1822. 24mo, pp. [vi] blank, [iv] engraved frontispiece and title-page, 96, [6] blank; printed in red and black; faint dampstain affecting margins of engraved frontispiece and title-page, text lightly browned with some occasional minor soiling; a number of ink and pencil entries in the memorandum, seemingly in a single neat hand; in contemporary red morocco, with attractive silver clasp (still working), with front inner pocket, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, with pencil holder (though pencil missing), covers a little scuffed and soiled, with light wear to extremities, but still an attractive copy. A most appealing pocket memorandum book in the original wallet binding with a silver clasp, issued by one of the leading pocket-book makers of the day, William Peacock, based in Salisbury Square London. There is increasing focus of study upon such pocket diary-cum-almanacs, which though at the time were widely purchased and used, became somewhat ‘invisible’ with the passing of time and neglected by academic study. Attractively printed, and with an elegantly engraved frontispiece depicting William IV landing at Torbay (signed ‘E. F Burney. Del, S. Springsguth, sculp’), the present example includes a blank diary section of pp. 52 corresponding to the weeks of the year, further divided into 7 boxes for each day. The inclusion of a finely executed frontispiece was a particular feature of the genre, and indeed between 1790-1809 Humphrey Repton supplied tiny water-colour views for Peacock’s other series, The Polite Repository. Though sadly anonymous, there are a number of entries in both pencil and ink, seemingly in more than one hand, and which includes a number of contact details and address (both in London and Paris), including for French and music teachers, a doctor, seamstresses, a hairdresser, laundress, upholsterer, restaurants, and hotels. Some of the notes date to the period 1826-1827.
A stationer and bookbinder, Peacock seems to have begun trading in 1779, later trading as William Peacock and Sons, and then as Peacock and Bampton between 1811-1827. ‘Peacock appears to have been one of the leading pocket-book makers. He published the untraced Historical Almanack, a cheaper pocket diary, advertised for the first time in November 1793 and 'ornamented with an elegant Frontispiece,' which appears to have run and been advertised up until at least 1837. [...] Apart from producing pocket books, Peacock was also active as a tanner, likely preparing some of the leather he would use in his bindings...’ (Sandro Jung, ‘Illustrated Pocket Diaries and the Commodification of Culture’, Eighteenth-Century Life, 2013, 37(2), pp. 53-84.) ‘the eighteenth-century illustrated pocket diary-cum-almanac is a largely neglected ephemeral genre, partly because it has, in Margaret J. M. Ezell’s term, remained “invisible”. Even though annual publications such as Thomas Baker’s Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas and William Peacock’s Polite Repository were once widely known and familiar to those who could afford them, their absence from historical narratives of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century print culture, the history of the book, and publishing represents a significant gap in accounts of the consumption of printed ephemera. Too often, copies of these pocket books have been preserved largely because of who their owners were or because of the socio-cultural records they contain on day-to-day life in the period. In that regard, they have not been considered as important interventions in a sizeable market for illustrated pocket books the study of which will contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of processes of commodification, marketing, branding, and cultural production’ (ibid.)

1819.]. 12mo, pp. 116; with woodcut frontispiece, woodcut title-page vignette, and 34 small wood engraved portraits; without front free endpaper; title-page with some offsetting from frontispiece, a little browned throughout due to paper quality, with some marginal soiling and foxing in places, some insignificant nicking to upper margin of p. 53, with some creasing in places; contemporary red morocco backed marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt, head of spine nicked with small loss, spine sunned with some ink staining at tail, joints rubbed, covers with some surface abrasions, extremities bumped and lightly worn; with contemporary(?) ownership signature of ‘Edward Lawrence, Marsh House, Thatcham, Berks’ on front paste-down; despite slight wear still an appealing copy. Scarce first edition of this attractive historical work for children, including 34 circular woodcut portraits of Scottish monarchs, and the work of Alexander Bower (fl. 1804-1830), one time teacher and then assistant-librarian at the University of Edinburgh. In his brief preface Bower notes that he has consulted ‘the best authorities on the subject, viz. Fordoun, Boethius, Buchanan, Leslie, Pinkerton, Lord Hailes, Robertson, Laing, &c. The transactions of a more recent date are taken from the most authentic sources; and nothing is advanced of the truth of which the young reader can have any doubt, if credit can be given to the early history of any nation’. Bower begins with the reign of Fergus I and concludes with the death of Anne in 1714. Barely a paragraph is given over to the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745, and Bower concludes by saying ‘During the reign of his present majesty, George III., very little can be mentioned in regard to Scotland which does not equally apply to the other parts of the British dominions. In every public question the Scots take a similar interest with their other fellow subjects; and in the late arduous contest in particular, have distinguished themselves by their loyalty and zeal for the prosperity of the public service’ (p. 111).
Bower published a similar abridged history of Ireland for children in 1819, and it is commonly assumed that the present work was published in the same year. He is also remembered for his ‘Account of the Life of James Beattie’ (1804), ‘Life of Luther’ (1813), a three volume ‘History of the University of Edinburgh’ (1817-1830) and ‘The Edinburgh Student’s guide’ (1824).

