46 résultats
1710precDisbound quarto; 15 x 23 cm; xii 56 pages; worn and soiled; blindstamp of Chicago Theological Seminary on title page.<br /><i>Seder Mitzvot Nashim</i> The Order of Women's Precepts by Benjamin Aaron ben Abraham Slonik of Grodno c. 1550–c. 1619 translated into Italian by Jacob ben Elhanan Heilbronn in 1614; this copy printed in Venice 1710. <br /><br />A practical and fairly sympathetic guide to women's ritual obligation first published in Yiddish in Cracow 1577 in Italian in Padua 1616. This was probably the most popular of the rabbinical guides to a woman's three ritual obligations: 1 the taking of a piece of dough before baking bread 2 the lighting of lights on the eve of the Sabbath and festivals and 3 observing the various rules of ritual purity during and after menstruation. It went through numerous editions in Yiddish and Italian through 1750. OCLC locates ten copies of this edition.<br /> Gioanni de'Paoli. Nella Stamparia Bragadina books
1767D11183n.p. Berlin 1767. Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo 160 x 90mm. 4 363 1 pages. 18th-century mottled calf marbled endpapers and edges spine ends chipped scattered stains mostly marginal. Front flyleaf with contemporary French verse inscription Sur cet coteaux depouilles de verdure; je vois courir le lievre fuigtif et loiseau mort de froide accuse la nature and ownership inscription on title Elisabeth Lagravere. <br/><br/>French translation of Sulzers theory on the origins of pleasure following a Cartesian school of thought. Zurich native Johann George Sulzer was a well-established member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and Belle-Lettres who published widely on the appreciation of art. Sulzers influence on aesthetic theory was well known within theoretical circles in late eighteenth century Berlin. Owing to the work of Descartes particularly his Passions of the Soul 1649 Sulzers work on the origins of pleasure aimed to initiate a move toward moral psychology and ethical theory within studies of the mind. Sulzer focused on the derivation of joy and gladness in the model of a Cartesian system; simply it opposed the idea of Hedonism which believed pleasure was the sole aim of humankind. Instead Sulzers theories supported a metaphysical experience within ones own cognitive condition. Sulzers work supplements the great accomplishment of many of his near contemporary theorists who contributed to the study of emotions Descartes Hobbes Malebranche and Spinoza. His work preceded that of Kants division of the mind into pleasure or pain and who with later Kant outwardly disagreed with the weakness of the proofs promulgated by Sulzer. Abraham Gotthelf Kästner was a German poet and mathematician also a devout Lutheran. He was known in his professional life for compiling and reflecting on content for textbook study. Kästner translated and revised this Sulzers theoretical work on pleasure showcasing his encyclopedic interests but remains better known for his contributions on the history of mathematics and his various epigrams. hardcover books
180047937Philadelphia PA: Mathew Carey No. 118 High-street 1800. 8vo. 80 pp. Bound with his: Oration Delivered in Wallingford on the 11th of March 1801 Before the Republicans of the State of Connecticut at Their General Thanksgiving for the Election of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency and of Aaron Burr to the Vice Presidency of the United States of America. New Haven CT: Printed by William W. Morse 1801. 8vo. 111 1 pp. Contemporary leather-backed drab paper boards some staining rubbed. Very good. Third edition of the first title first edition of the second the first work also printed in New Haven 1800; Carey also printed another issue without his address in the imprint in 1800; the second title prints Jefferson's first inaugural address. Sabin 5590 and 5595. Evans 36978 and American Imprints 199. Sowerby 3235 for the New Haven printing and 3264. <br/><br/> Mathew Carey, No. 118, High-street hardcover books
170837855London: Jacob Tonson 1708. In all 36 fine engraved plates. 3 vols. 8vo. Beautifully bound in full nineteenth-century crimson crushed morocco gilt spines green leather labels marbled endpapers a.e.g. BY RIVIERE. BEAUTIFUL SET with the engraved bookplate of "John Sheepshanks 1852" in each volume. In all 36 fine engraved plates. 3 vols. 8vo. Jacob Tonson unknown books
