1950s. Large and heavy plywood made map box, 430 x 440 x 390mm, containing 13 shallow drawers, each with hand painted raised maps of areas of Europe, and two large drawers containing boxes of flags and paper key maps mounted on card together with instructions for use; obvious signs of use and wear, with some flags no longer present, but maps generally clean and bright; plywood case painted in cream and tan, two draw-knobs missing, and two seemingly replacements, chest somewhat inevitably due to size and weight, showing some signs of wear and scuffing, with some chipping and minor splintering to extremities and base; a unique labour of love, that was clearly of use. An innovative educational tool, probably created for use in a French school in the late 1950s, and almost certainly hand made by a teacher to accompany classes in geography. No doubt lovingly created and made in a ‘folk art’ style using bright gloss paints, thirteen drawers pull out to reveal raised plywood maps, covering a country or region of Europe. As these are numbered 7 – 19 and cover the whole of Europe it seems certain that it originally formed part of a larger set, perhaps the earlier numbers covered one of the other continents, or more likely the rest of the world in 6 maps.
Each map has a number of colour coded flags [housed within their own purpose made box] to represent countries (yellow), regions (green), cities (red), rivers and seas (blue), mountains and volcanoes (white), etc. The flags have pins which can be inserted into the correct place on each model; a key to the flags is supplied for each map. As can be imagined after 70 years, not all the flags have survived, but apart from France, for which there are only a couple, most of the rest of the maps have close to their full complement.
The Drawers comprise: 7. France ; 8. Italy [34 flags] ; 9. Spain & Portugal [30] ; 10. Belgium & Luxembourg [32]; 11. British Isles [47]; 12. Holland [31]; 13. Switzerland [40]; 14. Danube Region: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria [30]; 15. Scandinavia [30]; 16. Denmark & Iceland [30]; 17. Albania, Greece & Turkey [24]; 18. Germany & Poland [65]; U.S.S.R. [41]. A truly unique survivor.

1873.]. Set of ten large, thick card tablets, 480 x 320 x 5mm; each with mounted printed sheet, with engraved vignette either at head or centrally, sheets all a little browned with some staining, soiling and scuffing or creasing in places, plain blue paper on verso, boards 1- 7 with the original green mottled paper edging (somewhat chipped and worn), boards 8 & 9 with later green cloth edging, and final board with no edging remaining and exposing the inner board; though extremities all somewhat rubbed, worn and a little dog-eared, otherwise a striking and rare survivor of an ephemeral teaching aid. A scarce set of this series of ten printed teaching aids introducing children to the basic principles of the ‘Abécdaire français’, through a series of engraved images with accompanying moralistic printed text or verse. A private semi-religious Catholic educational establishment established by Adeline Désir (1819-1875) in 1853, the school welcomed girls from the Parisian upper middle class. It aimed to produce ‘cultured women’, with a focus upon religious education, and the arts, although Désir placed importance upon the role of science in their education. The school took in full-and half boards, as well as some day pupils, from primary stage through to the baccalaureate, and also included a school for the training of women teachers. As the famous alumnus, Simone de Beauvoir, recounted in her Memoirs of a Young Girl, the school took care to distinguish itself from similar secular establishments, with the young girls enlisted into a ‘Eucharistic crusade’ as soon as they arrived. The number of hours of teaching a week did not exceed 12, and annual retreats were an important part of the school calendar. Students of the school were instantly recognisable by the manner of their bow: ‘un coup de pied droit en arrière avec un léger fléchissement de la jambe gauche’.
The themes of the ten wall charts include the nativity, the farm, ‘Creator God’, a nest, the tale of the ‘Good little Marie’, ‘the two Ceciles’, the good brother, and the Innocent Saints, together with the remaining two boards giving an overview of the linguistic principles so far introduced.

1941. 8vo, pp. [2] blank, 36, [2] blank; pp. 3-34 anaglyph plates printed in red and green for 3-D viewing together; aside from some very light browning, clean and bright; with two pairs of 3-D glasses housed within a printed cream paper pocket on inside front cover; in the original cloth backed orange printed boards, head and tail of spine a little worn, light soiling to boards, extremities a little rubbed and worn; a very good copy. First edition of this striking optical work, and one of a number of innovative educational textbooks by Rudolf Pruner that incorporated stereoscopic anaglyphs, used here by Pruner to help secondary school pupils visualise and understand complex geometrical figures more easily.
An anaglyph consists of two differently filtered coloured images, one for each eye, and drawn in chromatically opposite colours (usually red and cyan). When viewed through the stereoscopic glasses, the picture revealed is an amalgamation of the two images, and gives the impression of a black figure in three dimensions. Two early proponents in France were Josepeh d’Almeida (1822-1880), and Louis Ducos du Hauron (1837-1920) who produced the first printed anaglyphs in 1891.
The introductory preface by the educationalist Dr. Josef Klíma, cites the influential work of Henry Vuibert (1847-1945), who had published ‘Les Anaglyphes Geometriques’ in 1912, as well as the 1938 work ‘Mathematische Raumbiler’ by the publishing firm Köhler-Graf-Cavlov. He believes, however, that Pruner’s work published specifically as an educational text book for school students. ‘Let these images not only enliven, but also facilitate the study of descriptive geometry’ (p. 2, google translation).

