1 - (Music) Andrea ADAMI Osservazioni per ben regolare il coro della Cappella Pontificia tanto nelle Funzioni ordinarie che straordinarie. In Roma MDCCXI (1711), per Antonio de’ Rossi alla piazza de’Ceri.

€ 2750

Only edition. Andrea Adami da Bolsena (Bolsena 1664 - Rome 1742) began his career as a singer and later Choirmaster in the Sixtine Chapel. This is his only book, written at the acme of his career, when he was collaborating with Corelli and A. Scarlatti in the academy named “Arcadia” founded by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740), the famous patron of the late Baroque period in Rome. Cardinal Ottoboni, to whom the book is dedicated (a dedication to the Pope preceding that of Ottoboni has to be taken as a forced gesture), lived in the Palazzo della Cancelleria where he invited the most famous composers of his time, among whom Händel is prominent. The observations of Adami have a remarkable interest for the history of musical practice, as they provide indications on all aspects of the performances of the Sixtine Chapel in the most multifarious occasion, as election of a new Pope or funerals of a deceased one, or conversion of Jews. The last part, essential for the history of Renaissance and Baroque music, contains the biographies of the different Choirmasters who have preceded the author; among them the first serious biography of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is present, with a portrait. The following attempt to describe Palestrina’s life will be done only in 1828 by Baini. Among others, also a biography of Gregorio Allegri (Roma 1582-1652) is given. The book had already become scarce at the end of the XVIII century, as Becker stated: “... gehörte 1790 schon zu den größten Seltenheiten ...”.

& Becker (Darstellung der Musikliteratur, col. 160, cited by Hirsch); Hirsch I, 7; RISM B VI, 63; MGG XV, 34 (with reproduction of the portrait of Adami); Eitner I, 40; Fétis I, 18; Gregory-Bartlett I, 7; Wolffheim I, 436; not in Cat. Scheurleer and Olschki; Jean Lionnet (Performance practice in the Papal chapel during the 17^th century. In: Early music, 1987, n. XV, pp. 3-15) passim.

2 - (Gospels, Illustrated XVI^th century) Daniel AGRICOLA Passio domini nostri Iesu Christi secundum seriem quattuor evangelistarum: per fratrem Danielem agricolam ordinis minorum de observantia: accuratissima opera devotissimaque expositione illustrata: magnorunque virorum sententijs compte adornata, Basilea, Adam Petri de Langendorff, 1514.

€ 3500

Possibly fourth edition (first edition of the index – directorium - 1513) of this nicely illustrated book. The first edition was published in 1509, followed by two other ones in 1511 and 1513. The last five leaves are the "Directorium in indice passionis articulos", with a title page, beautifully framed, bearing the monogram of Urs Graf and dated 1513; later editions (counterfeits) are dated 1518. The large vignette on the title page depicts Mary with the Child, Christ preaching, three saints and a procession with a town on the background; the scene is framed by the emblematic representation of the four evangelists, each holding an open book, and four other persons each holding an horn-book with their name (Daniel vir desideriorum, Petrus princeps aptor, Jacob frater Dei, Paulus doctor gentiã). Daniel Agricola (actually Meyer) (1490 - 1540) lived in Basel and Kreuznach. A Franciscan, he was theologist, preacher and poet. He is known mainly for the present work and for the Vita Sancti Beati published in Basel in 1511. Not much of his life his known. Urs Graf (Solothurn, Switzerland, about 1485 - Basel, about 1528) "was the most important artist of the early renaissance from German Switzerland. He was active in Basel and Zurich from about 1507 until his mysterious disappearance from Basel in 1527. Graf was a member of the Goldsmiths Guild, a die-cutter, woodblock book illustrator, stain glass designer and painter, engraver, and a mercenary who periodically escaped his artisan life for military adventures in Italy. He produced the world's first etching print in 1513 and pioneered the white-line woodblock technique. By all accounts Graf's was something of a tumultuous life, frequently involving legal problems from fighting, beating his wife and consorting with prostitutes. He fled Basel for a year in 1518 after an attempted murder. Through it all Graf produced unique artworks reflecting the violence and social circumstances in which he was immersed. These lively prints and drawings incorporate elements of fantasy or the grotesque and erotic (or at least perverse) but are frequently tinged with a satirist's sense of humour. Conversely, his legacy also includes a sizeable number of purely religious prints and book illustrations. Graf almost always signed his drawings, a practice which helped establish sketch work as an individual artistic discipline rather than a mere transitional process. Urs Graf was certainly influenced by his more famous contemporary, Albrecht Dürer, and in fact copied at least one of Dürer's prints; but overall Graf pursued his own style which has influenced latter-day artists such as surrealist Kurt Seligman and also Otto Dix." (Bibliodyssey). About the woodcuts see Passavant.

& Index aureliensis I(1) p. 153 n. 101.508; Sbaralea (Supplementum Rome, 1908) I, 223, under Daniel; Zawart (The history of Franciscan preaching and of Franciscan preacher (1209-1927), New York 1928), pp. 340, 346; not in Adams, STC German, Fairfaix Murray; http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/01/graphic-mercenary.html; J. D. Passavant (Le peintre-graveur. New York, B. Franklin) III p. 428 (n. 85-104); about Urs Graf’s work see also: Lüthi (Urs Graf und die Kunst der alten Schweizer, Zürich 1928); Koegler (Hundert Tafeln aus dem Gesamtwerk des Urs Graf).

3 - (Agriculture, Horticulture) G. A. Agricola L’agriculture parfaite ou nouvelle découverte, touchant la culture & la multiplication des arbres, des arbustes et des fleurs; ouvrage fort curieux, qui renferme les plus beaux secrets de la Nature ... A Amsterdam, chez Pierre De Coup, 1720.

€ 2000

First French edition. The book had appeared originally in German in 1716-17; this French edition was preceded by a Dutch edition appeared in 1719 and followed by an English one appeared in 1721. Georg Andreas Agricola (Bauer, 1672-1738) was a physician and naturalist who spent most of his life in his native town of Regensburg. The appearance of this book made some clamour, as it seemed that Agricola claimed to be able to cause growth of vegetables at fantastic speed and must not have refrained from tricks for alluring the public and from alchemic experiments, as demonstrated by a figure where a homunculus within a flask is depicted beside a miniature fir and a cricket. In the caption of the plate he warns, with tongue in cheek, that these figures “paraissent être quelque chose mais sont néanmoins rien”. However Agricola was a sound experimentalist and this book is considered to be “the first book on cutting and grafting” (Hunt). He provided many useful indications how to reproduce plants from sections of their roots or their branches, how to graft different species of fruit plants on each other, therefore producing different fruits from only one tree. A chapter is dedicated to vineyards, with the suggestion how to increase their number and their product by cutting the branches destined to reproduction at the level of their knots. Another chapter pays a tribute to the Japanese fashion then raging by teaching how to obtain bonsai which can survive long time.

& Musset-Pathay 27; Hunt 452 (English edition); Plesch page 123 (German edition); not in Nissen and Pritzel.

4 - (Botany) Tobia AldinI (i. e. P. CASTELLI) Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantarum, quae continentur Romae in Horto Farnesiano ... Romae typis Jacobi Mascardi 1625.

