Illustrated by near Fourty Copper Plates,
Accurately Delineated and Engraven. By John Browne, Sworn Chirurgeon
in Ordinary to His Majesty. Non Nobis Nati.
[London] In the Savoy: Printed by Tho. Newcombe for the Author, 1681.
$8,500
Folio, 12.7 x 7.75 in. First edition. [þ]4, ¶1, a-d2, e3, A-Z2,
Aa-Zz2, Aaa-Hhh2 (original blank Hhh2 present). The following dozen
engraved plates, which are otherwise singlets extraneous to the collation,
have conjugates present that have been printed on one side only with
explanations of the tables: (plate numbers, in signatures) VIII, in
O; X, in S; XV, in T; XII, in V; XIII, in Y; XIIII, in Z; XV, in Aa;
XVI, in Bb; XVII, in Cc; XVIII, in Dd; XIX, in Ff; and XXXVII, in
Eee.
This work contains an engraved portrait frontispiece of the author
bound opposite the title, and thirty-six of thirty-seven full-paged
engraved plates of people in various stages of dissection. The purpose
is to illustrate the organization of the muscles. The subjects are
generally depicted standing on various sorts of pedestals, often holding
open their own gaping flaps of skin. This, combined with the presence
of distinctive individual features on many of the dissectees, such
as mustaches and hair styles, creates a rather eerie effect overall.
The missing plate, number twelve, is seldom found as it illustrates
the “Accelerator Penis,” and must have been considered obscene.
It has been removed from this copy. Little is known of the English
engraver whose signature appears on some of these illustrations. Bryan’s
Dictionary of Painters and Engravers says that Nicholas Yeates was
“obscure” and flourished around 1681. This is a lovely copy,
in good condition internally throughout. It has been recently rebacked,
retaining the original seventeenth century gold-tooled spine and label.
Therefore, the book’s overall appearance has gone virtually unchanged
since it was first printed and bound 320 years ago. According to Lowndes,
the copies of this work that contain Browne’s portrait are printed
on large paper.
“Browne was a well-educated man, and in all likelihood a good
surgeon, as he was certainly a well-trained anatomist according to
the standard of the day. […] His treatise on the muscles consists
of six lectures, illustrated by elaborate copper-plates, of which
the engraving is better than the drawing. It is probably the first
of such books in which the names of the muscles are printed on the
figures. Browne’s portrait, engraved by R. White, is prefixed
in different states to each of his books.” (DNB)
The present work is based on William Molins’s Myskotomia, and
the plates are based on Giulio Casserio’s (1552-1616) Tabula
Anatomicae. In its later editions, this work appeared under the title
Myographia Nova.
Wing B-5126; ESTCR 20507; Russell 101; Cushing B762; Wellcome III,
p. 251; Eimas 642.
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| 587C |
Browne,
Sir Thomas. (1605-1682) The Works Of the Learned Sr Thomas Brown,
Kt. Doctor of Physick, late of Norwich. Containing I. Enquiries into
Vulgar and Common Errors. II. Religio Medici: With Annotations and
Observations upon it. III. Hydriotaphia; or, Urn-Burial: Together
with The Garden of Cyrus. IV. Certain Miscellany Tracts. with Alphabetical
Tables.
London: Tho. Basset, Ric. Chiswell, Tho. Sawbridge, Charles Mearn,
and Charles Brome, 1686.
$2,500
Folio, 12.4 x 7.6 in. First edition. A6, (a)4, B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Iii4,
Kkk6, Lll-Qqq4, Rrr6, Sss-Zzz4, Aaaa-Dddd4, Eeee2. This copy has the
rare portrait of Browne by R. White; the engraving of the urns is
bound before the Hydriotaphia, and the engraving of the quinqunx is
bound opposite the title for the Garden of Cyrus. This copy is in
very good condition. It has been recently rebound in full calf, period
style.