1970. Small oblong 8vo, pp. [3]-94, with colour illustrations throughout; internally clean and bright; in the original red pictorial publisher’s cloth, with unclipped dust-jacket priced at 6s net, spine a little sunned small nick at head of spine, with light creasing and minor wear; pp. 91, [1] blank, with vibrant colour illustrations throughout; internally clean and bright aside from some minor foxing; in the original yellow pictorial publisher’s cloth, spine a little bumped and soiled, with unclipped dust-jacket priced 5s. 6d, minor wear to head and tail of spine and margins, with some soiling, but good; pp. 93 (final page mounted on inside rear cover), with colour illustrations throughout; in the original pink pictorial publisher’s cloth, head and tail of spine and corners with minor wear, with unclipped dust-jacket priced ‘35 p net/7s net’, jacket spine sunned, with some light creasing to margins and light wear to extremities. Offered together three charming ‘alphabetical stories’ for children (in first edition, and then two later editions), and part of the famous ‘Ant and Bee’ series written to teach children not only the alphabet, but numbers, shapes, colours, countries of the world etc. The idea of Angela Banner (1923-2014), the stories centre around good friends Ant (the more adventurous of the duo), and Bee (the more practical and sensible of the pair). The series comprised of thirteen volumes, with the first work published in 1950, and all were to go through several editions. Intended to be read together with a parent, the young reader is encouraged to read out the larger words in red, whilst the parent reads the story printed in black.

1901. 8vo, pp. xvi. 727, [1] blank, [4] advertisements; with a number of engravings and diagrams within the text; lightly browned throughout, with some occasional soiling and staining; one or two contemporary pencil calculations within margins; final advertisement leaf soiled and creased, and with tear at upper margin of final free endpaper with small loss; in the original publisher’s cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt, inner hinges split but holding, small nick at head of spine, spine a little sunned and creased, covers lightly soiled and scuffed, extremities bumped and worn; a sound copy. Uncommon second edition (first 1896) of this detailed and extensive text book, one of a series of works issued by James Cusack, and providing an insight into the provision of mathematical education at the turn of the century.
‘The present work is not intended as a first book on Arithmetic; it is intended for students already acquainted with methods, but who look for a rational explanation of those methods, and of the principles underlying them... Throughout the work I have kept constantly before me the needs of the large number of young students scattered over the rural districts, who have little or no opportunity for receiving oral instruction in this important subject. Should any such student find any of my explanations insufficient, on receipt of a letter to that effect I shall be pleased to send whatever further explanation may be necessary’ (preface).
S. Blows in his 1890 ‘Cusack’s Principles of Logic, prepared expressly to meet the requirements of the syllabus for certificate students’ (second edition), describes Cusack as a London Professor, and we believe that for some time he ran a private school in the city. Indeed the preface is signed by Cusack at ‘Day Training College, Moorfields, London, E.C.’ He produced a series of textbooks, all published by the City of London Book Depot, together with a number of boxed education kits, to be used in conjunction with the accompanying text-book. He appears to have worked in collaboration with not only S. Blows, but with Henry Armstrong, who penned ‘Cusack’s Solid Geometry’, which was to be used alongside his ‘Geometrikon’ boxed set.
Other sets were produced to aid the teaching of drawing and shading models, with OCLC locating later 20th century publications on topics such as double-entry bookkeeping, (1911) and ‘the arithmetic of the decimal system’ (1920).

