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All our Scientific books

Are you passionate about the history of science?
You will certainly find a book for you among our rare books and manuscripts of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry or Natural Sciences.
The famous names in science are present on our shelves: Euclid, Newton, Darwin, Pascal, Lavoisier and also those who have participated in scientific progress.

Results (1 - 30) of 799
TilesList
Photo [ARNAULD, Antoine] || [PASCAL, Blaise]. 

[ARNAULD, Antoine] || [PASCAL, Blaise]. 

Nouveaux élémens de géométrie contenant, outre un ordre tout nouveau & de nouvelles démonstrations des propositions les plus communes, de nouveaux moyens de faire voir quelles lignes sont incommensurables, de nouvelles mesures des angles, dont on ne s'était point encore avisé, et de nouvelles manières de trouver & de démontrer la proportion des lignes. 

Paris, Charles Savreux, 1667.
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3500 €

First edition. Complete with the errata leaf.
First publication of Pascal's work on magic squares.
The work, which would be called Géométrie de Port Royal, was born from the meeting of Antoine Arnauld with Pascal, and their friendly rivalry to make Euclid's geometry more understandable and to compose a manual for use in the Petites écoles.
Pascal conceded that Arnauld's project was better than his, and destroyed his preparatory manuscript. Of Pascal's geometry, all that remains is his solution to magic squares, which Arnauld would place in the appendix of his own work.
The teaching of mathematics in France was lastingly affected and, until Legendre, almost all authors of geometry manuals adopted the views of Port-Royal.
The second state of sheet 251-252, and the rare errata sheet are as described by Dominique Descotes and testify to the modifications made by Arnauld during printing.

Photo ARTEDI, Peter || LINNE, Carl von. 

ARTEDI, Peter || LINNE, Carl von. 

Ichthyologia, sive opera omnia de piscibus. 

Leyde, Gonradum Wishoff, 1738.
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1300 €

First edition.
Artedi is known as the "father of ichthyology" for this pioneering work in classifying the fishes into groups.

The foundation of modern ichthyology.

Artedi, who drowned in Amsterdam in 1735, is published here posthumously by Carl von Linné, who inherited the manuscripts of Artedi.

The classification is based on an order, then a genus and a species. He thus distinguishes four orders of fish and one for cetaceans, 47 genera and 230 species.
A very complete set of its five parts.

Photo BEZOUT, Etienne. 

BEZOUT, Etienne. 

Théorie générale des équations algébriques. 

Paris, Ph.-D. Pierres, 1779.
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1400 €

First edition.

Photo BUDAN, Ferdinand. 

BUDAN, Ferdinand. 

Nouvelle méthode pour la résolution des équations numériques. 

Paris, Courcier, 1807.
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1500 €

First edition.
Work in which Budan states what is now known as the Budan-Fourier theorem.

Bound with the following :
BEZOUT, Théorie générale des équations algébriques, Paris, Ph.-D. Pierres, 1779.
(4)-xxviii-471 pages.
First edition.
Bezout deals with the resolution of equations with n unknowns by elimination.

Photo CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène. 

CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène. 

De la Loi du Contraste simultané des Couleurs et de l’Assortiment des Objets colorés, considéré d’après cette Loi dans ses Rapports avec la Peinture, les Tapisseries des Gobelins, les Tapisseries de Beauvais pour Meubles, les Tapis, la Mosaïque, les Vitraux colorés, l’Impression des Étoffes, l’Imprimerie, l’Enluminure, la Décoration des Édifices, l’Habillement et l’Horticulture. 

Paris, Pitois-Levrault, 1839.
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9000 €

First edition.
One of the most influential books on art in the 19th century.
Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786–1889) is known to chemists for his research on fatty substances (1810–1823) and on immediate organic analysis (1824), but it is as a color theorist that his name achieved lasting fame.
De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs introduced a scientific understanding of color that had a profound and lasting impact on the painters of his time.
His “law” describes how the perception of a hue is altered by the surrounding colors, each color projecting its complementary onto its immediate environment (thus, a red object tends to cast a greenish glow on nearby surfaces, a yellow one a purplish tint, and so on). This principle is clearly illustrated in plate 7 of the Atlas, where colored dots on a white background seem to emit halos of their complementary hues.