“[Thomas Browne’s] affluence and established residence (the
transport of a collection containing many folio volumes is not lightly
to be undertaken) enabled him to build up in ten years or so the substantial
scholarly library which provided the materials for his longest work,
Pseudodoxia Epidemica. First published in 1646, it was revised and
expanded in successive editions up to the sixth in 1672. In it Browne
took up a suggestion by Bacon in his Advancement of Learning that
there should be compiled a list of erroneous beliefs held at that
time in the fields of the natural sciences and general knowledge.
Browne went further, and, by combining in his disquisition on each
topic the testimonies of authority, reason, and experiment, endeavored
to dispose once for all of some hundreds of fallacies. The work, executed
with wide learning, wit, and characteristic style, immediately established
his reputation as a savant, remaining popular at home and abroad for
at least a century.” (Robbins)
“Browne is more scientific than Bacon when he discusses some
notions already touched in Sylva Sylvarum: for instance, that coral
is soft under water and hardens in the air; that a salamander can
live in and extinguish fire (if ancient tradition is true, says Bacon,
the creature has a very close skin and some very cold ‘virtue’);
that the chameleon lives on air (Bacon makes air its ‘principall
Sustenance’ but admits flies as well). In the examination of
these and other arresting items in his encyclopedia, Browne appeals
to critical authority, reason, and experience; of these criteria only
the last is strictly Baconian. But Browne was in fact a tireless observer
and experimenter. And when a whale was thrown upon the coast of Norfolk
he verified his notion of spermaceti; in later years he was able,
through his son, to test the belief that ‘the Ostridge digesteth
Iron’—after swallowing a nugget the bird died ‘of a
soden.’ But in the settling of a more commonplace problem, the
reputed inequality of the badger’s legs, the mere report of the
senses appears, happily for readers, to count less than abstract and
almost metaphysical logic. Many exotic and ‘occult’ traditions
were less readily verifiable by experience, and in this un-Baconian
realm Browne of necessity relied upon reason and the weighing of authorities.”
(Bush)
Browne’s works are as delightful and as varied as the man himself.
“A man of enormous learning and prodigious memory, Browne was
also whimsical, eccentric, and superstitious—a paradoxical mixture
of medieval lore, Baconian science, and great intellectual curiosity.
[…] Browne’s religious position in Religio Medici and his
other works is that of a cultivated, tolerant Roman stoic thoroughly
knowledgeable of Bacon’s foolish idols but emotionally aligned
to the ceremonial and ritualistic Anglican religion of John Donne,
George Herbert, and Lancelot Andrewes. His Religio Medici covers much
the same ground as Richard Hooker’s Of The Laws of Ecclesiastical
Polity, but does so with the brilliant speculations of Montaigne,
coupled with his own characteristic tone of ‘love and wonder.’
For Browne there is no tension between faith and reason, and doubt
is not agony but occasion for paradoxical joy.” (Ruoff)
In the present work, the following subjects are treated: “I.
Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors. II. Religio Medici: With
Annotations and Observations upon it. III. Hydriotaphia; or, Urn-Burial:
Together with The Garden of Cyrus. IV. and the Certain Miscellany
Tracts,” which further contains “I. Observations upon several
Plants mentioned in Scripture; II. Of Garlands, and Coronary or Garland-plants;
III. Of the Fishes eaten by our Saviour with his Disciples after the
Resurrection from the dead; IV. An Answer to certain Queries relating
to Fishes, Birds, Insects; V. Of Hawks and Falconry, ancient and modern;
VI. Of Cymbals, &c.; VII. Of Ropalic or Gradual Verses, &c.;
VIII. Of Languages, and particularly of the Saxon-Tongue; IX. Of Artificial
Hills, Mounts or Boroughs in many parts of England: what they are,
and to what end raised, and by what Nations; X. Of Troas, what place
is meant by that Name. Also of the situations of Sodom, Gomorrah,
Zeboim, in the Dead Sea; XI. Of the Answers of the Oracle of Apollo
at Delphos to Croesus King of Lydia; XII. A Prophecy concerning the
future state of several Nations; in a letter written upon occasion
of an old Prophecy sent to the Author from a friend, with a request
that he would consider it; XIII. Musaeum Clausum, or Bibliotheca Abscondita:
containing some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities
of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living.”