€ 4400

Only edition. The authorship of this work remained undecided until recently, when became apparent that the real author was the Sicilian physician Pietro Castelli (about 1590-1661). This attribution, already made by Pritzel on the basis of the final part of the foreword, is confirmed also in the gratulatory ode of the Belgian priest Jacobus Cornelius Lummenaeus on the third preliminary leaf. The authorship of Castelli and its concealment were apparently a public secret, to be probably explained by some rivalry between himself and Aldini for the post of Director of the Farnesian Botanical Garden, then owned by Aldini. The first botanical garden of Europe had been opened in Padua in 1591 and was followed by many others throughout the continent; that of the Cardinal Edoardo Farnese (1573-1626) was one of the most splendid of his time. Because of his high-placed relations Farnese, a son of Alessandro Farnese, who was a nephew of Charles V of Spain, could acquire most uncommon specimens of exotic plants, among which the then exotic mimosa, whose first description is present in this book. Among the depicted plants the American species as yucca, passion fruit, American aloes etc. Other are from the old world, as e. g. cinnamon (with a long note concerning Garcia de Orta). At the end of the text a table is found correlating various diseases with the therapeutic action of the plants described in the volume. The splendid unsigned illustrations are copper-engravings instead of the usual woodcuts. This was a technique only exceptionally used in the beginning of the XVII century for the representation of plants. In fact the only books of the period illustrated with copper-engravings of plants were those of Fabio Colonna (Phytobasanos and Ekphrasis), the last of which also printed by Mascardi. It is interesting to note that Colonna dedicated his Ekphrasis to Edoardo Farnese and that Castelli seemed to have some enmity for him, as the many references to Colonna in the text of the present work are mostly in the negative.

& Alden/Landis 625/49; Pritzel 1590; Nissen 13; Hunt 208; Plesch 125; Krivatsy 2247; Cobres 581: “Selten und sauber”.

5 - (Astronomy) Alexander of Aphrodisia and Alessandro Piccolomini In quatuor libros Meteorologicorum Aristotelis commentatio lucidissima … Huc insuper accessit de Iride brevis tractatus … Venetiae, apud Hieronymum Scotum, 1548.

€ 3500

Second edition of the Latin translation of the commentaries of Alexander of Aphrodisia to the scientific works of Aristotle. The first edition appeared in 1540, equally by Scotus. This appears to be a completely novel edition, with a different number of leaves and a different printer’s mark with respect to the first one. The Greek original had been printed only in 1527 by the heirs of Aldus. Alexander of Aphrodisia “was a Peripathetic philosopher of the II^nd - III^rd century among whose masters were Herminus, Sosigenes and Aristocles. His fame rests mainly on his interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrines, the scholarly qualities of which earned him the sobriquet of ‘The interpreter’ ... (His commentaries) on Meteorologica survive in their entirety ... In Aristotle’s writing all change is ultimately reduced to locomotion, and prime locomotion is attributed to celestial bodies (fixed stars and planets, and their spheres). Three explanations are given of the cause of this locomotion. One is that all celestial bodies are moved by being attracted to their Unmoved Mover as lovers are attracted to the objects of their love; the second is that they consist of an element, the ether, which by nature moves eternally, incessantly, and circularly; the third is that they are animated and moved by their souls. Alexander tried to reconcile these three explanations. Ether is not animated, and the soul is its nature. This soul desires to imitate the Unmoved Mover, which it does by eternally circling him ... Alexander devotes a comparatively large amount of space to the problem of vision and related problems ... Alexander refutes in great detail the Stoic doctrine of total interpenetration of bodies ... The magnet attracts because iron desires it, just as other things, although inanimate, desire that which nature has destined for them ... In any history of the problem of squaring the circle Alexander is likely to be mentioned ...“ (DSB). The translator of the present work, Alessandro Piccolomini, acquired fame with his “Della sfera del mondo”, appeared in 1540, where he provides the first stellar atlas. However Piccolomini (Siena 1508 -1579) studied in Padua, where, as a member of the Accademia degli Infiammati, he developed an interest in mathematics and astronomy. He tried to create a corpus of science in Italian, rather avoiding the use of Latin as it had been common among contemporary scientists. Beyond the above-cited “Della sfera del mondo” he composed also a work on planetary theory (Venice 1558), where he reduces the value of the Ptolemaic planetary theory to a useful tool for the practical astronomer, and a book on the much debated question, which between earth or water occurs in greater quantity on our planet (this question is also debated by Alexander in the present book, and we can surmise that the conclusions of Alexander have inspired Piccolomini), where he tries for the first time to solve the problem experimentally, and a book on philosophy of science. This translation of Alexander together with his short tract on rainbow was published while he still was a student in Padua. In it he comments on the opinions of Aristotle on rainbow, and supplements the commentaries of the same Alexander and Olympiodorus. Interestingly he maintains that rainbow only possesses three basic colours, anticipating authors of the XIX century such as Brewster. The present book preserves its original stiff boards, decorated with wax drawings. We cannot say whether this was a common fact by this publisher or other Venetian publishers, but no similar binding is known to us.

& Adams A-687; DSB I, pages 117-120; Sarton I, pages 317-319; Houzeau-Lancaster 891; R. Suter (The scientific work of Alessandro Piccolomini, ISIS 60(2), pages 210-222), passim.

6 - (Architecture) Francesco Algarotti Saggio sopra l'architettura. Venezia, nella stamperia Graziosi a S. Apollinare, 1784.

€ 600

Francesco Algarotti (Venezia 1712 - Pisa 1765) "Influential figure of the Enlightenment, from Venice. He became artistic adviser to King Frederick II of Prussia and was largely responsible for introducing Palladianism to Potsdam and Berlin. His writings on architecture (much influenced by Lodoli, from whom he gleaned a considerable part of his ideas) were of considerable importance in the development of architectural theory ...". (Curl). "The «Saggio sopra l'architettura» dated 1756 (first published in his «Opere varie» 1757) was of considerable significance for the architectural theory of his time. Although later accused of plagiarism, Algarotti deserves credit for having been the first - together with Girolamo Zanetti - to promulgate the doctrines of Lodoli. In this he did not so much follow the anti-Vitruvian (see Vitruvius) utterances of Lodoli regarding material function, representation, and ornament in architecture, but rather was more generally interested in the possibility of a theoretical ("philosophical") discussion of architecture as propagated in his «Saggio». Algarotti's role was that of a mediator rather than an independent creative thinker in architectural theory. Hence, his influence as a catalyst is all the more highly to be valued" (Werner Oechslin in Placzek).

& J. S. Curl (A dictionary of Architecture. Oxford Univ. Press, 1999 ) p. 15; Angelo Comolli (Bibliografia storico-critica dell'architettura civile ed arti subalterne, Roma, Stamperia Vaticana, 1788 - 1792; reprint Milano, Labor, 1964) IV, pp. 297-304; Emil Kaufmann (L'architettura dell'illuminismo, Torino, Giulio Einaudi editore, 1966) pp. 116-119; Adolf Placzek (Macmillian Encyclopedia of Architects, New York - London, The Free Press - Collier Macmillian Publishers, 1982) I, p.68; Julius Schlosser Magnino (La letteratura artistica, Firenze - Vienna, La Nuova Italia - Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, 1956) p. 664; Universal Catalogue of books on Art I, 17 (for other editions). Not in Fowler, Millard Italian, Avery, Vagnetti, Cicognara, Vinet.

