ROGER GASKELL RARE BOOKS OCTOBER 2016 · £850 . First edition. Cicognara 816. ¶ This is the third of Bosse’s three treatises on perspective and is based on the lessons that he

ROGER GASKELL

RARE BOOKS

OCTOBER 2016

[email protected] +44/0 01873 811318 Blaen Onneu Ffawyddog Crickhowell NP8 1PZ Wales, UK www.RogerGaskell.com

Catalogue 55

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BOSSE, Abraham (1602–1676); Girard DESARGUES (1591–1661)

La manière universelle de Mr Desargues, pour pratiquer la perspective par petit-pied comme le géometral. Ensemble les places et proportions des fortes & foibles fouches, feintes ou couleurs.

Paris: De l'imprimerie de Pierre Des-Hayes, 1648.

8vo in 4’s: π4e4 A–X4 ‘Y,Z’4 Y4 Bb–Vv4, 176 leaves, pp. [8] 342 [2]. Two engravings are printed in the letterpress leaves, a full page engraving on π1r, the dedication to Michel Larcher with two lines of text, the remainder of the text continuing in letterpress to π4 (first page of dedication with arms); a half-page engraving is printed at the end on Vv4r, a table with letterpress below. 83 leaves of plates: engraved title (printed on a bifolium, the first leaf of which is blank), portrait, and 81 leaves of plates printed from a sectional title plate and illustration plates numbered 1–156, mostly printed on recto and verso with some repeats, bound throught the text. Condition: 202 x 136mm. Light dustsoiling, waterstains in lower margins towards the end. Binding: Contemporary vellum boards. Soiled, short split in upper joint Provenance: Old shelfmark?, ‘173man/7’ on pastedown; faint inscription, undeciphered, in blue chalk on blank verso of portrait.

£4000

First edition, second issue (first issue dated 1647), large paper copy. The engraved title and portrait are dated 1647 and the ‘Reconnoissance de Monsieur Desargues’ (e 2-4) is dated 1 October 1647. The date of publication is usually given as 1648 in the literature. Berlin 4716; Fowler 56; Vagnetti EIIIb44; Fonds Française, Bosse 553–712.

¶ The most important seventeenth-century perspective book and the first systematic treatment of projective geometry: this work includes eight tracts by Girard Desargues, mostly previously unpublished, which contain some of the most profound contributions to geometry of any period. Overshadowed by the Cartesian method of applying algebra to geometry, Desargues’ method was a geometry of position which was non-metrical. This new geometry brought together a number of concepts in the classical geometry of Euclid, Pappus and Menelaus and was inspired by Alberti's theory of perspective. Projective geometry was resurrected in the early nineteenth century by Poncellet and its implications were only fully explored in the nineteenth and twentieth-century projective geometry.

This is a central work in the ‘French perspective wars’ (Kemp, Science of Art pp. 119–131). In August 1640 Desargues had published his Brouillon project d'example d'une manière universelle de sieur G.D.L., touchant la pratique du traité preuve pour la coupe des pierres en architecture, a booklet of four pages of text and five plates issued in an edition of only 50. In 1642 a

The first systematic treatment of projective geometry. Large paper copy

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series of polemics attacking Desargues caused him to retreat behind his disciple Abraham Bosse, to whom he entrusted the task of disseminating his methods and defending his work. Bosse obtained a privilège for three works, the major exposition of the new system applying it to perspective in painting, offered here, and shorter works applying the method to stone-cutting and laying out sundials, which were published first (La pratique du trait a preuves and La manière universelle ... pour poser l’essieu, & placer les heures & autres choses aux cadrans au soleil, both published in 1643).

The Maniere universelle and its sequels are illustrated by exquisite – and plentiful – engravings by Bosse himself, seen to best advantage in the fine impressions of this large paper copy of his most important work on perspective.

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BOSSE, Abraham (1602–1676)

Moyen universel de pratiquer la perspective sur les tableaux, ou surfaces irregulieres. Ensemble quelques particularitez concernant cét art, & celuy de la gaveure en taille-douce.

Paris: chez ledit Bosse, en l’Isle du Palais, sur le Quay qui regarde celuy de la Megisserie, 1653.

4to: π2 (π1 + 2π2, 3π2, blanks π1, 2π1) A–K4, 46 leaves, pp. [12] 80. π1, blank, is the pastedown, its conjugate leaf the last leaf of the dedication; within this fold are two more bifolia, 2π2, comprising a blank leaf and the engraved titlepage; and 3π2, comprising the letterpress titlepage and engraved dedication with dedicatee’s arms and first two lines of text, the text continuing in letterpress on the verso. Woodcut and fleuron decorations. 17 leaves of plates with impressions from 31 copperplates numbered 1–31, mostly printed recto and verso, all page-size except no. 27 which is larger and bound as a throwout mounted on the fore edge of K2. Condition: 165 x 105mm, staining in the upper inner margin, more evident towards the end of the book; righthand margin of engraved titlepage just touched by the binder’s knife. Binding: Contemporary calf, gilt spine, marbled endleaves. Joints restored.

Provenance: 1. Engraved maltese cross with motto ‘Fortidudo’ above the engraved arms flanked by two wolves heads on pastedown, identified in pencil on the endleaf as the arms of the Comte d’Huassonville, grand louvetier du roi (Royal Wolf Catcher). I have not been able to confirm this but Bernard de Cleron, comte d’Haussonville d. 1753 was ‘grand louvetier du roi de Pologne’. It seems unlikely to be François de’Haussonville de Vaubecourt (1659–1736) as a later annotator (a bookseller? has assumed.2. Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste de Poilly (1712–1780), engraver, signature on verso of free endleaf; early note on free endleaf describing the book and

noting that the copy belonged to N.B. de Poilly signed C.F.[?] possibly by the next owner.

3. ‘Ex libr. F. Her. Constant=Figuier ...’ ?

4. A circular stamp has been erased from the printed titlepage.

Projection onto curved surfaces

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£2500

First edition. Vagnetti EIIIb-48.

¶ One of Bosse’s rarer works, this is a sequel to his Manière universelle des principes de Mr. Desargues, pour pratiquer la perspective (1648, see above). The earlier work was devoted to perspective drawing on a plane surface. Here Desargues’ system is applied to angled and curved surfaces. ‘[H]is Moyen universelle ... paid particular attention to the illusionistic projection of perspective onto ceilings and vaults of various configurations’ (Kemp, Science of Art pp. 123–4).

The last chapter deals with the laying of lines in an engraving to follow the curves of the subject as the projection of lines through a frame with horizontal wires.

This copy has an interesting provenance which I have only partially unravelled and would be glad of any help.

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BOSSE, Abraham (1602–1676)

Traité des pratiques géometrales et perspectives, enseignées dans l’academie royale de la peinture et sculture. Par A. Bosse. Tres utiles pour ceux qui desirent exceller en ces arts, & autres, où il faut employer la regle & le compas.

Paris: chez l’auteur, en l’Isle du Palais, sur le Quay vis à vis celuy de la Megisserie. [Colophon:] A Paris : De l’imprimerie d’Antoine Cellier, 1665.