“‘Hydriotaphia’ is the leisurely excursion of a scholarly
mind into the burial customs of past nations, and ‘The Garden
of Cyrus’ a pursuit of a number and form through art, nature,
and philosophy. […] ‘Hydriotaphia’ has been considered
by George Williamson as a dissertation on human identity and the quest
for its immortal retention. Its sections develop from the initial
ease of identifying the purpose of the relics discussed, through a
consideration of their failure to achieve this purpose—in that
it is difficult to date such relics, let alone put a name to them—to
the orthodox Christian consolation of expected resurrection, and the
vanity by contrast of all earthly monuments. […] Likewise, ‘The
Garden of Cyrus’ is no horticultural handbook: rather, its pentatonic
groves and thickets are a musical score transposed into verbal imagery,
a reading of ‘that universal and public manuscript’ of the
great Platonic Idea, of ‘that harmony which intellectually sounds
in the ears of God.’” (Robbins)
Wing B-5150.
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| 931C |
Brunschwig,
Hieronymus. (ca. 1450-1512) Liber de arte distillandi. de simplicibus.
Das buch der rechten kunst zu distilieren die eintzige ding von Hieronymo
brunschwygk burtig vn wund artzot der keiserliche frye statt strassburg.
Strassburg: J. Gruninger, 1515.
$7,000
Folio , 8 x 12 in. Fourth edition. A2-8, B-C6, D8, E-T6, V8, A-F6,
G5, H6, I7. A1, I8 are lacking, A3 is fragmented and I7 is in two
pieces.
This edition features numerous woodcut illustrations of chemical equipment,
herbs and plants, and physicians with their patients, all of which
have been beautifully hand colored in green, yellow, red, and blue
throughout making this book spectacularly vibrant. This copy is bound
in quarter dirty blind tooled, pigskin over exposed wooden boards.
Its catches remain while the clasps are lacking. Several of the leaves
are torn and were rudely repaired with tape. Most of the tape is gone
but the dark markings of it remain. The leaves have some browning
and worn edges. Two leaves have been expertly rebacked. Although this
book has taken a beating over the years, the hand-colored woodblock
illustrations are wonderfully appealing.
“After receiving an education in surgery, Brunschwig [Brunswyck,
Braunschweig] traveled extensively through Alsace, Swabia, Bavaria,
Franconia, and the Rhineland as far as Cologne, practicing surgery
and acquiring experience in the preparation of medicines, specifically
in the technique of distillation. [...] His employment as a surgeon
in Strasbourg apparently left him enough time to become a writer and
to continue his travels. [His] work concerns anatomy, treatment of
wounds, and, in pharmacy, the preparation of medicines and simples.”
Brunschwig’s descriptions of chemical and distillation apparatus,
complemented by abundant illustrations, mark this Liber de arte distillandi
as a highly original work, coming to be used as “a pharmaceutical-technical
handbook that was the authority far into the sixteenth century.”
While not the first of its kind, his compilation of technical terms
and the completeness of his records of gunshot wounds and in surgery
are “noteworthy accomplishments” and “represent an
important link between the Middles Ages and modern times.” (DSB)
VD 16 B 8720; Nissen, BB 226; Benzing, Brunschwig 13; Schmidt, Gruninger
148.
903C Burnet, Thomas. (1635?-1715) The Theory Of The Earth: Containing
an Account Of The Original of the Earth, And Of All The General Changes
Which it hath already undergone, Or Is To Undergo Till the Consummation
of all Things. The Two First Books Concerning The Deluge, And Concerning
Paradise. The Third Edition review’d by the Author.