177814190London: Published by J. Watts Dealer in Prints & Drawings opposite the Mews Gate Charing Cross 1778. Mezzotints. Printed on laid watermarked paper. In excellent condition. Morning Image size: 9 1/2 x 13 7/8 inches. Plate mark: 10 x 13 7/8 inches. Sheet size: 10 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches. Evening Image size: 9 3/8 x 13 7/8. Plate mark: 9 7/8 x 13 7/8. Sheet size: 10 3/4 x 15 1/8 inches. This is a stunning pair of mezzotints of two hunting dogs catching their quarry by John Watts after paintings by Abraham Hondius.<br/> <br/>Watts was a successful printmaker and publisher who was active in London during the second half of the eighteenth century. He was famed for his rich mezzotints which he exhibited in London between 1766 and 1778. Watts scraped mezzotints after some of the most renowned artists of his day but he had a special penchant for works by the Dutch masters such as this handsome pair after Abraham Hondius the celebrated Dutch animal painter. These rich mezzotints are a superb example of Watts's luxurious style of engraving translating the energy and fluidity of Hondius's beautiful paintings into a dramatic example of superior mezzotint engraving.<br/> <br/>Benezit Dictionnaire Des Peintres Sculpteurs Dessinateurs et Graveurs. Published by J. Watts, Dealer in Prints & Drawings opposite the Mews Gate Charing Cross unknown books
1729547681729. Collected Works of Notable Roman-Dutch Jurist Wesel Abraham van 1633-1680. Opera Omnia Antea Diversis Temporibus Seorsim Edita Nunc in Unum Corpus Redacta Nempe I. Commentarius ad Novellas Constitutiones Ultrajectinas Multarum Litium Diremendarum Causa XIV. Aprilis M. DC. LIX. Promulgatas. II. De Connubiali Bonorum Societate & Pactis Dotalibus. III. De Remissione Mercedis Propter Bellum Inundationem Aquarum & Sterilitatem. Editio Nova a Mendis Quibus Priores Scatebant Purgata. Ghent: Apud Cornelium Meyer 1729-30. Three parts each with title page and individual pagination. Main text in parallel columns. Quarto 7-1/2" x 6-1/2". Contemporary mottled calf gilt frames to boards gilt spine with raised bands and lettering piece edges rouged speckled endpapers. Some rubbing to extremities chipping to head of spine corners bumped and somewhat worn residue from bookplate to front pastedown. First title page printed in red and black attractive woodcut head-pieces tail-pieces and decorated initials. Some toning to text. Brief later annotation to front pastedown interior otherwise fresh. $650. Third and final edition with corrections. Educated at the University of Utrecht Wesel was Counsellor to the Court of Vianen where he was a colleague of Paul Voet and fiscal lawyer to the Court of Utrecht. A solid Romanist he was also says Wessels "a great authority not only on the law of Utrecht but also on the law of Holland." Opera Omnia was first published in 1692 and it collects his principal works. The first part is a detailed article-by-article commentary on the Novellae Constitutiones of the Province of Utrecht in Dutch and Latin. The other parts address the Roman and Roman-Dutch law of husband and wife dowry community property and compensation. OCLC locates 1 copy in North America at UC-Berkeley Law School; another copy located at Harvard Law School. Wessels History of Roman-Dutch Law 316. Dekkers Bibliotheca Belgica Juridica 188 4. unknown books
1705WN63455Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier 1705. Vellum binding with handwritten spine titling. Sprinkled edges. Vellum quite soiled and separating from rear board at the foreedge. Name and neat handwritten notes on preliminaries. Large work in 3 volumes with many plates and foldouts etc. Very controversial in its criticism of the Venetian Republic enough so that its French author was sent to the Bastille albeit briefly. Later Edition. Vellum. Fair/No Dust Jacket. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. Trade. Pierre Mortier Hardcover books