1950. 8vo, pp. [iii] - 233, [1]; with 172 line drawings, diagrams and photographs throughout the text; aside from some very occasional and minor soiling and furling to corners, clean and crisp; in the original buff card wrappers, lettered in red, covers a little foxed and soiled, front cover lower corner with signs of creasing, extremities and corners lightly bumped and rubbed; a good copy. First edition of this detailed contribution to the corpus of works on cosmetic surgery, and discussing in particular rhinoplasty. Aesthetic or cosmetic surgeons had for many years laboured on the margins of medical respectability, as Galtier’s colleague M. Bouchet alludes to in his preface. France had been a little slow to recognise the importance of cosmetic surgery, in comparison to other nations, notably America. There psychiatrists had been more willing to refer patients to surgeons for the correction of nasal deformities which were causing them anxiety. However, little by little, as techniques had improved and procedures become safer, thanks in part to the developments made in plastic surgery during the war, cosmetic surgery was becoming a more recognised, and indeed more reputable, field of speciality. Echoing the sentiments of Suzanne Noël, Bouchet notes that the discipline can bring great hope and benefit to patients in a variety of trades, who feel that they need to improve their aesthetic appearance and to regain self-confidence. He hopes therefore, that this book will highlight the great service that cosmetic surgery can provide to many. Galtier describes in detail a number of procedures, including several case histories, aided by the inclusion of numerous diagrams and photographs.
Whilst the sentiments expressed may be similar to those of the pioneering cosmetic surgeon Noël (1878-1954), it is interesting to note that her fundamental work of 1926 ‘La Chirurgie esthétique’ is not mentioned in the bibliography at the end of the work, and as far as we can tell, no reference is made to her within the work, although it is true to say that rhinoplasty was not a technique for which she is best remembered.

-1908.]. Large 8vo, pp. [vi], 503, [1] blank; with frontispiece, double-page map of the North Pole, and 46 illustrations, several full-page; paper a little browned and foxed due to quality; in the original red publisher’s cloth, with bevelled edges, all edges gilt, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, upper cover with mounted chromolithograph label of a polar bear on an ice flow, watching the arrival of an airship, blindstamped and lettered in gilt, with publisher’s monogram in blind on rear cover, head and tail of spine a little bumped, some soiling to spine, upper joint slightly cracked at head, lower joint with small split at tail, extremities lightly bumped; a good copy. First edition, handsomely published, of this romantic adventure story, and the work of the popular writer Emile-Augustin-Cyrpien Driant (1855-1916), writing under his pseudonym of Captain Danrit.
A French balloon, the ‘Patrie’ breaks free from its moorings, after an act of sabotage, setting adrift balloonist officer Lieutenant Georges Durtal, and Christiane de Soignes, whom Durtal had invited onboard. Driven by a storm the balloon reaches Norway, where it is picked up by an American billionaire aboard his yacht, who offers to hire the intrepid pair to help him win a bet to reach the North Pole. Durtel accepts and thus begins an exciting race to the Pole, against the backdrop of ensuring that the airship does not fall into German hands.
Driant drew inspiration from two unsolved mysteries of the day: the disappearance of the Swedish explorer Salomon Andrée’s 1897 expedition across the Arctic, and the 1906 disastrous flight of the French dirigible, the ‘Patrie’ which had disappeared at sea. In the present novel, the airship crash lands on the ice floe, the intrepid pair heading off on foot towards the North Pole. There they discover a Swedish flag, no doubt planted by members of the Andrée expedition, before discovering human remains in a nearby cave.
This tale of derring-do was also serialised in Le Journal des Voyages from October 18, 1908 to May 2, 1909.
Driant joined the military shortly after 1871, and went on to lead a distinguished career. He began writing and publishing in 1889, his military experiences very much forming a backdrop for most of his works. He attention turned fully to writing upon his retirement in 1905, when he began a career as a journalist, and continuing to publish fictional works. When war was declared in 1914, he asked to return to service, and was eventually killed during the battle of Bois des Caures in February 1916.

[1761]. Two volumes, 8vo; pp. xliv, 515; [iv], 560; with attractive woodcut title-page vignettes, woodcut arms and headpieces; faint dampstain affecting upper gutter of final few leaves of Vol. I, and also lower margins of ff. 451 to the end of Vol. II (though very faint), both volumes a little browned with occasional light spotting and soiling, though generally clean and crisp, in contemporary full speckled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, ruled and decorated in gilt with red and green morocco labels, all edges marbled, retaining green silk markers, small nick with loss at head of spine and upper joint of Vol. I, small nick to tail, and to upper cover of Vol. II, with further light surface wear and to extremities and corners; a good copy. An uncommon introduction to science aimed at a female audience. Written in the form of a dialogue with an anonymous Comtesse, the work is modelled on those of Fontenelle and Algarotti, though according to the dedication to the Comtesse de Rochechouart, the present treatise offers a more complete course of physics than either previous work. The dedication also includes an interesting discussion on the education of women, contributing to the ongoing debate surrounding the role of women in society.
Prompted by the reappearance of Halley's comet in 1758, the countess is keen to understand the phenomena, but resents the fact that savants spend so little time on female education, and feels that most men want to limit their knowledge to 'feeble notions of geography, mythology and history'. Having emphasised that science is as much a practical study as a theoretical one, Devillers agrees to embark upon a course of instruction which he divides into 18 days, and deals with subjects such as pneumatics, hydrostatics and hydraulics, electricity (II, 1-65 with a section on medical electricity), gravity, the laws of motion, optics and the telescope and astronomy (days 16-18, II, 377-557).
Devillers moved to Lyons early in his career, and began lecturing on physics, later taking a room in the town hall to present his lecture series. He was elected a member of the Academy of Lyons, and was noted for his fine collection of instruments, or 'cabinet de physique'.