8vo: a4 e4 A–R4 S2, 78 leaves, pp. [16] 140. Engraving on a2r, first page of dedication to Nicolas de Croismare. Engraved titlepage and 35 leaves of plates: the first leaf of plates is a titleplate to the illustrations with pl. 1 on verso, plates numbered 1-67 printed recto and verso and some repeated. Pl. 67 is double page (bound throughout the text). Lacking the two pop-up pieces on pl. 50 (traces of tabs). Condition: 177 x 116mm. Light brown waterstains in upper margins affecting text and plates. Binding: Contemporary calf, gilt spine. Head and tailcap and corners sometime restored, worn. Provenance: Franciscan monastery at Châteauneuf-de-Galaure in the Drôme with inscription on titlepage dated 1680; an owner’s monographs or paraphs on a3r and pp. 47, 120 and 140; errata on e2v neatly entered in an early hand.

£850

First edition. Cicognara 816.

¶ This is the third of Bosse’s three treatises on perspective and is based on the lessons that he gave at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. It ‘is a succinct and uncompromising synthesis of his teachings. The first part concentrates on the geometry of the “sphere, circle, cone and cylinder”, while the second provides systematic instruction in the rendering of objects in space’ (Kemp p. 125). Most of this was based on his teaching at the Academy, but 9 of the plates and their explanatory text explain discoveries he has made since leaving the Academy.

Bosse was expelled from the Academy in 1661 over the controversy surrounding his Desargues descriptive geometry and ‘on pain of prison’ forbidden from continuing to publish ‘libelles’ or pamphlets attacking the Academy. This did not stop him from doing so at the end of the book. Initially Bosse’s explanation and defense of Desargues’ methods had won the support in the newly established Academy, but reaction set in early and came to a head in the late 1650s. Bosse’s chief opponent, Charles Le Brun used the recent publication of a compilation of Leonardo’s writings as the Trattato della pittura (published in both Italian and French editions in 1651) ‘to undermine Bosse’s doctrinaire insistence on geometrical devices’ (Kemp p.

Lessons at the Academy and a reply to his critics

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124). Bosse here rehearses the dispute, defends his position and prints the famous letter to him from Poussin saying that anything of value in the Leonardo treatise could be written on one side of a sheet of paper in large letters. (I am not clear if this is the first publication of this letter, Steinitz Leonardo quotes it from the 1911 edition of Poussin’s letters, which I have not consulted). He then critiques the treatment of perspective in Leonardo’s Trattato chapter by chapter.

Martin Kemp, The Science of Art (1990) pp. 119–125; Préaud, Maxime et al, Abraham Bosse: Savant Graveur, 1604-1676 (2004), pp. 64–70.

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HAMILTON, John (d. 1747)

Stereography, or, a compleat body of perspective in all its branches.

London: printed for the author, by W. Bowyer, and sold by S. Austen, 1738.

Text volume: π2 a–d2 (–d2) B–5I2, 2A–K2 (–K2), 228 leaves, pp. [18] 400, [38] (last page blank). Titlepages printed in red and black, engraved headpiece on π2, by Mynde, wood or metalcut initial and tailpiece. Plates volume: title leaf to Volume II and 130 full page engraved plates by James Mynde printed on full sheets and bound as bifolia so that each plate is preceded by a blank leaf. Condition: 430 x 270mm, untrimmed. 2A2, the second leaf of the table of contents crumpled and torn with loss of a few words; first titlepage browned, endmatter less so (text pages and plates are on different paper stocks which have not browned); waterstains in inner margins of text and upper and inner margins of some plates, extending over engraved surface in a few plates. Despite the faults a fine fresh copy. Binding: Contemporary bright blue pastepaper wrappers, lined with printer’s waste from Soyecourt, Plaidoyer pour le marquis de Soyecourt (4to, Paris: imprimerie de veuve Valade 1788) and an unidentified Chinese grammar in French with Chinese characters. Paper on spines frayed and back of plate volume broken. Provenance:

£3000

First and only edition; a re-issue is dated 1749. ESTC T102273; Boyer Ledgers 2586.

¶ An important treatise on perspective, inspired by Brook Taylor’s Linear perspective (1715, second edition 1719) but taking the subject much further in its mathematical analysis. Though not a professional mathematician, Hamilton advanced the mathematical basis of perspective which had been played down by Taylor in addressing his short treatise to artists rather than mathematicians. ‘Hamilton combined his presentation of perspective with a study of projections of conic sections and harmonic division. By including these objects he produced a work that more than any other pre-1800 book on perspective belongs to the prehistory of projective geometry.’ (Andersen p. topics in practical perspective. Hamilton influenced Kirby and Malton and some of his ideas can be found in Lambert’s work, though Andersen does not think that Lambert was familiar with Hamilton’s work (Andersen p. 547).

Little is known of Hamilton’s life. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and may have begun a career in the law, but in his dedication he thanks Joseph Jekyll for placing him ‘in a more easy Station in Life’. This not only allowed him to finish his book, but also to publish it on a lavish scale, employing the best printer and the best engraver of the time. The engraver, James Mynde (1702–1771) had quite recently made a name for himself engraving most of

Over ambitious

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the celestial charts for Flamsteed’s Atlas coelestis (1729). The plates in the present work are however largely diagrammatic and hardly required Mynde’s skill. The extravagance of the printing is also shown by the fact that each plate is printed on the right hand side of a full sheet of paper, so that as bound in this copy in a separate volume, a blank leaf occurs between each plate. They were intended to be bound as throwouts interspersed in the text when the book is bound in two volumes, breaking after p. 208.

Hamilton issued 750 copies of a prospectus for the book on 9 August 1738, but the list of subscribers shows that he managed to garner only 79 names. He nonetheless went ahead with a grossly ambitious print-run of 750 copies. In 1749, two years after Hamilton’s death, the book was re-issued with a new titlepage. This copy of the original 1738 issue with wrappers lined with printer’s waste from a French publication of 1788 suggests that it comes from stock shipped to France before it was re-issued in London. Out of the print run of 750 copies, 22 are now recorded in ESTC, a low survival rate for a folio; it is possible that a large part of the edition was pulped. The copies located by ESTC include North American copies at Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Columbia, Honnold, Hopkins, LC, Chicago, Michigan, Texas, Yale; there is also a copy at Princeton.

Kirsti Andersen, The geometry of an art: the history of the mathematical theory of perspective from Alberti to Monge (New York, 2007), 541–547.

5. Art of drawing, 1755

6. Elemens de perspective 1800

4. Hamilton 1738

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ART OF DRAWING

The art of drawing in perspective: wherein the doctrine of perspective is clearly and concisely treated of, upon geometrical principles; and a mechanical method of perspective and designing invented, for the benefit of such as are strangers to mathematics. Illustrated with variety of copper plate figures. To which are annexed, the art of painting upon glass, and drawing in crayons; with directions for making them after the French and Italian manner: also the art of etching, and that of Japanning upon wood, or any metal, so as to imitate china; with instructions for making black or gilt Japan-ware, both beautiful and light; and for making the hardest and most transparent varnishes; and, to which is added, a method of casting amber in any form whatever.

London: printed for G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown, in Gracechurch-Street; and J. Robinson, at the Globe and Bible, at Dockhead, 1755.

12mo: π2 B–G8,4 H8 I2, 48 leaves, pp. iv 92. Folding engraved plate signed ‘T. Bowen sc’ facing titlepage. Condition: 160 x 98mm. Binding: Stab sewn as issued in grey-brown wrappers.