1787245126Albany 1787. unbound. An endorsement to an arrest warrant for the confiscation of goods belonging to Samuel Barrow -- 1 page 11.5 x 10 inches with endorsement on verso Albany New York August 5 1787 -- ordered by Revolutionary War patriot and then-Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court Richard Morris in very small part: "The people of New York - To The Sheriff of the County of Richmond - Greeting. We command you that of the Goods and Chattels Land and Tenements of the aforesaid Samuel Barrow in your Bailiwick being Debt in the sum of four-hundred and eighty pounds.for damages.have you whole monies before us at our City of Albany.Richard Morris Chief Justice." Bancker has placed his endorsement on the verso: "The within Saml. Barrows hasth Goods or Chattels in my Bailiwick whereof the Debt and damages or any part thereof can be made." It should be noted that the entire document is in the hand of and signed by: John McKesson 1734 - 1798 an Anti-Federalist New York Attorney and staunch Revolutionary War patriot who was appointed to the Provincial Convention 1775 all four Provincial Congresses 1775 - 1777 and to the First and Second Councils of Safety. He also served as clerk of the State Assembly and to the Ratifying Convention 1788 of which he is said to have participated in the hostile negotiations which eventually led to New York finally ratifying the U.S. Constitution. This document is in very good condition with heavy natural folds and coincidentally was signed by Bancker and McKesson on the very day August 5 1787 that the first draft of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights was completed.<br/><br/> American patriot and major in the American Revolution who as a representative of Richmond County Staten Island cast an important vote in the ratification of the United States Constitution by the state of New York. The final vote was 30 to 27 and the failure to ratify might may have brought down the fledgling nation. Soon after the Revolutionary War Bancker was appointed Sheriff of the County of Richmond.<br/><br/> unknown books
171025803Amsterdam 1710. Copper-engraved map period hand-colouring in outline. Tables upper left and along the right side. Attractive map of North America based upon De L'Isle's highly influential map of North America published in 1700.<br/> <br/>By combining a wealth of information and geographical observation with delicate engraving and an uncomplicated composition this elegant map is a superb example from the golden age of French mapmaking and was published in Chatelain's Atlas Historique an important encyclopaedic historical atlas. California is shown as a peninsula with a number of villages and mountains; the Mississippi River extends far north of its true source. The table along the right side details the various native tribes from each region with lettered references for locating on the map.<br/> <br/>Lowery 263; Phillips 579. unknown books
1701046917Jena: Birchner 1701. Early Edition. Hardcover Vellum. Good Condition. Contemporary vellum soiled frontis and title page stained and detached with some chipping and old tape marks wear to first few pages a few old marks and notes but very good otherwise. Three works bound in one the first two by Hoping typically found together the last with added engraved title published in 1692 in Frankfurt Illustrated throughout endpapers with notes and a few hand sketches. The Ingeber work is a first edition. 155 7; 183 61; 180 4pp<br/><br/>Three early chiromancy volumes bound up together Size: Octavo 8vo. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Science & Technology; Magic Paranormal & Occult. Inventory No: 046917. Birchner hardcover books
1763WRCLIT65699London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley 1763. xxxi1 errata268pp. Octavo. Modern half calf and marbled boards raised bands gilt label. Old divinity school stamp on title minor foxing but a very good copy very neatly bound. First edition. The pseudonymously published prelude to Tucker's magnum opus THE LIGHT OF NATURE PURSUED. This "1763 fragment was strongly criticized in the MONTHLY REVIEW to which Tucker provided a humorous reply MAN IN QUEST OF HIMSELF under the new pseudonym Cuthbert Comment. In 1768 again using the pseudonym Edward Search he published the first four volumes of his book; the last three volumes were posthumously published under the editorship of his daughter Judith in 1778 . Although an occasionally eccentric and digressive text THE LIGHT OF NATURE PURSUED enjoyed a high reputation from its first appearance. In the introduction to his MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 1785 William Paley emphasized his deep indebtedness to Tucker in expounding his ethical theory. Paley considered Tucker to be a very original thinker. His work was also highly praised by Sir James MacIntosh who had used his ideas in his lectures on ethics ." - DNB. Tucker's writings were also read and admired by among others Coleridge Godwin and Hazlett and the latter undertook an abridgement of the full work published in 1807. ESTC locates ten copies in North America and OCLC adds a few more but this work is uncommon in the trade. ESTC T117455. NCBEL II: 1893. Printed for R. and J. Dodsley hardcover books
