Resultados de búsqueda: Libros de SOPHIA RARE BOOKS

Cambridge: [the University Press for the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1835. DARWIN'S FIRST SEPARATELY PRINTED WORK - INSCRIBED. First edition, very rare, inscribed by John Stevens Henslow, of Darwin's first separately printed work and his first account in print of his discoveries on the Beagle. "During his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle, Darwin maintained a correspondence with John Stevens Henslow, his mentor in natural history and lifelong friend; it was Henslow who had obtained for Darwin the post of ship's naturalist on the Beagle. The present pamphlet contains extracts made by Henslow from ten of Darwin's letters" (Norman). Henslow had this pamphlet printed without Darwin's knowledge for distribution amongst the members of the Cambridge Philosophical Society "in consequence of the interest which has been excited by some of the Geological notices which they contain, and which were read at a Meeting of the Society on the 16th of November 1835" (p. [1]), an act which secured Darwin's reputation… Leer más

Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1482. First edition. PMM 25 - the oldest textbook in the history of science. First edition of the "oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today" (PMM), This book "has exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible" (DSB). Euclid's Elements is the only work of classical antiquity to have remained continuously in print, and to be used continuously as a textbook from the pre-Christian era to the 20th century. It is the foundation work not only for geometry but also for number theory. Euclid's Elements of Geometry is a compilation of early Greek mathematical knowledge, synthesized and systematically presented by Euclid in ca. 300 BC. Books I-IV are devoted to plane geometry, Book V deals with the theory of proportions, and Book VI with the similarity of plane figures. Books VII-IX are on number theory, Book X on commensurability and incommensurability, Books XI-XII explore three dimensional geometric objects, and Book XIII… Leer más

Venice: Bernhard [Maler] Pictor, Peter Löslein and Erhard Ratdolt, 1476. First edition. THE FIRST BOOK TO HAVE A TITLE PAGE. Second edition, an extraordinary and absolutely complete copy, of Regiomontanus' Calendarium, the first printed in Italy; it was first issued in Latin in 1474 from Regiomontanus' own press at Nuremberg. Printed calendars and almanacs became extremely popular in the fifteenth century and provided ordinary people with the basic knowledge required to plan their daily routines. The market for calendars was first tapped by Gutenburg, who published a calendar which calculated the times of new and full moons and planetary positions, with readings every two to three days. All earlier calendars, however, were superseded by those of Regiomontanus (1436-1476) whose calculations were far more accurate. Regiomontanus' Calendarium represents the first application of modern scientific methods of astronomical calculation and observation to the problems of the lunar calendar, such as Easter,… Leer más

Como: Gottardo da Ponte for Agostino Gallo and Aloisio Pirovano, 1521. First edition. DIBNER 170: FIRST VERNACULAR EDITION - A SUPERB COPY. First edition in the vernacular, and a superb large copy untouched in its first binding, of one of the finest illustrated books of the Italian Renaissance. "This handbook on classical architecture is the only Roman work inspired by Greek architecture that has come down to us. It is therefore important as a prime source of many lost Greek writings on the subject and as a guide to archaeological research in Italy and Greece. By exemplifying the principles of classical architecture it became the fundamental architectural textbook for centuries. Vitruvius, who lived during the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and probably composed his book prior to 27 BC, was basically a theoretical rather than a practising architect and his only known work is the Basilica at Fano. The 10 books of 'On architecture' deal with principles of building in general, building materials,… Leer más

Antwerp: Officina Plantiniana, 1591. First edition. THE FIRST MODERN WORLD ATLAS HAND-COLOURED AND HEIGHTENED IN GOLD. Fourth Latin edition of the first modern world atlas, and a copy hand-coloured and heightened in gold. First published in 1570, the Theatrum is the first atlas to contain maps printed in a uniform style and format and to display a catalogue of the authors whose source Ortelius used in the drawing of the maps. Ortelius's atlas "set a standard by which subsequent collections would be judged and compared" (Short). Even though it was the most expensive work published at the time, it proved an instant success with four versions of the first edition being printed in 1570 alone. Several editions were printed at the Officina Plantiniana at the end of the 16th century and from 1585 Ortelius began to include historical maps in a section called Paregon. The maps and plates in the Parergon may be considered "the most outstanding engravings depicting the wide-spread interest in classical… Leer más