1849. 4to; with 12 engraved plates, four incorporating transparencies, one with accompanying die-cut ‘movable’ card disc, one with two volvelles attached by thread; all quite vibrantly coloured both mechanically and by hand, one card with printed text on verso; all cards somewhat soiled and browned due to use and paper quality, with signs of use and a few small marginal nicks with more prominent wear to the ‘Chart of the Heavens’, with the accompanying card overlay torn with slight loss ; loosely inserted within contemporary black cloth portfolio, ruled in blind, with title in gilt on upper cover, head and tail of spine neatly repaired, covers lightly stained and scuffed; with contemporary signature on front pastedown ‘12 diagrams, Mary Lucy Shee’; a good set. An appealing, though presumed mixed set, of this elementary introduction to astronomy, one of several series of affordable, vibrantly coloured educational aids for children, to be used at home, in the class-room and elsewhere: a striking example of Victorian ‘infographics’, from the publishing firm widely acknowledged to have mastered the genre, that of James Reynolds. Perhaps his most famous and iconic series, this set of 'Astronomical Diagrams' is bound in a black cloth portfolio, and includes the less common ‘Geographical diagram of the earth adapted for illustrating its movement’ which includes to partially coloured volvelles. Finding complete portfolios is increasingly uncommon, and it would perhaps be slightly naïve to assume that what appears to be a complete set, in fact contain the cards as originally purchased, and one can well imagine that some ‘judicious’ swapping may have gone on over time. Having handled a number of sets over recent years, the present set appears to include earlier issue of the cards.
The plates are: 1. The Chart of the Heavens (transparent) together with the accompanying card overlay ‘Movable Horizon arranged for the chart of the heavens’ (though overlay worn with slight loss; 2. Geographical diagram of the earth adapted for illustrating its movement, (with two partially coloured volvelles). 3. Transparent Solar System; 4. Transparent Diagram of the Phases of the Moon; 5. Comparative Magnitudes of the Planets (particularly striking) 6. The Sun and Solar Phenomena (earlier imprint without the line ‘diameter of the sun 853000 miles distance from the earth 91000000 miles and imprint reading J. Reynolds as opposed to James Reynolds and Sons seen on later versions); 7. Comets (earlier issue - later variants included aerolites); 8. The Earth and its Atmosphere (earlier issue dated March 10th 1849); 9. The Seasons (variant issue printed in sepia); 10. Eclipses (variant issue printed in sepioa); 11. The Earth's Annual Revolution round the Sun; 12. Diagram of Meteorology (with explanatory text on verso).
Born in Islington, and the son of a printer, James Reynolds seems to have started business in around 1825, setting up in the Strand. The firm went on to produce a vast array of instructive and educational material over many years, in a variety of large and smaller formats, ranging from standard maps and atlases, thematic maps on topics such as astronomy, geology, zoology and botany, tidal charts, physical maps, meteorological maps and much more. Very much an innovator in his field, though operating at the cheaper end of the market, his work was always reliable and accurate, and he routinely employed distinguished geographers such as Ernest George Ravenstein (1834-1913) and the geologist Professor John Morris (1810-1886) to advise on his diagrams. These could be purchased either in portfolio sets (usually of 12 cards, though that could vary), or individually for 1s. to enable the user to compile their own personal collection on subjects of their choice. Issued on stiff card, the majority of the diagrams were coloured (either by hand or later mechanically), and several cleverly incorporated transparencies. All beautifully executed, they were predominantly engraved by John Emslie, with whom Reynolds formed a productive, successful and enduring partnership. Their first joint production was the set of astronomical cards, issued sometime around 1846, and which proved so popular it was reprinted for decades. Reynolds was an adept and re-active publisher, who constantly revised his various publications, and provided them in a number of different and flexible formats to meet demand. Emslie went on to win a prize medal for his educational diagrams at the International Exhibition of 1862. Their publications captured the interest of the burgeoning middle classes of Victorian England, with many more parents interested in buying educational books for their children. The drive for worker’s and women’s education no doubt also fuelled demand. Reynold’s works vividly reflect the growing flowering of ‘infographics’ that emerged during the Victorian era, as the industrialisation of printing made it easier and cheaper to create books with detailed colour illustrations.

1850. Folio, bound manuscript in a single calligraphic hand in a variety of colours; pp. [iv] half-title with calligraphic flourish and title-page penned in landscape and elaborately hand-coloured, 1-190, 191 part title ‘Actes Divers’ elaborately and colourfully penned in landscape, 192 blank, 193-252, 253 part title ‘Procès verbaux’ elaborately and colourfully penned in landscape, 254 blank, 255-290, 291 part title ‘Actes Civils’ elaborately and colourfully penned in landscape, 292-323, 324 blank, [4] blank; with a number of small neat line illustrations and diagrams; text in a single hand predominantly in brown ink, ornately embellished with colourful calligraphic headlines and flourishes in light green, golden yellow, various shades of blue, pink, red, orange, purple and brown; some light marginal browning and foxing throughout, with some ink bleed through due to liberal application, half title slightly creased; retaining remains of original pink silk page marker; in contemporary calf backed green marbled boards, spine lightly scuffed and rubbed, covers a little scratched, extremities lightly rubbed; a most attractive example. A most attractively executed calligraphy exercise book, the work of Eugène Chênè (born we are told in Campeaux in 1836), and a student of M. Deschamps, a teacher in Campeaux, the French commune located in the department of Calvados. The striking title-page sets the tone, Eugène elegantly and colourfully penning the title in landscape, and employing a number of calligraphic styles for the lettering. We believe his instructor to be a M. Pierre Deschamps, who between 1846-1865 taught in five towns in Calvados, though according to the biographical record for his son Leon (1849-1927), was forced to leave his post in Champeaux in 1850 having fallen foul of the Catholic authorities in the area.
This extensive manuscript is divided into various sections dealing in turn with the general principles of arithmetic (covering addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, fractions, simple and compound interest etc.); geometry, a section highlighting miscellaneous legal documents (receipts, leases etc.); a section of templates or ‘procés verbal’ on filing minutes or reports; and concluding with a section on civil acts (registering births, marriages, deaths etc.). It would appear that Pierre Deschamps was also acting as an agent for an insurance company, and this may explain his focus upon legal and business matters. From the subject matter of some of the sample templates included, one would imagine that the 14 year old Chênè was being prepared for a legal apprenticeship perhaps, some of the ‘procés verbal’ dealing with how to record the statement of an individual caught ‘en flagrant de lit’, a statement recording a disgrace, and how to report an accident involving a carrier. A most appealing and striking example.

