26 (Rosicrucianism) (Johann Ernst Burggrav or Johann Valentin Andreae) Epistola ad illustrem ac Reverendam Fraternitatem Rosae Crucis. Francofurti, excudebat Joannes Bringerus, 1615.

€ 2200

First edition. Later reprints are not documented. The authorship is controversial. Wolfstieg attributes the paternity of this epistle to Johann Valentin Andreae, the founder of the Rosicrucian Society, whereas other bibliographers attribute it to Johann Ernst Burggrav. This last was an alchemist and follower of Paracelsus, who issued several books. The latter attribution seems more probable by virtue of the signature J. B. ending the epistle. The pamphlet is a letter written by Dutch Rosicrucians to brethren of the same society in Germany, where the purposes of the society are discussed. The presence of Rosicrucians in Holland from the very first period of the Fraternity is certain, and Rosicrucian groups are known to have existed in The Hague already in 1622. However, this very early pamphlet mentions the existence of Rosicrucian adherents or sympathizers in Holland and in Amsterdam. The Rosicrucians did not enjoy protection for very long; some of them were indicted and the painter Torrentius, a youth friend of Rembrandt, was tortured, imprisoned and finally released due to the intervention of Charles I of England. The representative work for Rosicrucianism in Holland is “Arcana totius naturae secretissima” by Peter Mormius, appeared in 1630.

& VD17 23:286960B; Wolfstieg II, 42251: “Sehr selten”; Ferguson I, 131 (on Burggrav); Gardner 192; not in Caillet and Rosenthal.

27 - (Colours) Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo Memoria sobre a Formaçao Natural das Cores. Madrid, Na Officina Typographica da Viuda de Ibarra, 1791.

€ 5000

Only edition, printed in 200 copies. The author had already written two books on colours, the first (Tratado das Cores) printed in Malta, the second (Dissertação sobre as cores primitivas) in Lisbon. He also produced a book on agriculture. Diogo Carvalho e Sampayo (Lamego 1750 - Lisbon 1807) was a jurist, a diplomat, and a keen and gifted amateur of science. He was a Knight of Malta, what explains the somewhat uncommon place of printing of his first book. The book contains the account of different experiences carried out by the author in the dark chamber, using both achromatic and chromatic bodies and surfaces. The colour system devised by Carvalho is inspired essentially by that of Leonardo. Carvalho recognizes only two primary colours, i. e. red and green, and four more colours, which derive from the combination of primary colours, that is, blue and yellow (secondary colours), white and black (derivative colours). He came close to identify what Chevreul defined "simultaneous contrast of colors" in 1839, when he observed that, when an object is simultaneously illuminated by white light and by a light of a primary colour, the shadow caused by the white light assumes the primitive colour, whereas the other shadow appears to be collared by the other primitive colour. He preferred, however, to provide a psychological explanation for the phenomenon. His opinion on the nature of the light is also interesting and shows analogies with later theories, since it attributes to light a binary nature, that of an achromatic fluid and that of a collared matter being immersed in this fluid and transported by it. This book, the most important among those written by Carvalho on light and colour, was translated and used by Goethe for his Farbenlehre and highly praised "Seine Bemühungen sind redlich, seine Aufmerksamkeit genau und anhaltend ... (Dieses Buch) sehr schön auf 32 Seiten in klein Quart gedruckt, verdiente wohl ganz übersetzt und mit der ihm beigefügt Kupfertafel begleitet zu werden, indem nur zwei hundert Exemplare davon existieren, und alle aufrichtigen Versuche, zu dem Wahren zu gelangen, schätzbar und selbst die Missgriffe belehrend sind. " (Very nicely printed on 32 pages in small quarto, deserved to be translated in its entirety and the copperplate illustrating it reproduced. It is printed in only 200 copies; all honest attempts to understand reality are to be treasured and one can learn even from their faults). This translation of Goethe has remained in manuscript. Goethe, who did not know Portuguese, translated this book by using a Portuguese-English dictionary. Goethe came into contact with this work through Wilhelm von Humboldt, brother to Alexander von Humboldt and prominent scientist, who met Sampayo in Madrid in 1799 and offered him a copy of the present book, which he had received from the author. Humboldt, knowing about the interest of Goethe for colour theory, presented the book to him in 1801.

& Palau (II edition) 46628; Inocencio II, page 151: "Todos estes escriptos apresentam tal qual caracter de originalidade, e os exemplares são raros" and IX, page 121: "O unico exemplar que vi ... "; D'Avila Perez 519 (this copy): "Rara"; Collection Monteverde 1158: "Raro"; F. Alcântara and M. P. A. Lencastre, (Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo, um teórico e experimentador da cor no século XVIII, Revista Museu, nº 2, 1994) pp. 55-61; L. M. Bernardo (Concepçoes sobre a natureza da luz no seculo XVIII em Portugal, Revista da SHBC 19, 1998) pp. 3-12; Rui Graça Feijó, (O sistema das cores. Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo, in press) passim; not in Faber Birren, Caivano (Chronological bibliography on the theories of color, in: http://www.colorsystem.com/grundlagen/bibl1.htm), BN Paris, Biblioteca Nacional de España and British Library; 3 copies in KVK (Göttingen, Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Lisbon). We thank Ms. Margarida Soares Franco (Livraria Telles da Silva, Lisbon) for her invaluable help in the cataloguing of the present book, and Prof. Marina Lencastre (Catholic University of Oporto, Portugal) for having kindly provided a copy of her interesting article on Carvalho.

28 - (Aeronautics) Carlo Castelli Esperienze della macchina aerostatica dell’Illustrissimo Sig. Don Paolo Andreani esposte in una lettera al Sig. Faujas de Saint Fond. Milano, dalle Stampe dei Fratelli Pirola, (1784).

€ 800

One of three editions, with somewhat different titles and collations, appeared in the same year. Riccardi acknowledges the present one as the first to appear. A French translation, appeared during the same year, is also known. Carlo Castelli (d. 1808) was a secular priest, a professor of mechanics at the University of Milan and the author of several tracts on problems of hydraulics. This pamphlet contains the account of the first ascension which took place in Italy. The ascension of the brothers Montgolfier in the last days of November 1783 and its repetition in January 1784, caused an uproar throughout Europe and gave impulsion to many imitators to follow suit. Paolo Andreani, a Milanese nobleman, was helped and accompanied by the brothers Agostino and Carlo Giuseppe Gerli, two expert builders of machines. The flight took place on February 25, 1784, thus three months after the first Montgolfier trip, and preceded by seven months the flight of Lunardi in London. Several attempts preceded the successful ascension. The aeronauts got over a distance of about 1 km. The balloon was constructed according to the specifications of Montgolfier, with one difference residing in the form of the burner, which permitted to avoid overheating the balloon. The last section of the tract is dedicated to the different teachings which were drawn from the experience of Andreani, among others the calculation of the minimum diameter of the balloon and the necessity to avoid a solid framework to keep the balloon in tension because of the excessive weight. The balloon used for this ascension will be represented one year later in the “Opuscoli” of Agostino Gerli, one of the best scientific books published by Bodoni.

