| 873C |
Descartes, Rene.
(1596-1650) Renati Des Cartes Meditationes De Prima Philosophia, In
quibus Dei Existentia, & Animae humanae a corpore Distinctio,
demonstrantur. His adjunctae sunt variae objectiones doctorum virorum
in istas de Deo & Anima deomonstrationes; Cum responsionibus Auctoris.
Editio ultima prioribus auctior & emendatior.
Amsterdam, Apud Danielem Elsevirum, 1678.
$2,200
Quarto, 6 x 7.5 in. Tenth edition. *4, *2, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, a-v4, x2,
aa-ll4. This book is bound in contemporary vellum. On the front pastedown
there is a bookplate of Richard Mummendey .
It would be hard to overstate or even sum up the importance of the
Meditations, a speculative text on universal doubt, wherein Descartes
originally penned his (now) famous dictum: Cogito ergo sum.
“Descartes is properly called the father of modern philosophy,
for it was through him that the sway of scholasticism was finally
broken and a new method and content given to philosophy. He stands
at the head of the modern rationalistic development, both in philosophy
and theology; and in his insistence on the importance of experiment
he rivals Bacon as one of the founders of English empiricism. The
rationalistic school that he established was practically dominant
till the time of Kant; and, indeed, most speculation since Descartes
has been an attempt to overcome the intellectual difficulties of his
extreme dualism. If mind and matter are absolutely opposed to each
other, how can they react on each other? This was the problem of Descartes’
successors. […] In the history of mathematics Descartes is famous
as the founder of analytic geometry. He also systematized the use
of exponents, and gave new significance to negative quantities. He
was the first to hit upon the undulatory theory of light, afterward
developed by his pupil Christian Huyghens; and in his view that the
world was evolved from a chaotic state by vortical motions he anticipated
the nebular hypothesis of Kant and Laplace.” (Schaff-Herzog)
Guibert #12; Willems 1545; Rahir 1676.
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| 909C |
Descartes, Rene. (1596-1650)
Renati Des-cartes Principia Philosophiæ.
[bound with]
Renati Des-cartes Specimina Philosophiæ: sev Dissertatio De
Methodo Recte regendæ rationis, & veritatis in scientiis
investigandæ: Dioptrice, et Meteora. Ex Gallico translata, &
ab Auctore perlecta, variisque in locis emendata.
[1-2] Amstelodami, Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, Anno 1650.
$1,800
Quarto, 5.75 x 7.25 in. Second edition. [1] þ, *-*****4, A-Z4, Aa-Nn4,
Oo2, [2] *-**4, a-z4, aa-qq4, rr2. There are hundreds of woodcut illustrations
throughout the text. This book is bound in contemporary calfskin,
the front borad is detached. The leaves are in excellent condition.
This volume contains two books by Descartes.
“It was not Galileo, but Rene Descartes who more than any other
antural philosopher determined the themes of scientific discourse
during the second half of the seventeenth century. Perhaps this was
fitting in light of Descartes’ reluctance to leave any philosophical
stone unturned. In the Discours de la method, he revealed the methode
uopon which he based his further inquiries: call into question all
received wisdom, then reconstruct philosophy on the basis of central,
self-evident principles that could not be doubted. These central principles
established, Descartes appended to the Discours examples of the application
of his method to optics, atmospheric physics and geometry.” (Barchas)
‘Descartes’s physiology grew and developed as an integral
part of his philosophy. Although grounded at fundamental points in
transmitted anatomical knowledge and actually performed dissection
procedures, it sprang up largely independently of prior physiological
developments and depended instead on the articulation of the Cartesian
dualist ontology, was entangled with the vagaries of metaphysical
theory, and deliberately put into practice Descartes’s precepts
on scientific method.” The ‘Principia Philosophiae’,
first published in 1644, seven years after the ‘Discours de la
Methode’, was one of Descartes’s last books. There is a
cohesion to this work that resulted from years of scientific observation.
“According to Baillet, over several years he studied anatomy,
dissected and vivisected embryos of birds and cattle, and went on
to study chemistry. His correspondence from the Netherlands described
dissections of dogs, cats, rabbits, cod, and mackerel; eyes, livers,
and hearts obtained from an abattoir; experiments on the weight of
the air and on vibrating strings; and observations on rainbows, parahelia,
and other optical phenomena.” (DSB)
Guibert #4 &2; Willems 1106-1107.
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| 915C |
Descartes, Rene. (1596-1650)
Renati Des-cartes Tractatus de Homine, et de Formatione Foetus Quorum
prior notis perpetuis Ludovici de la Forge, M. D. illustratur.
Amsterdam: Apud Daniel Elzevir, 1677.