£450

First edition, the text is similar, but not the same, as The method of learning to draw in perspective made easy and fully explained (1732); there were a number of later editions. ESTC T153183.

¶ A rare drawing manual including, in addition to drawing itself, instructions for varnishing, gilding and silvering. In the related The method of learning to draw in perspective (1732), which contains many of the same recipes, but differently worded, the anonymous author claims to have drawn on manuscripts by Robert Boyle, passed to him by a relation. In another book also purporting to use the Boyle manuscripts, The art of drawing and painting in water-colours (1731), this relation is identified as Lord Carleton. In the present work, Boyle is cited as the source for a ‘Method of making White or Amber-Varnish’ (pp. 72–74) and a section at the end on making artificial amber with flies and small animals in it (p. 92). At the foot of the title, after the price (1s) there is an advertisement for The art of drawing and painting in water-colours, also 1s and ‘Just published’. Fulton Bibliography of Robert Boyle (2nd ed. 1961, 372 and 373) suggests that the source for the information in both books was not in fact a manuscript but Boyle’s Experiments and considerations touching colours (1664).

ESTC locates copies at the BL, Bodleian; Huntington, Met and Yale.

Perspective drawing and Boyle’s recipe for varnish

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ELEMENS DE PERSPECITVE

Elémens de perspective à l’usage des élèves de l’Académie de dessin, peinture et architecture de la ville de Gand.

Ghent: chez Bernard Poelman, imprimeur-libraire, rue Hauteporte, au Glaive couronné, c. 1800.

8vo in half sheets: [A]4 (–A1 + π2) B–K4 L2, 43 leaves, pp. [2] 49 [1] 19 [15] (last 2 pages blank). 10 folding engraved plates: numbered Pl. I–X, all after Pl. III signed ‘G. Goethals sculp à Gand’ (bound at the end as throwouts). Condition: 235 x 165mm, untrimmed, partially unopened. Some light dustsoiling. Binding: Contemporary blue pastepaper wrappers. Spine torn.

First (only) edition. OCLC 25818579.

¶ A very rare text book on perspective based on lessons given at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Begun as a private school for drawing, painting and architecture by Philippe Karel Marissal in 1741, the school was soon adopted by the city council and given Royal status by the empress Maria-Theresia of Austria I 1771.

OCLC records a single copy at the Bibliothèque d’art et archeology, Paris.

Lessons at the Academy at Ghent

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LEROY, Charles François Antoine (1780–1854); Jean-Nicolas-Louis DURAND (1760–1834); Alfred DE MARNE, student, dates unknown

[Epures de geometrie descriptive et d’architecture].

Paris: Ecole Royale Polytechnique, 1829.

Bound album of manuscript and printed drawings, 47 leaves 455 x 290mm (some on smaller sheets with deckle edges, 3 double page) manuscript and engraved, and a loosely inserted lithograph. Apart from the lithograph, all the plates have a blind stamp ‘E.R.P. 1829’, de Marne’s signature in ink, and a black stamp ‘Ecole Polytechnique’. 1. ‘Carte de France’, pen and ink and wash, double page. 2. Eddystone Lighthouse, pen and ink. 3. Eddystone Lighthouse, engraved outline with pen and ink and grey wash. 4–7. Numbered 1–4, mechanical movements and gears, pen and ink. 8–10. Numbered [5]–7, flour mill, hydraulic press and steam engine, pen and ink and coloured washes, first and last double page. 11–32. Numbered 1–22, architectural drawings in pen and ink and coloured wash or graphite, many on engraved graph paper printed in orange ink. 33–40. ‘1ère–8e Concours’, architectural drawings as above on engraved graph paper. 35a, loosely inserted and to accompany the 3e Concours, ‘Eglise de Ste. Marie à Grasville près le Hâvre’, lithograph signed ‘Frissard. Lith de Clouet, r. Jacob, 44. Paris.’ 41–42. Pen and ink and grey wash, studies of shadows on a Tuscan capital and portico. 43–47. 3 engraved ‘Etude de Topgraphie’ numbered 7, 15 and 11, the last signed ‘Lavé et Dessinépar Brune. Gravé par F. P. Michel’ with coloured washes; the first two followed by similar pen and ink and wash drawings, but not direct copies of the engravings. Binding: Contemporary roan backed boards, leather label on upper board lettered ‘Ecole Royale Polytechnique’ I.ere Division. Année 1829. A. de Marne.’, spine lettered ‘Epures’. Spine ends and corners worn.

£3600

¶ A finely executed album of exercises by a student at the Ecole Royale Polytechnique taking Charles François Leroy’s course in descriptive geometry, and Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand’s influential Architecture course. Descriptive geometry, invented by Gaspard Monge at the end of the nineteenth century allowed for the rigorous analysis of three dimensional space and was essential to the development not only of engineering drawing but also of architecture. Indeed many of the exercises in the descriptive geometry course involve

Descriptive geometry and architecture at the Ecole Royale Polytechnique

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architecture, for example in stone cutting and in architectural drawing. The shadow studies, although of architectural components of a Doric portico, are part of the descriptive geometry course and are similar to the album of épures by Dalesme who took the course under Hachette in 1812 (Bibliothèque de l’Ecole polytechnique, reproduced by Sakarovitch, Fig. 44). It is fascinating therefore to observe a student studying both Descriptive Geometry and Architecture side by side.

Leroy taught descriptive geometry at the Ecole Royale Polytechnique following the restoration of the monarchy in 1816 and for the next 35 years, publishing his Traité de géométrie descriptive, avec une collection de 60 planches in 1834. We can see similarities between the drawings in this album executed by De Marne in 1829 and the published engravings. The engraved topographical studies, not in the published Traité are similar to those in Dalesme’s 1812 album, showing that Le Roy adopted some of Hachette’s course materials.

Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand was one of the most important theorists and teachers of the early nineteenth century and an important exponent of neo-classicism. He became professor of Architecture at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1795 and his lectures were published as Précis des leçons d’architecture données à l’école polytechnique in 1809. What is most revealing in this record of his teaching is the way that the student’s compositions use the same elements found in the published work, but put together in different ways. For example De Marne’s drawing no. 17, a Pantheon dome with two flanking rotunda is a variation on the composition in Durand’s pl. 5. This relates to his system of design using simplified, repetitive, modular elements anticipating industrialized building components’ (Oxford Reference online, http://www .oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095735970 acces-sed 30 August 2016). Compare also De Marne 13 and Durand pl. 22; and De Marne 14–16 and Durand pl. 10.

A number of the épures in the descriptive geometry course are based on engravings, for example the outline of the Eddystone lighthouse with the student then had to complete with pen and ink and watercolour washes, similarly the topographical studies.

Joel Sakarovitch, Epures d’architecture. De la coupe des pierres à la géometrie descriptive XVI–XIX siècles (1997).

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BOSSE, Abraham (1602–1676); Sébastien LE CLERC (1637–1714)

Traité des manières de graver en taille-douce sur l'airan: par le moyen des eaux fortes & des vernis durs & mols. D'imprimer les plances, & de construire la presse ... Augmenté de la nouvelle manière de se servir desdites eaux fortes, par Monsieur le Clerc.

Paris: quai des Augustins, chez Claude Jombert (pasted over original imprint: chez Pierre Auboüin... et Charles Clousier, quay des Augustins, à la croix d'or, 1701)., 1711.