& Riccardi 1/I, 294; compare Brockett 2601 and Liebmann-Wahl 993 for the other editions.

29 - (Zoology; Comparative anatomy; Mineralogy; Paleontology) Walter CHARLETON Onomasticon Zoicon, Plerorumque Animalium Differentias & Nomina Propia pluribus Linguis exponens. Cui accedunt Mantissa Anatomica; Et quædam De Variis Fossilium Generibus. London, James Allestry, 1668.

€ 2000

First edition. A second edition was published with a different title in 1677. Walter Charleton (Shepton Mallet in Somerset, 1619 – London 1707) received his first training by his father, whose namesake he was. He studied in Oxford where he received a degree of Doctor in physick in 1643. Shortly afterwards he became physician-in-ordinary of the King Charles II. “In the 1650’s Charleton turned his talents to writing, mostly on medicine, natural philosophy and related topics, although he became famous for his works on Stonehenge and on the Epicurean ethics … Shortly after the appearance of these works Charleton, perhaps under the influence of his friend Hobbes, turned from Van Helmont to Gassendi, Descartes and other ‘new philosophers’ … In the Restoration period Charleton enjoyed his greatest reputation and prosperity. He continued his prolific publishing, became an active original member of the Royal Society, was elected to the Royal College of Physicians, and eventually served as the President of the Royal College …” (DSB). “A list of the English, Greek and Latin names of the all then known animals. The work is of particular interest in the history of ornithology as Charleton was the first English author to add illustrations to a list of birds …” (Norman). “This is the first of an important and celebrated classics which not only treats of living animals but contains discourses on their anatomy and paleontology.” (Casey Wood). The book is divided in three parts. The first is the nomenclature and the classification of all then known animals, even today impressive for its thoroughness. The second part is a treatise of comparative anatomy, where Charleton describes the anatomy of different species of fish. The third part is a little studied catalogue of fossils, minerals and precious stones, several of which of foreign origins, including several species of American minerals. “Very scarce … In Charleton’s time fossil referred to anything dug from earth, and consequently many of the descriptions are of minerals and precious stones. Among those fossils listed there are fossilized fish and shells, agate, chalcedony, sardonix, diamond, bezoar stone, carbuncle, garnet, sapphire, emerald, gold, silver, copper, tin, iron. Under a heading of mixed metals mention is made of galena, pyrite, chrisocholla, minum, and various lead spars” (Schuh).

& Wing C-3688; Nissen ZBI 872; Garrison & Morton 292; Norman 461; Casey Wood 287; Ripley & Scribner 58; DSB III, pages 208-210; Schuh 839; Roller-Goodman I, 224; compare Hoover 218 (second edition).

30 - (Perspective) Marco Antonio CHIARINI Vedute di prospettiva inventate ed intagliate da M. A. C. Dedicate al merito singolare del mol(to) Ill. re ed Ecc. Mo Sig. Re d’ambo le leggi Dott. Giuseppe Antonio Mazzi. No date, place and publisher (probably Bologna, first half of the XVIII century or last years of the XVII century).

€ 3000

Only edition, with the plates mostly before letters. The copy of the Berlin Catalogue counts only 12 leaves, including a dedication which has never been present in the present issue and from which a date of 1699 can be ascertained. The leaves of the Berlin copy are numbered and the suite lacks plate nos. 8-10. It is possible therefore that the present variant issue enjoys a priority on that described in the Berlin catalogue. Marco Antonio Chiarini (Bologna 1652 – 1730) acquired widespread fame as quadraturist painter. The top of his career was doubtless reached when he was invited by Prince Eugene of Savoy to Vienna in order to work at the frescos at his palace and countryside villa. Chiarini contributed also to the ceiling paintings of Palais Lichtenstein, Trautson and Daun. After his return to Bologna he was active essentially as engraver and a set designer. In particular he projected the stage of ‘La forza della virtù’ where he introduced two innovations, that is, the abandonment of the principle of frontal symmetry universally adhered to in all theatrical designs of the time, and the renunciation to the principle that any reproduction of the past form must cleave to Roman antiquity. These architectural engravings may have served as scenographies though it is not clear for which play. Quadratura (from the Italian) is a technique developed during the Baroque period and used in order to simulate architecture. The artist would paint a feigned architecture in perspective on a flat or barrel-vaulted ceiling in such a way that it seems to continue the existing architecture. The perspective of this illusion is centered towards one focal point. The steep foreshortening of the figures, the painted walls and pillars, creates an illusion of deep recession. The Bolognese quadratura school produced artists such as Agostino Mitelli and contributed to the development of Ferdinando Galli Bibiena as an architect and a scenographer.

& Kat. Berl. 2624 (variant issue); not in Cicognara and the architectural bibliographies.

31 - (Microscopy, Cell Biology) Bonaventura Corti Osservazioni microscopiche sulla tremella, e sulla circolazione del fluido in una pianta acquaiola. Lucca 1774, appresso Giuseppe Rocchi.

€ 2300

Only edition. Bonaventura Corti (Scandiano 1729 - Reggio Emilia 1813), born in the same town as Spallanzani, took the religious orders and was later appointed to professor of physics and mathematics in the same school which he had attended. At the age of 75 he retired to occupy a professorship at the University of Modena. He authored i. a. a two-volume treatise on physics (Institutiones physicae) which predates the discoveries of Galvani and Volta, and which received the compliments of Giuseppe Toaldo, the editor of the best edition of Galileo. He is best remembered for his microscopic observation, which he performed with the aid of two instruments of the English manufacturer Dollond. The use of Tremella, a basidiomycete, was then widespread for anatomic and physiologic observations, as witnessed by works by Spallanzani and Fontana. “From the point of view of the originality Corti’s Osservazioni microscopiche sulla Tremella ... (1774), issued in one volume and illustrated by beautiful copperplates, is important. Chapter 21 of part I deserves special mention. On the basis of microscopic findings Corti affirms “that Tremella are endowed with movements said to be spontaneous in animals and considered characteristic of animals. And here we have plants that by now are confused with true animals” ... Further on, he defines the protoplasmic movements: “A certain small dark spot passes from right to left, is lost, and reappears: this is that series of rather dark spots which elsewhere I have said is caused by the elliptical figure of small rings.”... This is a clear anticipation of later descriptions of the movements of the protoplasm in the cell.” (DSB). “The continuous streaming motion which we now term cyclosis was discovered as far back as 1774 by the Abbé Corti in the cells of water plants such as Chara and Nitella. His observations were overlooked and the phenomenon was rediscovered by L. C. Treviranus in the early years of the 19th century” (Hughes).

& DSB III, pages 425-426; Hughes (History of cytology) page 41; Pritzel 1895; Roller and Goodman I-254; Mieli (Gli scienziati italiani) I, 70-73; Sachs (History of Botany) page 545.

32 - (Drawing) Jean-Baptiste Crépy Nouveau cayer de paysages à l’usage des personnes qui apprennent le dessin. A Paris, 1781 (chez l’auteur).