1838. Eight parts in two volumes, 12mo; pp, [iv] half-title and additional engraved title-page in red and black, [ii] title-page, [iv], 420, [4] with eight engraved plates, the frontispieces retaining original tissue guard; pp. [iv] half-title and additional engraved title-page in red and black, [ii] title-page, 408, [4], with eight engraved plates, the frontispiece retaining original tissue guard; some foxing and browning throughout, but generally crisp; in contemporary green sheep, spines tooled, lettered and numbered in gilt, covers attractively decorated and ruled in blindstamp, all edges gilt, head and tail of spines a little rubbed and worn, spines a little faded and rubbed, with further light wear to corners and extremities; an appealing copy. Uncommon first edition thus of this attractive introduction to natural history, discussing quadrupeds, birds, reptiles and fish, shells, insects, animal-plants, vegetables and minerals. Although described by Gumunchian as the first edition of a new work by the noted educationalist and popular scientific writer Sophia Ulliac-Trémadeure (1794-1862), Les Jeunes Naturalistes in fact appeared in the same year, but published in eight separate volumes as part of a different series for young children under the title ‘Bibliothéque des Enfants. Petit Cours D’Histoire Naturelle en Huit Parties. Entretiens familiers sur l’histoire naturelle’. In a clever marketing ploy by the publisher, the text and plates are identical, but have been reset in a slightly larger format, and bound together as a two volume set, and now issued as part of the series ‘Bibliothéque d’Éducation’ (though referred to as the Bibliothéque Universelle d’Éducation’ on the half-titles). This series consisted of 30 volumes written by a number of leading popular writers of the day.
These pretty volumes introduce the young reader to the basic principles of the subject in the form of a conversation between M. and Madame Derville and their daughters Cécile and Amédée, each accompanied by two attractive engraved plates.
Sophia Ulliac-Trémadeure wrote a large number of works and was later a moving force in the ‘Bibliothèque de la jeune Fille’, for which she produced during the 1850s a number of beautiful and striking works on natural history, adorned with colour plates, and often in striking bindings.

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. 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 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. 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. 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, possibly Jean-Henri.

1831. 8vo; pp. [iv], 15, [1] blank, 15-473, 475 488, [9]; penned in a single hand throughout; dampstain affecting fore-edge from pp. 9-160 though never touching text, some occasional light foxed and soiling, a few corners a little creased, otherwise generally clean and bright; contemporary sheep-backed marbled boards, spine tooled and lettered in gilt, head of spine worn exposing headband, with loss at both upper joints, with further cracking and loss at tail of upper joint, covers scuffed and faded, extremities rubbed and somewhat worn. An extensive and neatly transcribed early 19th century manuscript course on zoology, the work of Jean Borros, whom we believe was a student at the recently opened Toulouse Veterinary School, thus providing an insight into part of the required curriculum in the early days of the establishment. Densely penned in a tight, neat hand, Borros has signed his name on the first leaf, below which is inscribed ‘eleve veterinaire’, and the manuscript is dated October 16th 1831 at its conclusion on p. 438. Purely zoological, the manuscript opens with a general introduction, before a section ‘Division du regne animal’ (pp. 42-143). The remaining portion of the manuscript comprises a ‘Tableau méthodique des mammifiéres’, subdivided into 8 orders (two-legged, four-legged, carnivores, rodents, toothless, pachyderms, ruminans and cetaceans) each order then further divided into subclasses and genre. Both domestic and exotic animals are covered, with details about characteristics and habitats described, with mammals such as kangaroos (p. 218) and buffalo and bison (p. 370-371), pangolins (260) and elephants (263) included.
France was at the forefront of establishing veterinary medicine as a profession and Toulouse was the third dedicated veterinary school to open in France in 1825, following those of Lyon (1762) and Alfort near Paris in 1766, both founded by Claude Bourgelat (1712-1779). Up until 1761, veterinary ‘art’ was practised mostly by farriers and farmers, who were either self-taught or had moved through unregulated apprenticeships. Increasing livestock plagues at the beginning of the 18th century, however, were becoming so devastating that leading figures such as Pope Clement XI, commissioned reports into ways to address the situation. France was not immune to similar outbreaks and King Louis XV and his government was equally keen to bring an end to such epidemics, as well as seeking wider agricultural reforms. Bourgelat, Director of the Lyon Academy of Horsemanship, in his 1750 work Élémens d'hippiatrique ou nouveaux principes sur la connoissance et sur la médecine des chevaux, had already argued for the need of a veterinary school, and this hope became reality in 1762, having been giving a small grant by King Louis XV to established the Lyon school. The more rigourous, standardised scientific training, soon bore fruit, and within a short time diseases such as rinderpest were stayed. As a result Louis XV officially gave Lyon the title of Royal Veterinary School in 1764, with the Alfort school opening in the following year. These schools were the first real attempts to standardise veterinary practices and science, and Bourgelat is considered to be the father of modern veterinary science.
Jean Borros is found in the Recueil de Médicine Vétérinaire pratique Journal in a list of veterinary graduates in 1834 (p. 440), and went on to practice in the Dordogne. This suggests that it was a four year course, and that this general introduction to zoology may well have been part of the first year curriculum.

