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 795

MARSILI, Luigi Ferdinando.

Histoire physique de la mer. Ouvrage enrichi de figures dessinées d'après le naturel.

Amsterdam, aux depens de la Compagnie, 1725.

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15000 €

First edition in french of this milestone work for the oceanography.

Count Marsili (1658-1730), an Italian military officer, geographer, and naturalist, is considered the founder of oceanography following the publication of this work. He conducted field observations, studied the seabed of the Gulf of Lion, classified species, currents, and the properties of seawater, emphasizing that his entire scientific approach was based "on the experiments and observations that I myself made on site."

His discoveries about coral and its "flowers" captured the full attention of scholars, as coral had been classified in the mineral kingdom since antiquity. However, Marsili noticed that branches of red coral he had collected became covered with white flowers within a few hours. He deduced that coral was a living organism, belonging to the animal kingdom, which marked a decisive turning point in the understanding of the marine environment.

A superb and extremely rare copy, as is the case here, with all the plates finely colored.

MILLER, Philip.

Figures of the most beautiful, useful, and uncommon Plants described in the Gardeners Dictionary, exibited on three hundred copper plates.

London, printed for the author, 1771.

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A reissue of the first 1760 edition.
Philip Miller, was director of the Chelsea Garden and was considered as "the greatest gardener of his time".
Beautiful books illustrated with 300 colored plates of plants.
Rare complete and in this condition.

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.

REDOUTE, Pierre-Joseph || THORY, Claude Antoine.

Les Roses peintes par P. J. Redouté.

Paris, Panckoucke, 1824-1826.

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10000 €

Second edition and the FIRST LARGE OCTAVO edition, published immediately after the original folio and appeared in forty issues from January 10, 1824 to December 27, 1826. Each issue, printed on vellum paper, includes four to seven leaves of text as well only four plates which are reproductions of the folio engravings, engraved here again and colored under Redouté's very eyes. The text sheets contain the descriptions of Claude-Antoine Thory (1757-1827).

A complete copy of the 160 color plates of Redouté's famous roses.

VIETE, François.

Opera mathematica in unum volumen congesta ac recognita, opera atque studio Francisci a Schooten.

Leyde, ex officina Bonaventura Abraham Elzeviriorum, 1646.

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9500 €

First collective edition of the works of François Viète.
François Viète, a 16th-century French mathematician born in Fontenay-le-Comte in 1540 and died in Paris in 1603, is often hailed as the father of modern algebra.
Indeed, Viète was one of the first mathematicians in Europe to note the parameters of an equation using symbols. His innovative approach and contribution to algebraic notation was particularly influential and opened new ways for solving mathematical problems. In recognition of his contributions, Viète is widely considered one of the greatest mathematicians of his time and his legacy endures in the field of modern mathematics to this day.
This first collective edition features sixteen of Viète's works, including his seminal 'Isagoge in artem analyticam', which introduced his innovative algebraic notation.

BULLIARD, Pierre.

Flora Parisiensis ou descriptions et figures des plantes qui croissent aux environs de Paris avec les différens noms, classes, ordres et genres qui leur conviennent, rangés selon la méthode sexuelle de Linné.

Paris, Didot jeune, 1776-1783.

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First and only edition of this classic herbal of plants from Paris, illustrated with 642 engraved hand-colored plates.
A complete copy with the "introduction" of 32 pages and 2 plates, the "table françoise" (52 pages xith the errate and the Linneaus system) and the "nouvelle table" of 16 pages.

"Pierre Bulliard, was another picturesque outsider whose works represented the Linnaean tradition in Paris. Bulliard was a descriptive naturalist, little given to theoretical or methodological meditations, but an industrious and skilled draftsman and floristic botanist" (Stafleu).

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.

BAUHIN, Jean || CHERLER, Jean-Henri.

Historia plantarum universalis.

Yverdon, s.n., 1650-1651.

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7000 €

First edition, first issue of Bauhin's magnum opus. Describing over 5,000 plants in a meticulous manner, the Historia plantarum first appeared in 1650 after 31 years in preparation. Bauhin, a Swiss botanist and physician, endeavored to describe not only the organs and properties of the plants herein, but their ecology as well.
This first issue is rare. Most of copies known are from later issues (Norman, The Cleveland Collections, ...).
First issue with the gathering Secund Oooo et Secund Aaaaa on the third volume as described in Hunt, and with the index of part 3 (not required in Hunt).