8vo: ã4 (ã1 + 1) A–D8 E4, 41 leaves, pp. [10] 70 [2]. The inserted leaf in the prelims is an advertisement leaf. 18 engraved plates: engraved title from the first edition with the lettering removed, 16 plates from the first edition and an additional plate by Ertinger for p. 31 (bound at p. 33). Without the engraved title within a decorative border dated 1645 from the first edition found in some copies of this edition. Condition: 180 X 115mm. Some light foxing and spotting to text and plates, but a good clean copy. Binding: Contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt spine. Upper joint starting to split but sound. Provenance: ‘Ex Biblioteca Joannis Baptistae Constant Equitia Regi a Consiliia in Quaestorio Galliarum apud Lugdunenses Procuratoris Regii generalia’, eighteenth-century engraved armorial bookplate.

£2500

Second edition 1701, a copy with a paste-on cancel imprint for Claude Jombert 1711 (first edition 1545). Another issue of this edition also dated 1701, has the imprint of Pierre Emery. Stijnman 042.7 (without the cancel imprint); Cicognara 252.

¶ A fine copy of the rare second edition of Bosse’s important handbook for etchers and engravers and the first manual for the construction and use of the rolling press. The text of the first edition is largely unchanged with just some alterations of spelling. However Le Clerc has added a description of his etching bath which could be rocked on the etcher’s knee, or on a rolling pin, allowing the plate to be briefly submerged in the acid. This gave greater control and speed compared with Bosse’s method of pouring the acid over the plate up to ten times. The method is illustrated by a charming etching by Franz Ertinger (1640–c.1710), a German printmaker active in France.

The other plates are printed from Bosse’s originals of 1645, including the engraved pictorial title with the imprint and date removed. The first edition also had a second engraved title at the start of the text, dated 1645. This is apparently never bound into this copy.

This copy has the pasted on imprint of Claude Jombert (1679–1735) dated 1711, ten years after publication. This is interesting because his son and

The first rolling press manual, revised by Le Clerc

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successor, Charles-Antoine Jombert (1712–1784) was to publishe the next edition, a major revision, in 1745 (see below) and it suggests that he bought up the stock of the 1701 edition in 1711 and perhaps acquired the plates at the same time.

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BOSSE, Abraham (1602–1676); Charles Nicolas COCHIN, fils, (1715–1790)

La manière de graver a l’eau forte et au burin. Et de la gravûre en manière noire. Avec la façon de constrruire les presses modernes, & d’imprimer en Taille-douce ... Nouvelle édition. Revûe, corrigée & augmentée du double, et enrichie de dix-neuf planches en taille-douce.

Paris: chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1745.

8vo: a8 b8 A–M8, 112 leaves, pp. [xxxii] 186 [6]. Advertisements on last 6 pages. Woodcut initials, typographic decorations, full page engraved dedication on a2, engraved headpieces on pp. 1 (by Fossard after Cochin, fils), 49, 97 (unsigned) and 129 (Soubeyran after Bosse). 15 plates: engraved title and 19 foldout plates numbered Pl. 1–9 (at p. 48), 10–13 (at p. 128) and 14–19 (at p. 162). Condition: 195 x 119mm. Some light foxing. Binding: Contemporary marbled calf, gilt spine, marbled endleaves, red edges. Provenance: ‘Ex Libris Bosuet’ contemporary inscription on free endleaf.

£2250

Third edition (first 1645, second 1701) revised and rearranged and with a great deal of original material usually ascribed to Cochin. Stijnman 042.8; Bigmore and Wyman I, p. 72; Cohn-de Ricci col 177; Cicognara 254.

¶ The most important revision of Bosse’s treatise on engraving and copperplate printing, first printed in 1645. For the text of the first edition, see the 1701 reprinting, above.

The ‘Avertissement’ (pp. v–xi) sets out the changes and additions. Bosse gave more space to etching using ‘vernis dur’ or hard etching-ground, by which means he was able to imitate line engraving, than to the ‘vernis mol’ or soft etching-ground (not to be confused with soft-ground etching). The new edition therefore adds new material on the use of the soft etching-ground, and also adds to what Bosse wrote on engraving with the burin. There are new sections on mezzotint and on Le Blon’s colour printing; and the sections on the rolling press have been re-arranged, and supplied with new illustrations to take account of changes in the design of the press since Bosse’s time. In addition to this ‘Avertissement’ there is ‘Préface de l’editeur’ (pp. xix–xxiv). Here Cochin discusses the change of taste from the engraving style using the hard etching-ground, of which Bosse was the master, to the more fluid freehand style that we now associate with etching which depends on the use of a soft etching-ground. Cochin goes on to mention a number of engravers and

Updated and with major additions

Cochin ... engraved as much as he designed, and his revision of Bosse’s

Treatise on Engraving shows the study which he had devoted to his

art. (Hind p. 214.)

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their styles, and the appropriate uses of etching or engraving with the burin according to the subject.

Eleven of the plates are from the original coppers which Bosse made for the 1645 edition (including the dedication plate ‘Aux amateurs de cet art’ which was not used in the 1701 edition) with some additional lettering and an extra figure on what is now plate 10. (Jombert owned a huge stock of copperplates, including many of Bosse’s plates illustrating other works, and was to publish a two volume Repertoire des artistes of impressions from his engraved title, dedication, and plates 1–8 are from the original plates; plate 10 is the original plate 9; plate 16 is the original plate 14; plates 9, 12–15 and 17–19 are new. The new plate 9, signed ‘F. Ertinger, sc’ shows an artist in a studio, containing books, sculptures and prints, rocking an etching bath on his knee; plates 12–13 are of mezzotint tools and the sequence of laying the mezzotint ground; plates 14–15 and 17 are engravings of the up-to date press, replacing Bosse's now out-of-date design; plate 18 is a view of the pressman operating the press, signed ‘G. Fessard Sculp’ and plate 19 shows the workbench with the brazier, inking and wiping equipment. The headpieces are scenes showing pouring acid on the plate; smoking the plate; etching and sharpening tools; and the last shows the rolling press printer's shop and is a copy of Bosse’s large plate of 1643.

Bosse 1645 (re-used in 1701 edition)

G. Fessard (after Cochin?), 1745

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10

ROCHON, Alexis Marie de (1741–1817)

Recueil de mémoires sur la mécanique et la physique.

Paris: chez Barrois, l’aîné, 1783.

8vo: a8 2a8 b8 A–2A8, 216 leaves, pp. xiv [2] xxxii 384. 11 engraved plates: an engraved leaf of text and pls 1–10 by Sellier after Fossier (all bound at the end, 7–10 foldouts). Condition: 215 x 135mm untrimmed. Puncture hole from the rear to sig. Z affecting a few letters of text but not significantly damaging the plates; sig. I browned, waterstains in corners of outer 2 leaves in several gatherings. Binding: Original grey wrappers lined with printer’s waste. Provenance: Early signature on title scored through and illegible.

£1600

First edition. Poggendorff, II, 670–71.

¶ A collection of papers, some previously unpublished, describing Rochon’s important optical instruments as well as a fascinating engraving machine.

Rochon’s optical work included an improvement of Bouguer’s heliometer; the replacement of the mirrors of sextants and octants by achromatic prisms; a ‘diasporamètre’ for measuring the refraction of lenses by means of a prism with a variable angle; and his micrometers with achromatic prisms, an invention based on the double refraction of rock crystal.