1875-1876. Bound lined paper notebook, 4to; pp. [2] tipped in printed sheet ‘Instruction sur la tenue des cahiers de notes et des cahiers de problèmes’, 42, [2], 43 - 249, [250- 256 blank], folding table mounted on p. 66; [2] tipped in printed sheet ‘Instruction sur la tenue des cahiers de notes et des cahiers de problèmes’, 257 - 323, 225 (pagination error) - 400, (leaf excised at p. 349 due to correction with no interruption of meaning), 341 (pagination error) - 345, [1] blank, [2] tipped in leaf ‘Instruction sur la tenue des cahiers de notes et des cahiers de problèmes’, 347 - 490, (p. 457 glued together), [491-495, blank], [96] blank; penned in a single neat hand with numerous pen and ink diagrams and illustrations, often found on verso facing page; some occasional foxing and soiling, but otherwise good; in contemporary sheep backed marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt, with two black morocco labels lettered in gilt, with the initials ‘V.G.’ in gilt at tail, and additional gilt volume number, tail of spine slightly nicked, some light scuffing to spine and covers, extremities a little bumped and worn, book-block a little shaken, but otherwise good. Extensive and neatly transcribed lecture notes for the course on general physics taught by Professor Daniel at the École Centrale des Arts et manufactures, also known as the École Centrale de Paris, between November 1875 and June 1876, providing an insight into the curriculum of such courses, and the standards required. According to Guillet in ‘Cent ans de la vie de l'École Centrale des Arts et manufactures, 1829-1929’, Daniel was Chair of Physics from 1861-1881. This neat manuscript contains the entire course, and is composed of 25 lectures on heat, 21 on electricity, three on acoustics, and 11 lessons on optics. This course is very similar in structure to Daniel’s 1880 course described by Guillet, with a few variations. The notes have been richly illustrated with careful diagrams and explanatory drawings.
The initials ‘V.G.’ are found on the spine of the volume, the signature ‘M. Gueldry’ can be found at the end of a number of sections, alongside the initials ‘S.M.’ This could perhaps have been another professor, or perhaps the leading student of the class. Previously handled technical drawing albums or ‘epures’ exhibit similar ‘sign offs’ as sections were completed successfully.

1774. 12mo, pp. [iv], hand-coloured coat of arms, and title, 592; with four further attractive hand-coloured ‘coats of arms’ adorning sectional titles at pp. 233, 245, 263, & 413; penned in a neat legible single hand in brown ink; some occasional minor spotting and soiling, but otherwise clean and bright; in contemporary full marbled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, attractively tooled in gilt, with red morocco label lettered in gilt (slightly chipped), all edges gilt, head of spine chipped and worn exposing headband, joints a little rubbed, some minor surface wear, extremities rubbed, corners somewhat worn and bumped; with the engraved book-plate of the Lille pharmacist Edmond Leclair on front paste-down; an appealing survivor. An attractive and beautifully penned late eighteenth century manuscript transcribing an early, perhaps indeed the inaugural, surgical course given by Philippe Joseph Arnould (1740-1790) at the Royal College of Surgery in Lille in 1774. The course notes have been neatly compiled by Jean-Baptiste-Ignace Joseph Quittez, son of the Lille Master Surgeon François-Joseph Quittez, and who has signed his initials on the final leaf. He was himself to become a master surgeon and Professor of Osteology at the Lille school.
This attractive manuscript is divided into five parts: ‘De la physiologie’ (pp. 1-231); ‘Hygiène’ (pp. 233-243); ‘Pathologie’ (pp. 245-262); ‘Thérapeutique’ (pp. 263-412); ‘Des maladies en particulier’ (pp. 213-586); and concluding with a detailed index (pp. 587-592).
By a declaration of June 1772, Louis XV transformed the guild of surgeons of Lille into a college and ordered the establishment of a school of surgery, which opened in May 1773. Thus we find an attractive hand-coloured rendition of the Arms of the House of France at the start of the volume, below which are penned the words "By order of the King. 1774." The second, third, fourth, and final sections are each further attractively adorned with painted coats of arms: royal arms (p. 233); arms of Lille (p. 245); royal arms supported by two angels (p. 263); and arms of the surgeons supported by two angels (p. 413). As such the present manuscript provides an invaluable insight into the curriculum of the day at the newly established Royal College
Provenance: The manuscript was once in the possession of the the pharmacist and medical historian Edmond Leclair, who cites it in his ‘Histoire de la chirurgie à Lille’, vol. II, p. 302 giving the following note about Arnould (here in translation):
‘Born in Lille on August 23, 1740, admitted as a surgeon on January 31, 1765, married Geneviève Jesupret, a native of Saint-Amand, in Lille (La Madeleine) on October 12, 1773. A consulting surgeon at the Comtesse Hospital and the Saint-Sauveur Hospital, he was Master of the Corps from 1768 to 1770, Assistant Professor in 1773, and Full Professor in 1775. He appears as "absent" on the lists of 1792. Our collection includes the lectures dictated by Arnould to his students in 1774 and 1775, which were compiled by his student J. B. J. J. Quittez’.