€ 1800

Only edition. Jean-Baptiste Crépy (fl. 1753 -1796) was famous as mapmaker. He worked for several prominent geographers including Cassini De Thury. Beside his activity as a mapmaker he produced different series of engravings for different purposes, including models for cabinet-makers and other craftsmen, fashion plates, games and others. This suite is clearly made for dilettanti desirous to learn how to draw. Each of the plates contains two landscapes, one in a finished state, the other outlined and destined to be completed by the pupil. Of course this technique was not limited to a servile imitation, but left some freedom of improvisation for gifted students. Evidently only a few copies of such drawing books have survived as they were used up. The conservation of the present copy should therefore be considered as exceptional, and no copy of this suite is present in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris. The detail in which these landscapes are represented induces to think that also craftsmen could make use of them in their manufactures, as it was usual in Paris. “XVIII century ébénistes made full use of the print market in their search for sources for marquetry designs. They were not content to limit themselves to books of ornamental engravings intended specifically for their own use. The prints which were available to them on the Paris market covered a wide range. They included portraits, religious, historical, mythological and genre subjects, collector’s pieces and specialist prints … The picture which emerges is of an active, fully developed market dealing in a wide range of engravings varying in theme, date, nationality, and price ... “ (De Bellaigue). Crépy was one of the protagonists of a cause célèbre in the hectic Parisian market, when he was sued by J. Esnaut and M. Rapilly under the indictment to have copied a series of fashion prints of the former artists and having sold it against the privilege detained by them. Despite the strenuous defence of Crépy he lost, had to pay a fine and the unsold suites were confiscated.

& OCLC 042767385 (one copy in KVK); G. De Bellaigue (The Burlington Magazine 1107 (746), May 1965), page 240-250.

33 - (Architecture, Libraries) Leopoldo DELLA SANTA 1772-1827 Della costruzione e del regolamento di una pubblica universale biblioteca con la pianta dimostrativa. Firenze, presso Gaspero Ricci, 1816.

€ 1250

First edition. First Italian treatise on the organisation of a public library. The author suggests the division of a library in three separated areas (one for the readers, one for the librarians and one for the books). He also suggests the presence of two catalogues: one accessed by librarians only, and another one for public consultation. About Della Santa not many information are available. In his introduction to a reprint of Della Santa's book published in 1996, Giovanni Solimine suggests that this work was not written by Della Santa, but possibly by Vincenzo Follini, librarian at the Magliabecchiana Library in Florence. This hypothesis does not seem too likely, as Follini wrote his observations on Della Santa's treatise (Osservazione di Vincenzo Follini ...). "Il trattatello di Leopoldo Della Santa, uscito presso Gaspero Ricci a Firenze nel 1816, è stato spesso menzionato dalla critica come uno dei primi testi italiani ad aver posto in luce l'importanza della distribuzione architettonica e spaziale per la corretta organizzazione delle funzioni all'interno di una biblioteca." (Cancedda).

& Manuale di Bibliofilia 1997, pag 113; Arnim Graesel (Handbuch der Bibliothekslehre, Leipzig, Weber, 1902) pp. 49, 55 (footnotes); Edward Edwards (Memoirs of libraries: including a handbook of library economy. London: Trübner & Co., 1859) II, 717, passim; Vincenzo Follini (Osservazione sopra l'opera intitolata, Della costruzione, etc., Firenze, 1817) (cited by Edwards); Giovanni Solimine (Introduction to: Leopoldo Della Santa, Della costruzione e del regolamento di una pubblica universale biblioteca. Saggio introduttivo di Giovanni Solimine. Manziana (Roma), Vecchiarelli, 1996); Flavia Cancedda (review of the 1996 reprint, in: Associazione italiana biblioteche. Bollettino AIB 1997 n. 2 p. 240-241).

34 - (Microscopy) Giovanni Maria DELLA TORRE Nuove osservazioni microscopiche, Napoli, s.e. (Con Licenza de' Superiori), 1776.

€ 1200

First edition. Giovanni Maria Della Torre (Roma 1713 - Napoli 1782) "... was born of as noble Genoese family but lived in Naples from his earliest years. ... Della Torre was a man of wide culture and of wide scientific curiosity. His studies led him into the history of philosophy, optics, and microscopy (he made several new histological identifications with an excellent compound microscope that he himself had built); in addition, he observed and recorded eruptions of Vesuvius."(DSB). Some scientist preferred microscopes using small glass beads instead of ground lenses, on the basis that they were easily self-made and had a better magnifying capacity. Even though they were not that easy to produce (impurity in the glass impaired the clearness) and to handle, due to the size, they played an important role in the microscopy of eighteenth century. Della Torre was said to be able to make spherules as small as 0,1 mm. and not bigger than 0,5 mm. (see Ruestow for an exhaustive history of the development of microscopy). “In der Kunst, stark vergrössernde Glaskügelchen herzustellen, hat es aber Niemand so weit gebracht, als Pater Giovanni Maria Della Torre in Neapel ...” (Harting). The author describes in the first part of this work the composition and use of the microscope, its necessary qualities, and how to prepare the magnifying glass beads without impurities. He describes further his observations on different specimen of mineral, vegetal and animal origin.

& G. Ruestow (The Microscope in the Dutch Republic, Cambridge 1996) p. 280 and passim; DSB, IV, 25; DBI XXXVII, pp. 573-577; P. Harting (Das Mikroskop) III, p.45; Poggendorff II, 1.118.

35 - (Astronomy) Anton DEUSING De vero systemate mundi dissertatio mathematica. Qua Copernici systema mundi reformatur ... Amstelodami, apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1643.

€ 2000

Only edition. Anton Deusing (Moers near Julich, Germany 1612 - Groningen 1666) was a physician, who became in turn professor of astronomy and physics at Harderwijk and later on professor of medicine in Groningen. During this tenure he became rector of the university and personal physician of Count Maurice of Nassau. This is his most relevant contribution to astronomy. "A. Deusing ... in his earlier years composed a Catholic cosmography and astronomy according to the Ptolemaic hypothesis. The next year he published a dissertation on the true system of the world, in which the Copernican system is reformed and the well nigh infinite circles of the Ptolemaic system, by which the mind of man is distraught, are removed. This work, however, is less favorable to the Copernican hypothesis than one might infer from his title, since the earth remains fixed at the center of the universe, and the only movement accepted for it is one of rotation upon its axis, while the sun is represented as moving and is treated along with the three superior planets. Frequent reference is made to the system of Tycho Brahe and to the recent Philolaus of Boulliau ..., but Kepler is not cited for the movement of Mars, only for that of Mercury in his epitome of Copernican system." (Thorndike). "Deusing felt much admiration for Copernicus' simplification of astronomical theory by having the planets revolve round the sun, but he had big problems with the motion of the earth ... Consequently he aimed at transposing Copernicus' theories to an immobile earth. This results in, of course - as Deusing himself acknowledges - a Tychonian system." (Vermij).

& Willems 999; Lalande page 215; Bierens de Haan 1188; Thorndike VII, pages 59-60; R. Vermij (The Calvinist Copernicans, KNAW, Amsterdam 2002) page 121; Baranowski 1386; not in Houzeau-Lancaster.