The intention of the engraving machine was to produce intaglio plates for printing text cheaply and accurately by means of punches driven into the copperplate one by one. Rochon points out that for certain types of technical scientific publication only a short print run is required for which copper-plate printing is well suited as a few copies only need be printed off at a time as required. Rochon’s machine is illustrated in the last four folding plates and there is a specimen page printed from a copper plate engraved with the machine. Babbage owned a copy and could well have been influenced by Rochon’s machine when he designed the similar machine to engrave the output of his difference engine, though he nowhere refers to Rochon (Mathematical and Scientific Library of the Late Charles Babbage, 1872, lot 221 ‘very scarce, half bound’).

The engraving machine section occupies pp. 323–346 pls. 7–10 and a page of explanation of the plates in the prelims, a8r-v.

Letter engraving machine

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11

BREGEAUT, L.-R.

Manuel complet théorique et pratiquedu dessinateur et de l’'imprimeur lithographe. Second édition, revue, corrigée, augmentée, et ornée de douze lithographies.

Paris: Roret (de l'imprimerie de Crapelet), 1827.

18mo in 6’s: pp. xxxvi 176 [4], advertisements on last 4 pages. 10 lithographed plates on 7 leaves, lacking a further 2 plates on a single leaf (not always present): frontispiece signed ‘H. Roux’; rural scene signed ‘'H. Roux’ (p. 65); Pl. VII (p. 105); Pl. IX (p. 114); Pl. VIII (p. 139); 2 unsigned plates signed ‘Roux’ (pasted edge to edge and bound as a folding plate at p. 172); Pls X, XI, XII (printed side by side on a single folding leaf) Condition: 128 x 83mm. Worming in the gutter at the bottom, not affecting the text or plates; plates foxed. Binding: Contemporary sheep-backed sprinkled boards, flat gilt spine with black lettering piece, marbled edges. Head and tail of spine worn and upper joint cracked but sound. Provenance: Signature ‘L. Guillaume’ on pastedown. £400

Second edition. This is probably an early issue as several copies are like this one with only 10 of the 12 plates called for on the titlepage (see Charles B. Wood III, inc, cat 101 (1990) 23). The first edition was published in the same year by the author rather than Roret and has only 10 plates. Cf.

¶ An important lithography manual with detailed plates of presses and equipment and samples of different styles of lithography. It is useful for the information it provides on the early years of the Lasteyrie press in Paris (Whitehead, Alois Senefelder, Philadelphia, 1972, p. 22 and no. 59). There were several editions, including a German translation (Ulm 1829) and parts of it were translated into English by Hullmandel and published in 1832

This was one of the separate manuals that make up the Encyclopédie Roret, a series that includes a number of significant works on the book arts. This copy has a 4 page advertisement bound at the end, ‘Collection de Manuels formant une Encyclopédie des sciences et des arts. Format in-18’.

Twyman Lithography p. 264.

Lithography manual

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12

BEVERIDGE, William (1673–1708)

Institutionum chronologicarum libri II. Una cum totidem arithmetices chronologicae libellis ... Editio altera, priori emendatior.

London: typis Samueli Roycroft, & prostant apud Gualterum Kettilby, ad insigne Capitis Episcopi in D. Pauli Coemiterio, 1705.

4to: A–2L4, 136 leaves, pp. [viii] 259 [5] (last page blank). Condition: 192 x 145mm. Binding: Contemporary sprinkled unlettered calf, blind-tooled inner border and corners. Rebacked.

£200

Second editon (first edition 1669). The third edition, 1721, had a further two parts and was reprinted at Utrecht in 1734. ESTC t143139; Houzeau and Lancaster 12848.

¶ A history of calendars and number systems, the result of 12 years’ study. In the first book Beveridge gives a history of time measurement and calendar systems; the second is more astronomical and deals with eclipses as well as calendrical calculations; an appendix gives an account of Roman, Hebrew, Sumarian, Greek, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopian number systems, with typeset characters in tables and in the text.

Beveridge, an expert on scholarly languages, was later Bishop of St Asaph and a founder of the SPCK.

History of number systems

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13

DU TILLE DU VIVIER

Nouveau calendrier perpetuel, composé en faveur des curieux, suivant les hypotheses julienne & gregorienne, comprenant des instructions chronologiques, astronomiques, astrologiques, geographiques & hydrographiques. Ensemble l’art de fortifier, d’arpenter & de réduire toutes les especes de bois d’oeuvre: avec un catalogue des plus célèbres historiens qui ont traite de l’antiquité ... Nouvelle edition, revuë & corrigée par l’auteur.

Paris: chez Mesnier, libraire-imprimeur, rue S. Severin, au Soleil d’or, ou en sa boutique au Palais, Grande Salle, 1741.

12mo: π1 a2–3 2a2–5 A–D8,4 E–Y6 Z4, 143 leaves, pp. [14] 267 [4] [1 blank]. Titlepage in red and black, woodcut headpieces and initials. Engraved titlepage, foldout printed table at p. 34, and 4 engraved plates at pp. 60, 114, 124 and 176 (foldouts except that at p. 124). Condition: 164 x 93mm. Binding: Contemporary mottled calf, gilt spine, marbled endleaves, red edges. Joints cracked but sound, headcap chipped, lettering piece missing. £350

‘Nouvelle edition’ but the first extant. Another edition appeared in 1743. Lalande p. 415, Houzeau and Lancaster 14259; Grand-Carteret 151.

¶ A perpetual almanac packed with useful information on everything from finding the time at night to international exchange and moral maxims.

Designated a ‘Nouvelle edition’ on the titlepage. The first edition, unknown to bibliographers, was probably published close to the date of the Approbation dated 1737 and Privilège, dated 1738 printed at the end. In this edition a new approbation in the prelims is dated November 1739 and the author responds to criticisms of the first edition. The make up of the prelims suggests a re-issue, possibly of an undated edition attributed to 1740 of which there is a copy in the Royal Library of Belgium.

OCLC locates just two copies, both in Paris, at the Bibliothèque St. Geneviève and Conservatoire national des arts et métiers.

First extant edition

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14

DUFOUR, Guillaume Henri (1787–1875)

Description du pont suspendu en fil de fer construit à Genève.

Paris: (imprimé à Genève.) Se vend à Paris, chez Bachelier, 1824.

4to, pp. 89 [3]. 3 folding engraved plates, the first signed ‘Anspach sculpt.’ (bound at the end). Condition: 242 x 200mm. Light foxing and a waterstain in the lower inner margins towards the end. Binding: Contemporary quarter roan over marbled paper boards. Spine very worn.

£1500

First (only) edition

¶ The history and description of the first permanent wire-cable suspension bridge in the world, the Pont St Antoine in Geneva completed in 1832. It was the direct successor of the experimental bridge erected in France in 1822 by Marc Séguin (Séguin ainé), who collaborated with Dufour on the Geneva bridge. ‘Although Dufour’s contribution to the successful development of this type of structure went largely unacknowledged, the collaboration with this academic, Ecole Polytechnique-trained engineer was of immense benefit to the gifted, self-taught Seguin and his brothers who went on to become the most prolific cable-bridge builders in Europe.’ (Julia Elton).

