1862. 8vo, pp. [iv], 203, [1]; with 12 chromolithograph plates (including frontispiece), all retaining the original tissue guards, together with numerous engraved text vignettes; a little foxed and browned throughout, more prominent in one or two places; in the original red morocco backed publisher’s cloth, covers ruled in gilt, spine in compartments with raised bands, lettered and decorated in gilt, head and tail of spine a little rubbed and worn, covers lightly stained, extremities a little bumped and rubbed; a good copy. First edition of this appealing work for children, both an introduction to geography as well as a book of costume. It was one of a number of works published as part of the series ‘Bibliotheque de la Jeunesse’. M. Castillon, a professor at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, one of the oldest Colleges in the city, was the author of a number of educational and recreational works of scientific interest for a younger audience. These texts were often chosen by schools to be given as prizes in recognition of academic success.
The attractive lithographs are the work of either Hippolyte Louis Emile Pauquet (b. 1797) or Polydor Jean Charles Pauquet (b 1800) is responsible for the illustrations. Both brothers, from the publishing house of Pauquet Frères, were engravers, painters & illustrators during the mid 19th century.

1788.]. Small 8vo, pp. 72, [14] blank; pre-printed service or record book to be completed; title-page filled in in a contemporary hand in brown ink, otherwise unused, aside from some doodling on p. 46-7, 66-7, and in pencil on p. 71-72, with the first four final blank leaves ruled in pencil to form a grid, and which has been used; contemporary stiff vellum with closing fore-edge envelope flap, retaining part of the closing cord, title in manuscript (?) in black on upper cover, with small royal arms in black at centre of rear cover, some small wormholes evident in spine, covers somewhat soiled, with small loss of vellum to envelope flap edge; a little dog-eared but an unusual survivor. A scarce survivor, a pre-printed personal service record book belonging to Jean-Bernard Bouën, born in Verdun in 1767, and who became a classified or registered ‘gens de mer’ on in 1787.
During the 17th century, several seafaring nations used forced recruitment or impressment (better known as ‘press-ganging’) to crew their Royal warships. Although the British Royal Navy continued to impress many merchant sailors well into the 19th century, in 1669-70 France created a system of maritime registration or ‘L’Institution du service des classes’, under the auspices of Louis XIV’s minister of finances Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), thus becoming the first of the great naval powers to establish a permanent force of regular navy personnel. All men 18 years and above, who lived in or near coastal towns, and who were employed as fishermen, merchant crewmen and officers, were required to register on the rôle des gens de mer, and were divided into ‘classes’, each of which was required to serve a year in the King’s Navy every three, four or five years depending on the size of the district. This ‘inscription maritime’ was a broad, comprehensive code, which established standards of recruitment, pay, and benefits which in theory helped to build confidence and unity among newly enlisted sailors. ‘The navy maintained seamen not needed to commission warships during their year of service, theoretically, on half-pay: however, they were forbidden to sign on merchant ships. The Crown gave “classed” men various privileges in return for this perpetual commitment: exemption from certain taxes... and eligibility to receive money from the Caisse des invalides, a royal fund for invalid seamen or the families of those lost at sea.’ (Cormack, p. 23). Each coastal province was overseen by a class commissionaire, who kept a record of whether they were officers, sailors, or seafarers, together with names, age, address, qualities and description of the registrant, as well as keeping a record of any dependants. As Cormack goes on to discuss however, although this ‘class system’ was intended to place all of the maritime population at the navy’s disposal, it was constantly unable to supply crews needed for the commissioning of warships throughout the 18th century. He cites a number of possible reasons for this. Many preferred to work for privateers, whilst the mortality rate for sailors on long voyages was also high. The French navy was also frequently unable to pay its crews, and so consequently, many seamen did all that they could to resist conscription or to desert. The system was eventually reformed after the French Revolution in 1795, although some form of maritime inscription lasted until 1965.
The survival of such personal record books, by their very nature, appears to be unusual, no doubt potentially exposed to all weathers and conditions. Pierre Loti, in his work Le Matelot of 1893, includes a paragraph referring to a similar notebook: ‘Le livret de marin de mon frère Yves ressemble à tous les autres livrets de tous les autres marins. Il est recouvert d'un papier parchemin de couleur jaune, et, comme il a beaucoup voyagé sur la mer, dans différents caissons de navires, il manque absolument de fraîcheur’.
The booklet is divided into three sections. The first template page provides space for the owner to give their own details. This is followed by the ‘Instruction sur les devoirs des gens classés, leurs exemptions & privilèges’, according to recent reforms set into law on October 31st 1784. The remainder of the note book provides space to detail the owner’s various assignments, commissions on Royal vessels, and on other authorised voyages and navigation's.
For whatever reason, Bouën has filled in very little of his notebook, aside from his own personal details, and what appears to be the name of a vessel on p. 66. A number of the blank leaves at the end have been used, completed in pencil to form a grid of some sort, and which we have failed to decipher - although some look suspiciously like the doodling of a young child. Having signed up only two years before the start of the Revolution, it seems quite possible that larger events overtook him. Nevertheless, a scarce and appealing example from the last days of the Ancien Regime.

ca. 1814]. Three short pamphlets in one volume 8vo; pp. [ii], 18; pp. 7, [1]; pp. 8; small paper flaw with loss of one letter on first title-page, all three pamphlets lightly foxed and browned; in cloth-backed marbled paper over boards, with hand-written paper label on upper cover, front inner hinge cracked and broken; with small book-label on front paste down. Three uncommon satirical pamphlets discussing the final chapters of the Napoleonic era, and the restoration of Louis XVIII, very much an anti-Bonaparte standpoint and celebrating the restoration of the Bourbons. Following the French Revolution and during the Napoleonic era, Louis XVIII lived in exile in Prussia, England, and Russia. When the Sixth Coalition of Russia, Austria, Prussia, England, Holland, and other smaller states finally defeated Napoleon in 1814, forcing the surrender Paris, and the abdication and exile of Napoleon himself, Louis XVIII was placed in what he, and the French royalists, considered his rightful position. However, Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba and restored his French Empire. Louis XVIII fled, and a Seventh Coalition declared war on the French Empire, defeated Napoleon again, and again restored Louis XVIII to the French throne. He ruled as king for slightly less than a decade.