173144795Dublin: re-printed by and for Samuel Fuller 1731. Second edition "corrected" 8vo A-R4; woodcut initials head- and tail-pieces text diagrams and tables throughout; 20th-century green cloth gilt-lettered spine; ex-Northwestern National Life Ins. Co. Minneapolis with their rubber stamps; some shallow losses to front endpaper edges textblock foxed else very good and sound. An early actuarial treatise by one of the founders of the science of life-contingencies which was first published in 1725 and dedicated to the Earl of Macclesfield see DNB XIII p. 536. See Morrison 1690 for the first edition. <br/><br/> re-printed, by and for Samuel Fuller hardcover books
1756S13188London:: A. Millar 1756. 1756. Quarto. 4 xi 1 errata 348 pp. Portrait medallion vignette on title; mild foxing but barely noticeable. Original full calf red gilt-stamped leather spine label; hinges repaired with calf inner joints strengthened corners worn all preserving original spine. Bookseller's ticket: "Sold by Carpenter & Co. 14 Old Bond Street" London. Early ownership ink signature of Th. Spencer; penciled initials of F.N.D. see below. Very good. A KEY WORK BY THE FATHER OF PROBABILITY THEORY. Third edition. This is a key work by the father of probability theory in which major steps in the measurement of uncertainty were achieved. De Moivre is "best known in statistical circles for his famous large-sample approximation to the binomial distribution whose generalization is now referred to as the Central Limit Theorem. De Moivre was one of the great pioneers of classical probability theory." Bellhouse-Genest p.1. It is the first systematic treatment of probability in English. Abraham De Moivre became with Edmund Halley a founder of English actuarial science. The author's dedicatory letter is address to Lord George Carpenter 1702-1749 the first edition had been dedicated to Newton where the author states emphatically "that this Doctrine is so far from encouraging Play that it is rather a Guard against it. . ." DNB vol. 38 p.116. / "The first edition of this work contains 175 pages the second edition 258 pages and the third 348 pages. The following list will indicate the parts which are new in the third edition: the Remark pages 30/33 and pages 48 & 49 the greater part of the second Corollary pages 64/66 the Examples page 88; the Scholium page 95 the Remark page 149 and pages 151/159 the fourth Corollary page 162 the second Corollary pages 176/179 the note at the foot of page 187 the Remark pages 251/254. The part on life annuities is very much changed. The Introduction is very much fuller than the corresponding part of the first edition. In his third edition De Moivre draws attention to the convenience of approximating to a fraction with a large numerator and denominator by continued fractions which he calls "the Method proposed by Dr. Wallis Huygens and others". He gives the rule for the formation of the successive convergents. This third edition contains 74 problems exclusive of those relating to life annuities in the first edition there were 53 problems. The pages 220/229 contains one of De Moivre's most valuable contributions to mathematics namely that of Recurring series. Pages 261/328 are devoted to Annuities on lives ; an Appendix finishes the book occupying pages 329/348 : this also relates principally to annuities but it contains a few notes on the subject of probability." :: Todhunter. A very full account of the above third edition will be found in Todhunter's History of the theory of probability. / "De Moivre's first book on probability was based upon a short memoir entitled De mensura sortis published in the 1711 volume of the Philosophical Transactions. The 1718 first edition is essentially a gambler's manual giving a systematic presentation of the arithmetic principles upon which are based the solution of problems concerning the advantage of players and size of wager which may be lain in a wide variety of games of chance. Walker. It does not contain De Moivre's work on the normal approximation of the binomial probability distribution which