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), a central figure of Romanticism, paid close attention to Chevreul’s research. According to the painter Paul Signac, Delacroix even sought to meet the chemist and acquired notes from his lectures in order to better grasp the law of simultaneous contrast. Several of his paintings feature harmonies built around complementary color pairs. For instance, The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople (1840) deliberately juxtaposes yellow/purple, blue/orange, and red/green to dramatize the scene—so effectively that art historian Lee Johnson called it an ideal “illustration” of Chevreul’s treatise.

But it was arguably within the Impressionist movement that Chevreul’s theories reached their highest artistic fulfillment. Claude Monet (1840–1926), in particular, used simultaneous contrast to heighten luminosity in his landscapes. He avoided black and earth tones, preferring instead to render shadows in color: purples and blues for shaded areas at sunset, accented with yellow-orange highlights in full light. This technique appears as early as Impression, Sunrise, the foundational work of the movement. One might also recall the poppy fields, a favorite motif of the Impressionists (Van Gogh, Monet, Pissarro…), where red flowers vibrantly stand out against green backgrounds.

A book heralding one of the greatest revolutions in painting.

Our copy is complete with all the color plates, most of them signed by Chevreul himself.

Photo CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène. 

CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène. 

Des couleurs et de leurs applications aux arts industriels à l’aide des cercles chromatiques. Avec XXVII planches gravées sur acier et imprimées en couleurs par René Digeon. 

Paris, J.B. Baillière et Fils, 1864.
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5500 €

First edition of the rarest of Chevreul's publications on color.

Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889) is known to chemists for his research on fatty acids, saponification, and the discovery of stearin, but it is as a color theorist that his name will go down in history. Chevreul was appointed director of the Manufacture des Gobelins in 1824. Responsible for overseeing the production of dyes, he supported the work of dyers with his research on color perception. Thus, in 1839, he proposed a scientific approach to color complementarity and subsequently developed "color circles." A true "Pantone" color chart, a hundred years ahead of its time, Chevreul's color circles had the dual benefit of systematizing the production of hues (each with its own name) and making it easier to understand the concept of color complementarity. Thus, complementary colors are found on the same diameter of the color wheel, Red No. 2 corresponds to Green No. 2. "I believe I can affirm that it is possible to subject colors to a reasoned nomenclature, by relating them to types classified according to a simple method, accessible to the intelligence of all those who deal with colors" (extract from the preface). The standardization of color production was to interest first and foremost the industry then in full development, but it is undoubtedly in the Impressionist movement that Chevreul's theories found their finest accomplishment. Very early on, painters were inspired by Chevreul's work in their paintings, starting with Delacroix and then Monet. We will thus remember the fields of poppies dear to the Impressionists (Van Gogh, Monet, Pissaro...) where the red dots of the flowers burst out on complementary green backgrounds. The 27 spectacular plates were printed by René-Henri Digeon using chromochalcography, the process and difficulties of which are discussed in a paragraph in the book. Digeon appears to have presented a first edition of these plates at the 1855 World's Fair, for which he received a patent from the Empress. Several of the plates in our copy appear to be from this first edition and contain errors that have been corrected in other later copies that we have been able to consult.

Photo CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène. 

CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène. 

Mémoire sur la vision des couleurs matérielles en mouvement de rotation et des vitesses numériques de cercles. 

Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1882 [1881].
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3000 €

First edition of Chevreul's last works on color.
A rare offprint with its own title page published by Firmin-Didot in 1882, of an article presented to the Academy of Sciences in December 1880 and January 1881 (one generally only finds the article extracted from the Mémoires de l'institut published in 1883). Chevreul is interested here in physiological optics, trying to analyze how the contrast between complementary colors is affected by movement.
In his conclusion, in which he calls himself "the dean of students in France" (he was then 95 years old), he sees a direct application of his work to signaling for train drivers.

Photo CRAMER, Gabriel. 

CRAMER, Gabriel. 

Introduction a l'Analyse des Lignes Courbes Algébriques. 

Genève, Cramer & Philibert, 1750.
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1400 €

First edition.
Work of algebraic geometry in which Cramer states for the first time what will become Cramer's Rule and Cramer's Paradox.
He also proposes, following shortly after Euler, a classification of curves according to their behavior at infinity.

Photo EUCLIDE. 

EUCLIDE. 

Les Quinze livres des éléments géométriques d'Euclide megarien. 

Paris, Denys Moreau, 1622.
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800 €

One of the most famous works of mathematics.
First edition of the Le Mardelé translation.
He was violently attacked by Henrion in his "Apologetic Response..." for having advanced that he corrected in his translation of Euclid's Elements, the faults of his deferred and also those to Henrion himself.
Nevertheless, although nothing is known of his life, he seems to have been introduced to mathematics, for he published in 1626, a treatise on arithmetic.

Photo FOURCROY, Antoine-François. 

FOURCROY, Antoine-François. 

Tableaux synoptiques de chimie, pour servir de résumé aux leçons données sur cette science dans les écoles de Paris. 

Paris, Baudouin, An VIII [1800].
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2500 €

First edition.

Photo LACROIX, Sylvestre Francois. 

LACROIX, Sylvestre Francois. 

Traité du calcul differentiel et du calcul integral. 

Paris, J.B.M. Duprat, 1797-1798-1800.
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1200 €

First edition.
Rare with the third volume, published separatly, under the title "Traité des différences et des séries" and that will be included in the second edition of the "Traité du calcul differentiel et du calcul integral".

Photo LAGRANGE, Joseph-Louis, comte de. 

LAGRANGE, Joseph-Louis, comte de. 

Méchanique analitique. 

Paris, Veuve Desaint, 1788.
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10000 €

First edition of Lagrange's masterpiece, the foundation of modern mechanics, second in importance to Newton's Principia.

Photo LAPLACE, Pierre-Simon. 

LAPLACE, Pierre-Simon. 

Essai philosophique sur les probabilités. 

Paris, Vve Courcier, 1814.
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1200 €

First edition.
A second edition of this essay will appear in octavo format, the same year, with a different collation (190 pages instead of 96).
A major work by Pierre-Simon Laplace, a French mathematician and astronomer, presenting an accessible popularization of his theory of probability.
There he presented for the first time the thought experiment that would later be known as Laplace's Demon. Mechanistic vision of the world which will only be called into question with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

Photo [MANUSCRIT]. 

[MANUSCRIT]. 

Explication des plantes usuelles. 

s.l., s.n., [1714].
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1300 €

Handwritten botany course focusing on "common plants", plants that can be used in medicine.
This course lists 486 plants, each with its Latin binomial name and its therapeutic use.
The plants seem to follow an order whose logic is not explained in the short introduction: "The large number of plants that I will have the honor of discussing with you during the short time that this course will last does not allow me to stop here for a long preface where I could explain to you in general how these same plants act, whether they are considered purgatives or simply as alteratives, [...] I propose to follow the order that we will follow in the demonstrations so that at the same time as you learn to know these same plants, you enter into the knowledge of their virtues."
The Latin names refer to the catalogues of Bauhin (C.B.) and Tournefort (inst. r. h.) which suggests that this course was dictated before the penetration of Linnaeus' classification in France, i.e. before the 1760s.
The structure of this course differs from the known courses on "Usual Plants", as dictated by Chomel and Jussieu.