Maros Vásárhely [now Târgu Mureș, Romania]: Joseph and Simon Kaili, at the press of the Reform College, 1833. First edition. Hardcover. OUT OF NOTHING I HAVE CREATED A STRANGE NEW UNIVERSE" BOLYAI'S INVENTION OF NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY THE ONLY 'MAXIMALLY COMPLETE' COPY IN PRIVATE HANDS. First edition, the finest and most complete copy ever likely to come to the market, of "the most extraordinary two dozen pages in the history of thought" (Halsted), containing the independent foundation (along with the work of Lobachevsky) of non-Euclidean geometry. This work is one of the few absolute rarities among the classics of science: in his recently published census, Lemley locates 25 surviving copies, including this one (no. 21 in the census). Our copy is in the most complete state (1H, 2C in Lemley's classification). Only two other copies in this state are known, both in institutional collections (Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig and the Bibliothèque universitaire des Sciences et Techniques in Bordeaux).… Leer más

Paris: Guillaume Desprez, 1659. First edition. PASCAL'S WORK ON INDIVISIBLES - "ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT OF HIS GENIUS" (TCHEMERZINE) - THE MARQUESSES OF BUTE COPY. First edition, extremely rare (one of about 120 copies printed), and a fine copy with noble provenance, of one of Pascal's most brilliant works. "Édition originale, extrêmement rare, de la dernière œuvre de Pascal, l'une des plus éclatantes de son génie" (Lucien Scheler in Tchemerzine, V, pp. 54-55). "Pascal devoted himself during 1658 and the first part of 1659 to the perfection of the 'theory of indivisibles,' an ancestor of the integral calculus. In 1658, after using the method of indivisibles to solve several infinitesimal problems relating to the cycloid, he proposed the problems he had solved as a challenge to other mathematicians, then announced his own superior solutions in four letters published in December 1658 and January 1659 under the pseudonym A. Dettonville. These pamphlets were collected in February 1659 under the… Leer más

Edinburgh: G. Hamilton & J. Balfour, 1754. First edition. EVANS (49) - THE DISCOVERY OF CARBON DIOXIDE. First edition of one of the greatest rarities in the history of science, the discovery of carbon dioxide and the foundation work of quantitative chemical analysis. "There is perhaps no other instance of a graduation thesis so weighted with significant novelty as Black's 'De humore acido a cibis orto, et magnesia alba' presented to the Faculty, 11 June, 1754" (William Osler in DNB). It "was soon recognised for what it is: a brilliant model, perhaps the first successful model, of quantitative chemical investigation, as well as a classic exemplar of experimental science worthy of comparison with Newton's Opticks ... The Dissertatio in its original form is virtually unprocurable" (Guerlac, p. 124). Black's biographer Sir William Ramsay, who was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in chemistry "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air," wrote of "Black's celebrated… Leer más

St. Albans: Fisher, Knight & Co, 1953. First edition. DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF DNA. SIGNED BY ALL BUT ONE OF THE AUTHORS. First edition, offprint, signed by Watson, Crick, Wilkins, Gosling, Stokes & Wilson, i.e. six of the seven authors. We know of no copy signed by Franklin, and strongly doubt that any such copy exists. Furthermore this copy is, what we believe to be, just one of three copies signed by six authors. One of the most important scientific papers of the twentieth century, which "records the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the main component of chromosomes and the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms. Publication of this paper initiated the science of molecular biology. Forty years after Watson and Crick's discovery, so much of the basic understanding of medicine and disease has advanced to the molecular level that their paper may be considered the most significant single contribution to biology and medicine in the… Leer más

Leipzig: S. Spörl for J. S. Fick & J. P. Seubold [Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek], 1666. First edition. LEIBNIZ'S 'ALPHABET OF THOUGHT'. First edition, extremely rare. "This book contains the seeds of Leibniz's mature thought, as well as many of the mathematical ideas that he would go on to further develop after the invention of the calculus. It is in the Dissertatio, for instance, that we find the project for the construction of a logical calculus clearly expressed for the first time. The idea of encoding terms and propositions by means of numbers, later developed by Kurt Gödel, also appears in this work. In this text, furthermore, Leibniz conceives the possibility of constituting a universal language or universal characteristic, a project that he would pursue for the rest of his life" (Mugnai et al.). "Leibniz suggests that primitive concepts might be likened to primenumbers and derivative concepts to composite numbers ... Leibniz's suggestion anticipates Gödel numbering, the technique used… Leer más