1800. 12mo, pp. xii, 154; with folding engraved frontispiece map of the world, a folding plate of the spheres, and two further engraved plates of ‘Geographical terms and figures exemplified’; lacking the front free endpaper; some occasional light soiling, upper margin of frontispiece with faint stain, otherwise clean and bright; with a few neat pencil markings throughout; with the signature of ‘A. W. Wells’ on front pastedown, and of ‘Parker’ on rear pastedown; a most appealing unsophisticated copy in the original full sheep, ruled in blind, spine in compartments with raised bands, some loss of spine at head and tail, and upper joint cracked but holding firm, extremities a little rubbed; with the name ‘Parker’ stamped in black vertically on upper cover. A charming unsophisticated copy and a scarce provincial printing of this popular geographical work, first published in French by the noted historian Abbé Pierre Nicolas Lenglet du Fresnoy (1674-1755) as Géographie des enfans in 1736, with the first English edition appearing in the following year. One of the earliest geography text-books aimed specifically at young children, the work comprises a series of sixty-six lessons, organised by country and area, and adopts the question and answer format to help instil into young minds. Thus they are given the key facts about major cities, rivers, population and systems of government. The final lessons introduce the reader to the use of the terrestrial globe, and concluding with a table of longitude and latitude. By studying for an hour a day, ‘all this knowledge may be acquired in less time than three months’ (p. x).
Not only aimed at children, however, as the preface notes: ‘This outline may likewise be useful even to those of riper years, for there are many, who, though they have had a good general education, are ignorant even of the first rudiments of this science... the least propensity to learning by the help of this short treatise, will be sufficient to acquire a general idea of the science. Young ladies, in two months time, may be instructed in the rudiments of Geography, and be able to give a pertinent answer to a question, that they would blush if they were unable to resolve’ (p.iv-v). As the present Shrewsbury printed ‘Twenty-second edition’ attests, the work proved to be extremely popular and enduring.
The author of several works, Du Fresnoy published his more extensive Methode pour etudier la geographie in 1716, the 1736 presumably an abridgement based upon that work.

1821. 12mo, pp. xii, 276; with engraved frontispiece, a wood-engraving of a magic lantern, and a number of tables within text; some offsetting on title-page, some light foxing and soiling, otherwise clean and crisp; a couple of small later pencil marginal annotations; in contemporary full tree calf, covers ruled in blind, spine attractively tooled with black morocco label, small nick at head of spine and small crack to upper joint, some light wear to extremities, but otherwise very good; with signature of Alexander Philip on front free endpaper, and his signature and doodling dated 1877 on verso of final blank. First edition of this uncommon scientific work for young adults, intended to both educate and amuse, and one of a growing number of Regency works published at the time celebrating science as an instructive and moral discipline, presented as being a more entertaining ‘mental amusement’ in contrast to more traditional and overtly didactic works for children. As befitting a school room setting, the work is a little more serious in tone than the book of chemical feats, ‘Endless Amusements’, that was published at around the same time, but nevertheless contains a myriad of mathematical experiments, a section on magic squares, chemical feats, and card and magic tricks to while away the hours, with further sections on acoustics, electricity, magnetism, pneumatics and optics, including a discussion and illustration of a magic lantern. As the author notes in his preface, he has drawn inspiration from Jacques Ozanam’s famous and popular 17th century work on recreational mathematics, Récreations mathématiques et physiques (1694), which was to go through numerous editions well into the 19th century.
Enfield appears to have been the author of a number works for children and young adult, including ‘Natural Theology’ (1808?), and a ‘Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language’ (1808), but we believe is not to be confused with William Enfield (1741-1797), the Presbyterian divine, who is best known for his work of 1774, ‘The Speaker’.