ranks as the most memorable of his discoveries; this discovery was first printed in its entirety in 1733 in a Latin pamphlet which was later translated into English and incorporated in successively expanded versions in the second 1738 and posthumous third 1756 edition of The doctrine of chances." Norman. / In terms of mathematics applied to the human actuarial lifespan "De Moivre French Huguenot mathematician and demographer formulated the hypothesis that among a body of persons over a certain age the successive annual decreases by death are nearly equal." Garrison & Morton. / "De Moivre's work on the theory of probability surpasses anything done by any other mathematician except Laplace. His principal contributions are his investigations respecting the duration of play his theory of recurring series and his extension of the value of Bernouilli's theorem by the aid of Sterling's theorem". Cajori. / De Moivre born at Vitry received a varied education and settled in London as a Huguenot refugee in 1688. In England he continued his study of mathematics while working as a tutor. He is said to have acquired and read a copy of Newton's Principia and even to have carried loose sheets around with him to study at every available moment. This method of study worked so well that not only did he become one of England's foremost mathematicians but Newton in old age was in the habit of referring questions about the Principia to De Moivre. De Moivre's Doctrines of Chance is in fact a revised and expanded translation of his essay De Mensura Sortis which had been published in Latin in the Philosophical Transactions in 1711. In its Latin form it thus preceded Jacob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi 1713 by a full two years. / De Moivre was a French mathematician famous for De Moivre's formula which links complex numbers and trigonometry and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1697 and was a friend of Isaac Newton Edmund Halley and James Stirling. Among his fellow Huguenot exiles in England he was a colleague of the editor and translator Pierre des Maizeaux. / Shafer points out that De Moivre one of Jacob Bernoulli's successors was among those who were applying Huygens' theories to both games and economies p. 11. He points out that the 1718 first edition was influenced by Bermoulli in that he used the word "probability" which was a word he did not use in his De mensura sortis. He continues: "We should not exaggerate De Moivre's importance in the eighteenth century. In retrospect he represents the pat that mathematical probability followed but he was hardly a philosopher of Jacob's caliber and Jacob retained a strong influence throughout the century among those who wanted to understand probability philosophically. Jacob's and Hooper's rules survived the whole course of that century in the works of philosophically sophisticated writers such as Lambert and Diderot. They disappeared only after Bayesian alternatives were developed by Laplace." pp. 13-14. Steve Stigler and Lorraine Daston expand on the use of the word "probability" in the eighteenth century. / Theodore Porter UCLA writes that De Moivre introduced the astronomer's law error to probability theory p. 93. "Like most early probability mathematics it first arose in the context of games of chance; it appeared as the limit of the binomial distribution. Because of its usefulness in combination and permutation problems the binomial had become the heart of the doctrine of chances. . . De Moivre then showed in a paper of 1733 reprinted in 1738 in the second edition of his Doctrine of Chances that the exponential error function gave a very good approximation to the distribution of possible outcomes for problems like the result of 1000 coin tosses Now for the first time it was practicable to apply probability theory to indefinitely large numbers of independent events." / PROVENANCE: I Thomas Spencer undetermined. II F.N.D. :: Florence Nightingale David 1909-1993 also known as F. N. David was an English statistician born in Ivington Herefordshire England. She was named after Florence Nightingale who was a friend of her parents. David did not like her forenames and thus always referred to herself as "F. N. David". She attended the Bedford College for Women in London earning her degree in mathematics in 1931. She then joined University College London to work with Karl Pearson who obtained a scholarship