Toscolano: Paganino de' Paganini, 1523. "THE FIRST GREAT GENERAL WORK ON MATHEMATICS PRINTED" (SMITH) "THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK IN THE HISTORY OF CAPITALISM" THE BARON-LANDAU - HANS FÜRSTENBERG COPY . Second edition, very rare, a close reprint of the first edition (Venice, 1494), and a copy with distinguished provanence. The Summa is a work of enormous importance on several levels. It is the first mathematical encyclopaedia of the Renaissance, "the first great general work on mathematics printed" (Smith, Rara arithmetica, p. 56), and the first printing of any of the works of the great thirteenth-century mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, called Fibonacci (c. 1175-c. 1250), and of Pacioli's friend, the brilliant mathematician and artist Piero della Francesca (1416-92). The first part of the Summa is the first printed comprehensive treatment of algebra and arithmetic, based largely on Fibonacci's 1202 Liber Abaci which famously introduced Arabic numbers to the West, and which was itself in part a… Leer más

Strassburg: Johann Prüss, 1497. 15TH CENTURY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NATURAL HISTORY AND MEDICINE . Second (first Strasbourg) Latin edition, very rare, of the most extensive 15th-century work on natural history and medicine, first published by Meydenbach in Mainz in 1491, and compiled by the German doctor and herbalist Johannes de Cuba or Johannes von Kaub (fl. 1484-1503). It was the prototype for all subsequent editions. Due to its date of printing, it is the last major medical work to cover medicines from the Old World only. The Hortus sanitatis, meaning 'Garden of Health', provides information on the medicinal use of plants and animals both real and mythical. It is partly based on the Gart de gesundheit, published in 1485, which is sometimes attributed to Johann von Cube, and was originally printed by Peter Schöffer at Mainz in 1485. However, it should be regarded as a separate work, as it covers nearly 100 more medicinal plants than the Gart der gesundheit and also includes extensive sections on… Leer más

[Edinburgh: N.p., 1785. First edition. INSCRIBED PRESENTATION COPY OF THE EXTREMELY RARE ABSTRACT. First edition, inscribed presentation copy from Hutton to Matthew Boulton, of one of the great rarities in the history of science, Hutton's first announcement of his revolutionary view that our earth was shaped by slow, steady forces acting over a long period of time - the doctrine of uniformitarianism. According to Victor Eyles, "10 or at most 12" copies of this Abstract exist (photocopy of letter from Eyles to a previous owner laid in; Eyles is the author of a published bibliographical account of the Abstract, and of the DSB article on Hutton). "Hutton's theory, or 'System of the Earth,' as he called it originally, was first made public at two meetings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, early in 1785. The society published it in full in 1788, but offprints of this paper were in circulation in 1787, and possibly in 1786. The theory first appeared in print in condensed form, in a thirty-page pamphlet… Leer más

1639. First edition. EXTRAORDINARY SAMMELBAND OF SIX RARE WORKS BY KEPLER - INCLUDING SOMNIUM, HIS 'VOYAGE TO THE MOON'. An extraordinary sammelband, with a remarkable provenance, containing six rare works by Kepler, including the first edition of Somnium, Kepler's imaginary voyage to the moon, in which he utilizes the motions of the planets as they would be seen from the moon to argue for the Copernican system, and gives a remarkable description of the appearance of the earth as seen from the moon - this is Kepler's rarest major work. "At Sagan, Kepler finally began to print a short book whose beginnings went back to his school days at Tübingen: his Somnium, seu astronomia lunari. The 'Dream' is a curiously interesting tract for two reasons. First, its fantasy framework of a voyage to the moon made it a pioneering and remarkably prescient piece of science fiction. Second, its perceptive description of celestial motions as seen from the moon produced an ingenious polemic on behalf of the Copernican… Leer más

Venice: Johannes Hamman, 1496. First edition. the first published matter from the almagest. First edition, rare, the Evans-Honeyman-Beltrame copy, of "this celebrated work, the first published matter from the Almagest, [which] was begun by Purbach and completed by Regiomontanus" (Evans). "The importance of this book lies in the fact that it enshrine, within the editor's commentary, the first appearance in print, in a Latin translation from the Greek, of the monumental compendium of Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria known as the Almagest" (PMM), the foundation of ancient astronomy. "The Almagest of Ptolemy (90-180 AD) had been known since the late 1100s only through a poor Arabic translation until Cardinal Bessarion charged the eminent Georgius Peuerbach with the task of properly editing the text. Only the first four books were completed when Peuerbach died in 1461 and the work was finished by his pupil Regiomontanus. This handsome volume again brought Greek astronomy and the accepted version of the… Leer más