$2,200
Quarto, 5.6 x 7.3 in. Third edition. a-i4, k2, A-Z4, Aa-Gg4.
94 woodcut illustrations are scattered throughout the text, beautifully
illustrating the subjects discussed. This book is bound in contemporary
quarter calf with a gilded label on the spine over marbled boards.
The title page is printed in red and black ink. The leaves have only
slight browning and staining, but nothing that impairs legibility.
Applying his method to anatomy and physiology, Descartes produced
the present work, which considers the body as an earthly machine directed
by a rational spirit located in the pineal gland. The Cartesian anatomy
and physiology advanced in the treatise are in accord with Descartes’
celestial and terrestrial mechanics.
Emphasizing the importance of Harvey’s discovery, Descartes included
a detailed description of the circulation of the blood. In addition,
the work contains accounts on nutrition and respiration, as well as
the structure of the nerves and brain. Here is illustrated the application
of the Cartesian principles to the sciences concerned with the structure
and function of bodily organs, and may be regarded as the first complete
treatise on physiology.
“The fuller working out of his physiological ideas occupied Descartes
in the early 1630’s, when he was concerned generally with the
development of his ontological and methodological views... The Traite
de l’homme was surpressed by Descartes after the condemnation
of Galileo in 1633, and although it thus had to await posthumous publication
in the 1660’s, his writing of the Traite de l’homme proved
extremely important in the further maturation of Descartes’s
physiological conceptions. The Traite de l’homme begins and ends
with a proclamation of literary and philosophical license. In the
Traite, Descartes writes, we deliberately consider not a real man
but a ‘statue’ or machine de terre expressly fashioned by
God to an approximate real man as closely as possible... Descartes
fully exercises his self-proclaimed license in the rest of the Traite.
He first surveys various physiological processes, giving for each
of them not the tradtional or neoclassical account... but mechanistic
details by which the particular function is performed automatically
in the homme...
“Digestion, for example, is for Descartes only a fermentative
process in which the particles of food are broken apart and set into
agitation by fluids contained in the stomach. Chyle and excremental
particles are then separated from one another in the filtration performed
merely by a sieve-like configuration of the pores and vascular opening
in the intestines. Chyle particles go through another filtration and
fermentation in the liver, where they thereby-- and only thereby--
acquire properties of blood. Blood formed in the liver drips from
the vena cava into the right ventricle of the heart, where the purely
physical heat implanted there quickly vaporizes the sanguinary mass.”
(DSB)
Guibert #6; Willems 1531; Rahir 1661; Copinger 1373; Wellcome 453;
Waller 2377; Osler 932; Krivatsy 3123; Garrison/Morton 574.2.
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| 440C |
Digby, Sir Kenelm.
(1603-1665) Two Treatises: In the one of which, The Nature of Bodies;
In the other, The Nature of Mans Soule Is Looked Into: In Way of Discovery
of the Immortality of Reasonable Soules.
London: Printed for John Williams, and are to be sold at the Crown
in S. Pauls Church-yard, 1665.
$2,200
Quarto in 8’s, 7.3 x 5.4 in. Fourth edition. A8, B4, (*)4, *4,
**4, ***4, A-T8,V4, Aa-Hh8, Ii6, Aaa-Ggg8, (Hhh)-(Lll)4.
Ten small woodcut and metal rule diagrams are printed in the text.
The portrait of Digby has been trimmed and has a paper repair; it
is bound opposite the title page. This copy is bound in contemporary
calfskin. It bears an armorial crest on both boards executed in gilt.
A red label is pasted on the spine. The contents are in good condition
throughout. “Digby’s Two Treatises is a landmark work in
several fields of early science. It is the first fully developed expression
of atomism or corpuscular theory, the first important defense of Harvey
on the circulation in English, a modern presentation of the nervous
system predating Descartes, and a groundbreaking work in embryology.
It also contains the first recorded patch-test for allergy; the fullest
early account in English of teaching lip-reading, and material on
conditioning anticipating Pavlov.” (DSB)
“Digby was one of the gentleman scientists of the seventeenth
century who observed, recorded and tried to explain all natural phenomena
which came their way. In their writings may be found observations
and discussions of medical and psychological topics tucked away in
unexpected contexts and therefore not linked with later formal investigations,
theories and discoveries of which they were often forerunners and
which they occasionally even anticipated. To this category belong
the four psychological observations selected here from Digby’s
works.” (Hunter and MacAlpine)
Wing D-1451.
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| 807C |
Duhamel, Jean-Baptiste.
(1623-1706) Astronomia physica, seu de luce, natura et motibus corporum
celestium. Libri duo. In priori libro de lumine, & coloribus agitur.