Seguin had seen substantial suspension bridges with wrought iron chains in Britain, and a few small bridges had been built with wire cables, but his proposal for an 85m span bridge, based on his experimental 18m span bridge, was unprecedented. However it was Dufour’s

Geneva bridge, with two 40m spans that was the first to be built and this is the first description of the bridge.

After an historical introduction, Dufour describes his experiments with different kinds of wire, confirming Seguin’s results, the dimensions of the bridge, and his calculations of its weight and the stresses in the cables and hangers. He then describes the actual construction of the bridge, including a number of inventions such as his method of splicing the wires which became standard.

Julia Elton, Elton Engineering Books, Cat. 13, 1998, no. 23.

First permanent wire-cable suspension bridge

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15

DUPONT NITRATE COMPANY

‘Delaware Works’ at Taltal.

Taltal, Chile: 1916–17.

4-sheet cyanotype panorama, 393 x 88mm. 3-sheet silver bromide print panorama, 35 x 81mm. Annotated on verso in pencil numbering the three prints and ‘Place & paste 1-2-3. Shows our “pampa” where we dig our “calochié[?]” or ore. #1 shows this material packed ready for the cars shown in #2. This is Sunday & men are not on the “pampa”. Separate cyanotype prints each 85 x 113mm 1. ‘In Tennis Court 18th Sept 16’ with pencil annotation on verso: ‘School children in front of tennis court. New from shops dressed for parade, line up the back. Two school teachers at the ends. 2. ‘Figure-O at Delaware.’ a photograph of a monoplane, pencil annotation on verso: ‘Mgr. Mr. Ferriday, just before the start’. 3. A view of the aeroplane in flight, pencil annotation on verso: ‘Camp houses’. 4. A view of the aeroplane in flight close to the ground, pencil annotation on verso: ‘Camp houses at back of crowe’. 5. A view of a bedroom, pencil annotation on verso: ‘My room. See how many things you can recognize.’ 3-17-17. Together with a miniature diced russia album, overall size 110 x 65 x 30mm, with 140 cyanotype photographs each 68 x 45mm mounted on stubs, bBinding heavily worn but the photographs in good condition; and an envelope 145 x 100mm labelled ‘Mother Dickson’ containing 49 silver bromide prints c. 110 x 85mm.

£1200

¶ These two panoramas show the Dupont Nitrate Company’s ‘Delaware Works’ at Taltal in the Atacama desert. The five separate cyanotypes show

Panoramas of nitrate works in Chile

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living accommodation at the works, a tennis match, school children and an early aeroplane. They were evidently taken by an employee of the works, the view of his bedroom annotated ‘see how many things you can recognize’ presumbly sent home to his family.

Lammont du Pont developed B blasting powder in the 1850s using Chilean sodium nitrate in place of potassium nitrate (saltpeter) from India. Initially Du Pont got supplies through importers in New York, but after a visit to Chile in 1902 an office was established and in 1909 the companay purchased their own nitrate mines. These mines became particularly significant with the demand for explosives created by World War I. However after the war synthetic sources of nitrate were developted, the Chilean nitrate industry collapsed and DuPont closed their mines in 1931.

In addition to the photographs of the nitrate works and camp, an evocative miniature album of cyanotype prints and an envelope of bromide prints document the Dupont employee’s journey through Seattle, his trekking in California and visiting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. He boards a ship that makes various stops in Panama, Peru and Chile where he photographs the local sites and Spanish colonial forts, churches, plazas, markets, streets, factories, construction works, barges, train stations and harbours.

See Hagley Museum. ‘History of DuPont in Chile’ by Jon M. Williams, 23 August 2013, at http://www.hagley.org/librarynews/history-dupont-chile, refrerring to Alfred D. Chandler and Stephen Salsbury, Pierre S. du Pont and the making of the modern corporation.

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16

GUYTON DE MORVEAU, Louis-Bernard 1737–1816

Printed and manuscript letters and documents relating to the Annales de Chimie.

Paris, 1790–1809. £12,000

¶ An important collection of 5 printed pamphlets and 12 manuscripts relating to Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737–1816) and the Annales de chimie, of which he was the lead editor, along with Lavoisier and others, from its

inception in 1789. All of these documents are in some way related to the Annales, as foreign language originals, copy texts, or, in one case, remarkably, the actual printer’s copy (a letter from Van Marum to Volta). In every case textual changes can be observed between the manuscript or printed copy texts and journal appearances. Guyton is known primarily for his collaboration with Lavoisier on the new chemical nomenclature which underpinned the chemical revolution and in the earliest item in the collection he surreptitiously changes the chemical names in an article to the new nomenclature when reprinting it from an offprint from another journal, demonstrating the instability of the printed texts.

Other pieces relate to the new chemistry, such as the letter from the first German chemist to adopt Lavoisier’s chemistry, Sigismund Friederich Hermbstädt and a dispute between Spallanzani and Brugnatelli over the authorship of a letter on the new chemistry. Well known contemporaries of Guyton represented include Alexander von Humboldt on the magnetic properties of serpentine as well as Van Marum and Volta on electricity.

THE DOCUMENTS ARE ARRANGED IN NINE GROUPS AND DESCRIBED IN THE NEXT FIVE PAGES.

Editing the Annales de Chimie

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PELLETIER, Bertrand (1761–1797) and DONADEI, Louis

Mémoire sur le phosphate calcaire 4to: A4, pp. 8. Untrimmed and unopened; stab sewn.

¶ Offprint from Observations sur la physique, Vol. 36 (1790) pp. 161–8, the same setting of type with signatures and pagination changed. The Observations became the Journal de physique, the title already used for Part II. of vol. 36 so the journal appearance of this article is headed ‘Journal de physique. Septembre 1790’ although the headlines are ‘Observations sur la physique within a frame of fleurons, one line of which is retained in the offprint. This article was reprinted in the Annales de chimie, Vol. 7 (1790), pp. 79–96 with the new chemical nomenclatures – acide sulfurique for acide vitriolique; acide carbonique for air fixe etc. There are also minor textual changes, a footnote omitted and the Annales printing also adds the information ‘Lu à l’Académie Royale des Sciences en juin 1790. These changes were presumably made, silently, by Guyton de Morveau, stealthily introducing the new chemistry, and they illustrate the instability of a text which is at first sight the same in the two journals. This is also an early example of an author’s offprint – in this case unrecorded – and was presumably sent by the author to Guyton.

VAN MARUM, Martin (1750–1837); VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste (1765–1842); HERMBSTÄDT, Sigismund Friedrich (1760–1833); VAN DER MOEVEN; HALMA, Nicolas B., Abbé (1755–1828)

1. VAN MARUM. Autograph letter in French, signed, addressed to Guyton de Morveau, dated Harlem, 31 December, 1796. Annotated by Guyton ‘Rep[ondu] le 6 f.ev 1797’ and ‘Envoié J.al polyt. 4.e. C.’.

Manuscript, 2 leaves, 235 x 189mm. ¶ A friendly letter in which Van Marum offers a paper for the Annales de chimie which appeared in Vol. 21, pp. 158–173 as ‘Combustion du phosphore dans le vuide (ainsi dit) de la machine pneumatique’. He also asks Guyton to send him issue 4 of the Journal de l’ecole polytechnique and complains of the cost of postage of earlier issues. 2. VAN MONS. Autograph letter in French, signed, dated Brussels, 18 floréal (1796?), including a long extract in German from HERMBSTÄDT to Van Mons.

