Search Results: Physics from Milestones of Science Books

Amsterdam: Sumptibus Societatis, 1723. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Analysis per Quantitatum Series, Fluxiones ac Differentias cum enumeratione Linearum tertii ordinis. [bound after] Philosophia naturalis principia mathematica. Auctore Isaaco Newtono, Equite Aurato. Editio Ultima. Cui accedit. Amstalodami: Sumptibus Societatis, 1723. 4to (248 x 193 mm); 2 parts in 1 volume, [26], 484, [8]; [12], 107, [1] pp. Title pages with vignettes (of the first part printed in red and black), 3 engraved folding plates, many tables in the text. Contemporary full leather, spined with gilt morocco label and 5 raised bands richly gilt in compartments (hinges strengthened, upper and lower spine repaired, extremities worn, corners bumped), red-dyed edges, marbled endpapers. Internally only little browned, very minor occasional spotting and soiling. Very good, internally fresh and wide margined copy of a rare edition. ---- Gray 12; Wallis 12, Sotheran, Second Supplement I, 5672. - The… Read More

Naples: Ex typographia Benedicti Gessari / ...G. Morelli, 1754. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Four parts bound in two volumes. 4to (237 x 180 mm). [12], 184, [14] pp. and 14 plates (5 folding); [24], 253, [7] pp. and 2 plates; 27, [5], 190, [2] pp. and 10 plates; [8], 200 pp. and 7 plates. Including half-title to each volume, woodcut printer's device on title pages, woodcut head-and tailpieces, and a total of 33 engraved plates as called for. Without final blank bb4 in vol. I. 19th century half vellum, spines with ink lettering, marbled edges (minor rubbing of extremities, corners scuffed). Uneven browning and foxing to text and plates, occasional minor dampstaining and soiling. Text and plates collated complete. ---- Riccardi I, 359. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Celestino Cominale's Antinewtonianismi is a detailed, largely fallacious refutation of almost everything that Newton wrote, including his theories of light and gravitation. Celestino… Read More

Leipzig, 1707. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (167 x 95 mm). 94, [2] pp. With one engraved folding plate, one final leaf of index. Bound in contemporary French calf, spine with 5 raised bands gilt in compartments and with gilt-lettered morocco label, red-dyed edges, marbled endpapers (hinges split but holding firmly, slight wear to extremities). Text somewhat browned throughout, light dampstaining to plate and text in places. Provenance: bookplate monogrammed "P.I." and with motto "fortiter recta via" to front pastedown. All in all still a very good copy in untouched original binding. ---- VERY RARE FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest works on steam power, the basis of the Industrial Revolution. "In 1707 [Papin] sent the Royal Society a monograph [the present work] describing a design of engine which he had developed on far-sighted high-pressure principles. The following year he returned to London to seek support for his invention.… Read More

München: Lentner, 1817. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Soft cover. In: Denkschriften der königlichen Academie der Wissenschaften zu München für die Jahre 1814 und 1815, vol. 5, pp. 193-226, 3 engraved folding plates (2 folding). München: Lentner, 1817. 4to (270 x 230 mm), whole volume [8], xlii, 62, 226, 91 [1] pp., including half-title, general title page, 4-page index and 13 engraved plates. Original wrappers with printed spine label (little dust-soiled and spotted, spine ends slightly frayed), all pages uncut. Small worm hole in front wrapper extending into half-title without affecting text, occasional minor spotting, page edges a bit dust-soiled and frayed at lower edge, two of Fraunhofer's plates somewhat browned as usual, otherwise generally crisp and clean. Provenance: Peter and Margarete Braune (tipped-in bookplate on inner front wrapper). An exceptional, unsophisticated and wide-margined copy. ---- Dibner 153; PMM 278a; Sparrow 70; Norman 836 (offprint); DSB V,… Read More

München: Ignaz Joseph Lentner, 1812. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (207 x 122 mm). xxiii [1], 446, [2] pp., 4 folding engraved plates and errata leaf at the end. Bound in contemporary half-calf, boards covered with brown marbled paper, spine with gilt decoration and gilt-lettered morocco label, red-dyed edges, original endpapers (rebacked preserving original spine, boards and board-edges rubbed, corners heavily worn, upper joint with worming). Text and plates with minor browning and occasional minor spotting, first free endpaper clipped at upper corner. Provenance: ?Ungethüm (color lithographed bookplate to front pastedown), shelf-mark paper label to upper board. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION of Gruithuisen's collection of observations and studies in a variety of disciplines, such as philosophy, medicine, optics, astronomy or geology. Baron Franz von Paula Gruithuisen (1774-1852) was a Bavarian physician and astronomer. He taught medical… Read More

Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1860. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 1860-1861. Entire volumes, 8vo (208 x 128 mm); IX [1], 668 pp., 8 folding plates; X, 660 pp., 8 folding plates. Uniformly bound in contemporary polished half-calf and marbled boards, gilt-lettered morocco labels, marbled edges (extremities slightly rubbed, corners partly bumped). Text and plates with occasional minor foxing, otherwise crisp and clean throughout. A very good set in untouched original bindings. ---- FIRST PRINTING OF THE TWO FOUNDING PAPERS OF SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. In 1860, Gustav R. Kirchhoff and Robert W. Bunsen discovered in their Heidelberg laboratory that the light of heated chemical elements passed through a prism produces characteristic lines. These lines allow unambiguous remote identification of the substances involved. The two researchers published their discovery in the Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Kirchhoff and Bunsen demonstrated that the presence… Read More

Paris: Hermann et Cie, 1932. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Conséquences de la relativité dans le développement de la mécanique ondulatoire. Actualités scientifiques et industrielles XLII. Paris: Hermann et Cie, 1932. 8vo (254 x 163 mm). 14 pp. Original stiff wrappers printed in red and black (light fraying at head of spine). Uncut and partially unopened. Provenance: Bookseller's ticket (Albert Blanchard) inside frontwrapper. Text crisp and clean, correction of equation on p.6 and a few text markings in blue crayon. Provenance: Jean-Louis Destouches*, with the AUTHOR'S AUTOGRAPH SIGNED DEDICATION (in English!) at head of title. A near fine copy. [Joined:] BROGLIE, Louis Victor, Prince de. L'Électron magnétique (théorie de Dirac). Paris: Hermann et Cie, 1934. 8vo (250 x 160 mm). viii, [2], 315 [1] pp., 2 plates on one sheet, text illustrations and diagrams. Original stiff wrappers printed in red and black (tanning of spine and upper… Read More

Florence: Lorenzo Torrentini, 1548. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. 4to (207 x 137 mm). 197 [1], [2, errata] pp. Text in latin and greek. Bound in contemporary limp vellum, spine titled in manuscript, ties gone (soiling, browning and minor spotting of vellum, old repair to spine, small hole in lower cover). Internally quite crisp and clean, small dampstain to fore-margin of first two gatherings, few pages with contemporary ink annotations, first flyleaf with long commentary in manuscript. A fine, wide-margined copy. ---- Adams A 1787; Cranz (IA) 108.139; Graesse V, 419; Hoffmann I, 307, 4; Honeyman 143; Schweiger I, 52. FIRST EDITION of a work now attributed to Theophrastus being one of the earliest printed books on color, with the Latin translation and commentary by the Neapolitan physician and philosopher Simone Porzio. It is generally agreed that De coloribus was not written by Aristotle; but can now be ascribed to Theophrastus or Strato.… Read More

Rome: Antonii de Rubeis apud Pantheon in via Seminarii Romani, 1754. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. [BENVENUTI, Carlo]. I. De lumine dissertatio physica quam in seminario Romano ad disputandum proposuit d. Joseph Joachimus a Vereterra, et Agurto e marchionibus Castagnagae ejusdem seminarii convictor, atque academicus redivivus. Rome: Antonii de Rubeis apud Pantheon in via Seminarii Romani, 1754. [2], XCI [1] pp. Signatures: [pi]1 A-L4 M2. Woodcut device to title-page, 2 folding engraved plates, errata on final leaf. [Bound with:] II. [BENVENUTI, Carlo]. Synopsis physicae generalis quam in Seminario Romano ad disserendum proposuit d. Joseph Joachimus a Vereterra, et Agurto e Marchionibus Castagnagae ejusdem seminarii convictor, atque academicus redivivus. Rome: Antonii de Rubeis apud Pantheon in via Seminarii Romani, 1754. [2], LXXXI, [3] pp. Signatures: [pi]1 A-I4 K5. Woodcut device to title-page, 1 folding engraved plate, errata on final leaf.… Read More