We find, bound below, a manuscript by the same hand:
"Observations on bone diseases explained and demonstrated by Mr Arnaud In the amphitheater of the Jardin du Roy on June 13, 1714" 42 pages.

This suggests that both courses were taken at the Jardin du Roi or Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants (the future Museum of Natural History from 1793), which at the beginning of the 18th century was a major center for teaching medicine and surgery. It is known that at that time both Antoine Jussieu and Sébastien Vaillant were teaching botany there.

Photo [MANUSCRIT] MAHOT, Maurice. 

[MANUSCRIT] MAHOT, Maurice. 

Traité de Botanique sur Estampes du Traité historique des Plantes de Buchoz classées suivant Tournefort & Linné. 

[Nancy], [Buc'Hoz], [1762-1770].
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7000 €

Original manuscript of an unpublished botanical treatise by a learned scholar from Nantes.
It presents botanical concepts as well as the classifications of Linnaeus and Tournefort. This manuscript, nearly 200 pages long, is written on the verso of the plates from Buc'hoz’s Flore Lorraine.
All plates are also annotated with details on plant names, their classification according to Linnaeus and Tournefort, and their medicinal uses—together forming a true pharmacopoeia.
These 187 plates were intended to illustrate Buc'hoz’s Traité historique des plantes qui croissent dans la Lorraine et les Trois-Évêchés, published in ten octavo volumes between 1762 and 1770. The plates, originally issued separately in installments and designed to be folded and bound in octavo, are gathered here in a single folio volume.
Buc'hoz, known for the beauty of his plates, had solicited financial support from fellow countrymen and botany enthusiasts for the production of these engravings. Thus, at the bottom of almost every plate, one finds the coat of arms and name of the sponsor who funded it.
Maurice Mahot, the author of this manuscript, sponsored plate 152.
While biographical information on Maurice Mahot “the elder” (1745–1810), a royal counselor, civil and criminal judge at the présidial, alderman (1777), and deputy mayor of Nantes (1779), offers little indication of an interest in natural sciences and botany, the same cannot be said of his son, Maurice Mahot “the younger” (1774–1842), a doctor of medicine and scholar who published several books on medicine and lexicography.
The annotations by the son—a physician—on the plates funded by the father—a botany enthusiast—explain the numerous pharmaceutical and medical recipes found in the work.
Another collector has left his name on the title page: Silas Boucher de la Ville Jossy, a member of a prominent Nantes family in the mid-19th century.
A fascinating manuscript, still largely unexplored, of exceptional character, both for the beauty of its annotated plates and for its content, which intertwines botanical classification and pharmacopoeia.

Photo MEAD, Richard. 

MEAD, Richard. 

De Imperio Solis ac Lunae in corpora Humana et Morbis inde oriundis. 

Londres, Raphael Smith, 1704.
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1500 €

First edition.
Richard Mead (1673-1754), a physician and friend of Isaac Newton, attempts in this book to demonstrate the influence of gravitational forces on human health. Mesmer drew heavily on this book to write his doctoral thesis in 1766 (On the Influence of the Planets on the Human Body). The term "animal gravitation," taken from Mead, was later changed by Mesmer to "animal magnetism.".

Photo PASCAL, Blaise. 

PASCAL, Blaise. 

Traitez de l'équilibre des liqueurs et de la pesanteur de la masse d'air. 

Paris, Guillaume Desprez, 1663.
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3500 €

First edition.
Milestone in the history of science in which Pascal discovers atmospheric pressure.

The famous experiment, carried out by his brother-in-law in Auvergne, consisted of comparing the height of a column of mercury in Clermont-Ferrand and then at the top of Puy-de-Dôme.
The question of the weight of the air was already under discussion in Descartes and Galileo, but it is Pascal with this experience who provides the proof. He thus broke with nearly 2000 years of Aristotelian physics: "Nature abhors a vacuum", more than a popular maxim then took the place of the only physical principle of hydrostatics.