1886. Mixed set, together two volumes, text and atlas, small folio; text: pp. viii, 160; atlas: pp. [iv], with 59 glyptographs numbered A-D and I-LV; front free endpaper and half-title of text volume with some marginal dampstaining, lightly browned throughout with occasional light spotting and foxing, but otherwise generally clean; atlas also somewhat browned throughout due to paper quality, fore-edge of planche A nicked with japanese paper repairs to verso, and with library stamp on half-title ‘Royal College of Surgeons Library Ireland’; text volume bound in recent black cloth, with new morocco label on spine lettered in gilt, with the original printed wrappers bound in (dampstained and with signs of repairs), atlas volume in contemporary blue cloth, neatly rebacked preserving much of original spine, with new endpapers, and inner hinges strengthened, upper cover ruled and lettered in blind and gilt, covers slightly stained, extremities lightly rubbed and worn, mainly at corners. Uncommon first edition of notable work of neuro-anatomy by Émile Alexandre Gavoy (1836- ca 1896), with 59 striking life-sized plates drawn from nature by the author and printed using a method of etching called glyptography.
Gavoy received his medical doctorate in Strasbourg and made a career as a military doctor, and indeed was to publish a number of works relating to military medicine, most notably his account of his experiences during 1870-1871, Étude de faits de guerre. Le service de santé militaire en 1870. Hier, aujourd'hui, demain. (1894).
It is for his neuro-anatomical works, however, for which he is perhaps best remembered, having carried out numerous researches in this field throughout his career. In 1882 he published his Atlas d’Anatomie Topographique du cerveau et des localisations cérébrales’, containing 18 life-sized chromolithograph plates of the brain, and for which he obtained an honorable mention at the Montyon Prize.
The present work includes a highly complimentary prefatory letter from the noted French neurologist Professor Alfred Vulpian (1826-1887), who writes: ‘You have done an important work here, not only by the number and the beauty of the figures, but also and above all by the evident sincerity with which you have reproduced the texture of the brain. I admire the talent and the prodigious amount of work of which these plates are indisputable proof; I am even more seduced by the personal character of these plates... It is not difficult to recognize that you have done better in many ways than your predecessors’. A contemporary advertisement in L’Encéphal: journal des maladies mentales et nerveuses, p. 256, reveals that the work was originally available for purchase in five parts.

1998. Large 8vo, pp. xiii, [i], 152, [10] templates; clean and bright; in the original black publisher’s cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with the original dust-jacket, unclipped with only minor edgewear; a presentation copy from the author ‘To Michael and Vivien just to “see”. This is what brought the “fame” (see page 89). Kathleen, 15 July 2005’; a very good copy. First edition and a presentation copy, with a charming self-deprecating inscription, of this important work by the leading British mathematician and politician, Dame Kathleen Mary Ollerenshaw (1912-2014), written when she was 85, and published to international acclaim, providing for the first time an algorithm for constructing a whole class of magic squares as well as a formula for counting their number.
‘Ollerenshaw's interest in the mathematical theory of magic squares also began in the early 1980s. A magic square of order 4 is one in which in the numbers from 1 to 16 are arranged in a 4x4 array in such a way that the sum of each row, each column, and the two main diagonals add to the same total. Perhaps the most well known 4x4 magic square is the one depicted in the painting Melancholia by Albrecht Dürer. The 17th century amateur mathematician, Bernard Frénicle de Bessey, determined that there are exactly 880 essentially different 4x4 magic squares, i.e. squares that cannot be obtained from one another by rotations or reflections. He did this by an exhaustive search, listing all 880 possibilities. Ollerenshaw and Hermann Bondi, a prominent cosmologist and mathematician, developed an analytical construction of the squares, thereby verifying the number 880. They published their results in a 1982 paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society... which was reprinted a year later as a book... Ollerenshaw worked on most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares for over eight years. In a 1986 paper she made use of symmetries to determine that there are 368,340 essentially different such squares of order 8. Slowly she figured out how to construct and how to count the total number of squares, first for those whose order is a power of 2, then for squares who order is a multiple of a power of 2, and finally, after another four years of work, for all most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares with order a multiple of 4. Professor David Brée, the head of Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, assisted Ollerenshaw in organizing, proof-reading, and putting her research notes into an appropriate form to be published as a book. Most-Perfect Pandiagonal Magic Squares: Their Construction and Enumeration was published in 1998 to international acclaim and provided for the first time an algorithm for constructing a whole class of magic squares as well as a formula for counting their number, a remarkable accomplishment for a woman of age 85. In her "personal perspective" at the end of the book, Ollerenshaw writes:
"Only now, with the work complete, is it possible for me to look back and see the process as it developed, savouring in retrospect the challenge presented when proof was first attempted, and recalling each step of the astonishing mathematical adventure that it has been...The manner in which each successive application of the properties of the binomial coefficients that characterize the Pascal triangle led to the solution will always remain one of the most magical revelations that I have been fortunate enough to experience. That this should have been afforded to someone who had, with a few exceptions, been out of active mathematics research for over 40 years will, I hope, encourage others. The delight of discovery is not a privilege reserved solely for the young."’ (Larry Riddle, Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, online biography).
Ollerenshaw (née Timpson) studied mathematics at Somerville College, Oxford, and completed her doctorate in 1945. She was President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications from 1978 to 1979. Ollerenshaw published at least 26 mathematical papers, her best-known contribution being to most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares. Upon her death, she left a legacy in trust to support distinguished research visitors and public engagement activities at the School of Mathematics, University of Manchester. An annual public lecture at the University is named in her honour.
An amateur astronomer, Ollerenshaw donated her telescope to Lancaster University, and an observatory there bears her name. She was an honorary member of the Manchester Astronomical Society and held the post of Vice-President for a number of years. Dame Kathleen was Lord Mayor of Manchester from 1975 to 1976, and was an advisor on educational matters to the Thatcher government during the 1980s.

