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Science

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Science at Quaritch is broadly defined, ranging from medicine, anatomy, pharmacology (including herbals) and natural history to astronomy, physics, chemistry and mathematics.

An interest in the origins of modern chemistry has led to a specialisation in works on alchemy and distillation, and from there we have also branched out into occultism and hermeticism. We have developed an interest in gastronomy and books on nutrition and wine, an area which over the years has become one of our specialities.
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  1. NIGHTINGALE, Florence.

    Notes on Matters affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army.

    London, Harrison and Sons, 1858.

    First edition, printed for private circulation only, of Florence Nightingale’s pioneering report on the sanitary condition of the British Army, resulting in a radical reform of the administration, sanitation, and nursing practices at large, this copy with remarkable nursing association.

    £18000

  2. NISSEN, Peter.

    ‘Carl Hagenbeck’s Zoologischer Circus’

    c. 1891.

    A rare portfolio of live animal scenes from Carl Hagenbeck’s famous ‘zoological circus’; a wonderful hybrid of the real and the surreal in zoological and photographic history.

    £12000

  3. ORIBASIUS. 

    Commentaria in Aphorismos Hippocratis … Ioannis Guinterij Andernaciis medici industria velut e profundissimis tenebris...

    Paris, Simon de Colines, 1533. 

    First edition of this commentary on Hippocrates, bound with a richly annotated copy of Galen’s works in the translation by Thomas Linacre. 

    £1750

  4. OSBALDISTON, William Augustus.

    The British Sportsman, or Nobleman, Gentleman, and Farmer’s Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement,...

    London, J. Stead for the Proprietor, and sold by Champante & Whitrow and at the British Directory Office, [c. 1792-6].

    First edition, issued in forty-two parts, of one of the first sporting dictionaries. ‘The pleasure and convenience of being well informed in the Recreations and Amusements of a Country Life, are objects of themselves sufficiently interesting, to justify the Author in presenting this Work to...

    £650

  5. [PARACELSUS.

    Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi eremitae philosophi summi operum latine redditorum tomus II … Basel, Pietro Perna, 1575.]

    [Basel, Pietro Perna, 1575.]

    The second half of a two-volume edition of the Latin works of Paracelsus (1493–1541), the great Swiss physician and alchemist, with profuse annotations by a number of early English readers.

    £1750

  6. PASCOLI, Alessandro. 

    Nuovo metodo per introdursi ad imitazion de’ geometri con ordine, chiarezza, e brevità nelle piu sottili...

    Venice, Andrea Poletti, 1721. 

    Scarce second edition (first 1702) of this work of philosophy and medicine by the Perugian scholar Pascoli (1669–1757). 

    £450

  7. PASTA, Giuseppe. 

    Della facoltà dell’oppio nelle malattie veneree, nuove ricerche cliniche …

    Bergamo, dalla stamperia Antoine, 1788. 

    Very rare first edition of this treatise on the use of opium in the treatment of venereal disease by the Bergamo physician Giuseppe Pasta (1742–1823). 

    £350

  8. [PHARMACOPOEIA.]

    Pharmacopoea Taurinensis nunc primum edita jussu Augustissimi Regis.

    Turin, Jean-Baptiste Chais, 1736.

    First edition of this Turin pharmacopoeia, prepared by doctors at the city’s medical college at the order of Charles Emmanuel III, Duke of Savoy. Its first section comprises a list of all substances generally used in the preparation of medicines, with synonyms and notes to aid the user in distinguishing...

    £1800

  9. [PHARMACOPOEIA.]

    Apparatus medicaminum ad usum nosocomii Ticinensis anno MDCCXC.

    Pavia, Joseph Bolzani, [1790].

    Very rare first edition of this pharmacopoeia for use at the Ospedale Grande di San Matteo, also known as the Pietà, in Pavia, one of the foremost medical schools in Europe at the time of this publication. Founded in 1449, the Ospedale remained the centre of healthcare in the city for almost...

    £750

  10. PLINY the Elder.

    Historiae mundi libri XXXVII, cum castigationibus et adnotationibus doctiss. & variis praeterea lectionibus ex...

    Frankfurt, Claude de Marne and heirs of Jean Aubry, 1608.

    First Frankfurt edition of Pliny’s Natural History, here bound as an enormous single volume with strikingly decorated edges featuring acorns and scrolls.