"Nature has no repugnance for emptiness; she makes no effort to avoid it; all the effects that have been attributed to this horror proceed from the gravity and pressure of the air; she is the only one. real cause, and, lack of knowing it, we had invented this imaginary horror of emptiness on purpose, to make it right." (extract from chapter II)

Then pascal (Pa) will be adopted as the international unit of measurement of pressure.

Photo PELETIER DU MANS, Jacques. 

PELETIER DU MANS, Jacques. 

L'Algèbre de Iaques Peletier du Mans, Départie en deux liuvres. 

Cologne, Jean de Tournes, 1620.
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1200 €

Third edition, very rare, of "the first printed book on algebra in French and the richest among vernacular books on algebra".

Photo [SENAC, Jean Baptiste]. 

[SENAC, Jean Baptiste]. 

Nouveau cours de chymie, suivant les principes de Newton & de Sthall. 

Paris, Jacques Vincent, 1723.
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2500 €

Scarce first edition, complete with the "Suite ..." often missing of this pioneering work on phlogiston chemistry.

Photo ENAUX, Joseph || CHAUSSIER, François. 

ENAUX, Joseph || CHAUSSIER, François. 

Méthode de traiter les morsures des animaux enragés et de la vipère. 

Dijon, A.M. Defay, 1785.
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150 €

First edition.
This work was intended to be distributed to priests and municipal trustees in order to disseminate in the countryside the means to combat the indicated accidents.

Photo D'ALEMBERT, Jean Le Rond dit || CONDORCET, Nicolas de || BOSSUT, Charles. 

D'ALEMBERT, Jean Le Rond dit || CONDORCET, Nicolas de || BOSSUT, Charles. 

Nouvelles expériences sur la résistance des fluides. 

Paris, Claude-Antoine Jombert, 1777.
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300 €

First edition.
Collection of hydrodynamic experiments carried out in a basin of the Military School by D'Alembert, Condorcet and Bossut. Turgot had commissioned them to look for ways to improve river navigation. The results of these experiments led to establish what will become the D'Alembert paradox, which will only be solved with the theory of wakes.
Indeed according to the hydrodynamic equations of the time, "a body should be able to progress in a fluid without experiencing any resistance or, which amounts to the same thing, that a bridge pier plunged into the course of a river should not. undergo no pushing on his part ", which the experiments carried out denied.
Beyond the treatise on hydrodynamics, this book bears witness to a science in progress which intricates theory and experience.

Photo LE BLOND, Guillaume. 

LE BLOND, Guillaume. 

Elémens de fortification. 

Paris, Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1756.
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150 €

Fourfth edition.
Remarkable work by its plates of fortifications.

Photo DELAMBRE, Jean-Baptiste Joseph || JANVIER, Antide. 

DELAMBRE, Jean-Baptiste Joseph || JANVIER, Antide. 

Extrait d'un rapport sur un ouvrage de M. Janvier, ayant pour titre: Des Révolutions des Corps célestes par le mécanisme des Rouages. 

[Paris], [Institut de France], 1813.
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100 €

First edition.
Rare booklet probably published by Antide Janvier in which he reproduces the minutes of a session of the Academy of Sciences in which Delambre acts as rapporteur for the reading of his work: "Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies by the Mechanism of the Cogs ". Janvier adds some comments in footnotes in which we sense his bitterness that the Institute did not judge his book worthy of being sent to universities for study. He is saddened that they preferred to give four thousand francs to the miller Girardot for his uranographic machine. Janvier was one of the most brilliant watchmakers of his time, famous in particular for his spheres and planetaries.

Photo BELIDOR, Bernard Forest (de). 

BELIDOR, Bernard Forest (de). 