for her working as his research assistant resulting in a doctorate received in 1938 Pearson died in 1934. In 1938 her first book was published Tables of the Correlation Coefficient. During that period she was working with Jerzy Neyman. "During World War II she served as Experimental Officer in the Ordnance Board for the Ministry of Supply Senior Statistician for the Research and Experiments Department for the Ministry of Home Security Member of the Land Mines Committee of the Scientific Advisory Council and as Scientific Advisor on Mines to the Military Experimental Establishment. Her work during this time ranged from the study of bombing patterns and damage to the problem of discovering the placement of enemy land mines and a methodology for randomly placing land mines so as to avoid the semblance of any pattern in their placement." Garber et.al. After WWII she came back to University College London and was appointed professor in 1962. Five or six years later she took a position at the University of California Riverside becoming head of the Department of Statistics in 1970. Retiring in 1977 she came to Berkeley and continued her research. this book bears her initials on the Francis Galton Laboratory bookplate; she gave her books to Margaret Stein of Stanford University. See: M. J. Garber D. V. Gokhale J. M. Utts R. J. Beaver Chair "Florence Nightingale David Statistics: Riverside." Obituary; "A conversation with F.N. David" Statistical Science Vol. 4 No. 3235-246 by Nan Laird; J. Utts "Florence Nightingale David 1909-1993: Obituary" Biometrics 1993 49 1289-1291; Norman L. Johnson & Samuel Kotz eds. Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Wiley 1997 pp. 91-92. / REFERENCES: Babson 181 1st ed.; Ball A short account of the history of mathematics pp. 383-4; BM Readex Vol. 17 p. 751; Cajori History of Mathematics pp. 229-30; DNB vol. 38 p.116; Kress S.2793; Institute of Actuaries 1935 p. 39; Mansutti 504; Norman 1529 1st ed.; Pearson The History of Statistics in the 17th & 18th Centuries. . . pp. 155-60 165-66; Smith Source book in mathematics pp. 440-54; Stigler The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900 1986 p. 70; Todhunter History of the theory of probability; Walker pp. 12-13; Wellcome IV p. 149; Westergaard pp. 104-5. Not in Goldsmiths or Hanson. / See: Raymond Clare Archibald "Abraham de Moivre"; David F.N. Games Gods and Gambling; The origins and history of probability and statistical ideas . . . 1962 pp. 161-178. A. Millar, 1756. hardcover books
1787WRCAM51205Norwich 1787. 24pp. Dbd. Minor toning light foxing. Very good. In a blue cloth clamshell case gilt leather label. A rare and important Bickerstaff's almanac containing the first printing of the famous Abraham Panther Indian captivity. Titled "A Surprising account of the Discovery of a Lady who was taken by the Indians in the year 1787 and after making her escape she retired to a lonely Cave where she lived nine years" the captivity narrative covers pages 19-24 of the almanac. The captivity account was found to be fictional but was nonetheless popular and reprinted more than twenty times between this first appearance and 1814. Rare with only three copies reported in ESTC. EVANS 20875. DRAKE 416. TRUMBULL 1846. VAIL 767. SABIN 93891. AYER SUPPLEMENT 13. JONES CHECKLIST 608. ESTC W25617. hardcover books
1750167Etching and engraving. D.1385 Blum 203. Image: 10 x 12½. Margins: 10½ x 14. books
17091Vienna: Christoph Lercher 1709. First edition. Fair. Johann Christoph Weigel. The date of publication is revealed from the chronosticon given on the title page completed here with bracketed letters. Johann Ulrich Megerle July 2 1644 December 1 1709 is also known as Gautentius Hilarion Hilarius von Freudberg Theophilus Mariophilus. First edition emblem book 20.5 cm x 16cm quarto; engraved allegorical frontispiece; title-page in black and red letter; vi; 404; iv 101 leaves of full-page engravings. Johann Christoph Weigel / Kupfferstechern in Nürnberg caption legends engraved or hand-written under each image. Errors of pagination: p. 188 is missing the page number; p. 192 reads as 912; p. 307 reads as 407; p. 318 reads as 218; p. 320 reads as 230; p. 374 reads as 274; p. 376 reads as 176; p. 378 reads as 278; p. 403 reads as 401.This copy is bound in contemporary quarter vellum on light-gray marbled paper boards with a hand-lettered spine. The title-page has been repaired and reinforced