London: Printed by R. Norton for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishops-Head
in S. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1684. $3,000
Folio, 7.6 x 12.25 in. First edition. þ4, a6, B-Z4, Aa-Tt4. There
is an engraved frontispiece of Jesus presiding over seven different
globes with angels in each of the four corners. There are 11 engraved
plates of different states of the world, from the time of chaos (p.
54) to the creation of rivers like veins to pump water across the
earth (p. 231). There is also one full page plate (p. 135) and two
doubled-paged plates (between pp. 151-152). This copy is bound in
very worn and cracked calfskin. The front has bee rebound. The pastedowns
are marbled. The leaves are very clean.
“The Reverend Thomas Burnet was a prominent Anglican clergyman
who became the private chaplain of King William III. Between 1680
and 1690, Burnet published, first in Latin and then in English, the
four books of Telluris theoria sacra, or The Sacred Theory of the
Earth. In Book I on the deluge, Book II on the preceding paradise,
Book III on the forthcoming ‘burning of the world,’ and
Book IV ‘concerning the new heavens and new earth,’ or paradise
regained after the conflagration, Burnet told our planet’s story
as proclaimed by the unfailing concordance of God’s words (the
sacred texts) and his works (the objects of nature).”
“Burnet began by assuming that only one document— “The
Bible” —is unerringly true. His treatise then becomes a
search for a physics of natural causes to render these certain results
of history. […] Within this constraint of concordance, Burnet
followed a strategy that placed him among the rationalists (‘good
guys’ for the future development of science, if we must follow
Western-movie scenarios of retrospective history). As the centerpiece
of his logic, Burnet insists again and again that the earth’s
scripturally specified history will be adequately explained only when
we identify natural causes for the entire panoply of biblical events.
Moreover, he urges, in apparent conflicts (they cannot be real) between
reason and revelation, choose reason first and then untangle the true
meaning of revelation.” (Gould, Time’s Arrow, Time’s
Cycle)
Wing B-5950.
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| 742C |
Burton,
Robert. (1577-1640) The Anatomy of Melancholy. What it is, with all
the kinds, causes, symptomes, prognostickes, & severall cures
of it. In three Partitions, with their severall Sections, members
& subsections. Philosophicaly, Medicinally, Historically opened
& cut. By Democritus Junior. With a Satyricall Preface conducing
to the following Discourse. The fift Edition, corrected and augmented
by the Author. Omne tulit punctum qui miscrit utile dulci.
London: Peter Parker, 1676.
SOLD
Folio, 12.25 x 8 in. Final seventeenth century edition. The edition
which Samuel Johnson used in compiling his Dictionary. <3, §2,
-K4, A-R4, S6, T-Z4, Aa-Hh4, Ii6, Kk4-Zz4 (Ll1 being a cancel and
removed) Aaaa-Eeee4, Ffff2, Gggg-Zzzz4, Aaaaa4. This copy has the
wonderful engraved title by C. Le Blon, which depicts types of melancholy.
This copy is rebound in full calfskin, it is large and crisp. “Robert
Burton, author of the medical treatise The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621).
[…] The one major product of his eccentric life was his Anatomy
of Melancholy, a long and serious study of the causes, symptoms, and
cures of the ‘black distemper’ from which, reportedly, the
author himself suffered.
“The erudite Oxford scholar who never married or even traveled
‘but in map or card’ put all of his life in The Anatomy
of Melancholy, a work so profusely documented with thousands of allusions
to authors from Galen to Bacon as to suggest that for Burton the choicest
part of living was reading. His treatise is systematically divided
into three principal parts: causes, symptoms, and prognoses of melancholy;
cures and alleviations of melancholy; and symptoms of love and religious
melancholy, the two classic manifestations of the malady. Burton's’
tripartite arrangement, however, does not prevent him from engaging
in long digressions on human anatomy and the nature of spirits, observations
on manners and morals, or descriptions of his own ideal commonwealth.