Manuscript, 243 x 183mm, written on 3 pages. 3. HALMA. Autograph manuscript translation into French of Hermbstädt’s letter.

Manuscript, 4 leaves, 206 x 167mm, written on 7 pages. ¶ Hermbstädt was the first German chemist to adopt Lavoisier’s theories. Only part of the manuscript, with some changes, was published in the Annales de chimie as ‘Observation sur les attractions prochaines. Extrait d’une letter de M. Hermstadt, au citoyen Van-Mons.’ and ‘Sur le depart du nickel allié au cobalt. Extrait de la même lettre’, Vol. 27, pp. 107–8.

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4. VAN DER MOEVEN. Autograph letter in French, signed, dated Paris, 29 January 1797, addressed to Guyton.

Manuscript, 1 leaf, 230 x 183, written on one side, with conjugate address leaf with remains of seal.

¶ Van der Moeven asks for Guyton for various books and journals on behalf of Van Marum.

HUMBOLDT, Alexander von (1769–1859)

Autograph manuscript in German, published in translation as ‘Lettre de M. Humboldt, Sur une serpentine verte, qui possède à un haut degré la polarité magnétique. Traduite de l’allemand par le citoyen Halma’. Annales de Chimie, Vol. 22 (1797), pp. 47–50.

Manuscript, 2 leaves, 210 x 175mm, annotated in pencil by Guyton de Morveau ‘trad. Par H Guyton de Morveau and the Annales de Chimie

¶ An important collection of 5 printed pamphlets and 12 manuscripts relating to Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737–1816) and the Annales de chimie, of which he was the lead editor, along with Lavoisier and others, from its inception in 1789. All of these documents are in some way related to the Annales, as foreign language originals, copy texts, or, in one case, remarkably, the actual printer’s copy (a letter from Van Marum to Volta). In every case textual changes can be observed between the manuscript or printed copy texts and journal appearances. Guyton is known primarily for his collaboration with Lavoisier on the new chemical nomenclature, essential to the chemical revolution, and in the earliest item in the collection he surreptitiously changes the chemical names in an article to the new nomenclature when reprinting it from an offprint from another journal, demonstrating the instability of the printed texts. Other pieces relate to the new chemistry, such as the letter from the first German chemist to adopt Lavoisier’s chemistry, Sigismund Friederich Hermbstädt and a dispute between Spallanzani and Brugnatelli over the authorship of a letter on the new chemistry. Well known contemporaries of Guyton represented include Alexander von Humboldt on the magnetic properties of serpentine as well as Van Marum and Volta on electricity. Many of the items are annotated by Guyton and range in date from 1790 to 1809.

VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste (1765–1842)

Nuove osservazioni sopra la pretext proprieta del gaz azoto di poter servire alla combustion annunziata dal professore Gottling di Jena di van Mons.

Manuscript, 6 leaves, 205 x 180mm, written on 11 pages. In Italian in the hand of a copyist. Annotated at the head ‘imprimé’.

¶ The Italian text of a letter from Van Mons to Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli (1761–1818). A translation was published in the Annales de chimie Vol. 22 (1797), pp. 221–230, as Observations nouvelles sur la propriété d’entretenir la combustion que Goettling, professeur à Jena, pretend trouver dans le Gaz azote. Extrait

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d’une letter du Citoyen Van-Mons, à M. Brugnatelli, traduite de l’Italien. It was followed by an ‘Addition Du Traducteur’ (citoyen Venturi).

SPALLANZANI, Lazzaro (1729–1799) and BRUGNATELLI, Luigi Valentino (1761–1818)

1. SPALLANZANI. Autograph letter, signed, in Italian, addressed to Guyton de Morveau, dated 16 Pratila (prairial) an 6, i.e. 4 June 1798.

Manuscript, 1 leaf 253 x 185mm, address on verso, traces of seal. ¶ Spallanzani protests that the ‘Lettre du cit. Spallanzani au cit. Van Mons sur la nomenclature chimique’, Annales de Chimie, Vol. 25, pp. 216–218 was wrongly attributed to him (it was in fact by Brugnatelli) and defends his use of the contested term ‘thermoxigène’. The error of attribution was corrected in a note in Vol. 25, pp. 335–6. 2. SPALLANZANI. Lettre du Citoyen Spallanzani Professeur d’Histoire naturelle dans l’Université de Pavie au Citoyen Van-Mons de Bruxelles.

Autograph manuscript, 2 leaves, 288 x 198mm. ¶ In this article in the form of a letter, Spallanzani reiterates his protest against the mis-attribution of the article and affirms his adherence to the new chemical nomenclature. 3. BRUGNATELLI. Lettera del Cit. Brignatelli Prof. di Chimica nell’ Università di Pavia Al Cit. Van-Mons di Brussels. Pavia 22 Fiorile An. Vi

8vo, pp. vii [I, blank]. Unbound, tear in first leaf affecting text without loss. ¶ In this printed letter Brugnatelli claims authorship of the disputed letter and resumes the discussion of the term ‘thermoxigène’. Three articles in the Annales de chimie relate to this dispute (photocopies included), the original article by Brugnatelli wrongly attributed to Spallanzani (Vol. 25, pp. 216–7); ‘Examen de quelques critiques de la nomenclature des chimistes français’ by Guyton de Morveau (Vol. 25, pp. 205ff.) and the editors’ note explaining the incorrect attribution (Vol. 26, pp. 335–6).

INSTITUT D’ERFURT

1. TROMMSDORFF, Johann Bartholomew (1770–1837), translated by HALMA. Annonce concernant l’institut chimique physique et pharmaceutique d’Erfurt.

Manuscript in Halma’s hand, 4 leaves 370 x 245. Upper and outer margins crumpled. Annotated by Guyton de Morveau ‘ Voyez n.o 64 des annals (to. 22).

2. TROMMSDORFF. Nachtricht von dem chemisch – physikalisch – pharmacevtischen Institut zu Erfurt.

Printed bifolium, 4 unnumbered pages, 186 x 110mm. Annotated ‘envoie par V. Mons le 26 g.al (germinal) [an] 6’.

3. Another printing of the same text. Printed bifolium, 4 unnumbered pages, 159 x 99mm.

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¶ Two printed prospectuses for Trommsdorff’s institute in German together with Halma’s French translation of the same text. A summary by Guyton de Morveau, ‘Annonce d’un établissement pour l’enseignement des Science, à Erfurt’, appeared in the Annales de Chimie Vol. 22 (1797), p. 81. The Chemisch-physikalisch-pharmaceutische Pensionsanstalt für Jünglinge founded by Trommsdorff in 1798 was the first pharmaceutical institute in Germany. Prospective pharmacists were given instruction in botany, zoology, mineralogy, mathematics and natural philosophy, as set out in the prospectus. It lasted for 33 years, training an entire generation of German pharmacists.

VAN MARUM to Alessandro VOLTA (1745–1827)

Lettre de M. Van Marum à M. Volta, professeur à Pavie, continent des Expériences sur la colonne électrique faites par lui et la professeur Pfaff dans le laboratoire de Teÿler à Harlem en Novembre 1801.

Manuscript. 13 leaves 227 x 188mm and a diagram on a separate sheet 163 x 188mm, 25 numbered pages and 1 blank, p. 2 has a pasted on extension with a 4-line footnote. Pp. 15/16 cleanly cut in two without loss.