[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.

GALOIS, Évariste.

Oeuvres mathématiques d'Évariste Galois. In Journal de Mathématiques pures et appliquées ou Recueil mensuel de mémoires sur les diverses parties des mathématiques, Année 1846, Tome XI.

Paris, Bachelier, 1846.

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6500 €

First edition of collected mathematical works of Evariste Galois given by Liouville in this volume of the Journal de Mathématiques pures et appliquées .

A brilliant mathematician, misunderstood in his day and with a tragic fate (he died at the age of 20 in a gallant duel), Galois created the notion of group, and his work has inspired generations of mathematicians.
A brilliant student, he was misunderstood by his contemporaries. Poisson rejected the work he wanted to present to the Paris Academy of Sciences.
In 1832, on the eve of his fatal duel, Galois wrote his mathematical will, which he entrusted to a friend.
It was not until 1846 that Liouville published them in this volume of the Journal des mathématiques, and not until 1870 that Jordan recognized their importance.

"When, yielding to the wish of Evariste's friends, I gave myself up, as it were under the eyes of his brother, to the attentive study of all the printed or manuscript pieces he left behind, I therefore thought I had to propose as my sole aim to seek out, to unravel, to then bring out as best I could, what was new in these productions.

My zeal was soon rewarded, and I was delighted when, after filling in a few small gaps, I recognized the complete accuracy of the method by which Galois proves, in particular, this beautiful theorem: For an irreducible equation of prime degree to be solvable by radicals, it is necessary and sufficient that all the roots be rational functions of any two of them.
This method, truly worthy of the attention of geometers, would alone suffice to secure our compatriot a place among the small number of scientists who have earned the title of inventor." (Liouville p.382).

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.

ROQUES, Joseph.

Plantes usuelles, indigènes et exotiques, dessinées et coloriées d'après nature, avec la description de leurs caractères distinctifs et de leurs propriétés médicales.

Paris, Chez l'auteur (et Vve Hocquart), 1807-1808.

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First edition.
Joseph Roques (1772-1850) is a botanist who remains famous for his beautiful illustrated editions of flora which will remain references in the 19th century.

Our copy is complete with 133 finely watercolor plates gathering hundred's of botanical subjects (we also have the errata leaves on volume II which is often missing).
The author tells us in his preliminary speech that the execution of the engravings "was entrusted to Artists of distinguished merit". The result is a delicacy of the illustrations which clearly stood out from the lot of botany textbooks of the time.

A magnificent work, but also scientifically rigorous.
Finding that most of the medical floras of the time flirted with charlatanism, Roques has here selected only plants whose medicinal properties have been proven during his practice of medicine in Montpellier and gives their precise use.
To reach both the general public and scientists, he gives for each of the plants the popular name, the scientific name as well as their positions in the classification systems of Linnaeus, Tournefort and Jussieu. It is thus one of the last floras using this triple classification, an unified system being imposed in the modern era.

LAMARCK, Jean Baptiste de.

Systême des animaux sans vertèbres, ou tableau général des classes, des ordres et des genres de ces animaux.

Paris, Deterville, 1801.

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4000 €

First edition.
One of the very first formulations of the concept of evolution of species (transformism), before Darwin's, and presenting as the cause of evolution (Lamarckism) the heredity of acquired characteristics.

It will take more than 50 years for Darwin's work on environmental selection pressure to contradict Lamarck's Speech.

However, we owe Lamarck the introduction in this book of the distinction between Vertebrate and Invertebrate animals, a distinction that we still use in current taxonomy.

JAUME SAINT HILAIRE, Jean Henri.

Plantes de la France décrites et peintes d'après nature.

Paris, Chez l'Auteur, 1808-1809.

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4000 €

First edition, first print of the plates.
Arranged in alphabetical order, each plant is described by a text sheet accompanied by a color plate.
Beautiful complete set of 400 plates printed in color from the drawings of Jaume Saint Hilaire and engraved in dotted lines by Dubreuil and Veron.
Our collation is consistent with that given by Stafleu in his bibliography, the same announcement that this publication was limited to a print run of 400 copies.

