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Catalogue
72
Books
from the Past
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72.
MUSSCHENBROEK, PETRUS [PIETER] VAN. Elementa Physicae conscripta
in usus Academicos, Quibus nunc primum in gratiam studiosae juventatis
accedunt ab alienis manibus ubique auctaria & notae, disputatio
physico-historica de rerum corporearum origine, ac demum de rebus
Coelestibus Tractatus Naples, Typis Petri Palumbo, 1745. Two volumes.
$700
8vo; pp. [12], 79, [1] (blank), 406, [4]; pp. 290, [6], 99, [3],
31 engraved charts; two engraved title vignettes (by Filippo de
Grado); contemporary full vellum; some sporadic light foxing and
browning throughout; faint dampstain at lower corners of vol. II;
few notations on front pastedown of vol. II; overall a very good
set of this work.
Dibner, Early Electrical Machines (1957), pp. 25-27; vide Honeyman
2280 (1st ed.); PMM 99 (note). Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692-1761)
was born into a family of instrument makers in Leiden, The Netherlands.
He studied at the University of Leiden where he received his degree
in medicine and then his doctor of philosophy. In 1717 he went to
England, where he met with Newton, and returned to the Netherlands
in 1719 where he became a professor of philosophy and mathematics
at the University of Duisberg; he moved on to the University of
Utrecht and then, finally, to the Universtiy of Leiden where, from
1740 until 1761 he taught natural philosophy, now recognised as
"physics", a name he coined for his discipline in 1729.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1734 and
a member of the French Academy of Sciences in the same year. He
has also been given credit for the invention of the Leyden jar,
providing the first approach to scientific study of electrical charges
and their properties, and discovered that electricity produced by
an electrostatic machine could be accumulated. The first edition
of this work, with only 21 plates, was published in 1734; the second
part of vol. II, "De Rebus Coelestibus tractatus" (Olschki,
Choix, 7407) is here published for the first time.
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Newton's "Principia" - Large-Paper Issue
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73. NEWTON, ISAAC. Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica. Edition tertia aucta & emendata. London, Guil.
& Joh. Innys, MDCCXXVI (1726). "Third" edition. Large-Paper
copy. SOLD
4to; pp. [34], 530, [6] (Index); engraved frontispiece portrait,
title in red and black, wanting single advert leaf in rear; with
the initial privilege leaf and half-title leaf; numerous diagrams
throughout the work; contemporary full vellum; front board detached
but present; save for faint waterstain at upper corner of initial
leaves, a lovely large, clean copy. One of the large-paper issue
of 200 copies on "General Royal" paper with the "CC"
watermark, and leaves measuring 28.3 x 22 cm. (cf. H. P. Macomber,
A census of the owners of copies of the 1726 presentation issue
of Newton's Principia, p. 293.)
ESTC T98375; Babson 13; Gray 10; vide PMM (1st ed.): "The "Principia"
is generally described as the greatest work in the history of science.
Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler had certainly shown the way, but
where they described the phenomena they observed, Newton explained
the underlying universal laws. The "principia" provided
the great synthesis of the cosmos, proving finally its physical
unity. Newton showed that the important and dramatic aspects of
nature that were subject to the universal law of gravitation could
be explained, in mathematical terms, within a single physical theory.
... It was this grand conception that produced a general revolution
in human thought, ... It was the final, irrevocable break with a
medieval conception based on Greek and Roman cosmology and a scholastic
system derived from the medieval interpretation of Aristotle."
This edition is particularly important, as it was the last edition
published before Newton's death. It was seen through the press by
him just before his death in March of 1727, and contains much in
the way of significant additions, amendments and corrections.
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74.
PALMER, A[LICIA] T[YNDAL]. Authentic Memoirs of the life
of John Sobieski, King of Poland, illustrative of the inherent errors
in the former constitution of that kingdom, which, though arrested
for a time by the genius of a hero and a patriot, gradually paved
the way to its downfall. London: Printed for the Author: and sold
by Longman and Co. and Murray, 1815. First edition. $525
8vo; frontispiece portrait; pp. xvi, 303, [1]; recent half-calf
and marbled paper over boards; a fine, large, clean, uncut copy.
John [Jan] Sobieski (1629(?)-96) was King of Poland from 1674 until
his death in 1696. Born into a family of lesser nobility, he was
appointed commander of the Polish army in 1668. He defeated the
Ottoman Turks at Khotin in 1673, and in 1675 and 1677 concluded
alliances with France and Sweden respectively against Frederick
William of Brandenburg, the "Great Elector". The emphasis
of his foreign policy changed, however, when Sultan Mohammed IV
and the Hungarians under Thököly advanced against Austria.
Realising the danger to to all of Europe, Sobieski allied himself
in 1683 with Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor. In one of the most
decisive battles in European history, Sobieski, leading the combined
Imperial and Polish forces, was successful in raising the siege
of Vienna, and defeating Kara Mustapha and his much larger Ottoman
army, thus sparing Europe an invasion by the Turks.
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75.
PALMER, E[DWARD] H[ENRY]. The Desert of the Exodus: Journeys
on Foot in the Wilderness of The Forty Years' Wanderings, undertaken
in connexion with the Ordnance Survey of Sinai and the Palestine
Exploration Fund. Cambridge, Deighton, Bell, and Co., 1871. Two
volumes. First edition. $650
8vo; pp. xx, 280; 2 ff, pp. (281)-576; 5 folding maps (few in colour);
14 lithographed plates (13 tinted and 1 chromolithographed); numerous
illustrations within the text. Original green cloth; armorial bookplates;
front hinge of vol. II just starting. A fine, clean, tight set.
Bevis, p. 155. The author, an accomplished linguist, accompanied
Sir Charles Wilson and others on the first Expedition, the purpose
of which was to collect from the Bedouins the correct place names
of the region, in order to establish accurate nomenclature for the
Sinai peninsula. Later that year he returned with C.F.T. Drake and
together they walked the 600 miles from Sinai to Jerusalem, went
into the Levant and to Damascus, where they met up with Richard
Burton, and returned via Constantinople and Vienna, where Palmer
became acquainted with Arminius Vambéry. In this account
of his two expeditions, he aims to give the most accurate and complete
description to date of the desert of the Exodus and of the Holy
Land. A very good work, in unusually fine condition.
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76.
[PERIODICAL]. Poetry. A Magazine of Verse. Edited by Harriet
Monroe. Vol. IV, No. III (June 1914). Chicago, Harriet Monroe, [1914].
$225
8vo; pp. numbered 75-122; 13 p. adverts. Publisher's printed wrappers;
two foliated initials; two small tears on upper edge of front and
lower margin of rear; ownership stamp on front fly-leaf. Contents
printed on front wrapper, quote from Walt Whitman on rear.
LC; LAC. As founder of Poetry Magazine, Harriet Monroe (1860-1936)
was a highly influential editor whose name is synonymous with the
Modernist movement in American poetry. First appearing in October,
1912, and continuing publication to the present day, the monthly
literary periodical launched prominent poets such as Ezra Pound,
T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg
in its early editions. Harriet Monroe promoted and encouraged her
writers, and her correspondence with poets who appeared in Poetry
is a key resource for modern poetry research. This issue includes
poems by Carl Sandburg and Ford Madox Hueffer (Ford), as well as
a critical essay on Hueffer by Ezra Pound.
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