Nouveau cours de mathématique à l'usage des ingénieurs officiers d'artillerie. 

s.l., s.n., 1730.
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700 €

Handwritten copy of Bélidor's Nouveau cours de mathématiques published in 1725.
Our copy, in very legible handwriting, is dated 1730.
It is accompanied by the 34 plates that illustrated the printed edition of this course. At that time, Belidor was a mathematics professor at the artillery school in La Fère, and this course was intended for student officers. The work was a great success in artillery school circles.

Photo NEWTON, Isaac. 

NEWTON, Isaac. 

Traité d'optique sur les réflexions, réfractions, inflexions et les couleurs de la lumière. 

Paris, Montalant, 1722.
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Second French edition of this important work in which Newton sets out his theory of light, the study of the refraction and diffraction of light. He observes in particular that light is composed of a multitude of colors.

This edition is more sought after than the first because the translation by Pierre Varignon was revised and supervised by Newton himself.

Handwritten note at the end: "Bookplate Musei C.Dupré. 1 quarto volume purchased on April 2, 1779"
An old handwritten note states that this copy was purchased on May 2, 1863, at the library sale... and placed to their proper place the plates that had been incorrectly inserted by the bookbinder.

Photo EUCLIDE || HENRION, Denis. 

EUCLIDE || HENRION, Denis. 

Les quinze livres des élémens d'Euclide. 

Rouen, Isaac Clément Malassis, 1649.
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550 €

Fifth edition of the French translation of Euclid's Elements by Denis Henrion.


This book is one of the first translations into French of the works of the ancient mathematician Euclid. Denis Henrion was a French mathematician of the first half of the seventeenth century, which allowed the spread of Euclidean geometry in France.

Photo HAUKSBEE, Francis. 

HAUKSBEE, Francis. 

Experiences physico-mechaniques sur différens sujets, et principalement sur la lumiere et l'electricité, produites par le frottement des corps. 

Paris, Veuve Cavelier, 1754.
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600 €

First french edition.
Binding with gilt arms of de La Rochefoucauld on the top of the spines.

Translation by Brémont and prefaced by Desmarets of the experiments of Francis Hauksbee (1660-1713) English physicist who worked in particular on static electricity.
He is one of the pioneers of electroluminescence and the majority of the work is devoted to his experiences of light production by the friction of various materials (including various phosphorus) on his static electricity production machine.

Photo BELOT, Emile. 

BELOT, Emile. 

Essai de cosmogonie tourbillonnaire. 

Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1911.
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120 €

First edition.
Émile Belot (1857-1944), graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, agrégé de philosophie, and chief engineer of the State Manufactures. Passionate about astronomy, he was a member of the Société astronomique de France from 1904. In this work, Belot proposes a theory of the formation of the solar system in which he hypothesizes a nebulous proto-sun entering into violent contact with a larger nebula and explains that such an encounter is at the origin of planetary systems and their organization according to a logarithmic spiral on the diagram in which the planets of this system are distributed by vortical absorption and concretion of the dust of the jostled nebula.

Photo EULER, Léonard. 

EULER, Léonard. 

Lettres à une princesse d'Allemagne. 

Mitau, Leipzig, Hinz, 1774.
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400 €

These letters are a brilliant example of scientific popularization.
Written by the great mathematician from Basel, Euler (1707–1783), they enjoyed widespread popular success from their first publication and were translated into many languages.
Here, Euler addresses a wide range of topics beyond pure mathematics, including astronomy, mechanics, optics, music, philosophy, and logic.

Photo EULER, Léonard. 

EULER, Léonard. 

Elémens d'Algèbre. 

Lyon, Bruyset, An III [1795].
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450 €

Important book from the famous Euler.
The first edition treats of determinate algebra. This contains one of the earliest attempts to place the fondamental processes on a scientific basis. This work also include the proof of the binomial theorem for an unrestricted index.
The second volume treats of indeterminate or Diophantine algebra. This contains the solution of some of the problems proposed by Fermat, (Sotheran).
"Second French edition; the substantial additions by Lagrange occur for the first time" (Honeyman).

Results (1 - 30) of 799
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