with heavier paper as are some of the introductory pages and plates. Plate No. 48 is printed on very heavy paper with a handwritten legend. The other plates have engraved legends. The edges of the first nine pages have been expertly reinforced. Apart from a crack in the uppermost front hinge this binding is in fair condition. Inside the back cover is a triangular stamp reading in part ZUR AUSFUR FREIGEGEBEN. Pencil annotations inside the front cover are a title index of the emblem plates and the calculus of the chronosticon.Extremely rare complete. Old repairs noted this is a good bright tight copy. Not in Praz or Landwehr. See Gerhard Dünnhaupt F5.1.; Bertsch 52a 1; Goedeke III 240 26. See also William Sallochs Catalog 365 Sept. 1980: 100 fools with their occupations preoccupations and vanities described and illustrated by Weigel. An old booksellers catalog entry pasted down on the verso of the initial blank states: In 150 Exemplaren gedruckt als Festgabe für die Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen. The last plate is blank intentionally to provoke the reader. Christoph Lercher hardcover books
172730277Amsterdam: Michel Charles le Céne 1727. 2 volumes in 1 small folio. 12 1/8 x 7 5/8 inches. Titles printed in red and black. Engraved portrait frontispiece 44 engraved maps plans and views 31 folding 19 in-text engraved illustrations. Contemporary calf spine with raised bands in seven compartments red and green morocco lettering pieces in the second and third the others with a repeat decoration in gilt marbled endpapers and edges.<br/> <br/>A lovely copy of a noted illustrated work on Asia including maps and views of India China and Japan.<br/> <br/>"Johann von Mandelslo was a friend of Adam Olearius and a former page of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Together Mandelslo and Olearius were sent by the Duke on an embassy to the Russian Czar and to the Shah of Persia for the purpose of initiating trade relations with Russia Tartary and Persia. Mandelslo was authorized to leave the embassy in Persia and to continue his travels to the Far East. He went to Surat Agra and Goa in India where he received great kindness from the English merchants and he also visited Ceylon. He gives long accounts of the other parts of the Far East which he did not visit personally. His return was made to England by sea via the Cape of Good Hope which he visited in 1639" Hill. Mandelslo's narrative contains substantial information on the Far East. "Before his death Mandelslo had entrusted his rough notes to Olearius who subsequently published them bound with his numerous official accounts of the embassy" Howgego. Following the first publication Olearius added additional information to subsequent editions. A new edition in French translated by Wicquefort included still more additional material including an account of the travels of Henri de Feynes to China Formosa and Japan. The present edition published in Amsterdam in 1727 is a re-issue of the Van der Aa edition of 1719 published in Leiden; both are celebrated as the best editions being the most complete and with the largest number of illustrations. The plates include views and plans of London Amsterdam Brussels Antwerp Capetown Goa Surat Jedo Tokyo St. Helena Mauritius Madagascar the Canary Islands Java Congo and elsewhere.<br/> <br/>Brunet IV 178; Cordier Japonica 367-368; Cordier Indosinica 883; Cordier Sinica 2076-77; cf. Hill 1073; Howgego M-38; Lust 342. Michel Charles le Céne unknown books
1767JC14337London: Printed by T. Jones. and Sold by T. Payne. / Printed by W. Oliver. and Sold by T. Payne and Son. et al 1767-8. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Contemporary specked calf ornate gilt-stamped border on boards gilt-stamped lettering and ornament in spine compartments 5 raised bands; complete set of 9 volumes published and bound as Volume I Parts i-ii Volume II Parts i-iii Volume III Parts i-iv 8vo; pp. xlvi 384; 384; 315; 335; 540 3 blank errata; 403; 432; 462; 505 1 errata. Volumes I-II bound as the first 5 volumes of this set printed by T. Jones 1768 and with the armorial bookplate of Reverend John St. John of Farley; Volume III the last 4 volumes of this set printed by W. Oliver 1767. Bindings just a bit worn with some bumping and very light chipping along spines and edges of boards. Contents somewhat tanned with some faint foxing here and there but overall tight bright clean and unmarked. A nice set of the rare first edition difficult to find in a straight run. <br/><br/> Printed by T. Jones... and Sold by T. Payne... / Printed by W. Oliver... and Sold by T. Payne and Son... [et al] hardcover books