1843. 8vo, pp. 54; with lithograph frontispiece portrait and with 38 lithograph plates (numbered 1 - 37, including 10 bis); lightly foxed and toned throughout, but generally clean and bright; uncut in the original blue printed wrappers, head and tail of spine a little chipped and worn, covers a little soiled, with a number of small marginal tears and some furling, with signature of ‘Hri de Crouzet de Rayssac’? at head of front wrapper; a very good copy. Extremely scarce first edition of this self-published treatise on the art of fencing with a cane, including 38 striking lithograph plates, the work of Louis Armand Victorin Leboucher (1807-1866), a professional teacher in the arts of boxing, and fencing with canes and sticks.
Basing himself in Paris, Leboucher established a school of self defence at the rue de la Michodière, and became renown as a powerful and, by the sounds of it, a fearsome fencer. As he notes in his preface, man’s first means of defence, other than the fist, would have been a large stick or club. Whilst carrying a firearm may not be socially acceptable, carrying a walking cane was commonplace, so why not learn to employ it for self defence if required when travelling. His methods focused upon strength and speed. As he continues, far from being futile as some may think, fencing with a cane was an essential personal defence skill, providing ‘a means of repulsion useful in certain circumstances’ (p. 4). It should also be seen as an acceptable and suitable form of gymnastic exercise and relaxation. He believes that his 25 lessons will be sufficient for any student to ‘obtain a degree of perfection which would otherwise require six months of practice’ (p.4). It will develop muscular strength in the arms, chest and legs, expand the lungs, and he claims that as a result of the training, most ordinary students should be able to carry out 150 blows in a minute. His students, he states, will be able to defend themselves with poise and dexterity, and he concludes by inviting the heads of military institutions, ‘who have not yet accepted our method, to make their students aware of the advantages of his theories, uniquely established as a system of personal defence’.
In addition to the present work, Leboucher published Théorie de boxe française (1844) and Théorie de boxe française et anglaise pour apprendre à tirer en 25 leçons (1853).
Though the signature is slightly obscure, we believe the copy to have once belonged to the Henri de Crouzet de Rayssac (1853-1930).

1872. 8vo, pp. xx, 403, [1] errata; with engraved frontispiece, and 22 engraved text figures and a number of tables; lightly browned throughout, with some occasional ink staining and minor soiling, small nick at head of pp. 226-232, but otherwise clean and bright; contemporary black half-sheep over pebble-grained boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, head of spine worn with minor loss, spine and joints somewhat rubbed and scuffed, extremities bumped and corners worn; still a good copy. Uncommon first edition of this stinging critique of the French Red Cross, known as the Société de Secours pour les Blessés Militaires, by the military surgeon and professor of clinical surgery at the Paris Faculty of Medicine, Léon Le Fort (1829-1893). The work is based upon his experiences during the Italian War (in particular the Battle of Solferino) and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 where he was chief physician of the mobile ambulances of the Society. As such it provides an important insight into the early history of the Society. As he notes in the preface, for the first time during the 1870 conflict, relief societies operated alongside official military medical units. His conclusion based on his experiences, he regrets to say however, is that ‘the hopes of the launch of the International Society for the Relief of Military Wounded have not been realised. The campaign of 1870 was a failure for the institution... this failure was so serious, the disorder was so great, that, if we paralleled the sums spent and the services rendered, we would arrive, not even at justification, but at the relative glorification of military stewardship’ (p.x). Le Fort divides his work into five sections, looking in turn at the peace-time general organization of the military medical service; the organisation during wartime of the Austrian, Prussian, Italian and French medical services; battlefield hospital reforms; the various relief societies and Geneva Convention; and with the final chapter presenting his summary and conclusions. A further appendix contains four chapters discussing in particular the first ambulance units at the siege of Metz. Based upon his first hand experiences, he describes some of the appalling scenes that he witnessed, and indeed he was held captive during the siege until the city fell.
Le Fort is unflinching in what he perceived to be the many failures he witnessed, and does not shy from highlighting what he perceived to be the drawbacks of the Geneva convention, independent relief societies, voluntary civilian mobile ambulance, and independent nurses (whose moral and professional qualities he viewed as often deplorable). Many of the women, he notes, upon donning the red cross armband, ‘played doctor with our poor soldiers as little girls play mother with their dolls. What happened in France, also happened in Germany, because it is form Germany that we get the word so characteristic of amateur nurses (Dilettanten in der krankenwartung)... dilettantes of the bandage’ (p. 230). The supremacy of the quartermaster over military doctors is similarly criticised, Le Fort, demanding instead the autonomy of the military medical corps. He calls for the provision of doctors, students, and volunteer nurses to the official army medical service, believing that better funding of army medical units would provide better outcomes for battlefield medicine and be of more long term benefit.
Whilst raising many valid points, inevitably his work proved contentious, and it received a damning critique in a contemporary review, his complaints about administrative conflicts being brushed aside as being more personal than constructive. His competence to address the questions posed is beyond doubt, the reviewer notes. ‘A former military doctor, writer, and eminent civilian practitioner, he cooperated extensively, at the request of the Council of the French Society, in organizing its mobile ambulances; he also served as chief surgeon of these ambulances, and finally, he was imprisoned with one of them in Metz until the city's capitulation. In order to give useful advice for the future, it is all the more unfortunate that he took the opportunity to heap blame on his former colleagues, honourable men if ever there were any, whose devotion commands the greatest respect. Reading his work produces a painful impression, which will certainly harm the triumph of whatever truth there may be in the author's views’ (https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/S1816967800026597a.pdf).