In posteriori universa astronomia tum speculatrix, tum practica physice,
& geometrice, citra Euclidis opem demonstatur. Accessere Petri
Petiti observationes aliquot eclipsium solis & lunae: cum dissertationibus
de latitudine luteticae declinatione magnetis, necnon de novo systemate
mundi quod anonymus dudum proposuit
Paris: apud Petrvm Lamy, 1660.
SOLD
Quarto, 6.8 x 9.3 in. First edition. þ2, *-**4, ***2, i4, A-Z4, Aa-Ee4,
+2, a-h4 The title page has a small floral woodcut vignette. There
are also 31 woodcut figures and tables. This book has been rebound
in modern full calf that has been blind-tooled in period style. The
label on the spine is done in gilt and new end leaves have been bound
in with the text.
“In 1660 he [Du Hamel] had published two works which mark the
first stage of his scientific writing. The Physical Astronomy and
On Meteors and Fossils were Latin dialogues between Theophilus, an
adherent of ancient philosophy, Menander, a Cartesian, and a tertium
quid. In the former he maintained that comets were celestial bodies--
all those within the last hundred years had had less parallax than
the moon-- and proved that generation and corruption went on in the
heavens as in the air. But he was ready to concede that comets might
be sulphureous exhalations in the ether itself, as thunderbolts were
in the air. He opposed astrology, noting the small size of such admitted
a general influence of the stars, also that of the moon to a person’s
natural temperament and aptitude.” In this work, “we see
Du Hamel influenced by modern astronomical discovery and chemical
theory, by Cartesianism and the atomic or corpuscular theory, but
with little emphasis upon experimental method, and with the presentation
of both old and new views.” (Thorndike VIII).
“Although usually designated an anatomist, this distinguished
priest and humanist had in reality no such specialized scientific
interests and indeed owes his fame primarily to the high office that
he held from 1660 to 1697 in the first great French institution...
In Paris, du Hamel completed his studies in rhetoric and philosophy
that he had begun in Caen. He immediately applied his talents to mathematics
at the scholarly institution called Academie Royale, which was being
enlivened by the Jesuits. His short treatise Elementa astronomica
(1643), intended as a primer on astronomy, testifies to his ability....
The works that he published in 1660 and 1663 assure his reputation
and reflect perfectly his scholarly personality. Directed to a lay
audience, these works outlined the then current state of physics and
of philosophical disputes. Their originality lies in the effort to
emphasize what is valuable in the ancients for the moderns, in an
interesting compilation of knowledge in the era following the death
of Descartes.” (DSB)
Houzeau & Lancaster 8755.
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| 346C |
Gesner, Conrad. (1516-1565)
Thierbuch Das ist ein kurze beschreibung aller vier fussigen Thieren
so auff der erden und in wassern wonend sampt irer waren conterfactur:
alles zum nutz und gutem allen liebhabern der kunsten Artzeren Maleren
Bildschnitzern Weydleuten und Kochen gestelt. Erstlich durch den hochgeleerten
herren D. Cunrat Gessner in Latin Gescriben yetzunder aber durch D.
Cunrat Forer zum mererem nutz aller mengklichem in das Teutsch gebracht
und in ein kurtze komliche ordnung gezogen.
Zurich: Christoffer Froschauer, 1583.
$7,500
Folio, 9.15 x 14.25 in. Second German edition. aa4, a-z6, A-D6, E4,
F6. This book is profusely illustrated with rather amazing woodcuts.
This copy is bound in modern vellum over stiff boards. Internally,
the copy is in good condition. The title page exhibits the signature
“P Holbrok” and what appears to have been a second signature
which has been cut out and the resulting lacuna repaired with old
paper. The first five pages have been expertly reinforced along the
gutter. There are paper repairs on the margins of the initial signature
that are outside of the text block. There is also a bit of damp-staining
along the margins of the book.
Gesner, who is best known for his groundbreaking work in bibliography,
was at heart a natural historian. His contemporaries knew him best
as a botanist despite lectureships in Greek and physics and a degree
in medicine. Even Cuvier referred to Gesner as “the German Pliny.”
Gesner’s interest in what we would today call zoology focused
on “animal physiology and pathology, and he is considered by
some the founder of veterinary science.” (DSB)
The present book is a German translation of his work on quadrupeds,
which was one volume of his seminal Historia Animalium that appeared
in four volumes from 1551-1558. The Historia Animalium has been called
the “starting-point of modern zoology.” (EB)
Nissen, ZBI 1552; Rudolphi, Froschauer 786; Vischer C 1007; not in
Adams.
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| 811C |
Grew, Nehemiah. (1641-1712)
Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or A Catalogue & Description
Of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society
And of the Colledge of Physitians. Whereunto is Subjoyned the Comparative
Anatomy Of Stomachs and Guts. By the same Author.