7 - (Drawings, Architecture) ANON Album.

€ 1300

The pictures were probably designed by an unidentifiable designer as theatre sceneries. In fact they have some “air de famille” with known models designed e. g. by Sanquirico. The hand of the artist is surely educated and appropriate models have been chosen, as e. g. Piranesi (Carceri d’Invenzione) for plates 5 and 9 and Bibbiena for most of the remaining plates. The treatment of shadows is masterly and suggests that the scenes have not been drawn in a studio but rather “en plein air”. The views of towns remind with certainty some towns of Northern Italy, the first being probably Verona.

8 - (Papercuts) ANON Album. Coloured papercuts. No date, but between 1845 and 1847.

€ 5000

Amazing collection of paper-cut flowers. The delicate colors of the card-board leaves (pale ivory, green, pink and white) produce a beautiful contrast with the bright colored paper-cuts (dark pink, green, yellow and turquoise). Among the flowers are easy to identify forsythia, lily-of-the-valley, chrysanthemum, maidenhair, forget-me-not, and even a bunch of corn-oars. Papercutting is a very old and worldwide practiced art. Papercuts can be obtained from plain or folded, black, white or colored paper, they can be symmetrical or asymmetrical, purely decorative or used for different purposes, can depict the most different subjects (portrait silhouettes, biblical and religious subjects, landscapes, valentines, and endless others) and vary from the very simple to the most intricate patterns. They have known periods of wide popularity, afterwards they were almost forgotten and recently they became popular again. The best known papercuts are Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Polish, Jewish, German, Swiss and Dutch, but this art was actually practiced all over Europe and America. An exhaustive history of papercutting can be found in Rich, an excellent bibliography in Kreisel. Even though flowers can be supposed to be a quite common subject in European papercutting, very few examples are included in the several specialized bibliographies, mostly focusing on Chinese papercut flowers or silhouette, religious, landscape and valentine European ones. Two nice examples, both made by Otto Runge (1777-1810) are given by Knapp and by Metken. Another famous papercutter specialized in flowers "... so lifelike that they stand among the finest botanical representations - as well as cutting - ever made." was Mrs. Mary Delaney (Chris p. 15-16). Our specimen remains, as most commonly happens, anonymous, but it is reasonable to assume that the papercuts are more or less contemporary with the binding and, again out of evidence of the binding, was not the product of popular art but the pastime of a wealthy person. The embossed cardboard are signed by Dobbs "... the leading exponent of the art", in Rickards' words (p. 15). "Decorative embossing of paper has always been closely associated with Victorian social stationary, and more particularly with its pioneers, Dobbs, Kidd & Co. of London, who started business at the turn of the eighteenth century and remained active under various styles until the late 1890s." (Rickards p. 94). "The Dobbs Company of England was providing fancy paper ... as early as 1803. Eventually the company evolved into the commercial manufacture of valentines under such names as H. Dobbs and Company, Dobbs, Baily and Company, and later Dobbs, Kidd and Company." (www.antiqueshoppefl.com/archives/rreed/valentine.htm). Little can be found about the binder / seller: thanks to the exhaustive list available on BBTI it is possible to say that a Richard Nichols, Bookbinder (circulating), Bookseller (circulating), Engraver / Etcher (circulating), Printer (circulating), Stationer (circulating), was active in Birmingham, 1 New Street, from 1845 until 1847. According to the sources given in BBTI this information are gathered from contemporary postal and professional directory. That much allows identifying the date of production of this album in the range of the three years (1845-47) of Nichol's activity in Birmingham. Interestingly, a few years later, another Nichols (Geo. N.) was active as Printer & Bookbinder, Blank Book Manufacturer, in Savannah, U.S.A. (1873), and in 1884 in the same city as Book & Job Printer & Bookbinder Blank Books Specialty (Savannah Letterheads); did the heir of the circulating family business take his chance and crossed the ocean? But it is better not to leave the solid ground of scientific bibliography to enter, head first, the slippery path of conjecture, unsupported by facts.

& For the history of papercuts: Chris Rich (The Book of paper cutting. New York, Sterling publishing Co. 1993); Martha Kreisel (Papercutting. An International Bibliography and selected Guide to U.S. collections. Metuchen N. J. & London, The scarecrow press, Inc. 1994); Martin Knapp (Deutsche Schatten und Scherenbilder aus drei Jahrhunderten. München, der Gelbe Verlag, no date, but about 1915) p. 39; Sigrid Metken (Geschnittenes papier. München, Verlag Georg D. W. Xallway, 1978) ill. n. 218. For Nichols: BBTI (British Book Trade Index record, in: www.bbti.bham.ac.uk); Savannah Letterheads, part 2 1873-1901 1954 (in: www.ci.savannah.ga.us). For Dobbs: (www.antiqueshoppefl.com/archives/rreed/valentine.htm); Maurice Rickards (Collecting Printed Ephemera. New York: Abbeville Press. 1988) pages 15 and 94. George Buday (The history of the Christmas card, London, Spring books, 1964), pages 50, 51, 267.

9 - (Art exhibiton, Painting, Sculpture) ANON Il Trionfo delle belle arti renduto gloriosissimo sotto gli auspicj delle LL.AA.RR. Pietro Leopoldo Arciduca d’Austria, principe reale d’Ungheria, e di Boemia Granduca di Toscana ec.ec.ec. Maria Luisa di Borbone Archiduchessa d’Austria, Gran-Duchessa di Toscana ec.ec.ec. In occasione, che gli Accademici del Disegno in dimostrazione di profondo rispetto verso i Loro Sovrani, fanno la solenne mostra delle opere antiche di più eccellenti Artefici nella loro Cappella, e nel chiostro secondo de’PP. Della SS. Nonziata in Firenze l’Anno 1767. In firenze 1767, nella stamperia di Gio. Batista Stecchi, e Anton Giuseppe Pagani. (With an introduction by Bonso Pio BONSI).

€ 1200

First edition. Catalogue of the exhibition of old sculptures and paintings organised in Florence by the Accademia del Disegno. The descriptions of the exhibits are given together with the names of the owners who lent them for the exhibition. The introduction "Sopra l'utilità delle belle arti"(about the usefulness of fine arts) is by the Florentine learned Pio Bonso Bonsi. Quite uncommon example of XVIII^th century illustrated boards. The covers are decorated with a woodcut printed in blue. The front cover depicts three interlaced laurel crowns, a tribute to Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The back cover depicts an allegory of the three arts: the painter's palette and paintbrushes, the sculptor's instruments and a column as a symbol for architecture.

& Cicognara 1300. Schlosser Magnino 586.

10 - (Almanacs, Meteorology) ANON L'Arpa di Eolo. Almanacco meteorologico, Milano, Presso Vincenzo Ferrario, 1824.