BECQUEREL, Henri.

Manuscrit autographe : Reflexions sur une théorie moderne.

s.l., s.n., [1907].

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4000 €

Original Manuscript by Henri Becquerel.

An interesting manuscript in which the discoverer of radioactivity ponders the nature of matter at the end of his life.
This manuscript, with corrections for printing, was published at the Institut de France after a reading at the session of October 25, 1907.

One of Henri Becquerel’s final works, this manuscript reflects on the revolutionary discoveries that had upended the traditional understanding of matter: the electron (discovered by Thomson in 1897), radioactivity (discovered by Becquerel himself in 1896), and radioactive decay (discovered by Rutherford in 1902).

The long-held notion of the atom as an indivisible, stable particle, as proposed by Democritus, was challenged by these groundbreaking findings. Becquerel pondered this new reality, suggesting that atoms, rather than being eternally stable, might undergo modifications over time. However, the slow pace of these transformations or the rarity of conducive conditions could create the illusion of stability.

The 15 pages offprint will be joined (covers detached).

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.

MACLAURIN, Colin.

Traité des fluxions.

Paris, Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1749.

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3500 €

First french edition.
Mathematical defense of Newton's work against the Berkeley attacks, Maclaurin also proposes there a particular use of the Taylor theorem which is since called Taylor-Maclaurin formula and the first test of convergence of an infinite series.

SAVARY, Jacques.

Le Parfait Négociant ou instruction générale pour ce qui regarde le commerce.

Paris, Jean Guignard, 1675.

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3500 €

First edition.
A famous merchant born in 1622 in Doué (Anjou) from a noble family, Savary became a wealthy merchant and retired from business at the age of 36. He was chosen by Colbert to be one of the writers of the commercial code of 1673 which was called "Code Savary". He wrote in 1675 the "Perfect trader" which is the compilation of the knowledge he had gathered for the drafting of the ordinance. The legal solutions are clear, sensible, practical, honest. The book is a business bible whose importance Max Weber underlined. This work became a classic, reprinted many times and translated into German, English and Italian.

[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.

VIGENERE, Blaise de.

Traicté du feu et du sel. Excellent et rare opuscule du Sieur Blaise de Vigenère, Bourbonnois, trouvé parmy ses papiers après son décès.

Rouen, Jacques Cailloué, 1642.

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3500 €

Copy of the 1618 edition.
This classical alchimical treatise contains an interesting passage in which VigenEre described the discovery of the crystalline benzoic acid, obtained by the sublimation of gum benzoin (Partington).

DESGODETZ, Antoine.

Les Édifices antiques de Rome, mesurés et dessinés très exactement sur les lieux.

Paris, Claude Antoine Jombert, 1779.

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3000 €

Second edition.
A new edition by Claude Antoine Jombert, who had just acquired the original copperplates from the descendants of the architect.
Antoine Desgodetz was sent to Rome, where he stayed for sixteen months in 1676–1677, to survey and measure ancient monuments with great precision. The purpose was well conceived, as he had already observed discrepancies in the dimensions—and thus the proportions—given in classical works on the subject.
The result was a work of obvious utility and great beauty: Desgodetz’s drawings were engraved by excellent artists, including Louis de Chastillon, Nicolas Guérard, and Jean and Pierre Lepautre. Each plate is accompanied by a facing descriptive notice specifying the measurements of the various elements and pointing out the errors in earlier treatises.
The work was justly admired and underwent several reissues. It is all the more surprising to learn that, unlike most ancient treatises, it has not lost its value: even today’s archaeologists—far more demanding than the amateurs of the past—still recognize its accuracy and usefulness.

A complete copy, with all 137 required plates.

BOECE DE BOODT, Anselme.

Le Parfaict Joaillier, ou Histoire des pierreries ou sont amplement descrites leur naissance, de juste prix, moyen de les cognoistre, & se garder des contrefaites, facilitez medicinales, & propriectez curieuses.

Lyon, Jean Antoine Huguetan, 1644.

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3000 €

First french edition.
Milestone in mineralogy and gemmology.
Translation by Jean Bachou from the Latin edition of the "Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia" and enriched with annotations by André Toll.
All precious stones are studied there as well as the cutting and polishing processes. Boodt also describes the virtues of stones, medicinal and magical faculties.
Numerous woodcuts in the text.