London: Printed by W. Rawlins, for the
Author, 1681.
$3,500
Folio, 7.6 x 12.5 in. First edition. A6, B-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Ddd4, A-E4,
F2 This copy has all thirty one full-paged and folding engravings,
as well as a frontisplate. These plates are most often found bound
after the text in a clump. In this copy, however, the plates have
been bound with the text to which they pertain, making for a very
pleasant reading experience, as it is not necessary to flip back and
forth searching for plates or text. This book is bound in early nineteenth
century quarter calf over worn marbled boards. The leaves themselves
are very clean and clear, although there are a couple of stains in
the margins and a few notes inked in a contemporary hand (See Le Fanu
III)
The text portion of this book consists of descriptions of mysterious
oddities collected by the Royal Society in its early days. The Society
was granted its royal charter in 1662. It was a preoccupation of many
educated men of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries across Europe
to collect bizarre and exotic objects from around the world. The far
east, the new world, and beyond—all of these remote locales yielded
their most notable artifacts, natural objects, animals, plants, machines
and more.
This intriguing and marvelous book includes descriptions of an Egyptian
mummy, a male human fetus, the skin of a moor, the skeleton of a man,
and one of a woman, the skeleton of an aborted human fetus, human
skulls, a penis, the womb of a woman, a piece of bone “voided
by Sir W. Throgmorton with his Urine,” a monkey, a sloth, the
skull of a tiger, the skull of a hippopotamus, the foretooth of a
beaver, a weasel-headed armadillo, the flying squirrel, the horns
of a Syrian goat, a monstrous calf with two heads, the skin of a rhinoceros,
the tusk of an elephant, a hairy ball taken from the stomach of a
bull in Brazil, many tortoise shells, a crocodile, a chameleon, a
senembi lizard of Brazil, the skin of a few snakes from Brazil, a
great bat from the West Indies, a bird of paradise, a great red and
blue parrot, a humming bird, the leg of a dodo, several loons, an
auk (now extinct), many eggs and nests, many whale bones, a white
shark, the head of a dolphin, the skeleton of a porpoise, a skate,
a sturgeon, a lobster, many crabs, butterflies, wasps, the nocoonaca
from the West Indies, fruits, nuts, berries, coral, stones, gems,
an air pump, a condensing engine, a weather clock, two microscopes,
an otocoustick, a reflecting telescope, a model of a winding stair
case, a double bottomed ship, a canoe, a poisoned dagger, a cider
press, Virginian money, a hammock, many American Indian every day
objects, Iceland gloves, the fan of an Indian king, a snow shoe from
Greenland, and more, much, much more. In the plates some of the subjects
include the hippopotamus skull, the buttock skin of a rhinoceros,
tortoise shells, the complete skeleton of a crocodile, the sea unicorn,
a coconut, fish, bird’s nests, shells, insects, and more.
Wing G-1952; DNB, p. 609; DSB, p. 534;
Babson #406; Garrison-Morton 297; Le Fanu III.
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| 930C |
Grew, Nehemiah. (1641-1712)
The Anatomy of Plants. With an Idea Of A Philosophical History of
Plants. And several other Lectures, Read before the Royal Society.
London: Printed by W. Rawlins, for the Author, 1682.
SOLD
Folio, 7.6 x 12.2 in. First edition. þ4, a4, B-Z4, Aa-Ii4, Kk2, Ll-Xx4,
Yy-Zz2, Aaa-Ccc2. Eighty-three full-paged engravings of which four
are double-paged of plants are bound after the text. This book is
bound in full contemporary calf. The front board is partially detached
with a tear about half way up.The edges of the panels are gilded.
The leaves are in excellent condition, beautiful and immaculately
clean and white.
This is the first book in which the microscope is used to examine
plants, following van Leeuwehoek (1673), who described insects. Grew
was also the first to describe reproduction in plants as sexual. “In
1682 Grew’s magnum opus, The Anatomy of Plants was issued. It
is probable that to Grew belongs the credit of first observing the
true existence of sex in plants. […] Haller styles him ‘industrius
ubique naturæ observator’ and Linnæus dedicated to
him the genus (of trees) Grewia in Tiliaceæ.” (DNB) The
fourth book is dedicated to Boyle. Grew edited the Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society from 1678-79. Le Fanu states, “Grew inaugurated
a new science, the anatomy and physiology of plants; no recent botanists
had moved as far beyond description and taxonomy.”
Wing G-1945; Le Fanu, pp. 98-105; Horblit 43b; Hunt 362; Nissen BI,758;
Hook/Norman 946; Plesch 243; Pritzel 3557; DNB, p. 609.
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