€ 500

Only edition. The nicely watercoloured plates depict tornados, aurora borealis, a mirage and an erupting volcano. The frontispiece depicts the Arpa di Eolo (Eolo’s Harp), described in the first page of the book as a meteorological instrument composed by several strings, identical and in unison, which will sound differently according to the strength and the direction of the wind. In the author’s own words: “… Collocato questo stromento in modo di sentir l’influenza dell’aria, esso ci rende un’aarmonia alcune volte aggradevolissima; e I suoni che manda, essendo variatissimi in intensità ed estensione secondo la forza e qualità del vento che li produce, pouno indicare I più piccoli cangiamenti di tempo …”. Several meteorological and geological phenomenons are described; such as winds, rain, hail, dew, snow, mirage, aurora borealis and rainbow. A long appendix is devoted to volcano and tides. The last part is actually the almanac (Giornale per l’anno bisestile 1824), including the eclipses expected during the year, a calendar, several practical information, such as arrivals and departures of stagecoaches to and from different places, opening hours of different offices, and a table with the value and conversion rates of several currencies. This kind of publication was quite frequent during the nineteenth century. “... Si assiste ora al fiorire di questo genere letterario e ad una sua considerevole evoluzione. Escono ancora, un po’ in tutte le città, pubblicazioni di tipo prettamente astrologico-meteorologico come L’arpa di Eolo. Almanacco meteorologico stampato a Milano presso Vincenzo Ferrario, ... Alle rubriche legate al trascorrere del tempo e alle numerose notizie utili per il vivere quotidiano, a qualche sonetto o breve componimento in prosa propri delle pubblicazioni del secolo precedente, si vanno via via aggiungendo informazioni di carattere politico-sociale e scientifico, reportage, giochi e passatempi con il proposito di dilettare e istruire i lettori e si nota sempre più una differenziazione dei contenuti e degli obiettivi che le diverse testate si pongono e degli influssi delle testate straniere, soprattutto inglesi e francesi, che subiscono.” (Barducci). A nice little book.

& Manuela Barducci (Editor) (Almanacchi Lunari Calendari Strenne. Comune di Firenze Assessorato alla cultura, Biblioteca Comunale centrale, 2006) 65; apparently only one copy of this almanach is present in Italian libraries (Biblioteca Comunale Centrale di Firenze), also for the year 1824.

11 - (Metallurgy) ANON Memoire instructif Contre le Plomb laminé. A Paris chez Antoine Boudet, Imprimeur du roi & du Châtelet, rue S. Jacques, 1752.

€ 600

First edition. The anonimous author compares the qualities of two different methods for the production of lead: he praises the advantages of the plomb coulè against the plomb laminè. Apparently, the question is still open: "La question est toujours d'actualité et toujours sans réponse ferme et définitive. Tout d'abord, jusqu'en 1729, époque des premiers laminoirs, le plomb coulé sur sable était la seule fourniture possible et probablement de qualité irrégulière, puisque réalisé à la demande par des artisans, puis ce savoir faire peu à peu s'est érodé jusqu'à pratiquement disparaître. Seuls quelques ateliers savent encore le maîtriser. En théorie, le plomb coulé sur sable offre des qualités de résistance à la corrosion et de résistance mécanique, en particulier au fluage, supérieur au plomb laminé. Dans un cas comme dans l'autre, le degré de pureté du métal semble primordial, ainsi que la méthode de mise en oeuvre pour assurer la longévité d'une telle couverture." (http://www.lrmh.culture.fr). We were able to trace only one copy in the 'Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal' in Paris.

& http://www.lrmh.culture.fr/lrmh/w_publications/metal/pbcoule.html; FRBNF39317458; Not in Barbier.

12 - (Pottery, Trade catalogue) ANON Pattern book of Leeds pottery. Leeds, no date but about 1814 (from the watermark).

€ 6000

Second edition, second issue of one of the first pattern books printed in England by a pottery manufacturer (a Wedgwood catalogue was first published in 1774). The first edition, appeared in 1783 and republished in 1794, contained only 40 plates; a second edition saw the light about 1800 and contained 31 new plates. This enlarged edition was reprinted on paper whose watermark bore the date ‘1814’. This is the first complete edition, containing designs absent in the earlier versions, and is the edition chosen for reproduction by Towner in 1963. The present copy exhibits a further reason of interest, as it contains an unrecorded plate not reproduced in Towner. The plate reproduced by Towner (item no. 193), even though it is defined as a ‘water closet pot’, definitely depicts a washbasin with a tap, the other plate (also marked item 193) shows what is clearly a water closet pot. A possible explanation is that the compiler of the list of the items (which was sold separately, see Towner) has replaced the original figure 193 (water closet pot), with the other (washbasin) but has not amended the description of the item in the list. The full gamut of the pieces produced by the Leeds factory is reproduced, extending from magnificent to humbler manufacts such as chamber pots, bidets, ladles and spoons. The Leeds pottery factory was founded in 1770; in 1775 William Hartley became a partner to the firm. Hartley desired to emulate Wedgwood and aspired to equal his success. “Yet he evidently possessed too much character of his own to become a mere imitator of his rival, with the result that the Leeds wares, and particularly the creamware on which the Pottery largely concentrated for the next twenty years, though they showed the influence of the latest trends in design, still possessed a living quality, had every appearance of being hand-made and looked as though the potter and decorator enjoyed both making and decorating them: and it is these qualities that have endeared them to the heart of the collector ... Many of the Leeds designs were derived from the work of the silversmith and one finds instructions in the early drawing books directing the potter to fashion his ware ‘as done in silver’. Consequently during the period 1775-1802 full use was made of pierced openwork decorations. This was a class of work in which the Leeds pottery particularly excelled. The work was sharp and clean, the arrangements and shapes of the piercing were ingenious and delightful, and the general pattern well related to the ware it decorated ... The Leeds pattern book ... includes a great many examples of pierced ware, varying from very small pieces such as salt, strainers and egg-cups to magnificent cruets and chestnut baskets ... The old-fashioned shell-like forms now agve way to swags, urns, hunks, goat’s heads and acanthus leaves. In spite, hwever. Of the taming influence of the new taste, the Leeds creamware perhaps more than any other retained a great deal of its old vigour and originality. The wares were well-porportioned and balanced, the ornament was restrained and a sense of refinement in the potting and desing was never lost sight of. Some of the wares produced by the Leeds pottery at this time testify to the prodigious technical skill of its potters. Large centre-pieces more than two feet high, of elaborate design and intricate moulded decoration, made in several parts and complete with removable baskets and bottles ... ; urns with refined and complicated modelling, made to be used as candelabra ... elaborate designs for tureens, cockle-pots and pots-pourris, often enriched with figures ...    were among the most ambitious productions of the pottery ... Side by side with these extravagance the humbler pieces continued to be made with much the same artistry and skill as before.“ (Towner).

& Solon (Ceramic literature) page 196; D. Towner (The Leeds pottery, London, Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1963) pages 16, 34-35 and passim; D. Towner (Creamware, London, Faber & Faber, 1978) pages 214-216; not in Kat. Berl.

13 - (Carnival, Gastronomy) ANONIMUS Veronensis Pro venerdie gnoccolario. Epigramus Bislongus. Veronae, ex Torcolis Ramanzinianis, 1790.