1877. 8vo, pp. ix, [i] blank, 388, [2] errata and blank; with seven folding lithograph plates, two in sepia, and four partially coloured in red and blue; text a little foxed and browned, though overall clean and crisp, final errata leaf creased; title-page fore-edge a little cropped clipping manuscript presentation inscription slightly affecting legibility; in contemporary vellum backed marbled boards, spine lettered and tooled in gilt, upper cover a little scratched with minor loss of paper, extremities lightly rubbed; a presentation copy with extensive and profuse inscription by the author of the title-page to ‘Dottre Antonio Barbõ-(Son[cin]? second named cropped) of Venice, dated ‘Roma 14.5.77’, and with later inscription in a second hand below (and somewhat illegible); and with later 20th book-stamp on front free endpaper ‘Ex-Libris dr Ivo Confontini’. First edition of this uncommon treatise on obstetric diagnosis, by the clinician Francesco Pajusco (also Paiusco, 1842-1881). Divided into three sections, this technical work highlighting physical methods of external and internal examination and diagnosis, deals in turn with the stages of pregnancy, childbirth, and finally ‘dello stato puerperale’. The work is accompanied by seven folding lithograph plates.
Pajusco, from Vincenza, graduated from Padua when he remained as an assistant for three years. He later became an extraordinary professor of obstetrics in Sassari on Sardinia, before becoming full professor at the University of Catania. He died at the age of 36 in 1881, whilst on a visit to Berlin as part of a scientific mission on behalf of the Ministry of Education. He was the author of a second work, ‘Fisiologia ed igiene del parto’ in 1878: both works were well received by his peers.
Pajusco has penned and an extensive and profuse presentation inscription on the title-page, to a colleague, whom we believe to be the fellow Paduan Antonio Barbo-Soncin, although the inscription has been cropped close a little. ‘All ‘Illustrissimo Signor Cav.re Dott.re Antoni Barbo-Son[cin] Direttore La Gazetta Medica delle Provincie Vene[te], Direttore del Civico Spedale d. Padova ece. In uqua di perfetto estima et di profonda consideraione l’Autore. Roma 14.5.77. 11 Via della Vi[?]’. A second shorter note in a second hand follows, but is sadly somewhat illegible, although suggests that the book was passed on once again in 1879.

1850. Decorative arched box 137 x 135 x 65 mm, containing within a nest of 10 decorative paper and card ‘buildings’, in a variety of colours, each with some embossing to create building facades and highlight architectural features, with other details printed in lithography; generally bright and vibrant, though each with some light soiling and signs of light rubbing and wear, the ‘butchers’ shop with tear at one lower edge, old tear neatly repaired to side panel of the ‘cafe’, with a couple of further small tears visible; arched box covered with patterned green paper, lid with paste label with embossed title lettering and embossed image of Tom Thumb, presumably in his role as Napoleon Bonaparte, some loss of paper, covers a little soiled and darkened, with some light rubbing and wear to extremities; otherwise very good. An extremely rare and charming architectural toy - perhaps an early precursor to the Russian Matryoshka doll - depicting ‘La Ville de Tom Thumb’. Nesting within the decorative box are found ten buildings - working from the inside outwards - a clothes shop, a watch and clock maker, a wine merchant, a post office and hairdresser, a Café de la Promenade (offering sherbets and ice creams), a butcher and cobbler, a grocers, a tobacconist and bakery, the town-hall, and finally the church. All are made of stiff embossed card, with the architectural and other features printed in colour lithography. We presume that the buildings were already constructed upon purchase, but it is possible that they have been folded and ‘constructed’ by a previous owner.
We assume that the toy was inspired by, and was possibly a souvenir from, one of several European tours undertaken by P.T. Barnum and Charles Sherwood Stratton - more famously known as ‘General’ Tom Thumb. Standing at only three feet tall, Barnum employed Stratton from a very young age, training him to become a mimic, comedian and entertainer. Much debate remains today about the ethics of this relationship, but Stratton enjoyed great popularity and success. During his first tour to Europe in 1845 he performed in front of, and charmed, Queen Victoria. One of a number of tours of France soon followed, and his impersonation of Napoleon Bonaparte became popular.

1773. Large engraved map and plan, 85.5 x 57.5 cms, lined and mounted on strong paper, and with original walnut upper hanging frame and roller attached to lower edge, partially hand-coloured in blue, yellow and pink; map lightly abraded in a number of places, with some loss of text and lettering, lightly soiled and browned; still an appealing example. Appealing map of the city and suburbs of Paris, issued during the reign of Louis Philippe (1773-1850), giving details about the days of entry to public monuments and sites of interest, together with vehicle tariffs. An alphabetical directory of streets is also included - though these have been somewhat abraded in places affecting legibility.
The reign of Louis Philippe (1830-1848) is known as the July Monarchy, having succeeding to the throne after the July Revolution and the abdication of Charles X. He followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of French statesman François Guizot during the period 1840–1848. He also promoted friendship with Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the French conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847, and he too was forced to abdicate after the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1848.