London: Peter Short, 1600. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Folio (278 x 190 mm). [16], 240 pp. Signatures: *8, A-V6. Woodcut title device and large woodcut arms on verso, one folding plate facing p. 200, 87 woodcuts in text of which 4 full-page, decorative woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. In its original contemporary limp vellum binding, leather ties mostly preserved, original endpapers, sprinkled edges (vellum repaired including torn vellum over spine and added endbands, vellum dust soiled and spotted). Housed in custom-made half morocco over cloth cassette. Little even browning throughout, occasional minor mostly marginal brown spotting, faint dampstaining to upper outer corner in places, final two gatherings with pale dampstain to blank fore-margin, minor dust soiling to outer margins. Provenance: Gilbournd (early ownership signature on title); 18th century manuscript notes in English about this work to final free endpaper; Christie's sale 6950, London, 5 July… Read More

Venice: Giovanni Antonio Pinelli, 1721. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. De separatione fluidorum in corpore animali dissertatio physico-mechanico-medica. Venice: Giovanni Antonio Pinelli, 1721. [8], 362, [2] pp. Including half title, engraved frontispiece, title with engraved vignette, engraved headpieces, woodcut initials and tailpieces, errata leaf, one folding engraved plate. Handwritten index bound after second work. Signatures: [pi]4, A-Y8, z6. Text and plates crisp and clean, small waterstain to top margin of a few pages, finger soiling to p.137, few ink marginalia in contemporary hand, errata corrected in text. Inscribed on title-page "Bouillet - dono authoris." [Bound with:] BERNOULLI, Johannes. De motu musculorum, de effervescentia & fermentione dissertationes physico-mechanica... accedunt Petri Antonii Michelotti. Venice, 1721. [24], 123 (1] pp., half-title, title with engraved vignette, engraved headpieces, woodcut initials and… Read More

Camerino: Typis Vicentii Gori, 1781. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (181 x 114 mm). vii [1], 80 pp., 1 folding engraved plate, woodcut headpieces and initials. Plain contemporary carta rustica (soiled, stained, chipped at spine). Text only very little browned, some marginal brown staining possibly from lamp oil. Provenance: Giancarlo Beltrame Library. ---- Exceptionally rare treatise on motion and acceleration of bodies, and a comparison of his theories with Galilei and others, by Antonio Ludeña or Ludenna (1740-1820), a Spanish mathematician, physicist and Jesuit. Ludeña joined the Society of Jesus in 1758. In the 1760s he studied philosophy in Girona. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits, promulgated with the pragmatics of Charles III in 1767, he went into Italian exile, and taught physics and mathematics at the University of Camerino, Parma and the Episcopal Seminary of Cremona. In 1783 and 1784, as a professor at Camerino, he… Read More

Modena: Societatem Typographicam, 1792. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to (278 x 210 mm). xxvi, 80 pp. and 3 folding engraved plates (plate III in first state with the letter 'E' in fig. 22 uncorrected); woodcut headpieces; bound without intermediate blank leaf C6 as usual. Contemporary Italian cardboard, pasted over with orange metallic paper, red-sprinkled boards, original endpapers (some paste-paper chipping to extremities and spine). Title-leaf with erased circular stamp (resulting in some paper-thinning outside printed area); crisp and bright throughout with just some minor occasional spotting of text and plates; small hole in blank fore-marging of plate I. Provenance: from an Italian private collection. This copy comes with an official export permit issued by Italian government. A near fine, wide-margined copy. ---- RARE FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM. Galvani first published his theory in 1791 in volume V of the Proceedings of the Bologna Academy of Science. He… Read More

[Turin]: [printer unknown], 1775. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. 4to (270 x 210 mm). [8], 54, [2] pp. Signatures: [pi]4 A-G4. With the first blank leaf [pi]1 and the final leaf of Imprimatur G4. Bound in 20th-century patterend paste paper boards. All pages untrimmed. Text very little browned only, occasional minor spotting, small wormtracks to last leaf (not affecting text). Provenance: Giancarlo Beltrame Library. ---- Wheeler-Gilft 450; Honeyman 256; Balbo 30. FIRST EDITION of Beccaria's short work on atmospheric electricity in fair weather. "This is the author's famous tract on the normal electricity of the atmosphere. Positive and negative electricity found, p. 4; observations on the electrical charges of clouds, p. 18; origin of atmospheric electricity, p. 32." (Wheeler-Gift). This treatise was published not before 1775, as can be seen from the print signatures of the three epistles (p. 27, 45, 53). It was presumably published in Turin, as… Read More

Venice: Reale Istituto nel Palazzo Loredan, 1899. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Fair. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Memorie del Reale Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, Vol. 26, No 5. Venice: Reale Istituto nel Palazzo Loredan, 1899. 4to (333 x 240 mm). 26 pp. Original printed wrappers (edge fraying, upper wrapper detached, browned an brittle at edges). Text browned throughout. Provenance: Giancarlo Beltrame Library.