    £1400

  11. [POETRY.] 

    ‘Trattato della [poesia Toscana]’. 

    [Asti?, 1780-1782.] 

    A manuscript treatise on the method of composing poetry in Italian, with numerous examples from renowned authors and eight apparently unpublished poems about horse-racing, with references to Arabian, Sardinian, English, and African horses, as well as to a firework display. 

    £750

  12. PORTA, Giambattista della.

    De humana physiognomonia … libri IIII; qui ab extimis, quae in hominum corporibus conspiciuntur signis,...

    Hanau, Wilhelm Antonius for [Frankfurt,] Peter Fischer, 1593.

    The second Latin edition and the first to be published in Germany of this richly illustrated work on physiognomy by the Italian polymath Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615), a beautiful copy in strictly contemporary German white calf.

    £2500

  13. RANK, Otto.

    Der Mythus von der Geburt des Helden. Versuch einer psychologischen Mythendeutung.

    Leipzig and Vienna, Franz Deuticke, 1909.

    First edition of this psychoanalytical investigation of mythological heroism and the role of birth legends in the stories of heroes, by the German psychoanalyst Otto Rank (1884–1939), published as part of the series Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde under the editorship of Freud....

    £100

  14. REFELL, A. 

    Trugbilder: Eine Anleitung Erscheinungen, auf optischer Täuschung beruhend, nach Belieben hervorzuheben und wissenschaftliche...

    Stuttgart, Rieger, 1865. 

    First German edition, rare, of this fascinating study of mirages and optical illusions, in particular ghostly apparitions, in which the author attempts to demonstrate using the principles of optics how they might appear, with the aim of proving the absurdity of the superstitions to which they...

    £1250

  15. RUSH, John; Jacob F. SHEEK, editor.

    The Hand-Book to veterinary Homoeopathy, or the homoeopathic Treatment of the Horse,...

    New York & San Francisco, Boericke & Tafel, 1876.

    Later American edition of a rare hand-book to veterinary homoeopathy. The text, first published in 1853, offers homoeopathic remedies for a variety of ailments, prefaced by a defence of the principles of the practice.

    £275

  16. SABATIER, Raphaël Bienvenu.

    Traité complet d’anatomie, ou description de toutes les parties du corps humain ... Troisième...

    Paris, Théophile Barrois, 1791.

    Third edition (first 1775) of this popular treatise on anatomy by Raphaël Bienvenu Sabatier (1732–1811).

    £200

  17. SALADO GARCES Y RIBERA, Francisco.

    Varias materias de diversas facultades, y sciencias politica contra peste, govierno en lo espiritual,...

    Utrera, Juan Malpartida, 1655.

    Very rare first edition of this highly interesting work on plague, viewed from medical, religious, and political standpoints, by a lawyer from Utrera in southern Spain, written in the wake of the devastating epidemic that struck the city and province of Seville in 1649 as part of the Great Plague...

    £2500

  18. SAUNIER, Jean de, and Gaspard de SAUNIER.

    La parfaite connoissance des chevaux, leur anatomie, leurs bonnes & mauvaises...

    The Hague, for the Author and sold by Adrien Moetjens, 1734.

    First edition of Gaspard de Saunier’s most important work, the only one published during his lifetime. Gaspard de Saunier (1663 - 1748) established his reputation with the foundation of his equestrian academy at Leiden in 1707 and as riding master to the university there, having previously served...

    £1950

  19. SECHENOV, Ivan Mikhaylovich.

    Fisiologia nervnoy sistemy [in Cyrillic].

    St. Petersburg, 1866.

    first edition, rare, of Sechenov’s influential lectures at the St. Petersburg Medico-Surgical Academy. Sechenov states in his preface that as soon as he began to lecture (St. Petersburg in 1860 was his first professorship) he discovered the deficiencies of the existing textbooks, which tended to be...

    £2750

  20. S[HEAFE], T[homas].

    Vindiciae senectutis, or, a Plea for Old-Age: which is senis cujusdam cygnea cantio. And the several Points...

    London, George Mither and are to be sold by Joshua Kirton, and Thomas Warren, 1639.

    First edition of a rare encomium on senectitude by the eighty-year-old canon of Windsor, Thomas Sheafe, who died later in 1639, dedicated to the supremely long-lived divine Laurence Chaderton (1536?–1640), first Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. This is the rarer second issue, with a cancel...

    £1250