36 - (Architecture, Theatre) Paolo DONATI Descrizione del Gran Teatro Farnesiano di Parma e notizie storiche sul medesimo, Parma, Dalla Stamperia Blanchon, 1817.

small 4to, (8), 96, (4) pp. 1 engr. fold. plate. Contemporary boards. Fine copy.

€ 1200

First edition. Paolo Donati (Parma 1770 - 1831) was theatre architect and teacher at the Royal Academy in Florence. This is his first work, and it was intended more for the learned traveller than for a specialist in architecture. Thorough in the architectonical description, it is somewhat less precise in the report of the feasts performed in the theatre since its establishement.

& Berlin Katalog n. 2.816; DBI XLI, pp. 53-55; Lozzi 1963: n. 3359.

37 - (Painting, Perspective, Drawing) Albrecht DÜRER Della simmetria dei corpi humani libri quattro ... nuovamente tradotti ... da M. Gio. Paolo Gallucci Salodiano et accresciuti del quinto libro ... In Venetia 1591, presso Domenico Nicolini.

€ 12000

First Italian edition of the “Vier Bücher der menschlichen Proportion”, appeared in the original German in 1528. A second edition appeared in 1594 by the publisher Meietti. The translator, Giovanni Paolo Gallucci (Saló on the Garda Lake, 1538 – Venise, about 1621) wrote also several original works, especially on astronomy. The present edition of the “Four books” has two interesting features which differentiate it from the previous ones. They are the addition of a woodcut representing a female figure, in Book IV (leaf 111) which is unaccountably absent from the previous editions as well as from the 1622 Dutch version. The second is the addition of a fifth book, which is a completely unstudied contribution to the late XVI century mannerist art theory. In it Gallucci celebrates “the diverse manners by which the painters and sculptors can show the different natures and passions of the human beings”. Gallucci is conscious of the great emotive might of painting, and draws an analogy between poetry and painting, being the former “speaking painting” and the latter “mute poetry”. Gallucci emphasizes the necessity that the painter be acquainted with anatomy and psychology, in order to thoroughly imitate nature. Moreover the present edition contains the life of Dürer written by Willibald Pirckheimer, where i. a. the relationships of Dürer with Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini and his influence on Italian art are dealt with. “Over the course of his career Dürers’ ideas on proportion went through various changes. His studies of around 1500 indicate that he was primarily interested in creating a single ideal type from a mathematical construction to be used directly in art. After his second trip to Italy he gradually came to realize that no single canon of beauty could be achieved and he started assembling alternate sets of proportions for the different shapes and sizes of human figures, for which he took measurements from several hundred individuals.“ (Bartrum). “When Dürer … felt free to devote himself more of his time to theoretical studies he took up his main problem, the rationalization of the human body, from a stereometrical rather than a planimetrical point of view; and, since the irregularly curved surfaces of a living organism are not accessible to elementary mathematical methods he tried to reduce them … to polyhedral shapes … that treatise on human proportions … was ready as early as 1513, but was ultimately incorporated as the First Book, in the Vier Bücher … Having established the principle … that a geometrical theory of proportions could, and would, do justice to all imaginable variations of human physique and character, Dürer very naturally felt that the five types described in his First Book were not sufficient: he decided to more than double the material to add eight further types, both male and female, as well as two male heads. These are described in the Second Book … In the Third book he submitted various methods which would enable the artist to change the proportions of any basic figure … ad libitum, yet on the basis of a consistent geometrical principle. These methods consist of divers kinds of projections by which any given set of quantities can be enlarged or reduced uniformly as well as progressively. They could be applied to any of the three dimensions of the basic figure … and to the whole body as well as to the single parts, in which case the resulting relations could become … irrational. They could also be combined with one another, which opened up still further possibilities. The crowning achievement is a device by which the dimensions are projected on a circular curve from which result distortions like those produced by concave or complex mirrors … It is for this twofold purpose – of doing justice to nature’s variety and of capturing beauty by way of defining the mean between two opposites – that Dürer devoted a further section of his Third book to a geometrical analysis of human physiognomies … It was not until 1519 … that he worked out what was to constitute the Fourth Book of the Vier Bücher … He endeavored to make human movement constructible by means of parallel projections. On the one hand, he devised a series of figures which systematically illustrate all the possibilities of bending, turning and stepping in which every part of the figure … remains either parallel or at right angles to the picture plane so that each figure can be conveniently rotated 90 degrees … On the other hand he tried to facilitate the construction of unrestricted postures by dissecting the whole figure into a number of units which were inscribed into such simple stereometrical bodies as cubes, parallelepipeds and truncated pyramids; by shifting these around in space any number of poses could be produced in what may be called a synthetic fashion.” (Panofsky). “The sense of the reality of geometry in the physical world pervades his geometrical analysis of perspectival building-blocks in the human figure. The later sections of his “Vier Bücher …” are devoted to the stereometry of the body as it moves in space. In this relatively early scheme the basic technique of planar transformation of a human head appears to have suggested his subsequent description in transparent sections as a kind of stereometric cage. This was later developed by Dürer into a technique in which three-dimensional portions of the human body are inscribed within geometrical solids, rather like joints of meat frozen in blocks of ice. These basic blocks can be utilized to describe the jointed motions of the human figure and can be tilted in different planes as required… A whole figure can be geometrically transformed in terms of the basic block …, although the outstretched arm viewed end-on in the left-hand figure has become almost impenetrably complex. At other times, as if aware of the dangers of mechanical rigidity in his mechanical hominoids, he twists the profiles of units themselves to give a more organic flow to the compound forms. We should note … that the techniques of orthographic transformation used by Dürer with respect to the human figure should not be regarded as consistent with one-point perspective. The diminution of dimensions occurs along only one coordinate at a time. When he tilts a head away from the spectator … the distances between chin and forehead are duly foreshortened, but the relative widths of the features are unaffected. If we imagine a cube foreshortened according to this method the problem can be readily seen. Piero Della Francesca had also illustrated this technique of parallel transformation, but his full-scale foreshortening of a head relied upon the tracing of intersections in a fully perspectival manner. We have seen that Dürer was aware of the intersection technique, but he did not illustrate its application to forms other than his shaded cube. Whether or not he was himself aware that parallel transformations did not conform to the rules of one-point perspective, it was all too easy for subsequent artists to miss the point …” (Kemp). “This work embodies the first application of anthropometry to aesthetics, and is technically interesting because it contains the first attempts to represent shades and shadows in wood engraving by means of crosshatching.” (Choulant). “The first illustrated treatise on proportions.” (Röhrl).

& Riccardi I/1, 569-570: “Bella e rara edizione … ”; Adams D-1055; Mortimer Italian 169; Meder page 289; Bohatta 28; Bartrum (Dürer and his legacy) page 172; Panofsky (Dürer, Princeton 1971) pages 202 and 273ff.; M. Kemp (The science of art) pages 56-59; Choulant-Frank pages 143-47;  Cicognara 321; B. Röhrl (History and bibliography of artistic anatomy, Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2000) pages 58-59 and 377; DBI LI, pages 529-530 (on Gallucci).