Brescia: Giovanni Battista Bossini, 1760. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. 4to (285 x 203 mm). xxiv, 208 pp. Allegorical engraved frontispiece by Giampiccoli, also containing the author's portrait in oval, engraved vignette on title-page, large copper-engraved initials, two folding engraved plates. All pages uncut. Contemporary carta rustica (little browned and soiled, corners bumped and scuffed). Little browning and spotting in outer margins, but generally a clean and crisp copy. Provenance: Giancarlo Beltrame Library. ---- Riccardi I/1, 383:1; Roller-Goodman I, 261; Honeyman 779; Sotheran I, 7079; Cicognara 484 - FIRST EDITION of Cristiani's comprehensive scientific presentation of the history of surveying. Cristiani (1731-1811) was an architect, engineer and mathematician. His present work refers to Galileo, Newton, Castelli, Leibniz, Riccioli, Snell a.o. "Tutte le opere di questo sommo matematico, e ingegnere sono da' tenersi in pregio fra… Read More

Paris: Bachelier, 1851. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. In: Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences 32, Paris, Bachelier, 1851. 4to. (266 x 216 mm); pp. 135-138 (entire volume: 1010 pages). New endpapers. Library stamp and deaccession stamp of Universitätsbibliothek Paderborn and some additional library markings on the lower margin of page 2. Pages 959 to 1010 (index according to author and topic) in facsimile. Modern cloth with gilt-embossed spine. Internally crisp and bright throughout. ---- PMM 330, Dibner 17, Norman 818 (offprint). - THE FIRST MECHANICAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION FIRST EDITION, RARE. To postulate astronomical behaviour is one order of thought, to prove its demonstration is of quite another order. The rotation of the earth had been accepted since Copernicus but it remained for Foucault to demonstrate it. He suspended an iron ball pendulum from the dome of the Pantheon in Paris, set it swinging and chartered its… Read More

London: Printed for R. Hunter, 1823. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (227 x 140 mm). [6], 83 [1], [2] pp., 8 plates (7 engraved, 1 folding, 1 bound as frontispiece), all but one engraved by Lowry after Francis Ronalds, errata leaf at the end. Near contemporary grey drab boards, pages uncut (light soiling and browning, upper inner hinge partly split). Title and a few text leaves lightly browned with minor offsetting from plates, occasional light spotting. Provenance: Peter and Margarete Braune. ---- Wheeler-Gift 803, Mottelay, p.438; Bakken, p. 292. RARE FIRST EDITION OF A MILESTONE IN THE HISTORY OF COMMUNICATIONS. Francis Ronalds was the inventor of the electric telegraph. In 1816 he laid down eight miles of wire in the garden of his house in Upper Mall, Hammersmith (subsequently known as Kelsmcott House, and occupied by William Morris), to produce the first working telegraph and this is the first published account of his invention. The… Read More

Tubingen: Verlag der H. Laupp'schen Buchhandlung, 1871. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Good. 1st Edition. Soft cover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (218x141 mm). [8], 100 pp., one plate and two folding diagrams. Original printed wrapper (little soiled), text slightly foxed. Rare. Darmstädter, Handbuch, p.716. First Edition of the description of his spectrometer.

Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1863. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (216x139 mm). xi, 600 pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt, inner hinges cracked but firm; interior slightly foxed, dedication inscription in ink to first flyleaf. ---- Garrison-Morton 1562; Horblit 49a; Norman 1044. - First Edition. "This exhaustive study of acoustics ranks as one of the greatest books on the subject and shows that Helmholtz was, besides being a great physicist and physician, an accomplished musician" (Garrison-Morton). Helmholtz's resonance theory of hearing, expounded in this work, remained unchallenged for decades. Helmholtz also explained that differences in timbre result from differences in upper partial tones, which depend in turn on how the fundamental is produced., and he applied this observation to music theory to explain that consonance and dissonance are produced by more or less coincident upper… Read More