KEPLER, Johannes || BARTSCH, Jakob.

Tabulae Manuales Logarithmicae ad Calculum Astronomicum, in specie Tabb. Rudolphinarum compendiose tractandum mire utiles.

Strasbourg, Theodore Lerse, 1700.

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3000 €

Second and first obtainable edition.

In 1627, Kepler published his final work, the Tabulae Rudolphinae, an ephemeris of planetary motions of unprecedented accuracy. This feat was only possible thanks to the use of logarithmic tables, which allowed him to shorten the immense calculations necessary for the precision of these predictions.

The use of logarithmic calculation is thus at the heart of Kepler’s astronomical work. He discovered Napier’s work in 1617, but he preferred to construct his own tables using a new geometric approach. More accurate than those of his predecessor, Kepler’s tables were published in Mathematici chilias logarithmorum in 1624.

For the Tabulae Rudolphinae, Kepler modified his logarithmic tables by changing the intervals of tabulation..

After Kepler's death in 1630, his son-in-law Jacob Bartsch wanted to propose a portable and less expensive version of the logarithmic tables used for the calculations of the Tabulae, which had been published in folio format. Bartsch had them published in 16mo format, under the title Logarithmorum logisticorum (Sagan, 1631).

Our edition was given by the French mathematician Jean Caspar Eisenschmidt, who corresponded with Cassini in Strasbourg. In his introduction, Eisenschmidt explains that the print run of the original edition had been extremely limited due to financial problems. The rarity of copies of the Sagan edition, even at the time, necessitated a new edition.

A very fresh copy.

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.

DIONIS DU SEJOUR, Achille Pierre.

Traité analytique des mouvemens apparens des corps célestes.

Paris, Veuve Valade, 1786-1789.

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3000 €

First edition.
Work described by Lalande as "the greatest work of analytical astronomy".
"After having applied analysis to all parts of astronomy, he collected all the memoirs he had published in the volumes of the Academy, perfecting them, bringing them together by a methodical sequence, making their principles more elementary , the more numerous applications, and he formed a large work of it in two large volumes in-4°, published in 1786 and 1789" (wikipedia).

MARAT, Jean-Paul.

Découvertes de M. Marat sur la lumière constatées par une suite d'expériences nouvelles qui ont été faites un très-grand nombre de fois sous les yeux de MM. les Commissaires de l'Académie des Sciences.

Londres et Paris, Jombert, 1780.

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3000 €

First edition of this rare work by Marat on light.
In fact, the french revolutionary published several scientific works in his youth.
In this treatise on light, Marat discusses Newton's doctrine on the decomposition of sunlight by the prism.

MILLIET DECHALES, Claude François.

Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus.

Lyon, ex officina Anissoniana, 1674.

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3000 €

First edition of the most important work of Milliet Dechalles.
Complete Mathematics course, which also covers other topics sciences (mechanical, architecture, optics, perspective, astronomy, ..).
We usually meet the second edition published in 1690 in four volumes.
This first edition, complete in three volumes is quite rare.
Copy with some old annotations to the first two volumes and more copiously to the chapter "Astronomy" in volume 3, with in particular three sheets of notes added to volume 3 between pages 404 and 405 and at the end.

DESCARTES, René.

Le Monde de Mr Descartes ou le traité de la lumière et des autres principaux objets des sens.

Paris, Jacques Le Gras, 1664.

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3000 €

First edition.
Very rare copy with title page in unlisted condition in the name of Jacques Le Gras.

Descartes wrote this treatise in 1632 and 1633. He defended in particular the heliocentric system of Copernicus, but following Galileo's condemnation, he gave up publishing this work during his lifetime. It will not be finally published, according to his will, until after his death. At the end of 1663, the Le Gras and Clerselier family will dispute the privilege of publishing the posthumous works of Descartes. For the "World" it is Jacques Le Gras who will be the first to deposit the privilege. (cf. CARTESIAN BULLETIN V. (1976). Archives de Philosophie, 39 (3), 445–494) Jacques Le Gras, the holder of the privilege, then shared it with Thomas Girard (his brother-in-law) and Michel Bobin.