1890s-1900.]. Small 4to, ff. 13; 21; 12; 11; 13; 6; 13; 7 (10e leçon); 7 (11 annexe, one leaf detached); 9, (8e leçon); 12; 9 (11e); 10; 19 (leaf 6 torn, and 8 detached); 4 (Annexe à la leçon 14); 7 (14); 29; 12 (but comprised of 6 numbered double-page tables); 21; 21; 23 (small tear to fore-edge of leaf 7); 18 (20ème leçon); in lithograph throughout reproducing original manuscript notes (seemingly in varying hands) together with a single hand-drawn illustrations; paper a little browned due to quality, with some occasional light foxing and spotting throughout, with a few small tears as previously noted but without interruption of text, otherwise clean and crisp; in contemporary black sheep backed purple marbled boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, though erroneously spelling Sébileau as ‘Sibileau’, head and tail of spine slightly bumped, with some light scuffing to spine and surfaces, extremities bumped and lightly rubbed with some wear to upper corners; a good copy. Uncommon volume of bound course-notes on special pathology in relation to otolaryngology, reproduced in facsimile using a form of lithographic printing to capture the original manuscript notes and neatly hand-drawn illustrations.
The course notes are divided into 20 ‘leçons’, a couple of which have short additional appendixes, and appear to cover a complete year of study. Topics under instruction include: cleft lip, branchial arches, congenital neck cysts, mandibular fracture, lower jaw dislocation, peripharyngeal abscesses, maxillary fractures, submandibular lymphadenopathy, nasopharyngeal polyps, soft palate paralysis, lingual syphilis, tongue ulcerations, parotid tumours, and ranula cysts.
The course notes have been bound together, presumably by the original, sadly anonymous, owner with the spine stamped in gilt with the name ‘Sibileau’. Taking into account the subject matter, we believe this to be incorrectly spelt, and that the course notes are in fact based upon lectures given by the French surgeon and ENT specialist Pierre Sébilleau (1860-1953). His early career was spent as an interne in hospitals in Bordeaux and Paris, where from 1888 he worked as an anatomical prosector. He subsequently became a surgeon at the Hôpital Lariboisière, specialising in the field of otorhinolaryngology. In 1893 he became an associate to the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and according to volume 14 of the journal l’Odontologie, by 1894 he was in charge of the course on special pathology at the Dental School, which formed part of the preparatory course for obtaining the diploma of dental surgeon. It seems likely, therefore, that the present set of notes relates to that course. Considered to be an eminent professor in his field, he was later to be appointed as editor-in-chief of La Gazette Médicale de Paris.