1842. Large 8vo, pp. [vi] including initial blank, lxvi, [ii], 472, [ii] blank; with four full-page hand-coloured ornithological plates (retaining tissue guards), two wood-engraved portraits of Buffon and Cuvier by Karl Girardet, one folding aquatint plan (somewhat foxed and cropped close at head shaving title), 51 full-page wood engraved plates, and with coloured title-page vignette and a further 214 charming coloured wood engraved head and tail-pieces; small nick with loss at title-page gutter, and small dink at head of p. 373, some foxing and soiling throughout to both text and plates, the plates at p. 92, 313, 373 and 428 very browned being printed on different paper stock; with old accession numbers in ms at head of front paper, and also stamped at lower corner; small paper pocket mounted on front pastedown, to house original engraved entrance ticket for four people, and signed in a contemporary hand ‘P(?) D, de Blainville’; in contemporary green morocco backed pebble cloth, covers ruled in blind, spine attractively tooled and lettered in gilt depicting birds, flowers, trees, a bear, giraffe and monkeys, all edges gilt, with moiré endpapers,inner hinges starting but holding firm, both upper and lower joints cracked at head, with 6cm split to upper joint, surfaces a little rubbed, corners bumped with signs of previous minor repairs; housed within later red paperbacked card slip-case. Rare deluxe hand-coloured edition of this copiously illustrated guide to the menagerie within Paris Natural History Museum. The work of Pierre Boitard (1789-1858), with an extensive historical introduction by Jules Janin (1804-1874), the work appears to have been originally published in weekly parts in the magazine ‘Le Pantheon populaire illustre’ the previous year, before being published in book form in 1842.
A two volume companion work, under a similar title, was also published between 1842-43, and which described the plants within the famous gardens themselves, penned by Pierre Bernard, Emmanuel Le Maout, and published by L. Curmer (see Grolier 65 and 66).

1926. 8vo, pp. xii, 155, [1] blank, with an initial blank; title-page printed in red and orange, text printed on a pale yellow ground; with numerous photographic illustrations and diagrams in the text, and six tables on three folding card mounts with a total 107 small samples of developed film (some slight oxidation to a number of examples, but overall in good condition); small tear at tail of p. 100 & 105, with some soiling to outer margin of p. 60, and some light marginal browning throughout; a good copy in contemporary quarter maroon morocco and marbled boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, tail of spine slightly nicked with minor loss, with small hole at tail of lower joint, extremities a little rubbed and bumped. First edition of this important primary source book in the history of early cinema and film production. Published by Pathé, this extensive technical manual on the development of Pathé film for motion pictures was one of a small number of such manuals published during the 1920s by the leading producers of film stock, and contains not only technical information on the colouring systems used at the time by the motion picture industry, but is notable for including sets of illustrations made of actual pieces of original nitrate film. ‘These books, together with a handful of other primary sources, constitute the basis of our knowledge of a relatively neglected topic in the study of early cinema: the effects achieved by colouring film stock’ (Paolo Chechi Usai, 'The Color of Nitrate' p. 22, in Richard Abel, ed., Silent Film, 1996).
Four basic methods of producing coloured films existed before the introduction of technicolour. These were: hand colouring (the earliest and most basic), stencil-colouring (pathécolor was a refined version), tinting (staining the film uniformly) and toning (redeveloping in a chemical bath to tint the darker, developed portions of the film only). All are illustrated here, as is the combined use of tinting and toning; 'only a relatively small section of the Pathé text deals with film coloring, but the three foldout cardboard tables of illustrations with 107 individual nitrate frames are the most complete ever published' (ibid). Samples show the influence of under- and over-exposure; the effect of temperature on development; films with a coloured base and/or chemically toned; mordanting (for intensification); pathécolor, etc. Also included are samples of the 9.5mm home-cinema film introduced by Pathé in 1922 as Pathé-Baby. The text includes details on the use of Pathé machinery and the chemical recipes for development.

1928. Presentation Offprint: 4to, [169] - 178; with six half-tone figures; paper somewhat browned due to quality, with some minor edge wear and nicking along fore-edge; ex-libris of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, with their stamp at head of first leaf and on upper wrapper; in grey card wrappers, with later linen back-strip so retaining the original upper cover with printed paper label, though with replacement rear cover, upper cover somewhat browned with small tear to fore-edge; presentation copy signed at head of title-page by Zand, with a further authorial note at tail of printed label. Presentation offprint, an an ‘extrait des Archives du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 6e Série, T. II’ (printed label). A scarce neurological work by the Polish Jewish neurologist Nathalie Zylberlast-Zand (1883-1942), described by Esther Lovejoy as ‘a physician of outstanding ability’ (Women Doctors of the World, p. 174), and who, as highlighted by the present article, worked closely with the noted neurologist Edward Flatau (1868-1932).
Zand gained her medical diploma from the University of Geneva under the supervision of Eduoard Martin, and also passed the state examination at the National University of Kharkiv in Ukraine. She ‘specialised in the pathology of the central nervous system, and contributed to the literature on this important subject. Her papers were published not only in Poland but also in France and England. In 1935, she reported that about 15 per cent of the physicians in Poland were women, four of whom held the title of docent on the Medical Faculty of the University of Warsaw. Dr. Zand represented the Medical Women’s International Association at the Congress of the International Federation of University Women held at Cracow in 1936, and the following year she was a delegate to the meeting of the Medical Women’s International Association at Edinburgh. Nationally and Internationally, she was interested in the professional and political status of women - too interested perhaps. “Polish medical women are firmly convinced that equality of rights should be strictly maintained and take active steps whenever their rights seem to be threatened” was one of her last recorded pronouncements. That was dangerous doctrine. Dr. Zand and Dr. Garlicka were among the thousands of freedom-loving people who “disappeared” during the debacle which followed the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II’ (ibid). Research subsequent to Lovejoy’s work of 1957 has discovered that Zand and her husband were forced to live in the walled Warsaw ghetto, during which time she continued to work as a physician. Sometime around September 24th 1942 she was deported to Pawiak prison in Warsaw where she is believed to have been executed.