€ 800

Broadside concerning a Carnival celebration: a long poem describing the event and giving detailed instructions about how to prepare the "gnocchi". The "gnocchi" (potato dumplings) are a typical first course in several Italian regions. The cheese grater depicted in the woodcut is a tool employed to obtain the distinctive striped surface of these small, egg-shaped dumplings (necessary to let the dressing stick as much as possible). The stripes are obtained rolling each dumpling on a grater, but a fork can also be used. The celebration advertised is the Dumpling's Bacchanal or Baccanale dello Gnocco (venerdì gnocolàr in dialect); it is the most important event of the Carnival and it takes place on its last Friday (Venerdì Grasso). Its origins seem to be as ancient as the Roman rites in celebrations of the goddess of fertility; historically its birth is considered to be in the year 1531. Due to a famine the price of the wheat was enormously increased and the bakers refused to buy flour to bake the bread; the hungry population, especially in the poor quarter of San Zeno, assailed the baker's shops in the hope to find bread. In order to avoid worst riots a commission of wealthy citizens was formed, with the task to distribute food to the population. Among them was the doctor and philosopher Tommaso de Vico who freely gave bread, wine, butter, flour and cheese to the inhabitants of San Zeno, on Carnival's last Friday. Since then every year on the same day the municipality of Verona distributes food. The legend goes that was De Vico to leave in his will a sum to the municipality, to be used to this purpose; even though nothing of the kind was found in Vico's will, he is still considered the founder of this tradition. Every year a Carnival's king or Father Dumpling (Papà dello Gnocco) is chosen; with several other masks representing the different quarters of the town he parades trough the streets, exhibiting a huge fake tummy filled with dumplings. Another character (Prince Reboano) distributes to the crowd noodles, tripe and sausages. The Dumpling feast, suspended during the WWII, is still celebrated. Further information about this popular celebration can be easily found online.

& http://www.popolari.arti.beniculturali.it/lefeste/framedettaglio.asp?nomecampo=Nome&codicetipologia=1&codicefesta=28&numerotesto=1&lettera=C;  http://it.geocities.com/giulianoverona/storie/bacanal.html;  http://www.larenadomila.it/bacanal/storia.htm.

14 - (Trade) ANON Tariffa per li pesi, e prezzi de’ tempi correnti per la fiera del Pavaglione di Bologna. (No date, place and publisher, but probably Bologna, second half of the XVIII century).

€ 3000

Probably only edition. Several volumes of “Tariffe” have been issued in Italy during the centuries, but this is apparently the first one where the prices valid for one fair in particular are provided, the others being tables of change or duties on merchandise. The Fair of Pavaglione began in 1449 in a pavilion (Pavaglione in the dialect of Bologna) near a portico flanking the Cathedral church of San Petronio. The portico took the name of Pavaglione, which it keeps still today. The staple merchandise traded in the fair were silkworms, even though traders of different items later joined the venue. The fair ceased around 1880. The industry of silk had begun in Bologna already in 1272, when a silk factory had been built outside the wall ring. Interestingly, a previous owner of this manual has added a thumb index with manuscript figures for ease of consultation.

& ICCU: IT\ICCU\UBOE\048696 (only copy retrieved in KVK, at the University of Bologna); not in Riccardi and in Kress.

15 - (Astronomy) Aristoteles. Libri quatuor de Coelo, Argyropylo Byzantio Interprete. Parisiis, Ex officina Prigentii Calvarini ad Geminas Cyppas in Clauso Brunello, 1538.

€ 2500

Extremely rare edition, printed at the uncommon press of Prigent Calvarin (Britain, 1518-1566). Not much is known about Calvarin: until 1520 he did not indicate his name and address on the works he published. Afterward he worked at the address previously occupied by the publisher Jean de Gourmant, to whom he succeeded and whose widow he married in 1523. The Hellenist Jean Argyropulo (Constantinople ca. 1410 - Rome 1473) translated several works of Aristoteles into Latin and was the teacher of Lorenzo de Medici. We were able to trace only one copy of this edition in public libraries (BNF: "Inconnu des bibliographes"). Less uncommon seems to be an edition of 1535 by the same translator and publisher (about 3 copies worldwide).

& Not in Riley, Cranz, Hoffmann, STC, Adams. No copy of this edition in NUC, BL, World Catalogue; 1 copy in the BNF, FRBNF35284955. About Calvarin: Philippe Renouard (Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens. Paris, Minard, 1965) p. 66 and Silvestre 137 and 994 (cited by Renouard).

16 - (Drawing) B. Nouveau livre d’Académie, pour aprendre à dessiner par Mr. B*** de l’Académie de Peinture et Sculpture. A Paris chez Vaneck (no date but after 1649).

€ 2000

Unrecorded drawing book. The nice plates show mostly details of the human figure, many depicting faces with various expressions and belonging to different characters, as old people, girls and children; two plates depict animals such as dogs and horses. The use of the claire-obscure is very skilful. The plates are numbered 1-26, the last two plates are without number. The last plate is the only one depicting a pastoral scene and is signed S. D. Bella (Jombert, dated about 1649). It differs starkly from the others and may have been inserted in this collection for comparison. The other engravings are only signed with a “B” monogram; an attribution to Della Bella should however be ruled out because of stylistic reasons. The monogram appears not to be present in Nagler or in Ris-Paquot and the bibliography provides no further light. The publisher doesn't help either to gather more information. At least three Vanecks worked in Paris: the first one, Andrè (publisher, book- and map-seller) was active from an unknown date until 1700, the two others (both publishers) at a later time (Charles, about 1697 - after 1744 and François, about 1695 - after 1733) (www.stub.unibe.ch). Most likely the present work was published by Andrè Vaneck, but it brings us no closer to discover the author or even the exact year of publication of the present work.

& Not in Nagler, Ris-Paquot, Kat. Berlin, Guilmard; Barbier, Quérard; no copies in NUC and Karlsruhe KVK. For Vaneck: http://www.stub.unibe.ch/stub/ryhiner/mapmak/v1.html. For Della Bella Jombert 142.5.

17 - (Painting, Sculpture, Architecture) Filippo Baldinucci Raccolta di alcuni opuscoli sopra varie materie di pittura, scultura ed architettura ... In Firenze, appresso Andrea Bonducci, 1755.

€ 1100

First joint edition of this collection of essays, appeared previously in different dates. Filippo Baldinucci (Florence 1624 - 1696) was one of the foremost art writers in Italy, to whom a basic biography of Bernini and other biographies of painters are due. The first essay of this volume is the letter to Marquis Capponi on some questions relating to painting. Appeared for the first time in 1681 and again in 1687, it concerns different problems, i. e. whether art criticism should be exerted only by artists or also by knowledgeable amateurs, if there is a sure rule to distinguish an original painting from a copy, how to attribute paintings and whether it should be allowed to copy famous paintings and the consideration in which these copies should be held. The second piece is the dialogue “La veglia” (The vigil) in which Baldinucci takes a stand in defence of his work “Notizie dei professori del disegno ...” (On the life of famous painters) against the polemist Cinelli. It appeared first in 1684 and was reissued in 1690. The third essay is entitled simply “Lezione” (Lesson) and is an erudite discussion on the differences between ancient and modern painting. The first edition appeared in 1692. The fourth essay was entitled “Lettera sopra i pittori del XVI secolo” (Lecture on the XVI century painters) and this is its first independent edition, having appeared previously in 1751 in the X^th volume of the Symbolae literariae by Gori. To these essays of Baldinucci is joined the essay on the statue of St. George made by Donatello and erected on the façade of the Orsanmichele church in Florence, written by Francesco Bocchi (1548 - 1618), a polymath born in Florence, author i. a. of essays on military art and on the monuments of Florence. “Bella e splendida edizione, la quale contiene dilettevoli ragionamenti utili assai, in particolare a chi vuol conoscere e gustare le tre arti suddette...” (Comolli).