Paris: André Wechel, 1572. First edition. Hardcover. TWO OF PARÉ'S MOST IMPORTANT WORKS. First editions of two of Paré's most important works, both very rare, and in fine condition. "The Cinq livres contains all new material. It had been called by several serious writers Paré's chef d'oeuvre ... in it appears the first description of the fracture of the head and of the femur. Secondly, it is the first appearance of the whole teaching of bandages, fractures, and dislocations which has come down to us from the ancients, broadened by Paré's own experience ... It is undoubtedly one of his most important works" (Doe 19). The Traicté de la peste was written from direct experience of the plague: "Having passed the winter of 1564-65 on tour in Provence with Catherine de Medici and the young king Charles IX, where the ravages of a plague epidemic, added to poverty and general misery, were painfully apparent, Paré was requested by the queen mother to make whatever knowledge he possessed of the disease… Leer más

Leiden: Jan Maire, 1637. First edition. PMM 129 - THE INVENTION OF ANALYTIC GEOMETRY. First edition, a fine, large copy, of Descartes' first and most famous work. Following the Discours, now celebrated as one of the canonical texts of Western philosophy, are three 'Essais', the last of which, La Géométrie, contains the birth of analytical or co-ordinate geometry, "of epoch-making importance" (Cajori, History of Mathematics, p. 174), designated by John Stuart Mill as "the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences". It "rendered possible the later achievements of seventeenth-century mathematical physics" (Hall, Nature and nature's laws (1970), p. 91). The first of the Essais, La Dioptrique, contains Descartes' discovery of 'Snell's law' of refraction of light (earlier than Snell); the second, Les Météores, contains Descartes' explanation of the rainbow, based on the optical theories developed in the first Essai. "It is no exaggeration to say that Descartes was the first… Leer más

New York: American Institute of Electrical Engineers [AIEE], 1938. First edition. SHANNON'S FAMOUS MASTER'S THESIS - INCREDIBLY RARE OFFPRINT. First edition, incredibly rare separately-paginated offprint, one of four known copies, of Shannon's famous MIT Master's Thesis, which Herman Goldstein has called "masterful ... surely one of the most important master's theses ever written ... a landmark in that it helped to change digital circuit design from an art to a science" (The Computer From Pascal to Von Neumann, pp. 119-120). While working on his thesis, Shannon was invited to present his work at the Summer Conference of the AIEE, June 2-24, 1938. His presentation was published in December 1938 in the AIEE Transactions; the present offprint of that article is dated 16 September 1938. "Claude Shannon, in his master's thesis entitled 'A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits,' submitted to MIT on August 10, 1937, showed that the two-valued algebra developed by George Boole could be used as a… Leer más

Bracciano: Andreas Phaeus, 1630. First edition. EXTREMELY RARE LARGE AND THICK PAPER COPY. First edition, extremely rare large and thick paper copy, of the most lavishly illustrated astronomical work published in the first half of the seventeenth century, with many full-page illustrations of Scheiner's observations of the sun and of the optical instruments he had designed for the purpose. "For his masterpiece, Scheiner produced the first monograph on a heavenly body, the Sun. Even today it is still an impressive volume, with scores of engravings of sunspots and the various instruments needed for solar observations" (Jesuit Science in the Age of Galileo). "Scheiner's drawings in the Rosa Ursina are of almost modern quality, and there was little improvement in solar imaging until 1905" (Britannica). In this work "Scheiner agreed with Galileo that sunspots are on the Sun's surface or in its atmosphere, that they are often generated and perish there, and that the Sun is therefore not perfect. Scheiner… Leer más

Paris: Béthune and Plon for Susse frères and Delloye, 1839. First edition. DAGUERREOTYPE - "THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY" (HORBLIT) - THE TRUE FIRST PRINTING. First edition, the true first issue (see below), of Daguerre's exposition of his photographic process, "the beginnings of photography" (Horblit); this is an excellent unrestored copy in original printed wrappers, and very rare in this condition. "Perhaps no other invention ever captured the imagination of the public to such a degree and conquered the world with such lightning rapidity as the daguerreotype" (Gernsheim, p. 71). "The daguerreotype is a photographic image with a mirror-like surface on a silver or silver-coated copper plate. A unique photograph, the daguerreotype is not produced from a negative, and the final image appears either positive or negative depending on the angle of reflected light" (Hannavy, p. 365). Daguerre (1787-1851), a gifted set designer and creator of the famous Diorama, a picture show based on lighting effects,… Leer más