38 - (Painting, Sculpture) Vincenzio FANTI Descrizzione completa di tutto cio che ritrovasi nella galleria di pittura e scultura di Giuseppe Wenceslao del s.r.i. principe regnante della casa di Lichtenstein ...  Vienna, Giovanni Tommaso de Trattnern, 1767.

€ 3000

First (only?) edition. Apparently the alleged French edition appeared by Trattner in 1780 is not a simple translation of the present work, but a completely new catalogue written by the successor of Fanti, Johann Dallinger. Vincenzo Fanti (Vienna 1719 – 1776) was the son of the painter Gaetano Fanti from Bologna, invited to Vienna by Eugene of Savoy. He was appointed keeper of the Lichtenstein painting gallery until his death, when Vincenzo succeeded him. The book begins with an introduction on the art of painting, followed by the description of the Liechtenstein palace, built by the Italian architect Domenico Martinelli (1650-1718) between 1698 and 1711. It is decorated by frescos painted by prominent Italian and Austrian painters, among whom Andrea Pozzo of perspectival memory. Then follows the list of the paintings. They are indexed by room where they are located; a description of their subjects and their dimensions are also provided. There were more than 500 paintings in only ten rooms; they were exposed by theme, and also the sculptures of the collection found place in the same rooms. The second part of the book contains the biographies of all the painters whose works were kept in the gallery. A system of cross-references permits the reader to refer to the biography of painters in correspondence of every single painting and viceversa. Sometimes the biographical section is encountered on its own; this can be a reissue of the unused sheets, serving a larger public than the visitors of the Liechtenstein palace only. The nice engravings were made by Jacob Matthias Schmutzer (1733-1811), a well-known engraver at Vienna and based on drawings of the same Fanti. After the Second World War the collections were transported to Vaduz, where they are still kept.

& Thieme-Becker XI, pages 255-6; Schlosser-Magnino page 497; Cicognara 3389.

39 - (Printing) Martin Dominique FERTEL La science pratique de l'imprimerie contenant des instructions très faciles pour se perfectionner dans cet art. On y trouvera une description de toutes les pieces dont une Presse est construire, avec le moyen de remedier à tous les défauts qui peuvent y survenir. Avec une methode nouvelle & fort aisée pour imposer totutes sortes d'impositions, depuis l'in-folio jusqu'à l'in cent-vingt-huit. De plus, on y a joint des tables pour sçavoir ce que les caracteres inferieurs regagnent sur ceux qui leur font superieurs, & un tarif pour trouver, d'un coup d'oeil, combien de formes contiendra une copie à imprimer, très-utile pour les amateurs & marchands libraires qui font imprimer leurs ouvrages à leurs dépens. Saint Omer, 1723.

€ 4500

First edition. This important work is the first French printing manual and the only one until the Revolution. It is clear, methodical & elementary. The four parts cover type and composition; imposition and press correction; accentuated letters and punctuation; press work. We do not know very much about Martin Dominque Fertel (1648-1752) except that he had a shop in St. Omer from 1713 until his death in 1752 and that, after becoming a printer in 1704 he traveled for about 10 years through France, Italy and Flanders. During his travels he did not find a printing manual anywhere so he decided to print his own. And according to Updike I, 260: It is admirably done and should be consulted by any one wishing to reconstitute French typography of the early eighteenth-century. Fournier rated Fertel's work very high. Bigmore & Wyman call this a very curious and esteemed work.

& Updike I, 260; B&W; Janssen (Zetten en drukken in de achttiende eeuw) pp. 18-20, Jammes, cat. 167 & Michaud XIV, 447-8.

40 - (Vinegar, Medicine, Gastronomy) David FINARENSIS De la nuysance que le vin aigre porte au corps humain No place (probably Paris) No publisher No date, but after 1541.

€ 15000

Only edition. This book was composed as a rejoinder to the treatise “Livre des propriétés du vinaigre” which the Italian physician Giovan Battista Cavigioli had issued in Poitiers in 1541. Cavigioli’s treaty was a lengthy, if thorough, investigation of the properties of vinegar and an account of its different medical uses. Cavigioli found that vinegar might be used by several infectious diseases and discussed its use in alimentation. The Italian physician David da Finale Ligure (Finarensis) issued this reply to the book of Cavigioli, where he attempts to demonstrate the nocivity of vinegar in many circumstances, and also its negative influence on generation and offspring. The use of vinegar in gastronomy is also advised against, and a host of classical and Arabic authors is cited in support. The quarrel between Cavigioli and Finarensis originated another book (Pasquil antiparadoxe), appeared in 1549 at Lyons. David Finarensis is an elusive figure. Born in Italy, he reached some position in Paris during the kingdom of Francis I, and authored two more works, one of astrological subject appeared in 1547, and the second against wine, issued possibly before the present one. This latter was also a rejoinder to a work of Alfonso Ferri, published in Rome in 1537. Finarensis had also ambitions of grammatical reformer. In fact he proposes the replacement of the y with a normal I as in his native language, stating that he had been supported in his opinion by unnamed experts. Finarensis shows however his inconsistence already in the title, where the word ‘nuysance’ is spelled with a y, as it was usual in his times.

& FRBNF30305046; CATAF (Catalogue des textes astrologiques français by J. Halbron), under David (http://cura.free.fr/docum/10catCD.html); otherwise not in the gastronomic and medical bibliographies.

41 - (Astronomy) FLECHEUX Loxocosme ou démonstrateur du movement annuel, tropique & diurne de la terre autour du soleil, des causes des phénomenes des saisons, de l’iégalité des jours, du lever & du coucher du soleil par toute la terre, du cours de la lune & des planètes, &c. Avec des réflexions sur le système de Copernic. Paris chez L’Uteur (sic) et Belin, Libraire, 1784.

€ 1600

First separate edition. "Invented by the Abbot Flecheux in 1780, this instrument was intended to demonstrate the movements of the terrestrial globe, the causes of the seasons, the rise and set of the sun and the inequality of the days". (Turner) The name of the instrument is due to Lalande, to whom the author showed his invention before submitting it to the Académie Royale des Sciences. Lalande knows the first edition published in 1781 in the Journal des savants (June 1781, p. 507) but he does not mention the present one. Flecheux (1738-1793). Charles Piquet was royal geographer, engraver and publisher.

& Lalande 1781 p. 581; Joseph Green Cogswell (Catalogue or Alphabetical index of the Astor Library. In two parts. New York R. Craighead, 1958 Part I. Author and books) vol. II p 519; Jacques Hébrail, Joseph de Laporte (Nouveau supplement à la France litteraire.Paris, Veuve Duchesne, 1784) IV (2) p. 264; Anthony Turner (Early Scientific Instruments. Europe 1400-1800, London, 1987) p. 203 n. 223; Hoefer XVIII, column 878; not in Zinner, Houzeau-Lancaster, Daumas.

42 - (Medicine, Astronomy, Gastronomy) gerolamo Fracastoro Opera omnia, in unum proxime post illius mortem collecta, quorum nomina sequens pagina plenius indicat. Accesserunt Andreae Naugeri Patrici Veneti Orationes duae carmina nonnulla. Venetiis, apud Juntas, 1555.