1792. 4to, pp. 4; with woodcut head-piece; a little foxed and spotted with some dust-soiling (mainly marginal), and some light finger-soiling visible to fore-edge; with contemporary inscription above head-piece ‘Bon pour imprimeur chez M. Descamps Douay le 12 avril 1792’; stitched in later marbled wrappers, and with plain paper outer dust-wrapper, title and date in manuscript florid calligraphic hand, believed to be in the hand of Quarré-Reybourbon, with his book-label ‘Collection Quarré-Reybourbon, Lille’ on inside cover of front marbled wrapper; very good. First edition of this important legal document announcing the approval for use of a mechanical beheading device, first called a ‘louisette’, but more infamously later renamed after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814).
Whilst not the first such capital punishment device, the guillotine became synonymous with the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, although it was invented with the intention of making executions more humane and less painful, in accordance with Enlightenment thought. Previous methods were substantially more gruesome and often prone to error.
Guillotine first proposed the use of a more humane device on October 10th 1789. A death penalty opponent, he sought to persuade Louis XVI to implement a less painful alternative, and proposed to the National Assembly that capital punishment should always take the form of decapitation ‘by means of a simple mechanism’. It was, however, the French surgeon and Royal physician Antoine Louis (1723-1792), together with the German engineer Tobias Schmidt (1755-1831), who built the first prototype, Louis as Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Surgery having been appointed as head of a committee to investigate the matter. The eventual machine was deemed successful, and soon replaced the more traditional methods of beheading by sword or axe, or hanging.
The present pamphlet announces the passing of the decree by the National Assembly on March 20th 1792, and transcribes Dr. Louis’ text, ‘Avis motivé sur le mode de la décolation’: ‘The mode in use in the past to cut off the head of a criminal exposes him to a more dreadful torture than the simple deprivation of life... The execution must be done in an instant and only one blow... It is necessary for the certainty of the process, that it depends on invariable mechanical means, of which one can also determine the force and the effect... The back of the instrument must be strong enough and heavy enough to act effectively like the ram which is used to drive in pillories... It is easy to have such a machine built, the effect of which is unmistakable, the beheading will be done in an instant... ‘
What makes the present example of particular appeal to printing historians, is the contemporary inscription found above the woodcut head-piece ‘Bon pour imprimeur chez M. Descamps Douay le 12 avril 1792’, and noting ‘1400 placards, 1500 in 4to’, suggesting that the present copy was used as a template for a provincial impression. There is a further signature - ‘Delval Lagache’, and who we believe to be Antoine Joseph Delval Lagache (1749-1822), at the time appointed by Paris as a leading administrative figure in Douai, and who would no doubt have been in charge of the distribution of National Assembly decrees throughout the region (see Duthilloeul, Galerie Douaisienne, 1844, ff. 96). François Descamps (1760-1794) was a printer in Douais. Initially rallied to the ideals of 1789, he subsequently became disillusioned with the anti-religious policy of the Revolution and began publishing critical essays and verses. In 1794 he was denounced by the revolutionary committee of Douai, and was put to death - by guillotine - on April 21.
The present example was once in the collection of the noted French historian and collector Louis François Quarré-Reybourbon (1824-1906). He amassed an impressive collection of objects and works relating to the département du Nord, Hainaut and Artois.

1750. 4to; pp. [2], [2] title-page, 104, 95, 1-27, 38-52, 58-137; with hand-coloured title framed within armourial border, 25 throw out plates drawn in pen and ink and shaded, and numerous neatly drawn text figures and illustrations, some full-page and decorative, a number hand-coloured or shaded, and three mounted corrected images; penned in a single hand throughout; some occasional foxing and soiling, one or two small paper flaws, some edgewear to fore-edge of plates; final endpaper missing; bound in contemporary full calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, tooled in gilt, with evidence of previous lettering label, head of spine worn exposing headband, general light rubbing and scuffing to joints and covers, covers a little sprung, extremities and corners bumped and lightly worn. A most attractively compiled, and seemingly early to mid 18th century manuscript course on practical geometry. The name Chambaud appears on the first free endpaper, and with a further small signature of [?] Mercier found at the tail of the first page, though we have sadly been unable to discern the first name, but it could be Jean-Henri.
The volume begins with an attractively hand-coloured title framed within an armourial border incorporating a crown, a battle-axe, and six flags adorned with a blue cross. The compiler concludes the volume with a further small armourial flourish. Very much a practical work, full of day to day problems and examples, though with some occasional more whimsical and artistic illustrated section dividers (including flowers, and flower arrangements), the volume has the air of having been compiled by a either a French gentleman under private tutorship, or perhaps that of a student/apprentice surveyor or engineer. The volume has been divided into three parts, dealing in turn with ‘a treaty of practical geometry and practice of the compass’; ‘practical geometry or the measurement of surfaces’; and concluding with fractions. The whole volume is most attractively illustrated, containing numerous geometric figures, both within the text, and then 25 throw-out plates bound at the end of the volume. The majority have been rendered in pen and wash, though several have been hand-coloured, notably those at the beginning or end of a chapter.
As far as we can ascertain, there are no author citations within the manuscript, and so this does not appear to be a transcription of an already published work, and is very much practical rather than theoretical. Whilst the basic principles of geometry are outlined, and occasional remarks given, the focus is upon problems and examples to be solved, with no mention of theorems or corollaries. Having handled previous geometrical manuscripts, this does not feel, therefore as though it is following an academic course of instruction at a College.