For most readers, Burton’s didactic or satiric anecdotes and
well-placed allusions, however digressive, constitute one of the chief
allurements of his book. Few readers have regretted the fact that
although Burton was thoroughly conversant with Bacon and the ‘new
science,’ and sympathetic to his aims, he could not resist imposing
on every problem his own eccentric and restless imagination. Nor could
he, for all his scientific values, overcome his peculiar conceptions
of logic and his penchant for proving a case by the medieval method
of totaling masses of authorities on either side of a given question.
“The result is a book that can be picked up or put down as one
wishes, a discursive and continuously charming repository of speculations
on everything under the sun. […] His epigrammatic first clauses
enable Burton to pile modifiers, quotations, and allusions on the
end of sentences–an appropriate syntactical device to accommodate
his wide-ranging imagination and well-stored scholar’s memory.
His insatiable intellect devours whole libraries at a gulp, and many
of his sources will never be traced through the wilderness of his
esoteric reading. Miraculously, however, under his ingenious pedantry
is a curious, compassionate, and observant sensibility delicately
responsive to whatever is universal in human experience. Burton continued
to add to the five editions of the Anatomy published during his lifetime.
The sixth edition (1651) contains the last of his revisions.”
(Ruoff)
Jordan-Smith 8; Hunter & Macalpine pages 94-99; Wing B-6184; Honnold
10.
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| 690B |
Cocker,
Edward. (1631-1675) Cocker’s Decimal Arithmetick: Wherein is
shewed the Nature and Use of Decimal Fractions, in the usual Rules
of Arithmetick, and in the Mensuration of Planes and Solids. Together
with Tables of Interest, and Rebate for the valuation of Leafes and
Annuities, Present, or in Reversion, and Rules for Calculating of
those Tables. Whereunto is added His Artificial Arithmetick, shewing
the Genesis or Fabrick of the Logarithmes, and their Use in the Extraction
of Roots, the Solving of Questions in Anatocisme, and in other Arithmetical
Rules in a Method not usually practised. Also His Algebraical Arithmetick,
containing the Doctrine of Composing and Resolving an Equation; with
all other Rules requisite for the understanding of that mysterious
Art, according to the Method used by Mr. John Kersey in his Incomparable
Treatise of Algebra. Composed by Edward Cocker, late Practioner in
the Arts of Writing, Arithmetik, and Engraving. Perused, Corrected,
and Published By John Hawkins, Writing-Master at St. Georges-Church
in Southwark.
London: Printed by J. Richardson, for Tho. Passinger, at the Three
Bibles on London-Bridge, and Tho. Lacy, at the Golden-Lyon in Southwark,
1685.
$3,800
Octavo, 6.5 x 3.8 in. First edition. A-Z8, Aa-Ff8. This copy is bound
in full modern calfskin with a label on the spine.
In 1657, Cocker “was living on the south side of St. Paul’s
Churchyard, over against St. Paul’s Chain where he taught the
art of writing and arithmetic in an extraordinary manner. In 1661
a warrant was issued to pay Edward Cocker, scrivener and engraver,
150 pounds as a gift. His advertisements in ‘The Newes,’
September and October 1664, set forth that he [intended to start]
at Michaelmas a public school for writing and arithmetic, and take
in boarders, near St. Paul’s. Pepys mentions him several times
in 1664, describing him as ‘very ingenious and well-read in all
our English poets,’ and a pleasant companion. He had collected
a large library of rare manuscripts and printed books on science in
various languages. His quaint poems and distichs show some poetical
ability; and if he was the author of Cocker’s Arithmetick his
fame is well deserved, for the book is well written and suited to
the wants of his day. His sudden death at an early age is sufficient
to account for this and other works being left for posthumous publication
by his friend John Hawkins, a probable successor in a school originally
founded by Cocker near St. George’s Church, Southwark. Hatton
in his New View of London 1722, writing of St. George’s Church,
Southwark says he ‘learned from the sexton that the famous Mr.
Cocker was buried in the passage at the west end near the school,’
and John Hawkins, whose school had been there, lies close by.”
(DNB)
Wing C-4833; TC II, 109. |
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