€ 4600

First collected edition, comprising all then known writings of Fracastoro together with those of his friend Andrea Navagero (1483-1529), a poet and a diplomat in the service of Venice. Also some posthumous works of Fracastoro appear here in first publication, e. g. the dialogues named Turrius and Fracastorius, and his poems. Girolamo Fracastoro (1478-1553) was one of the most interesting figures of the Italian Renaissance. He was physician, astronomer and poet at one time. His most famous book remains of course “Syphilis, sive de morbo gallico”, appeared first in 1530, which baptized this sexual disease for ever. In this poem he began to develop his theory of infections, which will be fully formulated in his “De contagione” (first published 1546), where three means of contagion are described. They are by contact, as in leprosy, by fomites (i. e. carriers) as clothes and sheet, or acting from the distance as in plague. The last case is explained by the existence of “seminaria”, i. e. seeds of contagion, which can increase, move, propagate and even die; one would now stress an evident similarity with bacteria. These seminaria exhibit affinity with the semina morbi, with which Fracastoro was familiar since his reading of the Lucretius edition cared for by Navagero. Fracastoro authored also an important astronomical book, “Homocentrica” (first appeared 1538), where i. a. he states that the only valid method in scientific matters is experience. In Homocentrica the movements of heavens and celestial spheres within their orbits are illustrated, and some interesting references to optics (e. g. the nature of refraction) are given. Fracastoro shares with Leonardo an intuition on the true nature of fossils and is the first scientist to mention Earth’s magnetic poles. He made also a rapid excursion in the gastronomic domain with his essay on the qualities of wine. The philosophical ideas of Fracastoro find their expression in the dialogues; they show a diminished interest in theology, typical of the Renaissance philosophers, and increased interest for the study of nature, intended in an operative rather than a contemplative way. Nature possesses unbroken gradualism because of “sympathy”, which is a principle of spiritual order. Fracastoro considers knowledge as a progressive unification of multiplicities, preceding Kant. In the first dialogue Fracastoro discusses his ideas on poetry, which is not limited either to matter or form, but is shaped by the intuition of beauty, which is universal. The works of Navagero, present only in this first edition and later omitted, consist of two funeral eulogies for Bartolomeo Liviani and Leonardo Loredan, the doge of Venice, and some poems. The gemine portrait was made by G. Dal Cavino from Padua, a goldsmith who was later caught red-handed while forging Roman coins.

& Adams F-817; Durling 1631; Alden-Landis (European Americana) 555/16; Camerini (Annali dei Giunti) 611; DSB V, 104-107.

43 - (Meteorology) Marcus Frytschius Meteororum, i. e. impressionum aerearum et mirabilium naturae operum, loci fere omnes, metodo dialectica conscripti, & singulari quaedam cura diligentiaq. in eum ordinem digesti ac distribuiti. Item: catalogus prodigiorum atque ostentorum, tam coelo quam in terra, in poenam scelerum, ac magnarum in mundo vicissitudinum significationem, iam inde ab initio divinitus exhibitorum, ab eodem conscriptus. Norimbergae (in officina I. Montani & U. Neuber), 1563.

€ 4500

Second and best edition, with the “Catalogus prodigiorum” and the poem of Abolhazen on comets in first appearance. The first edition of 1555 did not contain these two parts, as well as the later edition of 1583. Marcus Frytschius (born in Lauban in Silesia, fl. ± second half of the XVI century) kept a position at the court of Ferdinand II of Habsburg. In 1555 he returned to his native town, where he directed a blooming private school; this burned with all the library of Frytschius, obliging him to come back to the Kaiser’s court. The first part of the book is a treatise of meteorology stricto sensu, where some influx of myth can still be found; however the best of the old writers (Plinius, Firmin de Beauval) have been carefully studied and many sound observations can be found. Frytschius can well distinguish between physical and theological causes, as he does in the chapter concerning rainbow. Meteorology is not the only subject of this first part, but also chapters on phenomena as earthquake, thunder, lightning and others are present. Different astronomical phenomena as comets and the nature and structure of galaxy are also discussed. The second part is “a Catalogue of the Prodigies and Portents divinely manifested in heaven and earth in punishment of crimes and signification of great changes in the world” (Thorndike); many writers of astronomy, still influenced by medieval conceptions, collected lists of strange and uncommon facts; the present one, one of the most abundant of the XVI century, begins with “Noah’s flood and comes down to 1562, including earthquakes, comets, swarms of locusts, eclipses, pests, falls of buildings, two-headed calves, and planetary conjunctions.” (Thorndike, loc. cit.). The last leaves contain the short poem of Abolhazen Ali on the signification of comets in the different signs of the Zodiac (e. g. when a comet appears in the ram the King of a Christian kingdom must die). This Abolhazen was probably to be identified with Abulhassan Abdalbahman, an astronomer lived in the X century in Bagdad, author of several books and held in notable consideration. A funerary poem dedicated to the father of the author, Franz Frytschius, a judge in Lauban, closes the book.

& Thorndike VI, page 490; Adams F-1054; Hellmann 140; Zinner 2305 (second part); Honeyman 1380 (this copy); Lalande page 88: “On y trouve une grande quantité de notices sur les comètes, éclipses, globes de feu, aurores boréales, grands froids, grands chaleurs”; not in Houzeau-Lancaster and Caillet.

44 - (Engineering) (N. Gauger) La mécanique du feu, ou l’art d’en augmenter les effets & d’en diminuer la dépense. Première partie (all published) contenant le traité de nouvelles cheminées qui échauffent plus que les cheminées ordinaires, et qui ne sont point sujettes à fumer ... A Paris, chez J. Estienne et J. J. Jombert, 1713.

€ 1200

First edition, reprinted the following year with a fictitious address and again in 1749 and translated into German and English in 1715. Nicolas Gauger (Pithiviers about 1680-Paris 1730) was a jurist and a censor for the Government, beyond being a talented amateur scientist. This work had been planned in different sections, which were never completed. This book is the earliest treatise on domestic heating and the basis for all following works on the subject, as the tract of Hébrard appeared 43 years alter. Gauger discovered that smoking chimneys are caused essentially by downdrafts from objects set in higher position than the chimney and air currents from doors and windows opening into colder air-streams. His main subject is a caliduct or air-heating fireplace developed from an example in the Louvre. His new model of fireplace was equipped with reflecting metal plates and could also warm up air brought in from outside and led round behind the fire. This stream of warm air could be afterwards used in order to assure heating of another room or a bed. The model of chimney designed by Gauger is still in production, albeit with some modifications. Darmstäedter: “G. verfaßt eine Abhandlung über die Mechanik des Feuers und wird damit der Begründer einer wissenschaftlichen Behandlung des Gebietes der Ventilation”.

& Poggendorff I, 852; Darmstäedter page 167; Kat. Berl. 3838 has only the third edition of 1749; unknown to Cicognara and Fowler.

45 - (Alchemy, Medicine) Glauber, J.R. De auri tinctura sive auro potabili vero. Quid sit & quommodo differat ab auro potabili falso & Sophistico. Quomodo Spagyrice praeparandum & quomodo in Medicinâ usurpandum. Amsterodami, J. Janssonius, 1651.