[1670]-1673-1680-1686. Four volumes, small folio, pp. [xxxviii], 412, [62], possibly without initial first blank; [xl], 466, lxxvi; [xxxii], 291, [1] blank, [68]; [xii], lxxix, [i] blank, 570, [9]; with engraved frontispiece portrait of the dedicatee Bartholomeo Arese in Vol II, engraved vignette at head of his dedication, woodcut printer’s devices, copious woodcut head- and tail-pieces and 39 appealing woodcut diagrams and illustrations (of which 25 are full-page, 6 of which are folding); overall quite clean and crisp, with some occasional faint marginal dampstaining, a few small stains, and some gatherings somewhat browned, Vol IV with some noticeable foxing, small tear in text of Vol II at p. 351 due to paper flaw but with no, with slight loss of text due to abrasion on p. 417, upper margins of few few leaves of Vol III with stab mark, Vol IV p. 145 with old repair at upper margin, and small hole with minor loss at p. 344; with contemporary inscription ‘Ex libris Malsoni’ on titles and half-titles; in contemporary vellum, spines in compartments with raised bands, with author and title in brown ink in contemporary ms, previous paper labels at head of Vols I and II (and evident on Vols III and IV), spines somewhat worn with loss of vellum along bands, with further splits at head and tail of joints, most prominent in volume I, Vol III with small stab hole in upper cover, covers a little soiled and stained, extremities rubbed and somewhat worn; overall an appealing unsophisticated set. First edition of this rare and exhaustive 17th century scientific, technical and legal work on aqueducts, highly comprehensive in scope and covering a wide range of topics including the regulation of rivers, problems of hydraulics, and water rights and supply.
Francesco Maria Pecchi (1618-1693) was a professor of canon law at Pavia from 1659 to 1687 and Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Pavia, where he is buried. As a result of Italy’s mountainous geography and extensive coastline, the science of training and regulating rivers developed to its highest degree in Italy by the end of the 17th century. It was in this field that Pecchi was to make his name, and in the history of law he is known as the father of modern water legislation as a result of this important treatise on civil and cannon law, together with his other extensive work ‘Tractatus de Servitutibus’ (1689).
The numerous woodcut diagrams and tables illustrating cases of water rights have a beautiful and most appealing naivety. It was reprinted in 1707, and again in 1840 - a testament to its importance and unsurpassed pertinence and scholarship.

1927. 8vo, pp. 469-480; with five text illustrations and halftones; paper a little soiled and browned; in the original orange printed wrappers, slightly soiled, fore-edge nicked and a little furled and frayed. Offprint of this important paper by the Austrian/US physicist Marietta Blau (1894-1970), published during her time as an unpaid researcher at the Institute of Radium Research, Vienna (1923-1938), a follow up to ‘Über die photographische Wirkung natürlicher H-Strahlen’ (1925) and outlining her pioneering work on the development of the photographic method of detecting and observing nuclear particles and reactions, a method which was to play a prominent role in nuclear physics in the following decades. Considered extraordinarily gifted by Albert Einstein, Blau was nominated three times for the Nobel prize in physics, twice by Erwin Schrodinger. ‘Blau began to explore the possibility of finding protons and smashed atoms using photographic emulsions. Finally, in 1925, she succeeded in detecting the fragments of atoms hit by alpha particles, including the thinner, harder-to-find tracks of protons. These experiments were followed in 1926 and 1927 by a series of experiments in which Blau bombarded aluminium with alpha particles in order to measure the nuclear fragments that would emerge. Unfortunately, with a week radioactive source (the only kind available to her), she had to settle for the very lowest energy particles. It was clear that is she was going to make fast protons visible (as opposed to the much more heavily ionizing nuclear fragments or slow-moving protons), she would have to improve both the emulsion and the development process that would bring out the narrow tracks’ (Galison, Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics, p. 150).
Blau received her Ph.D. in 1919 with a thesis on ray physics and the absorption of gamma rays. Following her doctorate she moved to Berlin in 1921, taking a position with a company that manufactured X-ray tubes. This was followed by a position at the Institute for Medical Physics at the University of Frankfurt where she worked and published papers on X-ray physics. ‘Blau’s sex and her Jewish background impeded her professional advancement in Austria... When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Blau, who was out of the country at the time, did not return. She worked briefly in Oslo at the invitation of her friend Ellen Gleditsch, then relocated to Mexico City. In 1944 Blau moved to New York, where she worked on radioactivity and took out several patents. She then did research at Columbia University and at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Afterward she took a position at the University of Miami’. Due to the brevity of her employment in the United States, Blau’s retirement income was very low. In order to economize on expenses, she returned to Austria for an eye operation. Poor health caused in part by radiation exposure prevented her from returning to the United States, and she died impoverished in Vienna’ (Ogilvie I, 143).