1834-1835. Two parts in one volume, large 4to; pp. 508; pp. 404; without title-page as often found; in lithograph throughout reproducing the original manuscript notes with numerous accompanying hand-drawn illustrations throughout both volumes; first volume affected by some prominent coffee(?) or ink staining affecting a number of leaves in the first half of the work, in particular pp. 13-38, 47-63, 113-120, 137-157, 217-227, and with small paper flaw p. 181; fainter stain affecting upper margins of pp. 183-247 in Vol. II; text otherwise generally fresh; with faint pencil signature at head of p. 169 ‘M. Costay’; in an attractive signed binding by ‘Hirou’ in contemporary green morocco backed boards, spine ruled, lettered and decorated in gilt, retaining the original green silk marker, head and tail of spine and joints a little rubbed, covers a little scuffed, corners rather bumped; a good copy. An extensive and rare example of the early 19th century genre of academic course notes printed in lithograph throughout, reproducing the original manuscript and including accompanying hand-drawn illustrations. As revealed by the tooling on the spine, the present notes relate to a course given by the noted engineer and mathematician Gabriel Lamé (1795-1870), who was at the time Chair of Physics at the École Polytechnique. Lamé had accepted the position in 1832, having previously spent a number of years in St Petersburg, after accepting a position at the Institut et Corps du Genie des Voies de Communications as Professor of engineering at the request of Alexander I. There he had lectured on analysis, physics, mechanics, chemistry and engineering topics. Upon his return he remained active as an engineer, and subsequently accepted a post at the Sorbonne as Chair of mathematical physics and probability.
The Ecole Polytechnique was founded in 1794 under the name École Centrale des Travaux Publics, being renamed in the following year. Its mission was to provide its students with a well-rounded scientific education, with a strong emphasis in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and to prepare them upon graduation to enter the national institutes of public works, such as the École d’Application de l’Artillerie et du Génie (School of Artillery and Engineering Applications), École des Mines, and École nationale des ponts et chausses (National School of Bridges and Roadways).
The present volume is divided into two years of study, with topics including the general properties of materials, heat, the conductibility of bodies, latent heats, the laws on the cooling of bodies, molecular attraction, the action of capillaries, on electricity, galvanism, on light, refraction, vision, optical instrumentation, and concluding with a section on acoustics. Lamé went on to publish a printed two volume textbook in 1840, ‘Cours de Physique de l’École Polytechnique’, which whilst drawing upon these course notes, was a substantially revised and new work.
As revealed at the tail of the first page of the second part, the publication was produced by Joseph Auguste Clouet, who was the official lithographer for the École Centrale des Arts et manufactures, also known as the École Centrale de Paris, producing a number of ‘autographed’ course notes for that institution, clearly undertaking similar work for the other leading Parisian scientific Institutions.

1835. Small folio, pp. [viii], 36, [2] duplicate leaf of pp. 35-6,[37]-44, [4] explanation to plates and vitae curriculum; with four engraved plates, one partially hand-coloured in blue and red, and signed ‘Franz Wagner del, C. Guinard sc’; title-page somewhat browned, with further browning and foxing throughout, plates quite prominently foxed and browned, corners a little furled, with a few small marginal nicks and tears, ink accession number at upper margin of title-page with very faint blindstamp at tail; sympathetically rebound in modern black marbled papers to style, with some light wear to joints and extremities. A detailed dissertation on pathological anatomy, focusing upon human and animal abnormalities, and in particular the various types of bone fissures. For a doctoral thesis it is surprisingly well produced in the larger folio format, using appealing typography and including four finely engraved plates illustrating the head of a young lamb or calf.
Conrad Meyer-Ahrens (1813-1872) was a Swiss physician and medical historian. He studied at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin where he publicly defended the present dissertation. The dedication is to his teacher, Johannes Müller.

1929. 8vo, pp. xii, 156; with one folding table, seven half-tone plates on four leaves, and one large folding engraved coloured map in pocket at rear (plate 1), with further illustrations, diagrams and tables within text; lightly browned and foxed with occasional dust-soiling, minor edge wear to final leaf; stapled as issued, in the original printed blue wrappers, spine and extremities a little sunned, some minor edge wear; a good copy. One of a number of collaborative publications by two former Bryn Mawr students of Florence Bascom (1862-1945), Eleanora Bliss Knopf (1883-1974) and Anna Isabel Jonas (later Stose, 1881-1974). Bascom is considered to be the first woman geologist in America, being one of the first to earn a Ph.D. in the subject, and the first woman to work for the United States Geological Survey. She established a pre-eminent geology department at Bryn Mawr, and was to teach and train a generation of young women who subsequently went on to have successful geological careers. In 1937, 8 out of 11 of the women who were Fellows of the Geological Society of America were graduates of Bascom's course, and her graduate programme was considered to be one of the most rigourous in the country, with a strong focus on both lab and fieldwork.
Under Bascom’s direction, Bliss and Jonas undertook a challenging dissertation on the geology of the Doe-Run-Avondale district, just west of Bryn Mawr. The two women followed similar career paths, both working as demonstrators in the Bryn Mawr geological laboratories, and later working for the United States Geological Survey, collaborating on a number of projects as here.
Bliss married fellow geologist Adolph Knopf, and moved with him to Yale, where she taught privately, and continued to take USGS assignments. Jonas too, married a fellow geologist whom she had met through the USGS, George Stose. Knopf was one of the first geologists to use stereotypically viewed airplane photographs for field mapping and to help her interpret geologic faults and folds, and is remembered for translating the work of foreign scientists and introducing new approaches in the United States’ (Profitt p. 295).
Jonas and Knopf eventually broke with Bascom ‘over the dating of the Wissahickon formation. In two major papers, they indicated that what Bascom and E. B. Mathews had referred to as Paleozoic were actually Precambrian. At that time, Anna Jonas began to collaborate with George Stose, who was very direct in his letters of disagreement with Bascom. The break with her students was complete’ (Ogilvie, II, p. 1243).