€ 750

First Latin edition. Johann Rudolph Glauber (Karlstadt in Bavaria 1604 - Amsterdam c. 1670) was one of the most remarkable chemists of his century; Wolf (p.445) puts him in the list of the “21 most famous doctors of the 16^th and 17^th century”. “In Amsterdam, Glauber outfitted what was surely the most impressive laboratory in Europe. Samuel Sorbière, a visitor to the laboratory in 1660, described it as “magnificent”. … In the eighteenth century is name continued to be associated with many processes, and even today hydrated sodium sulphate is familiarly known as Glauber’s salt.” (DSB). In this work Glauber describes how to prepare drinkable gold and his use in medicine. In the thought of the time gold was believed to be strictly associated with the sun, even originated by the sun, ("There is not found among things above or things beneath, a greater harmony and friendship than that between the Sun, Gold, Man and Wine.” in Glauber's words) and that was sufficient to consider it a powerful remedy for almost all kind of illnesses. For an interesting history of the medical use of gold see Eggleston.

& DSB V, 419-423; Wolf pp. 329-332 and 445; Maxson Stillman (The story of Alchemy and early Chemistry. New York, Dover Publication, 1960) pp. 386-389; Krivatsy n. 4774, he also mentions 2 German editions (1646 and 1662) and a French one of 1659; Caillet 4566, knows a German edition of 1650 and the French one; Poggendoff I, 909; Duveen 252; Ferguson I, 323; Wellcome III, 122; Edward Eggleston (Some Curious Colonial Remedies. In: American Historical Review 5 (December 1899), pp. 199-206) pp. 200-203 (online).

46 - (Scientific instruments) Fabrizio Guastaferri Lettera … al sig. Giovanni Francesco Saliti … con la quale gli dà parte dei suoi trattenimenti. Seconda edizione. In Roma, presso Giacomo Dragondelli, 1671. (Bound with): The same Lettera seconda (-quinta) … In Roma, per Giacomo Dragondelli, 1666, 1665, 1667, 1668. (And with) The same (Drop-title) Nuova bilancia dei liquidi … estratta dal V. Giornale dei Letterati … (Colophon: In Roma, per il Tinassi, 1672).

€ 11000

Second complete copy known of the works of Fabrizio Guastaferri, appeared on a spread of 9 years and presumably printed in a limited issue. On KVK we have only retrieved another complete copy in Rome, a copy containing the five parts of the Lettere, but not the tract on the balance in Vienna, and a few copies of isolated letters (e. g. BN Paris holds only the letters 1 to 4, one Christie’s auction in 1999 offered only the letters 1 to 3). The letters 2-5 and the tract on the balance are in the first edition, the first letter in an unrecorded second edition; the first was issued on 1663 and is sometimes found bound after the tract of Divini, appeared in the same year, containing his announcement of the process devised by him to produce achromatic lenses. This second edition is certainly a second issue, with the leaves of the first edition and a cancel title with a new imprimatur on verso. Very little is known of Fabrizio Guastaferri. He was an instrument manufacturer in Rome and was befriended with Eustachio Divini, for whom he worked sometimes. His fame is witnessed by the fact that he acted as a judge in a controversy between Divini and the brothers Campani upon the performances of the telescopes manufactured in their respective ateliers. Guastaferri gave in that case no decision but issued a statement with which he indicted the Campani brothers to have played foul. The craftsmanship of Guastaferri was rewarded by some fame and wealth, and his name is found in a purchase contract of a landed property near Porta Portese, just outside the walls of Rome.” A complete set of these letters by F. Guastaferri, a maker of scientific instruments in Rome, a highly interesting volume and apparently a very rare one. The author describes many instruments devised by him, including an armillary sphere, several telescopes, a water pump, a level etc. and gives a long account of his experiments with a mercury cylinder in which he describes similar experiments by Magiotti, Montanari, and Torricelli, as well as Castelli’s Della Misura delle acque, with several references to Galileo. The volume remained unknown to all the usual bibliographers and even Riccardi, who mentions it in the supplement to his Biblioteca Matematica, has never seen it.” (Offenbacher). The interest of the volume of Guastaferri resides in the fact that he intended these letters for a restricted circulation and therefore provides several constructive details concerning his instruments, including dimensions, materials and so on, which were kept under secret by most manufacturers, who feared that a competitor could draw inspiration or even copy their products. Moreover this volume contains the description of the last instrument manufactured by Guastaferri, a balance with which the weight and the density of liquids could be easily be determined. This last letter, appeared with a delay of four years in regard of the other letters, was not included in the collective volume sold by Offenbacher. This balance served two purposes, i. e. to determine the better qualities of water to be used for approvisioning the Roman aqueducts, and to determine the differences in density of wines in order to prevent or identify adulterations. Since no instruments manufactured by Guastaferri are known to survive, this book is both a unique witness about an interesting figure and a fascinating glimpse on a XVII century instrument-making atelier including trade and construction secrets.

& Riccardi II/1, 48, II/5, 78-79 and II/7, 48; Cat. Offenbacher 22 (Spring 1970); M. L. Righini Bonelli & A. Van Helden (Divini and Campani: a forgotten chapter in the history of the Accademia del Cimento, Annali dell’Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, 1981, 6(1)), pages 3-176), passim, especially pages 6-7; otherwise not in Daumas, Lalande, Crawford, Houzeau-Lancaster, Vinciana, Honeyman, Horblit, Middleton (Barometer). We thank Drs. Simon Blok (Antiquariaat B. M. Israel, Egmond a/d Hoef) for having provided a copy of the relevant item from the catalogue Offenbacher 22.

47 - (Scientific instruments) Le sieur (E.) HUBIN Machines nouvellement éxécutées et en partie inventées ... Première (et seule) partie, où se trouvent une clepsydre, deux zymosimètres, un peze-liqueur & un thermomètre. Paris, chez Jean Cusson et l’auteur, 1673.

€ 1700

First edition of the first part, all published. “(Hubin) was well-known by contemporary amateurs, and authors like Spon and Nicolas De Blaigny referred to him in their works … He was of English origin. In 1673 he was already settled in the Rue Saint-Denis opposite the Rue aux Ours and was considered to be one of the best makers of barometers. He also sold thermometers, hygrometers and alcoholmeters … He was associated with Denis Papin and Cassegrain. Fabry said that he worked with Mariotte. In 1673 Hubin published a small pamphlet containing the description of four instruments of which he was the maker, in which he complained of plagiarism on the part of the clockmaker Grillet; in 1695 he held the title of Enameller to the King. In February 1686 Hooke presented a several-liquid barometer by Hubin to the Royal Society declaring that hem Hooke, was the real inventor. The instrument in question was a Huygens barometer, constructed, as Molyneux pointed out to Halley a few weeks later, by Hubin … “ (Daumas). “… It was quite natural that people should think of protecting the air thermometer from the pressure of the atmosphere. A simple and clever way of doing this was devised in December, 1672, by the instrument-maker Hubin … It occurred to Hubin that if the air pressing on the liquid at D (the neck of the thermometer) were in a closed vessel, its pressure, and thus the indications of the instrument, would depend on the temperature and not on the atmospheric pressure. So he added a bulb (under the neck of the thermometer). This was really a very clever idea, especially to have come so soon after Huygens' invention was made known in Paris. Hubin admits that the hermetically-sealed bulb was ‘the only piece he had added to M. Huygens’ barometer’. But the liquid, instead of water, was l’eau seconde, an acid solution of copper nitrate produced in the refining of gold. Being green, it would be easily visible. Hubin kept his idea secret for some weeks, and then, on January 21, 1673, showed the instrument to the Academy, who found it ‘much more sensitive than the other thermometers which have been used up to the present …“ (Middleton, Thermometer). The other instruments described in the present tract are a water-clock using a mechanism similar to that of the Heron fountain, for which Hubin recognizes the paternity of the mathematician Claude Comiers, two zymometers or instruments to measure the degree of fermentation (one originally proposed by Swammerdam, the other manufactured by Hubin on a project of his own) and an alcoholmeter.