-1870s.]. 8vo, carte de visite photograph album, ff. 15 leaves of thick card, with images on both recto and verso, and comprising a lithograph introductory text within a garland border, followed by 28 numbered albumen print photographs of comical drawings, also within matching garland borders, each with lithographed text mounted below, the ‘windows for each surrounded by chromolithograph triple gilt ruled border; somewhat dust-soiled throughout with some marginal staining, first window previously torn but now repaired, the photographs all a little faded, more so towards the end, top corners of each card clipped for easier insertion into windows, small tear at tail of ff. 2, with further light wear and occasional minor tears to each, and cards a little awkward to remove; bound within the original elaborate blindstamped red morocco album, though now considerably darkened appearing almost brown, upper cover lettered in gilt 'The Club Adventures of Alderman Akeinside', sympathetically newly rebacked to style with new endpapers and later morocco label, spine with raised bands, all edges gilt and with inner gilt dentelles, with remains of brass clasps; a most unusual and appealing ephemeral item. A wonderful and somewhat curious piece of mid to late Victoriana, and seemingly a rare production. We have so far been unable to find any record of ‘B & Co. London (Wholesale), and have only found two copies held by Institutions, and none in the UK.
Presented as a carte de visite photograph album, the work contains 29 ‘cartes’, the first of which is a lithograph introductory text, followed by 28 numbered albumen print photographs of comical drawings illustrating the gluttonous night-out of Alderman Akeinside at his club, his inebriated return home, and his final consultation with Dr. Sloe and Mrs. Akeinside. Though slightly hard to remove from their ‘windows’ (each framed by a gilt ruled border), each card has the imprint 'Published by B. & Co. London (Wholesale)', within a circle on the verso, though undated. Harvard hold what is presumably the original manuscript version, and which they date to 1850, and which contains ‘pen, pencil and watercolour’ drawings, each signed ‘GB’ or ‘GBR’. Toronto holds a copy of the present later version including the albumen carte-de-visite prints, most probably photographs of the original album held at the Houghton, and which they date to 1860.
From the Introduction: 'August ye 12th. 18-- Dine at the Club tomorrow ? Of course I shall, whoever heard of such a thing ? Mrs. A. wont eat turtle, never did: I dont like Ice: because I once fell into the Serpentine: no wonder she dont know the difference between Turtle and boiled Goose!! Some people dont know the difference between a sheeps head and a Carrot!'.

1863. Large 4to, pp. 17, [1] blank; with four large folding lithograph plates; title-page and plates a little foxed, with some minor dust-soiling; stitched as issued in the original plain wrappers, head and tail of spine chipped, covers a little foxed and soiled, extremities a little furled with a couple of small nicks. A detailed offprint of a paper discussing a traumatic dislocation of the humerus, accompanied by four fine lithographs, by Francesco Rizzoli (1809-80), professor of surgery and obstetrics at Bologna, and considered ‘the father of Italian orthopedics’ (Castiglioni, p. 716). It was first presented before the Bologna Institute of Sciences and printed in their Memoirs. ‘Italy has contributed illustrious figures to orthopaedic surgery. F. Rizzoli of Bologna, one of the first to recognize the need for the systematic study of diseases of motor apparatus, founded the institute which now bears his name, from which have come many valuable studies’ (ibid, p. 878). An outstanding operative surgeon, ‘he introduced a compressor for aneurysms, a tracheotomy, cystotomy, lithotrite, enterotome, osteoclast and performed acupressure as early as 1854’ (GM 5610 for his two volume Collezione della memorie chirurgische ed ostetriche, 1869, in which the present account was considered worthy and important enough for consideration in Vol I). A contemporary of, and indeed relation by marriage to, Paolo Baroni, Rizzoli was an integral part of a thriving scientific and medical community in Bologna, and which was at the heart of much medical advancement in Italy at the time.

1810. Large letterpress broadside, 785 x 535mm, printed on two single sheets of laid paper and then neatly adhered together horizontally in the centre, text in three columns, with two vertical geometric woodcut dividing borders, some light foxing and soiling, evidence of previous horizontal and vertical folds, some creasing, uncut with some minor edgewear, and evidence of previous later mount on verso at tail, and with contemporary title in brown ink ‘remedie secrets’ on verso; a lovely example. A scarce survivor and fine example of this Imperial decree issued to regulate the secret remedy in France, of importance in the history of proprietary remedies. This large letterpress broadside, printed in three columns on two on two sheets and joined together, has been printed in Nîmes in the Gard department of Southern France.
Matthew Ramsey, in his essay ‘Property Rights and the right to health: The regulation of Secret Remedies in France, 1789-1815’ (Chapter five of ‘Medical Fringe and Medical Orthodoxy’ edited by W Bynum and Roy Porter, Routledge, 2019) provides a detailed and fascinating account of the various attempts to regulate Secret Remedies, a contentious issue which attempted to balance, often rather precariously, the Enlightenment ideals of the right to property with the right to health. ‘The complexities of the relationship between fringe and orthodox medicine in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are nowhere more apparent than in the history of proprietary medicines, or remèdes secrets, as they were known in France. Such remedies were neither officinal (standard preparations from the pharmacopoeia that the apothecaries kept in stock) nor magistral (compounded according to a physician’s prescription for a particular case). As the French term indicates, their formula was a trade secret; and as the English term suggests, this secret was the property of the inventor or other owner who exploited it commercially’. Such preparations had flourished and abounded for centuries, though had long fallen foul of physicians and apothecaries, who opposed quack doctors or healers. Since an absolute prohibition was not a practical possibility, state regulation of some form was the only answer. As early as 1352 a Royal Edict was passed in France in 1352 which forbade preparations of secret remedies, but over the centuries many were authorized through warrants, and they continued to flourish. The 18th century, however, saw more concerted efforts to control the secret trade, notably after the French Revolution during wider efforts to regulate the Medical Professions and suppress abuses which threatened public health. Yet this insistence on regulation, and notably restrictions on the development and distribution of secret remedies, ran counter to the overriding principles of intellectual and economic freedom, and whilst several decrees were passed between 1789 and 1815, ultimately it was not until 1926 that secret remedies were abolished in France. Property rights overrode concern for public health.
The first decree of note was that of 1803, the ‘Germinal Law’, which followed a few weeks after law regulating medical practice, and was primarily concerned with the education and licensure of pharmacists and the repression of illegal practice of pharmacy. In October of that year a commission was organised, and a set of instructions prepared for owners of secret remedies who had to comply with the new law. It did not expressly ban the sale of secret remedies altogether, however, and was again something of a compromise. Whilst there were prohibitions on advertising or hawking them, subsequent decrees, including one of 1805 actually confirmed the rights of vendors whose remedies had been approved by the government, and in some cases reasserted rights and privileges previously granted under the patents law of 1791. Approved remedies could be sold in Paris and the provinces if they were authorised by local officials; and though to be submitted before the commission, vendors were not obliged to divulge their secret.
As the present Imperial Decree demonstrates, despite the best efforts of the authorities, the secret remedy trade continued to flourish in all its forms. This final effort sought to free society of secret remedies, and its declared purpose was to disseminate knowledge of good remedies whilst discouraging the sale of bad ones. The state would buy and make public the recipes of useful compositions, asserting that it was the duty of owners to co-operate in having them published. All previous permissions would be nullified. Proprietors would submit their recipes to the Minister of the Interior, together with an account of their use and a record of clinical experience to date. A five member commission was established, including three professors from the faculties of medicine, and headed by the distinguished anatomist François Chaussier, professor at the Paris faculty and an authority on medical jurisprudence. As laid out in the present decree, this commission would determine whether the remedy was harmless; if harmless, whether it was useful; and if useful, what price should be paid to acquire it. Once a remedy had been approved, the minister would negotiate an agreement with the inventor, and once confirmed by a State Council, the formula would be published. No inventor would receive an approbation if he insisted on keeping his remedy secret. The law’s larger intent, was not only to protect the public health, by preventing the use of drugs that had no value or contained unknown substances, but also to ‘spread enlightenment’ and ‘discourage charlatanism’.
In the end, however, this 1810 attempt also miscarried, once again compromised by the government’s respect for the inventor’s or owner’s interest and rights to his remedy. ‘In Napoleonic France, the right of property remained ‘inviolable and sacred’; it could and often did outweigh the claims of public health. Although the regimes that followed the First Empire were to create other regulatory institutions, this retreat from the Enlightenment commitment to end secrecy in therapeutics set the pattern for the rest of the century and beyond’ (Ramsey p. 81).