1814. 8vo, viii, [iv], 236; with folding engraved plate; lightly browned and foxed throughout; with ex-libris on front free endpaper ‘Bücherie Johannes Cotta’ and stamped date ‘21. Dez. 1925’; bound in contemporary red marbled paste-boards, with yellow and green paper labels on spine lettered in gilt, head and tail of spine and joints rather rubbed and worn, with further light scuffing to surfaces, extremities a little bumped and worn; still a good copy. Scarce first edition of this compilation of historical facts and events, popular beliefs, and spurious anecdotes, and the work of the Austrian bibliographer Franz Arnold Gräffer (1785-1852). The folding engraved plate (sometimes bound as a frontispiece though here found at the end of the work) is extremely striking and rather curious depicting as it does a rider on a horse, composed out of various other animals.
Gräffer’s ‘cabinet’ includes an impressive range of ‘curiosities’ from the fate of Jean d’Arc (was she really burnt at the stake?), the riches of Rome (with full accounts), to a listing of automatons and famous kisses. The reader learns too about the household accounting instructions of Mme de Maintenon and her helpful money-saving tips such as get yourself invited to dinner.
The son of the bookseller August Gräffer (d. 1816), after first studying art, Franz subsequently joined his father’s business. For a time librarian to Prince Moritz von Liechtenstein and Count Karl Harrach (1761-1829), he later devoted himself to the publishing and antiquarian business, though after losing most of his fortune in the process, he turned to literary pursuits, writing some 60 works, predominantly relating to Viennese literary life. Together with Johann Jakob Czikann (1789-1855) he published ‘Oesterreichische National-Encyklopädie’.

1870. Large 8vo, pp. xxxii, [33] - 876; with 462 wood engravings; some occasional light foxing and spotting to early and later leaves but otherwise clean and bright, final endpaper somewhat creased; in contemporary sheep, spine in compartments with raised bands, with black morocco label lettered in gilt, label with slight loss of a couple of letters, spine darkened, covers a little stained and soiled with some scuffing, extremities bumped and lightly worn; a good copy. An appealing copy of an important classic in medical anatomy, first published in 1858, with the first American edition published in the following year. The present copy is the ‘New American from the fifth and enlarged English edition.’ The work remains as a standard work for the English-speaking world, and remains in print to this day.
‘The author's opening statement in the Preface reads: "This work is intended to furnish the Student and Practitioner with an accurate view of the Anatomy of the Human Body, and more especially the application of this science to Practical Surgery." The success of that intention for more than a century could be proclaimed by generations of medical students and doctors of medicine in the English-speaking world. Gray (1825-1861) was lecturer on anatomy at St. George's Hospital, London, and this lasting and monumental work, produced by a young man who died young, must be compared to the Fabrica of Vesalius, who produced his great work before the age of thirty years’ (Heirs 1914).
‘Such was the success of this enterprise that the first edition, seven hundred and fifty copies was sold out within two years, and the book has continued to appear in revised editions up to the present... The first American edition was published in June 1859 by Blanchard and Lea in Philadelphia, utilizing a complete set of wood blocks imported for the illustrations’ (Grolier, Medicine, 68).
‘The work was superior to other treatises on anatomy in three areas—the lucid and logical arrangement of a mass of detailed description; clear new drawings based on dissections by the surgeon-author and the artist, a physician; and sections on the surgical anatomy of defined areas, such as the axilla, the elbow, the popliteal space, the perineum, and the laryngotracheal region’ (Lilly Library, Notable Medical Books, 211).
‘The success of the book was not due to an absence of rivals. There were already several texts on anatomy... Gray's Anatomy, however, eclipsed all others, partly for its meticulous detail, partly for its emphasis on surgical anatomy, but most of all perhaps for the excellence of the illustrations, based on drawings by H. V. Carter [1831-1897], who assisted Gray with the dissections, and engraved by Messrs Butterworth and Heath with remarkable skill. The design of the book, and the skill with which the illustrations were interpolated in the text, could hardly have been improved. For a man in his early thirties it was a remarkable achievement’ (ODNB).