& Comolli I, 313-315; Gamba 1764; Schlosser page 623; Vinciana 4333; this edition not in Cicognara, who notes that the booklets included in this book are extremely rare to be found in their original edition.

18 - (Coffee, Typography, Bodoni) Barotti, L. Il caffè. Canti due. Parma, Stamperia Reale (Giambattista Bodoni), 1781.

€ 1500

First edition of a rare and rather early Bodoni imprint. Printed at the author's own expense, it was a wedding gift to the couple Luigi Onesti - Costanza Falconieri. Lorenzo Barotti (1724 - 1801) a Jesuit was a preacher and a scholar. He wrote several learned works and some poems (La Fisica, L’origine delle Fontane, Il Caffè), where he displays a good knowledge of L. Ariosto’s poetry. (Laterza). The two poems in the present work, devoted to coffee and its various virtues, are written in the form of an argument between Venus and Athena. They deal with the coffee plant, its flowers, shape, colour and the effects after consumption, including a story about hyperactive sheep and a distraught shepherd. At the end Zeus intervenes and argues that coffee will be of great importance in the future. According to Westbury “I believe this to be the only book of gastronomic interest printed by Bodoni”. Paleari knows three other editions published in 1789, 1803 and in1821-23. The ex libris is designed by Johannes Norbertus (Johan) Buning, a Dutch artist (Amsterdam 1893 -1963).

& Laterza (Dizionario enciclopedico della letteratura italiana, Bari - Roma, Laterza - Unedi, 1966 – 1970) vol I, p. 271; De Backer - Sommervogel I, pp. 908-910; Paleari 1546 (1547-1549 for later editions); Gamba n. 1241 (p. 586); Brooks No. 193. Mueller, Kaffee, 14; Westbury p. 20; B.IN.G. 154; Not in Bitting, Simon, Vicaire, Oberle. About Buning: http://www.marktplaza.nl/J-Buning-1893-1963-aquarel-3833890.php.

19 - (Physics) Jakob Bernoulli Dissertatio de gravitate aetheris. Amstelaedami (sic), apud Henr. Wetsteinium, 1683.

€ 3400

First edition, reprinted in the series “Landmarks of science” in 1973. “Jakob Bernoulli (Basel 1654 - 1705) came from a line of merchants ... Bernoulli received his master of arts in philosophy in 1671, and a licentiate in theology in 1676; meanwhile he studied mathematics and astronomy against the will of his father. In 1676 he went as a tutor to Geneva ...; he then spent two years in France, familiarizing himself with the methodological and scientific opinions of Descartes, among whom was Nicolas Malebranche. Bernoulli’s second educational journey, in 1681-82, took him to the Netherlands, where he met mathematicians and scientists, especially Jan Hudde, and to England, where he met Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. The scientific results of these journeys were his inadequate theory of comets (1682) and a theory of gravity which was highly regarded by his contemporaries (1683) ... (In the Dissertatio he developed) t he theory that seeks to explain natural phenomena by assuming collisions between particles of the ether ... “ (DSB). “His lasting fame dates from the year 1684 (sic), when the great Von Leibnitz published his treatise “De gravitate aetheris”. (Mottelay). “One of the earliest works of the great Basle mathematician and physicist. It contains an explanation and an enlargement of Descartes’ theory of vortices and attempts to explain the cause of gravitation and capillarity. The accuracy of Boyle-Mariotte law is doubted and some of Newton’s great conceptions on ether are anticipated. Prof. Ball says: ‘I believe that Bernoulli was the first to denote the accelerating effect of gravity by an algebraic sign g, and he thus arrived at the formula V² equals 2gh’. ” (Babson).

& DSB II, pages 46-51; Mottelay page 147; Babson (Supplement) page 6; Bierens De Haan 292 (calling for three plates only); Cat. Weil XVI, 27; not in Gray and Wallis. On Ignaz Karl von Sternberg see Wurzbach XXXVIII, 277, 21.

20 - (Medicine, Parassitology) Giovanni Cosimo BONOMO Osservazioni intorno ai pellicelli del corpo umano ... e da lui con altre osservazioni scritte in una lettera all'Illustrissimo Sig. Francesco Redi. Firenze, 1687, per Piero Matini, all'Insegna del Leon d'Oro.

€ 6000

First edition, partly translated into English by R. Mead in 1703 and reproduced in 1928 together with the notes of Mead. This is the main claim to celebrity of Giovanni Cosimo Bonomo (Leghorn 1666 - Florence 1696). Bonomo got his title of MD in 1682 and passed the qualifying examination for professing medicine in Tuscany in 1683. He served as ship physician on the galleys of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Later on, he became physician to the Grand Duke's daughter. Since she had married the Palatine elector, Bonomo was obliged to follow her to Dusseldorf and remained there until, for health reasons, he was obliged to return to Italy, only to die soon afterwards. "Bonomo belonged to the biological school that originated with Galileo. Inspired by the research that had enabled his teacher Francesco Redi to disprove the theory of spontaneous generation of insects in 1668, and availing himself of Giacinto Cestoni's skill with the microscope, Bonomo, in his Osservazioni ... affirmed that scabies is caused by mites. As a matter of fact, the mites of patients suffering from scabies had been known for some time, but they were considered a consequence and not a cause of the disease. With the aid of the microscope it was demonstrated that this arachnid reproduces by means of eggs and that it possesses an oral apparatus with which it penetrates the skin. Hence, Bonomo resolved to adopt local therapy aimed to killing the mites, instead of the general therapy that had previously been used. The results thus obtained enabled him to conclude that the mites were the cause of the disease. It followed that scabies is transmitted by the mites form a victim to a healthy person. Therefore, it is a "live" infection, of which Bonomo's work constituted the first clinical and experimental proof." (DSB). "Bonomo and Cestoni published their findings in the form of a letter to Redi, which bore Redi's corrections and additions." (Norman). "First clinical and experimental proof of a microparasite. Bonomo observed Sarcoptes scabiei, the scabies mite. This gave researchers grounds to think in terms of objective, exogenous pathogenic agents as the cause of disease ... (Garrison & Morton). The discovery of Bonomo, which had aroused a vast interest when it was made available to the public, was quickly forgotten, and the discovery of Sarcoptes as a causative agent of scabies was repeated by S. F. Renucci in 1834.

& DSB II, page 291; Garrison & Morton 4012; Heirs of Hippocrates 716; Krivatsy 1522; Waller 1288; Norman 265 and Norman sale 310; Weil catalogues XXIV, 45: "This small book is very rare".

21 - (Travels, Turkey, Poland) Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich Giornale di un viaggio da Costantinopoli in Polonia … con una sua relazione delle rovine di Troia ed in fine il prospetto delle opere nuove matematiche del medesimo autore. Bassano, (Remondini), 1784.