1898. 8vo; pp. viii, 576; with some 200 text illustrations and half-tones, and numerous tables within text; browned throughout due to paper quality, more prominently so around margins; with some occasional minor marginal nicks; in contemporary red roan backed marbled boards, spine ruled in black and lettered in gilt, tail of spine nicked with small loss, joints somewhat rubbed, with some scraping and scuffing to roan, with light scuffing and rubbing to surfaces, extremities lightly worn, more prominent along tail of upper cover. Fourth and expanded edition (first 1882) of this detailed account and analysis of both the French transport system, together with a comparison of other systems across the world. Originally the work of Ferdinand Sérafon, ‘Ingénieur civil, ancien Directeur des Tramways de Lille, ancien Ingénieur en chef d’une Société de Chemins de fer sur routes’ (first edition title-page), this later edition is ascribed to ‘E. Serafon’ (but from the preface clearly the original author so perhaps an typo), with revisions by H. de Graffigny ‘Ingénieur Civil Directeur de la Petite Encyclopédie électro-mécanique’, and J. B. Dumas ‘Conductuer principal au service municipal des travaux de Paris, en retraite’. Henri de Graffigny, the pseudonym of Raoul Henri Clément Marquis (1863-1934), was a hugely successful popular scientific writer on a myriad of topics, and indeed a short list of his publications is included on the title-page verso.
By the 1870s it was becoming clear that Paris needed a pubic transport system other than the existing omnibus and tramway services. London already had a network of inner city and suburban railways, notably the shallow underground lines, and the US had seen the development of effective street railroad or tramway networks. A keen student of international advancement, Ferdinand Sérafon had already published two comprehensive studies on the subject, highlighting in particular developments in London in Étude sur les chemins de fer, les tramways et les moyens de transport en commun à Paris et à Londres (1872), and with a wider survey undertaken in Manuel Pratique de la construction des chemins de fer des rues (1877), but noting US developments. The present work was clearly a continuation upon those themes, Sérafon a fervent exponent of tramways, and leading the charge to adopt old road routes for new railway lines, as a cost effective method. The work compares and contrasts systems employed in Britain, the US, as well as other parts of Europe. Attractively illustrated, it includes a wealth of technical information on all areas of construction and exploitation, and provides a fascinating insight into the rapid growth of public transport systems at the end of the 19th century.

1803. 8vo, two parts in one volume; pp. [vi] engraved title-page, preface and table, [ii] ‘Avis du libraire’ letterpress leaf, 1-88 engraved text, 89-92 ‘Instruction sur les nouvelles mesures’ cancel leaves printed in letterpress, [2] letterpress table ; ‘Le Spectacle de la Campagne’, pp. [ii], 54 engraved text throughout; first part with three small engravings within text at p. 17, 61, 86, with full page frontispiece engraving on verso of the title-page and facing the dedication to the Prince of Condé, two further engravings (recto and verso) at p. 88, and with 8 folding engraved plates containing several figures; second work with engraved vignette on title-page and one folding engraved plate (uncoloured); with loosely inserted double-sided leaf of manuscript tables and neat marginal annotations in ink on title-page and at p. 79; first title-page, preface and first few leaves lightly dampstaining, with further dampstaining affecting the upper margins until p. 21, further occasional light dampstaining and some minor spotting and soiling throughout, final plate with brown stain at gutter though not adversely affecting image; uncut in later red morocco backed marbled boards to style, spine attractively tooled and lettered in gilt, with vellum corners; an attractive copy. An attractive copy of this scarce handbook on surveying, by the geometer, military topographer and tactician, Louis Charles Dupain de Montesson (c.1720 -1790).
Entirely engraved throughout in an attractive italic cursive hand, together with a number of charming illustrations, this practical and popular manual was first published in 1766, originally etched with 13 charming illustrations, with a new edition appearing in 1775 now including ‘Le Spectacle de la Campagne’, and the third edition first printed in 1777. The present copy appears to be the third issue of the third edition, the second issue having appeared in 1800. The variants in this 1803 issue are found within the letterpress inclusions: the ‘Avis du Libraire’ is a cancel with the publisher’s advertisements revised; similarly the letterpress ‘Instructions sur les nouvelles mesures’ found at pp.89-92 and dealing with the metric system recently introduced, have been revised and reset for this issue. Otherwise, the engraved text for both sections, and the engravings, remain unchanged.
The work includes a frontispiece, three full-page engravings, four small etchings (that at p. 61 and on the ‘Spectacle’ title-page are signed Chevalier and dated 1776), and nine folding engraved plates - one of which relates to ‘Le Spectacle de la Campagne’. A number of the images show surveyors at work, or rustic scenes. The two full-page engravings found at p. 88 appear to show the surveyor having put aside his instruments and relaxing, the first showing him dancing with the farmer’s young daughter, and the second leaning against a tree and reading a book.
Dupain de Montesson was active during the various military campaigns of Louis XV, the role of military topographers having become increasingly important during the later half of the 18th century. It was their job to reconnoitre and survey the land in advance of the army, checking out possible battlefields, noting enemy fortifications and natural obstacles, and planning suitable marching routes for the army. The teacher of the Duc of Berry, he was the author of other works on military architecture, perspective and mathematics, including a useful manual on shadows for artists and draughtsman, ‘Le science des ombres’ (1750), a number of which were translated.