& Daumas pages 81 and 95; Middleton (Thermometer) page 64 and passim; Middleton (Barometer) page 93; Goldsmith 640.

48 - (Astronomy) Antonio Maria JACI L'orizzonte della longitudine o sia La nuova Machina, con la quale due Osservatori osservando gli Astri possono calcolare la Longitudine, la Latidudine, e l'Azimuto della Nave, Messina, Presso Baldassare D'Amico Arena, 1798.

€ 600

First edition. Antonio Maria Jaci (Napoli 1739 - Messina 1815) studied philosophy, physics, mathematics and medicine. He invented the "ampolletta mercuriale" (mercurial vial) to accurately calculate the longitude during the navigation. In 1785, in answer to an invitation directed from the Academy of Longitudes of London to the mathematicians all over the world, he wrote a letter giving his opinion on the subject. In 1798 the present work was awarded with the association to the same academy. He was teacher of philosophy and mathematics at the Seminario Arcivescovile in Messina. He published only few works of scientific importance; the greatest part of his writings remained unpublished and the manuscript lost.

& Dizionario dei siciliani illustri pag. 274; Mira I, 480; Houzeau-Lancaster 10570 (an edition of 1813); not in Lalande; Lozzi n. 1672 (footnote); http://www.torrese.it/antonio_maria_jaci.htm; http://www.messinaweb.eu/Messina/uomini%20illustri/jaci.php

49 - (Music, Biography) Joachim LE BRETON Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Joseph Haydn, Membre Associè de L'Institut de France et d'un grand nombre d'Académies, Lue dans la Séance publique du 6 octobre 1810. [Baudouin, imprimeur de l' Institut de France, 1810].

€ 450

J. Le Breton (Saint-Mèen en Bretagne, 1760 - Rio de Janeiro, 1819) was head of the department of beaux arts of the home office during the Directoire and Consulate. At the foundation of the Institut de France he was appointed member of the third class (literature and ancient history) and secretary of the class of beaux arts, position that he held until 1815 when, together with several other scholars, was dismissed. He moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he died in 1819. The present book is mainly based on a work previously published by Griesinger. It was translated in Portuguese by De Silva-Lisboa with the addition of several anecdotes about Haydn (supplied by Sigismund Neukomm, a Haydn's pupil), and published at Rio de Janeiro in 1820, being the first book about music ever printed in Brazil.

& Fétis II, p. 69; Eitner V, pp. 93-94.

50 - (Geology) Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon Les Epoques de la Nature. Paris, l'Imprimerie Royale (Switzerland?), 1780.

€ 5000

“First separate edition, of great rarity. The text, being the birth of historical geology, was first published in the V^th volume of the supplements to Buffon’s Histoire naturelle, 1778. Larousse of the XIX siècle devotes to it a long article, and F. D. Adams … says that in none of the celebrated treatises on the Neptunian theory ‘the story was narrated with more pomp and circumstance’ than in this book. He calls it ‘a brilliant picture which marked the close of a long period of imaginative effort and ushered in a new era.’ There are some remarkable passages relating to the Prehistory of the American continent. I was looking for this work for many years; it seems to be of great rarity. My friend, M. G. Heilbrun, who composed a short title list of Buffon’s writings, had never seen it before and it is not in his list.” (Weil). A second edition appeared with a different setting of pages in 1785. Georges-Louis de Buffon (Montbard 1707 – Paris 1788) began his career in science by translating English works into French and issuing some mathematical articles on learned journals. He became Intendant of the Jardin du Roi in 1739. After 1739 he published several works of naturalistic and mathematical subject, including the purely geological Théorie de la terre. He proposed a cosmogony based on the impact of a comet on the sun, and is one of the first cosmogony based on Newtonian celestial mechanics. Even though it was later disproved, Buffon maintained it in the present book. “Buffon's work is of exceptional importance because of its diversity, richness, originality, and influence ... He did establish the intellectual framework within which most naturalists up to Darwin worked … The Epoques de la nature presents a plutonian history of the earth - a piece was torn from the sun, the mass took form, the moon was torn from it by centrifugal force, and then the globe solidified during the first epoch. In the course of this solidification primitive mountains, composed of ‘vitreous’ matter, and mineral deposits were formed (marking the beginning of the second epoch). The earth cooled, and water vapors and volatile materials condensed and covered the surface of the globe to a great depth. The waters were soon populated with marine life and displaced the ‘primitive vitreous material’ which was pulverized and subjected to intense chemical activity. Sedimentary soil was thus formed, derived from rocks composed of primitive vitreous matter, from calcareous shells, or from organic debris, especially vegetable debris such as coal. In the meantime the water burst through the vaults of vast subterranean caverns formed during the cooling period; as it rushed in, its level gradually dropped (third epoch). The burning of the accumulated combustible materials then produced volcanoes and earthquakes, the land that emerged was shaped in relief by the eroding force of the waters (fourth epoch). The appearance of the animal life (fifth epoch) preceded the final separation of the continents from one another and gave its present configuration to the surface of the earth (sixth epoch) over which man now rules (seventh epoch) ... The Epoques contains a great deal of mineralogical material ... Buffon dealt with the appearance of life on earth, that is, the appearance of living matters, or organic molecules. He explained that organic molecules were born through the action of the heat on ‘aqueous, oily, and ductile’ substances suitable to the formation of organic matter. The physicochemical conditions that made such formation were peculiar to that period of earth history: consequently spontaneous generation of living matter and organized living creatures can no longer occur.” (DSB). “Very rare. One of the great milestones in the history of earth science, in which Buffon suggests for the first time the great age of the earth.” (Schuh). It would be hard to underevaluate the importance of the present book and its influence on the conceptions of Lamarck und Darwin and on comparative anatomy and morphology as in Cuvier and Goethe.

& DSB II, pages 576-582; Weil catalogue 32, 147; F. D. Adams (The birth and development of the geological sciences, Dover publication, Inc., New York,1958) page 209 ; PMM 198; Dibner (Heralds of science, 1955) 193; Sparrow (Milestones of science, 1972) page 23; Schuh 745.