€ 1500

First Italian edition. Boscovich wrote this journal in Italian. His friend Hennin, whom Boscovich had known in Constantinople, translated it and had it published in Lausanne in 1772, but Boscovich did not acknowledge that translation since it was full of faults and omissions. A German translation appeared in 1779. This edition, the only one edited by the same Boscovich, contains additionally the account of his visit to the remnants of Troy and a prospectus of the collected mathematical works which he published the following year with Remondini. Boscovich left for Constantinople in 1761 together with the Venetian envoy Pietro Correr. “In the Tenedos strait they got on to a Turkish galleon and travelled along the coast opposite to Tenedos. Boscovich described the sight of the great ruins, called the ruins of Troy. They visited the supposed site of Homer’s ancient Troy, which 100 years later Schliemann was to excavate. They examined the ruins, measured them, admired the marble, granite, porphyry, the large theatre, the temple, the dry bed of the river to the sea but, Boscovich comments, they did not see any Greek inscriptions or gravestones in the place which the Turks called Eski Stambul – old Stamboul ... His Relazione delle rovine ... was not published till 1784 together with an Aggiunta in which the article on Troy in the Encyclopédie de la Martinière is corrected.” (Whyte). Boscovich stayed in Constantinople until May 1762, lodging in the French embassy, carrying out archeological inspections and being a welcome guest in the Western diplomatic colony. Following the death of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia alliances shifted, with as a consequence the weakening of the alliance between France and Russia and several complications in the Polish situation. Boscovich decided to come back to Europe and go to Poland, ostensibly to visit some fellow Jesuits there and possibly with a hidden mission. He left in the company of the British ambassador James Porter, a learned man and an excellent amateur scientist, his family, the secretary of the Polish embassy, the son of the Polish chargé d’affaires and one Dr. Mackenzie. Boscovich composed an impromptu Latin poem at the request of Porter while they were travelling together along the Sea of Marmara. Afterwards the party moved through European Turkey and Bulgaria before arriving at Galatzi in Romania. Later on they were in Jassy, the capital of Moldavia, where they lodged in the summer residence of the Voivoda of Moldavia. They passed subsequently through Czernowitz and eventually reached Kamenetz Podolski, where he met some old Jesuit acquaintances in the Jesuit seminar. “Boscovich was a keen observer and on his journey from May 24th to July 15th [1762] kept a revealing and sensible record devoid of any literary embellishment. He wrote it sometimes when the rest of the company was playing cards or performing quadrilles. His diary presents great interest for it is one of the few travel records of the XVIII century that covers that area of Turkey, Bulgaria and Moldavia. Small wonder that it aroused great interest when it was subsequently published.” (Whyte). The prospectus of the mathematical works is an accurate albeit short presentation of the contents of the five volumes of his works.

& DSB II, pages 326-332; Whyte pages 72-76; Fossati Bellani 110; compare Atabey 137; not in Blackmer and Riccardi.

22 - (Astronomy, Geodesy) Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich and Christopher Maire Voyage astronomique et géographique dans l’état de l’Eglise ... A Paris, chez N. M. Tilliard, 1770.

€ 2500

First French edition, augmented by the same author. The translator was the Jesuit F. Hugon, who adopted “l’abbé Châtelain” as a pseudonym. The original edition had appeared in Rome in 1755. Ruggero Boscovich (Dubrovnik 1711 – Milan 1787) is renowned as the author of the “Philosophiae naturalis theoria” and as the last polymath in the Renaissance tradition. ”Early in his career his interest was drawn to the problem of the size and the shape of the Earth, an issue intensively discussed in the first half of the XVIII century, since its resolution was thought to be crucial in an eventual choice between a Cartesian cosmology of vortices … and a Newtonian one of inertial motion under attractive forces … He … collaborated with an English colleague, Christopher Maire … in surveying the length of two degrees of the meridian between Rome and Rimini. The onerous work took three years. Its results confirmed … the geodetic consequences of unevenness in the earth’s strata, the possibility of determining surface irregularities by such measurements, as well as the deviation of meridians and parallels from a properly spherical shape … Boscovich employed novel methods for measuring the base line in his surveys, and he developed an exact theory of errors and learned to employ his instruments to the most accurate effect. The earliest device for verifying the points of division on the edge of such an instrument originated with Boscovich, who determined from the inequalities of their chords that the circular arcs on the border of the instrument, although theoretically equal, were not in fact so … The method of compensating errors being applicable to astronomical as well as geodetical observations, he took an important step toward the newer practical astronomy, which for most astronomers begins with Friedrich Bessel. In the French edition … Boscovich includes the first theory of the combination of observations based on a minimum principle for determining their most suitable values, making use of absolute values instead of their squares, as Gauss later did in his classical method of least squares.” (DSB). “Part one describes past studies on the shape of the earth and gives a vivid account of the history of the journey. Part two presents Maire’s calculations. Part three corrects the existing geographical map. Part four is one of the few treatises of that time on practical astronomy. Part five is devoted to the theories of geodesy and Boscovich stressed that only simple geometry was used for solving many problems. … Maire and Boscovich had determined the height of the Pole with greater precision than had been done before. Their observations had also confirmed Bradley’s theory of the aberration of light ... It was a satisfaction to Boscovich that in 1770 his work on the Meridian appeared in a French translation, for it was worthy to be placed on a level with the works of Maupertuis, Clairaut, Bouguer, La Condamine, Cassini de Thury, and La Caille ... To the French edition measurements taken in Moravia, Styria, Hungary, Piedmont and America were added together with a comparison of these measurements from which Boscovich had drawn conclusions on the density, size and the elliptical shape, of the earth.“ (Whyte). “La misura del Boscovich é riguardata dai geodeti come una delle operazioni più belle ed esatte fino allora eseguite per la determinazione del meridiano; onde quest’opera é tenuta in molto pregio dagli scienziati e dagli studiosi della storia delle matematiche applicate”. (Riccardi).

& DSB II, pages 326-332; Riccardi, I/1, 179; Honeyman 432; Lalande page 515; Whyte pages 43-45 and 85.

23 - (Sundials) A. BOSSE (& Girard Desargues) La manière universelle de Mr. Desargues Lyonnois, pour poser l'essieu, & placer les heures & autres choses aux cadrans au soleil. A Paris, de l’imprimerie de Pierre Des-Hayes, 1643.