1680. 8vo, pp. 56; with appealing woodcut initial, and head- and tailpieces throughout; title-page a little dampstained, with some light foxing throughout; later ownership note at head of title-page in ms ‘Perugia, 23 Luglio 1894, Cant. 36’; recently bound to style using older marbled paper. Rare first edition of this collection of laudatory and elegiac compositions commemorating the death of the celebrated castrato singer Baldassare Ferri (1610-1680), considered to be one of the first great castrati singers. According to contemporary accounts he possessed a phenomenal voice and he performed at many of the Royal Courts across Europe. By the time of his death he had amassed a large fortune, and he was widely mourned, as the present compilation illustrates.
The collection was compiled by Ferri’s nephew Giovanni Angelo Guidarelli (1647-1720), and includes 43 poems and sonnets in Latin and Italian by many leading writers of the time, including members of the Arcadia. The various poems in ‘The cry of the swans on the death of the phoenix of music’, whilst exhibiting many familiar tropes of the genre, also provides a chronicle of Ferri’s life, in an attempt to preserve a sense of his incomparable and angelic music for future generations. Contributors include Calo Sabbatini, Batolomeo Colonna, Antonio Cinaronio, Domenico Anselmo, Fioravante Lancellotto, Nicola Barsanti, Marco Antonio Farina, Antonio Ferri, Camillo Boccaccio, Carlo Amadio, Carlo Battisti, Carlo Doni, Carlo Vuetti, Domenico Antisari, Vincenzo Alvitreti, Girolamo Ammiani, Iacomo Rangoni, and Ottaviano Ercolani.

1907-8.]. 8vo, pp. [ii], 18, [ii] blank, with 106 loose leaves of photographic reproductions; title-page slightly foxed and browned, with further light browning and soiling throughout, with occasional minor edge-wear; loosely housed within the original grey cloth backed printed card portfolio, with printed label on spine, itself house within original maroon slip case with printed label, extremities somewhat rubbed and worn, but otherwise a good copy. Attractive and uncommon early 20th century facsimile, slightly reduced, of the original manuscript drawings that are believed to have formed the template for the famous woodcut illustrations for Guido Guidi’s famous ‘Chirurgia’ of 1544, considered to be one of the most beautiful scientific books of the Renaissance.
The work was edited by Henri Auguste Omont (1857-1940), the librarian of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, who notes in the introduction that the present work, published under the auspices of the Bibliothèque Nationale Département des Manuscrits, reproduces the illustrations from their Latin manuscript 6866 - the dedication copy to King Francis I of Guidi’s translation of a tenth-century illustrated Greek manuscript collection of works by ancient Greek surgeons, compiled by the Byzantine physician Nicetas. Brought to Italy by Janus Lascaris in 1495, this codex (now Florence, Laur. Plut. LXXIV, 7) was used by the Florentine physician Guido Guidi (ca. 1508-69) for the preparation of this Latin translation. Guidi, a native of Florence and grandson of the painter Domenico del Ghirlandaio, was physician to Francis and the first professor of medicine at the Collège de France (1542-48). The woodcuts, probably by Francois Jollat, were based on drawings that were copied in turn from the tenth-century codex.
‘This series of facsimiles... with its wealth of detail and valuable references, has served as the foundation for all subsequent studies on this aspect of Vicus Vidius’s work’ (Kellett, The School of Salviati and the Illustrations to the Chirurgia of Vidus Vidius, 1544, Med Hist. 1958 Oct: 2(4):264-8.)
"In 1542, Guidi presented an illustrated copy of this manuscript, along with his own Latin translation (likewise illustrated), to Francois 1 of France [...] Guidi had his Latin translation printed by Pierre Gaultier, a printer residing at the castle of Benvenuto Cellini, where Guidi also lived during the time he spent in Paris. The Chirurgia was the only one of Guidi's works published during his lifetime. The exquisite woodcuts of apparatus adorning Guidi's text are copies of the drawings in Guidi's Latin manuscript, which have been claimed, on the basis of a brief reference in the manuscript, to be the work of the Italian mannerist Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570). However, for both stylistic and logistical reasons, it is more likely that the drawings were made by the school of Francesco [Rosso] Salviati (1510-1563); [...] The images themselves have been traced back from the Nicetas Codex to the commentary on the Hippocratic treatise Peri arthron (On the joints) composed in the first century B.C. by Apollonius of Kitium (fl. 81-58 B.C.)" (Norman 954).
The text (not reproduced here) included Latin translations of treatises on surgery by Hippocrates (De ulceribus, De fistulis, and De vulneribus capitis), Galen (De fracturis, De articulis, De officina medici, and De fasciis), Oribasius (De laquis and De machinamentis), and others, with commentaries by Galen and other ancient writers. Hippocrates' treatise on dislocations and Soranus' work on bandages are illustrated with woodcuts, many of them full-page, which illustrate the treatments discussed in the text.

1928. 8vo, pp. xvi, 202, [1] limitation statement; with one folding engraved plate (slight offsetting onto text); some occasional minor marginal browning; uncut and partially unopened in the original ochre goatskin, ruled in gilt, top edge gilt, spine a little darkened in places, covers with some light spotting and soiling, and small dink on lower cover, with usual browning of endpapers from turn-ins, and turn-ins themselves slightly soiled; with a number of contemporary and later newspaper and catalogue clippings relating to William Harvey and this edition, loosely inserted by a previous owner; a good copy. Number 1249 (of 1450 copies) of the finely printed Nonesuch Press edition, issued to celebrate the tercentenary of the printing of the first edition of the most famous book in the history of medicine. This is the only modern edition of the 1653 text of the De motu cordis - which had been the first English edition of Harvey's seminal work on the circulation of the blood. Printed on handmade Van Gelder paper by Joh. Enschede en Zonen in Haarlem, the engraved folding plate is by Charles Sigrist after a drawing by Stephen Gooden.