180037722London 1800. Hand-coloured and colour-printed mezzotint engraving by Dunkerton. The most strikingly beautiful flower plates ever to be printed in England.<br/> <br/>"The plant shown in this picture Selenicereus grandiflorus L. Britton & Rose. is also known as the Moon Cactus from the moon-like appearance of the fully open flower. Thornton also says that. it was sometimes called the `Torch Thistle' as it `exhibits to the observer a figure equally grotesque as terrific with flowers possessing actually the blazing appearance of a torch.' The plant is a native of Jamaica and Cuba. This picture is one of the most arresting in the collection. The plant itself is of interest not only for its large and beautiful flowers but as a representative of those which growing in a hot and dry environment open their flowers at night for pollination by night-flying insects pollinators being scarce in such climates during the heat of the day. This has a curious effect where public botanic gardens are concerned since these are shut at night to visitors who thus never see the plant in full bloom." Ronald King. The Temple of Flora by Robert Thornton. 1981 p.74. Thornton's Temple of Flora is the greatest English colour-plate flower book. ".Thornton inherited a competent fortune and trained as a doctor. He appears to have had considerable success in practice and was appointed both physician to the Marylebone Dispensary and lecturer in medical botany at Guy's and St. Thomas's hospitals. But quite early in his career he embarked on his. great work. What Redouté produced under the patronage of L'Héritier Marie Antoinette the Empress Josephine Charles X and the Duchesse de Berry Thornton set out to do alone. Numerous important artists were engaged. twenty-eight paintings of flowers commissioned from Abraham Pether known as `Moonlight Pether' Philip Reinagle . Sydenham Edwards and Peter Henderson. The result. involved Thornton in desperate financial straits. In an attempt to extricate himself he organized the Royal Botanic Lottery under the patronage of the Prince Regent. it is easy to raise one's eyebrows at Thornton's unworldly and injudicious approach to publishing. But he produced. one of the loveliest books in the world" Alan Thomas Great Books and Book Collecting pp.142-144 First state of plate A. unknown books
17183173London: W. Pearson 1718. First edition. Very Good. Small folio 240 x 200 mm. Collates 4 xiv 175 1 blank: complete with an engraved vignette on title-page numerous engraved head and tail pieces and initials and an engraved vignette headpiece on page 1. With a dedication to Sir Isaac Newton. Contemporary speckled calf rebacked to style. Boards double-ruled in gilt. Spine with a red morocco label lettered and ruled in gilt. All edges speckled brown. Some minor soiling to final two pages. Some light toning from glue on endpaper edges. Previous owner's armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Overall a very good copy. <br/><br/>Abraham De Moivre was a mathematician and a close friend of Sir Isaac Newton to whom he dedicated the first edition of this work. "His work on the theory of probability surpasses anything done by any other mathematician except Laplace" Cajori. "De Moivre's representation of the solutions of the then current problems of games of chance tended to be more general than those of Montmort. In addition he developed a series of algebraic and analytic tools for the theory of probability like a 'new algebra' for the solution of the problem of coincidences which foreshadowed Boolean algebra the method of generating functions or the theory of recurrent series for the solution of differential equations. In the Doctrine de Moivre offered an introduction which contains the main concepts such as probability condition probability expectation dependent and independent events the multiplication rule and the binomial distribution" DNB. Very Good. W. Pearson unknown books
1732004823Amsterdam 1732 or 1733. The panorama or concertina was made we believe in 1732 or 1733 or close to that date. The silver "shraubthaler" or outer casing we assume was made separately at a later date but not long afterward. <br /><br /> books