1760. Engraved and etched broadside, image 494 x 575mm; plate mark 503 x 584mm; sheet size 525 x 610mm; title at head in German and Latin, with 40 engraved figures; a little browned and foxed, with some dust-soiling, with central vertical fold, with discrete repairs along verso of central fold, and left-hand margin; old accession numbers on verso; a good impression; mounted ready for framing A striking broadside, no doubt intended to be hung in classrooms, outlining the principles of statics, produced by the noted firm of Homann Erben in Nürnberg, the leading German map publisher of the 18th century. Providing an accessible and popular introduction to mechanical knowledge, five ‘simple machines’ are depicted, demonstrating the concepts of force, equilibrium and statics. The forty illustrations, together with accompanying descriptions and calculations, show a number of gear mechanisms, counterweights and pulleys, explaining ways in which forces combine with each other so as to produce equilibrium.
A separate series of three wallcharts highlighting the ‘important principles of friction’ (‘Richtige Grund=Sätze der Friction’) was published around the same time, depicting in all some 50 figures illustrating various pulleys, hoists, levers, rollers etc., based upon the works of Amontons (1663-1705) and Bélidor (1698-1761). The first broadside in this series was signed ‘ C. W. F. Rost delin, J. M. Selig, fecit’. Carl Willhelm Felix Rost (fl. 1740-1760) lectured in mathematics at Nürnberg, and collaborated on further architectural publications with Homann, as well as publishing works on chemistry. Johann Michael Seligmann (1720-1762) was a noted copper engraver, printer and bookseller, renowned in particular for natural history engravings, and for being an early exponent of nature printing. Though the present broadside is unsigned, it seems likely that both may have also been involved.
Johann Baptist Homann and his family were the foremost German map publishers of the 18th century, offering a truly comprehensive range of maps of all regions of the world. Rivalling the publications of the Blaeu dynasty in the Netherlands, the Homann families' maps and charts are renowned for being well engraved and balanced in their execution.

1784. 8vo, pp. 27, [5]; some slight foxing; stitched as issued, in modern wrappers. Rare dissertation by the Mainz physician Karl Strack (1726-1806), on the influenza epidemic that affected not only much of northern Europe, but also North and Central America in the first half of 1782. Citing the work of Metzger and William Grant, Strack gives describes the symptoms and the spread of the disease in general, before giving a detailed case study of a pregnant woman who contracted influenza on the fourth of June. He describes the symptoms which affected the woman, and her eventual recovery.
Karl Strack (1722-1805) studied in Mainz, Paris, Berlin and Erfurt, before returning to Mainz to practice as a doctor. He became professor of surgery there, in 1754, then of physiology and pathology in 1763 and of chemistry in 1782. The present work is one of many, mainly Latin, works that Strack published throughout his career; others include an account of the Mainz General Hospital (1788) and a set of Observationes medicinales de morbo cum petechiis (1767). The present dissertation was reprinted in Ticini in 1790.
OCLC locates copies at the National Library of Medicine, the British Library and several European locations.

1759. 8vo (155 x 93 mm), pp. [xxiv], including engraved title, 4 numbered engraved illustrated ABC plates with letterpress text to verso, 1 unnumbered plate, illustrating numbers and the clock, and 3 numbered engraved plates of coins, two with letterpress text to verso; pp. 24 letterpress; old pastepaper wrappers; printed on strong bright paper, in good impressions.  First edition of a highly innovative Dutch ABC book. De Wit abandoned the usual Hahnenfibel format, but instead produced an entirely new genre of primer. Aware that children happily and easily memorise from looking at pictures, especially when they illustrate everyday familiar objects, de Wit uses this to introduce the letters of the alphabet, numbers and also coins. In helpful repetition the alphabet is introduced four times, black letter, Roman, in upper and lower case and Italic. So the letter A is illustrated by a little image of an ‘Aap’ (Ape), c by a circle and g for glass, etc. Similarly numbers a illustrated with repeated objects. The introduction to coins and their respective values is particularly unusual for the intended age group.
The second half of the little primer contains the usual Scriptural questions, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and a number of other daily prayers.
‘The idea of visual education steadily won over the enlightened minds of northern Europe. In 1759 (1755) Kornelis de Wit published Een nieuwlyks uitgevonden A.B.C. Boek - a newly invented ABC Book in Amsterdam, while the German Karl Philipp Moritz produced Neues ABC Buch (New ABC Book) in 1790. The images, accompanied by simple and rhythmic prose were intended to develop the elementary bases of reflection through observation.
The Dutch bookseller and publisher Kornelis de Wit was active in Amsterdam between 1736 and 1762. The book was popular, in addition to this 1759 edition, there is an undated edition, which is sometimes tentatively dated 1755, which seems questionable. In this 1759 edition all the plates are signed, F.D.B del. et sculp. and de Wit exudit, wheras the undated edition has half the plates without the imprint. The text is partly reset with different fleurons