1712. Oblong 16mo, (80 x 100mm) pp. [ii] engraved title-page, [xvi], 250, [2] errata and blank; with one folding throw out wood-engraved plate (a little foxed and creased), with a number of small wood-engraved diagrams and tables within the text; engraved title-page a little browned with slight staining at gutter, lightly browned throughout with some light dampstaining affecting lower corner between pp. 56-154; in contemporary vellum, faint numbering in ms at tail of spine, small nick to upper rear joint, covers a little sprung, and somewhat soiled and lightly dampstained, with contemporary ownership signature in ink dated May 1740 on front free endpaper, and in red crayon on rear endpaper; an appealing copy. Uncommon third edition (first 1663) of this appealing pocket sized elementary textbook on practical geometry and field measurements, and the work of the noted mathematician, surveyor, and cartographer, Jakob Meyer (1614-1676). As head of urban construction in Basel, he mapped the topography of much of the canton. ‘This is a pocket-sized work explaining the rudiments of geometry as applied to surveying. The work is quite practical, with very irregular fields being used as example problems. The work begins with elementary instruction as to the size of a man’s pace, surveyor’s chain, etc’ (Tomash & Williams, M 96). ‘It is written by practitioners for practitioners without any claim to new results’ (HAB, Maß, Zahl Und Gewicht, 6.12).
This was one of a series of small portable hand-books on arithmetic and geometry published over a number of years by Jakob, and then later by his son Georg Friedrich Meyer (1645-1693), and including ‘Compendium Arithmeticae Germanicae’ (1651); ‘Arithmetica Decimalis’ (1669); ‘Arithmetica Practica’ (1665); ‘Geometria Theoretica’ (1657); ‘Stereometria’ (1675); and ‘Doctrina Triangulorum’ (1678).

1836. 8vo, pp. viii, 151, [1] advertisement, [2] blank, [4] testimonials; with wood-engraved illustrations; some occasional light foxing and soiling, otherwise clean and fresh; with the book-plate of Lord Fitzhardinge, Berkeley Castle, on front paste-down; in the original drab boards, with mounted printed label on upper cover (a little scuffed and abraded with loss of a couple of letters), paper label on spine, chipped with small piece missing, 2cm loss of spine at tail, upper joint cracked at head, covers rather foxed and soiled, extremities bumped and lightly worn; a presentation copy from the author with inscription on title ‘The Right Honble Lord Segrave with the Author’s respectful Compts’ First edition, presentation copy. Webster describes himself on the title-page as the “inventor of the Otaphone”, and indeed Webster was granted the first British patent for a hearing aid on March 17th 1836, the present work therefore doing much to promote his newly invented device. ‘The invention was first suggested by observing person at church, and other large assemblies, supporting the ear with the hand; which induced the author to consider whether the same advantage might not be obtained by means less troublesome and unsightly. His own experiences, and subsequent experiments in which he was assisted by his friends, soon convinced him of the correctness of his induction's; since which the Otaphones have been worn in both Houses of Parliament, on the Bench in the three divisions of the Empire, at places of Public Worship, the Theatres, and every public arena’ (p. 131-2). An example of the Otaphone can be found at the Becker Medical Library, as part of the Central Institute for the Deaf - Max A. Goldstein Historical Devices for Hearing Collection. It was constructed of pure silver, and painted beige to match the skin of the wearer. It was shaped into a curve to be placed in the back of the ear. A small hook secures the device. The design allowed the auricle (external part of the ear) to be projected forward to collect sound waves, much as if the wearer was cupping the ear.
“The principal object which Mr. Webster seems to have contemplated by the publication of this treatise, is to afford useful and correct information regarding the ear to the general reader, especially to the deaf. This, we think, he has succeeded in doing; for, while his explanations of technical terms are such as any one may understand, he has adopted a scheme of distribution as regards the different parts of the ear, and their appropriate functions, that greatly tends to elucidate the subject. The author has made the particular organ in question the subject of long, and enlightened study; and from the success which has attended the application of the ‘Otaphone’ to the auricle, it may be added, that this study has been remarkably successful as regards its practical results.” (Monthly Review). One section is devoted to the musical ear in general, and to Mozart’s in particular, and is accompanied by an illustration of Mozart’s ear. In common with the Bodleian copy (and presumably all others), a space left for an illustration on p. 110 has been unfilled.