1903]. Large 8vo, pp. [vii], 126, [ii, plates half-title]; with striking chromolithograph frontispiece, 21 folding double-page chromolithograph plates mounted on guards, with a number of half-tone images and text diagrams in the text; title-page a little foxed, with further light foxing and soiling throughout, though otherwise clean and crisp; in a contemporary presentation binding of full dark calf, all edges marbled and with marbled endpapers, spine in compartments with raised bands, with deep tan morocco label lettered in gilt, elaborately tooled in gilt, with gilt armorial lozenge on upper cover, ‘Presbyterian Ladies College, Sydney’, head and tail of spine and joints somewhat rubbed and lightly worn, with further light rubbing to extremities, covers very lightly scuffed and stained, otherwise very good; with presentation book-plate on front pastedown from the College, ‘First Prize, the gift of the College Council, awarded to Marjorie Smythe for Latin Class I, Christmas 1905’. An attractive presentation copy of the uncommon first edition of this most attractively illustrated layman's guide to astronomy. The full gamut of 'heavenly knowledge' is covered by Heath, who was first assistant astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. Most of the plates, including the celestial maps, are on a blue background. They are all attractively executed and informatively annotated. The particularly striking chromolithograph frontispiece depicts 'the total eclipse of July 28th 1851, Bue Island, Norway', and is taken from a drawing by Piazzi Smyth. This charming atlas has been bound for presentation by the Presbyterian Ladies College in Sydney, (established in 1888 and still running today), and awarded in December 1905 to Marjorie Smythe for her achievements in Latin. The copy later was in the collection of Richard Green, and was sold by Christie's at the sale of his scientific collection in New York on June 17th 2008 (part of lot 314).

1885. 8vo, pp. [viii], ff. [10] explanatory leaves of text facing an accompanying chromolithograph plate (thus 10 plates); title-page a little browned, with further light marginal browning and foxing throughout; gutter exposed in a couple of places but holding firm; with contemporary signature on title and final verso; in contemporary maroon publisher’s cloth, spine and upper cover lettered in gilt, head and tail of spine a little rubbed, covers a little soiled, extremities lightly bumped and worn. First English edition of this graphically striking atlas of the cutaneous nerve supply and distribution of the human body, first published in German in the previous year as ‘Atlas der hautnervengebiete’.
Jacob Munch Heiberg (1843 - 1888 Christiania) was a Norwegian doctor and anatomist. After studying he worked as a volunteer and unpaid doctor on the German side in the Franco- Prussian War of 1870 - 1871. He subsequently studied at clinics in Berlin, Rostock, Königsberg, Dresden, Leipzig and Vienna, before returning home where he opened an Eye Clinic in May, 1873. In 1878 he became professor of anatomy, histology and embryology at Oslo and in 1881 was the only professor in the medical faculty who voted for women to be allowed to study.

1819. Two parts in one volume, 16mo; I. pp. 70, [2], with engraved frontispiece portrait of Lavater, and 49 engraved plates; pp. [ii] title-page, 52, [iv] including blank; with 12 engraved plates numbered 50-61, plates 57-61 folding; tear repaired to inner gutter of Vol. I p. 25, lightly foxed throughout with some occasional further soiling, but otherwise good; uncut, in the original printed wrappers, head and tail of spine worn with loss, with evidence of previous repairs to joints, spine a little cracked and fragile, book-block a little loose, but holding firm, covers a little soiled, but a most appealing example. A charming and scarce Italian dissemination of Lavater’s masterpiece on physiognomy, and a testament to the enduring popularity and influence of his theories. Apparently translated by G. B. Carta, the work was first published in La Haye in 1803 as Règles physiognomiques ou observations sur quelques traits caractéristiques, and was itself an abridgement of Lavater’s four volume ‘Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe’ (1775-1778). The 1803 work was an elegantly produced large 4to, the plates each within a striking framed border. The present Italian edition published by Carta and Vallardi is more reminiscent of the attractive and highly successful series of pocket physiognomies published by Madame Veuve Hocquart between 1808-1809, namely Le Lavater Portatif, Le Lavater des Dames, and L'art de connaître les hommes. Indeed, in 1811 Vallardi published an Italian translation of Le Lavater Portatif, Il Lavater portatile o sia compendio dell'arte di conoscere gli uomini, a second edition of which also appeared in 1819, no doubt intended to be viewed as a companion volume.
The plates have presumably been re-engraved for this edition, and are placed to face the descriptive text. It begins with a frontispiece portrait of Lavater, and also includes his comparative discussion comparing the physiognomy of the human race with that of animals.