€ 4500

First edition. An English translation appeared in 1659. Abraham Bosse (Tours 1602 – Paris 1676) “settled in Paris around 1625 and worked as a draughtsman and engraver … His drafting technique was obviously derived from the méthode universelle of perspective, presented by Girard Desargues as early as 1636. Bosse became Desargues’ most ardent propagandist, and it was through his efforts that Desargues’ methods achieved some success among artists of the XVII century and spread to foreign countries. The art world of the XVII century was split into vigorously warring factions. Bosse sided with Desargues, who was conducting violent polemics, and in 1643 published two treatises, La pratique du trait à preuves de M. Desargues pour la coupe des pierres, and Manière universelle de Mr. Desargues ... pour poser l’essieu & placer les heures ..., which were complex expositions of two essays that Desargues had written in 1640 on the cutting of stones and gnomonics …” (DSB). “Ce livre est le deuxième publié par Bosse ... L’influence de Desargues sur le contenu y est considérable, mais déjà la pédagogie toute cartésienne de Bosse est en oeuvre. Desargues veut déterminer l’axe du monde passant par un point B, extrémité d’une broche AB plantée en terre. Il répère les ombres C, D et F de B sur le sol, à diverses heures de la journée où le soleil brûle, et matérialise les rayons du soleil par trois verges CB, DB et FB. L’axe du monde passant par B est l’axe du cône de révolution engendré par les rayons solaires passant par B lorsque le soleil décrit en un jour sa trajectoire apparente. Les trois verges sont portées par des génératrices de ce cône. Pour déterminer alors l’axe du monde passant par B, Desargues avait proposé ... une méthode pratique utilisant des fils métalliques ... Bosse n’emploie ni des fils … ni un triangle de carton, mais une pirouette formée d’un disque et de son axe. Si cet axe passe par B et si le disque s’appuie sur les trois verges, alors la pirouette matérialise la section circulaire du cône de révolution du sommet B associé à la rotation apparente du soleil autour de l’axe du monde. Dans ces conditions l’axe BO est ‘l’essieu du cadran placé comme il doit être, et il ne reste plus qu’à l’affermir en cette position.’ L’essieu du cadran (le style) étant orienté de cette manière, son ombre indiquera les heures équinotiales d’égale durée. ” (Abraham Bosse savant graveur). Girard Desargues (Lyon 1591 - ?, 1661) became acquainted with the leading French mathematicians while living in Paris and began to publish his original works in 1636. In that year two works appeared, one of which contained the statement of his theory about perspective in a nutshell. “Desargues’s goal was at once to breathe new life into geometry, to rationalize the various graphical techniques, and, through mechanics, to extend this renewal to several areas of technique. His profound intuition of spatial geometry led him to prefer a thorough renewal of the methods of geometry rather than the Cartesian algebraization; from this preference there resulted a broad extension of the possibilities of geometry … At the end of 1640 Desargues published a brief commentary on the principles of gnomonic presented in his Brouillon project (published in 50 copies in 1639); this text is known only through several references, in particular the opinion of Descartes, who found it ‘a very beautiful invention and so much the more ingenious in that it is so simple’ ... ” (DSB).

& DSB, II, pages 333-334 (Bosse) and IV, 46-51 (Desargues); Lalande page 216; A. J. Turner (La gnomonique. Livres en langue française imprimés entre 1500 et 1800, issued in the Bulletin de l’Association Nationale des collectionneurs et amateurs d’horlogerie ancienne 50, 1987-1988) pages 57-72; Abraham Bosse savant graveur (Exhibition held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, 2004) 229, pages 236-237 (with two illustrations).

24 - (Natural History, Crystallography) L. Bourguet Lettres philosophiques sur la formation des sels et des cristaux et sur la génération & la mécanique organique des plantes et des animaux ... Avec un mémoire sur la théorie de la Terre. A Amsterdam, chez François L’Honoré, 1729.

€ 1100

First edition, reprinted in 1762 by Rey in Amsterdam. Louis Bourguet (Nîmes 1678 - Neuchâtel 1742) led a very hectic life; born in France from Protestant parents he had to flee with them to Switzerland at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and was obliged to enter the family firm and to work in it before becoming free of leading the studious life he intended. He travelled frequently to Italy where he got acquainted with many prominent naturalists, among whom Vallisneri, Monti and Zendrini, to whom this book is dedicated. This is the first book by Bourguet, the second was the more famous “Traité des petrifications” appeared in 1742. It has the form of four letters directed to Scheuchzer, where Bourguet “compares the elementary process of the mineral world (crystallization) and of the living world (generation, assimilation, growth). Crystal growth is a product of the mineral mechanism, whereas the growth of plants and animals is an effect of the organic mechanism ... Bourguet studied stalactites and described their internal radial structure ... Bourguet’s attempt to explain crystallization was innovative. He asserted that a crystal is created not from water, but in water which carries a multitude of extremely small particles, the fusion of which creates a crystal or concretion. To each crystalline substance there correspond particles of specific, determinate shape where particular laws of growth govern the external form ... In speaking about a “theory of Earth” Bourguet intended a rational reconstruction of its history and dynamic causality, which he claimed to deduce solely from his observations. He declared that all parts of Earth as it is presently constituted are more or less coeval, dating from the time of the Flood. This deluge was not a supernatural miracle, but the amplification of normal processes ... Bourguet elaborated a genuine theory of orogeny ... Mountains were formed near the end of the “grand changement” (or renovation of the Earth by the Flood) when the flat-lying, concentric new strata, rebuilt from the dissolution of the ancient word, began to harden. The acceleration of the earth’s rotation then induced an upward thrust, or dynamic “direction d’élévation”. He explained the differing local arrangement of the strata by the variable degree of consolidation at the start. Furthermore, he attributed their “more or less regular conformity” to the earth’s motion and to the general and particular orientation of the chain being formed. Such considerations point directly to the ideas of H. B. De Saussure.” (DSB).

& DSB XV, pages 52-59; Linda Hall Library (Theories of the Earth 1644-1830) page 19; Needham (History of Embryology) pages 61, 207 and 223; Hoover 159; Ward & Carozzi 281.

25 - (Mechanics) Benjamin Bramer Kurze Meynung de vacuo, oder lährem Orte, neben andern wunderbaren und subtilen Quaestionen. Desgleichen Nicolai Cusani Dialogus von Wag und Gewicht / auß dem Lateinischen verteutscht/ unnd den Liebhabern zu gefallen an Tag gegeben. Gedruckt zu Marpurg, durch Paul Egenolff / im Jahr 1617.

€ 5000

Only edition. This is the fourth book published by Benjamin Bramer (Felsberg 1588 - Ziegenhain 1652), the prominent mathematician and instrument-maker. He was a pupil of his foster father Jobst Bürgi, court clockmaker in Kassel. After having followed Bürgi to Prague he returned to Kassel and was nominated master builder at the court of Hesse-Kassel. In this book one can see “his wide-ranging interests” (DSB II) as he discusses several subjects as the nature of vacuum, reaching the conclusion that it does not really exist as what is known as vacuum is rather air which escapes from the different bodies or recipients in which it is enclosed by virtue of water or other substance penetrating in them or by fire. This position was identical to that of Campanella. Several problems are dealt with and solved experimentally, and many interesting conclusions upon transmission of heat, density and pressure are reached. Bramer observes something close to the Guericke experiment in Magdeburg, suggesting to eliminate air from the space between two superposed dishes and noticing then that also a very strong man has difficulty in separating them. Bramer did not however push further this line. The second part contains the first German translation of the fourth “Idiota” dialogue by Nicolaus Cusanus (Bernkastel-Kues 1401- Todi 1464). The “Idiota” (i. e. ignorant) dialogues, four in number, are entitled respectively “De sapientia” (I-II), “De mente” and “De staticis experimentis”. This last “has a more practical bias, and contains numerous methods for determining physical parameters through the use of such apparatus as scales and a water clock - for example the work tells in detail how to determine the humidity of air by measuring the weight of wool” (DSB III). The practical slant of this fourth part of the “Idiota” must have been congenial to Bramer; he did not translate it himself as he recognizes to be unable to speak Latin and Greek, but states that a friend of his has translated it for him. In recognizing the importance of this text Bramer has anticipated the modern historians of science, who have given Cusanus an eminent place in the development of mathematical physics. “(Cusanus) was one of the pioneers in modern mathematical physics, and his studies on measurement and specific gravity are of the first importance ... In “Statica Experimenta” he records the famous experiment, antedating Hales 200 years, of weighing earth and seeds, then the resulting plants, their ashes, and the earth in which they had grown.” (Osler). This volume is also important because it contains the first appearance of Cusanus in the German language.

& DSB II, page 419 and III, pages 512-516; W. Osler (Bibliotheca Osleriana) 7465; Poggendorff I, 274; Honeyman 495.