Our title page is unknown to Tchermerzine and Guibert as well as to Mathias Van Otegem who in his bibliography of the works of Descartes published in 2002, after consulting the copies in public libraries, describes only four states of the title page of this edition.
Our copy therefore presents a fifth state of the still unpublished title page.
Our title page has the same typographical mark as the Thomas Girad state (6 fleurons) canonically considered to adorn the true first edition. In addition, like the copy "Thomas Girad" from the Munich library (BSB: Rar. 4594) our title page is margined shorter than the rest of the book body and printed with the same characters, which suggests an impression at the same time.
The copies having a recomposed title page with a typographical mark "à l'oiseau" only coming, according to bibliographers, in a second step.

"In Le Monde, Descartes wants to ruin the concepts of scholasticism, and 'evacuate' Aristotle's physics, by giving a physical interpretation of the new heliocentric astronomy. As opposed to traditional finalism, he envisions, in the form of a "Fable", the mechanical formation of the cosmos, from an initial state of chaos (pieces of matter of various shapes and sizes agitated by all-out movements) and only by virtue of the general laws of nature: principle of inertia, laws of the communication of movement, etc ... "Robert Maggiori, Liberation, 26.

DESCARTES, René.

Specimina Philosophiae: Seu Dissertatio de Methodo Recte regendæ rationis, & veritatis in scientiis investigandæ: Dioptice, et Meteora.

Amsterdam, Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1644.

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3000 €

First latin edition of the Discours de la Méthode.

Milestone in the history of science which marked an epistemological rupture.
The Latin translation of the Discourse on the Method was first undertaken by Etienne de Courcelles but Descartes revised it, modified it and introduced variants compared to the French text of 1637. We find there for the first time the phrase (page 31) : "cogito, ergo sum".
The scientific texts following the Discourse are illustrated with numerous woods in the text.

[VOLTA, Alessandro].

L'identita del fluido elettrico col cost detto fluido galvanico vittoriosamente dimostrata con nuove esperienze ed osservazioni. Memoria comunicata al Signore Pietro Configliachi Professore di Fisica sperimentale nell?Università di Pavia e da lui pubblicata con alcune note. Porta in fronte il ritratto di Volta e vi è aggiunto il Catalogo delle sue opere stampate sino a tutto l'anno 1813.

Pavia, G. Giovanni Capelli, 1814.

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First edition on large paper.

This is Volta's latest memoir and his most important contribution to the famous controversy that occurred between the Galvanic and Voltaic theories of electricity. This memoir was submitted under the name of one of the students of Volta in 1805 during a competition organized by the "Società Italiana delle Scienze"; it was then "to explain with clarity and dignity, by offending anyone, the question of Galvanism, discussed by Giovanni Aldini (nephew of Galvani) and Alessandro Volta". No memory was rewarded at the end of this event. Nine years later, Pietro Configliachi, professor of physics and publisher of the "Giornale di fisica, chemica e storia naturale" pupil and then successor of Volta at the University of Pavia, was finally able to publish this work. The last 7 pages of this book present a detailed bibliography of Volta's works until 1813.
Beautiful rare and remarkable copy on large paper.

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All our Scientific books

MARSILI, Luigi Ferdinando.

Histoire physique de la mer. Ouvrage enrichi de figures dessinées d'après le naturel.

MILLER, Philip.

Figures of the most beautiful, useful, and uncommon Plants described in the Gardeners Dictionary, exibited on three hundred copper plates.

A reissue of the first 1760 edition. Philip Miller, was director of the Chelsea Garden and was considered as "the greatest gardener of his time". Beautiful books illustrated with 300 colored plates of plants. Rare complete and in this condition.

LAGRANGE, Joseph-Louis, comte de.

Méchanique analitique.

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

REDOUTE, Pierre-Joseph || THORY, Claude Antoine.

Les Roses peintes par P. J. Redouté.

VIETE, François.

Opera mathematica in unum volumen congesta ac recognita, opera atque studio Francisci a Schooten.

BULLIARD, Pierre.

Flora Parisiensis ou descriptions et figures des plantes qui croissent aux environs de Paris avec les différens noms, classes, ordres et genres qui leur conviennent, rangés selon la méthode sexuelle de Linné.

CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène.

BAUHIN, Jean || CHERLER, Jean-Henri.

Historia plantarum universalis.

[MANUSCRIT] MAHOT, Maurice.

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

GALOIS, Évariste.

Oeuvres mathématiques d'Évariste Galois. In Journal de Mathématiques pures et appliquées ou Recueil mensuel de mémoires sur les diverses parties des mathématiques, Année 1846, Tome XI.

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.

ROQUES, Joseph.

Plantes usuelles, indigènes et exotiques, dessinées et coloriées d'après nature, avec la description de leurs caractères distinctifs et de leurs propriétés médicales.

LAMARCK, Jean Baptiste de.

Systême des animaux sans vertèbres, ou tableau général des classes, des ordres et des genres de ces animaux.

JAUME SAINT HILAIRE, Jean Henri.

Plantes de la France décrites et peintes d'après nature.

BECQUEREL, Henri.

Manuscrit autographe : Reflexions sur une théorie moderne.

PASCAL, Blaise.

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

MACLAURIN, Colin.

Traité des fluxions.

First french edition.Mathematical defense of Newton's work against the Berkeley attacks, Maclaurin also proposes there a particular use of the Taylor theorem which is since called Taylor-Maclaurin formula and the first test of convergence of an infinite series.

SAVARY, Jacques.

Le Parfait Négociant ou instruction générale pour ce qui regarde le commerce.

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

VIGENERE, Blaise de.

Traicté du feu et du sel. Excellent et rare opuscule du Sieur Blaise de Vigenère, Bourbonnois, trouvé parmy ses papiers après son décès.

Copy of the 1618 edition. This classical alchimical treatise contains an interesting passage in which VigenEre described the discovery of the crystalline benzoic acid, obtained by the sublimation of gum benzoin (Partington).

DESGODETZ, Antoine.

Les Édifices antiques de Rome, mesurés et dessinés très exactement sur les lieux.

BOECE DE BOODT, Anselme.

Le Parfaict Joaillier, ou Histoire des pierreries ou sont amplement descrites leur naissance, de juste prix, moyen de les cognoistre, & se garder des contrefaites, facilitez medicinales, & propriectez curieuses.

KEPLER, Johannes || BARTSCH, Jakob.

Tabulae Manuales Logarithmicae ad Calculum Astronomicum, in specie Tabb. Rudolphinarum compendiose tractandum mire utiles.

CHEVREUL, Michel Eugène.

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

DIONIS DU SEJOUR, Achille Pierre.

Traité analytique des mouvemens apparens des corps célestes.

MARAT, Jean-Paul.

Découvertes de M. Marat sur la lumière constatées par une suite d'expériences nouvelles qui ont été faites un très-grand nombre de fois sous les yeux de MM. les Commissaires de l'Académie des Sciences.

First edition of this rare work by Marat on light.In fact, the french revolutionary published several scientific works in his youth.In this treatise on light, Marat discusses Newton's doctrine on the decomposition of sunlight by the prism.

MILLIET DECHALES, Claude François.

Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus.

DESCARTES, René.

Le Monde de Mr Descartes ou le traité de la lumière et des autres principaux objets des sens.

DESCARTES, René.

Specimina Philosophiae: Seu Dissertatio de Methodo Recte regendæ rationis, & veritatis in scientiis investigandæ: Dioptice, et Meteora.

[VOLTA, Alessandro].

A reissue of the first 1760 edition.
Philip Miller, was director of the Chelsea Garden and was considered as "the greatest gardener of his time".
Beautiful books illustrated with 300 colored plates of plants.
Rare complete and in this condition.

First french edition.
Mathematical defense of Newton's work against the Berkeley attacks, Maclaurin also proposes there a particular use of the Taylor theorem which is since called Taylor-Maclaurin formula and the first test of convergence of an infinite series.

Copy of the 1618 edition.
This classical alchimical treatise contains an interesting passage in which VigenEre described the discovery of the crystalline benzoic acid, obtained by the sublimation of gum benzoin (Partington).

First edition of this rare work by Marat on light.
In fact, the french revolutionary published several scientific works in his youth.
In this treatise on light, Marat discusses Newton's doctrine on the decomposition of sunlight by the prism.