¶ Printer’s copy of the French translation of Van Marum’s letter to Volta with corrections in the hand of Guyton de Morveau. Also marked are the paragraph breaks and the names of the compositors – Robin, Courville and Wilheur – who shared the setting of the text. The article appeared in Annales de chimie, Vol. 40 (22 October 1801), pp. 289–334. The pen and ink sketch of an electric pile appeared in a plate by Girard, engraved by Sellier. The original text – not this version edited by Guyton – was reprinted as a separate edition published at Harlem by A. Loosjes (undated but usually cited as 1802). ‘During the month of October 1801 Volta wrote a letter to Van Marum asking him to make, in concert with Prof. C. H. Pfaff, of Kiel, several experiments on the electricity of the pile with the very powerful apparatus of the Teylerian Society. … Their united observations confirm the doctrine of Volta as to the identity of the current of the fluid given by an electrical machine.’ (Mottelay, Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism, pp. 278–9, citing the Lettre à Volta published in 1802).

RICHTER, Jeremias Benjamin (1762–1807), translated by BRECHTEL, Henri-Ignace (1784–1856)

Sur la quantité d’oxygène que prend le charbon, lorsque le diamant par sa combustion forme de l’acide carbonique.

Manuscript, 2 leaves, 230 x 180, written on 3 pages in the hand of Brechtel, annotated with a different pen ‘Richter sur le Diamant’ at the head and ‘j’ai ‘eté chargé de la part de Monsieur Hachette de faire la traduction que j’ai l’honneur de vous remettre. Brechtel. Eleve de l’Ecole polytechnique’.

¶ This was printed in the Annales de Chimie Vol. 47 (1803), pp. 209–212) with several changes, presumably made by Guyton de Morveau. The text is a

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translation of Richter’s paper in the Gegenständer der chimie (Part 11, 1802) and comments on Guyton’s experiments on the combustibility of diamonds.

GUYTON DE MORVEAU, Louis-Bernard (1737–1816) and LACEPEDE, Bernard Germain (1756–1825).

1. GUYTON DE MOVEAU. Rapport fait au nom d’une commission composée de MM. Berthollet, Chaptal, Vauquelin, Le Bréton, Vincent et Guyton-Morveau. Chargée de la recherche du proceed de feu Bachellier, pour la composition d’un badigeon conservatuer. Paris: [Imprint on p. 29:] Badouin, Imprimeur de l’Institut de France, (1809)

4to (242 x 185mm), pp. [2] 29 [1, blank]. Annotated 8.bre 1809 in brown ink and with the title and a reference on p. 24 in purple ink in the hand of Guyton de Morveau. Stab stitched as issued.

2. LACEPEDE. Composition du Badigeon Conservateur. Manuscript, 1 leaf 310 x 200mm.

¶ The report of a commission charged with recovering the formula for a ‘badigeon conservateur’, a treatment for the stonework of buildings to protect them from lichens and insects, devised by J. J. Bachelier but lost when he died. It was published in the Annales de Chimie, Vol. 83 (1812), pp. 285–315 with slight changes but omitting the ‘Note des échantillons et produits d’essais joints au rapport du commission’ (Note on samples and products of experiments) printed here on pp. 28–29. The accompanying MS ‘Communiqué de la part de M le comte de Lacepede’ gives the formula and instructions for the preparation of the badigeon.

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17

THENARD, Louis Jacques (1777–1857)

Sorbonne. Cours de Chimie organique de Mr. Gay-Lussac [title on upper wrapper]. Genéralites sur les substances vegétales et animales et procédés usites pour enfaire l’analyse. 2e partie du Cours de Mr Thénard. Chimie organique [head of text].

Paris: between 1809 and 1832.

Manuscript on paper, 190 150mm, 28 leaves in a single gathering, titled on the first leaf, verso blank, the text extending to the top of the recto of the last leaf, verso blank. Neatly written but in a rapid hand with very few corrections. Binding: Stitched through the fold at head and tail of spine. Outer leaves a little dustsoiled.

£1500

¶ A record of previously unknown lectures given by Thénard as part of Gay-Lussac’s chemistry course at the Sorbonne.

Although lectures in the newly formed Faculté des sciences were open to all and drew large audiences ‘what distinguished the new movement was the high level of teaching. It was now possible to lecture at the level of research. (Crosland, Gay-Lussac, p.144).

After a general introduction to organic chemistry, including ‘Analyse des produits immediats végétaux’, the text is divided into sections on organic compounds, ‘Acide acétique’, ‘Acide lactique et formique’ and other acids; then ‘Alcaloides’ starting with morphine and ending with a section on saponification.

Thénard’s appearance and style of lecturing was recorded by the Scotsman Sir Robert Christison who heard him lecture in 1820, he was a large man, ‘with the head, front, curls and eyes of a bull, and a conformable voice, strong, rough and commanding. His matter was excellent but the incessant vigour, sans relache sans repose, made one long for a little of his friend’s [Gay-Lussac’s] no less persuasive quiet occasionally.’ (Life of Sir Robert Christison, 1885, i, 240.)

On Thénard’s research in organic chemistry, Crossland writes, ‘Although Gay-Lussac is probably best known for his work in physical and inorganic chemistry, he also made a number of important contributions to organic chemistry. In January 1810 Gay-Lussac and Thenard developed the pioneer work of Lavoisier on the quantitative combustion analysis of organic compounnds’. (Maurice Crossland, DSB 324b.)

In 1809 Jacques Louis Thénard was appointed the first professor of chemistry at the Faculté des Sciences at the Sorbonne, Gay Lussac the first professor of physics. The latter held his post until 1832 when he gave it up to become professor of chemistry at the Jardin des Plants. However it is clear that Gay-Lussac also gave chemistry courses at the Sorbonne as there are two published versions of his lectures given there in 1828, taken down by

Wtih the appearance and voice of a bull

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stenographers (to Gay-Lussac’s annoyance). There is a very rare record of the first lesson only, Leçons de chimie de M. Gay-Lussac à la Sorbonne, comprenant l’histoire des sels, la chimie animale et végétale. Recueillies et publiées par M. Marmet, sténographe (Paris, 1828), 8vo, 13 pages. The much better known 2 volume work Cours de chimie has a fuller title heading the ‘Avis des éditeurs’ (bound in various positions) Cours de chimie … Cours fait a la Faculté des Sciences et recueilli par la Sténographie; revu par M. Gaultier de Claubry, professeur de chimie. (Paris: Pichon et Didier, 1828). 33 lectures were delivered from 11 April to 1 August 1828 and the publishers explain that the text was hastily published for the benefit of students taking the course that year.

Thénard and Gay-Lussac were close friends and collaborators so it is not surprising to find Thénard delivering lectures as part of the course offered by Gay-Lussac. The text of this course does not correspond to Gay-Lussac’s lectures delivered in 1828 and without further research it is not possible to date this manuscript more closely than to say that the lectures must have been delivered between 1809 when Thénard and Gay-Lussac were appointed at the Faculté des Sciences and 1832 when Gay-Lussac resigned his chair there.

18

GAY-LUSSAC, Joseph (1778–1850)

Chimie.

Paris: 1824-5.

Bound manuscript on paper, 230 x 173mm, untrimmed, 471 leaves including blanks, made up of 19 sections in 4 groups as follows.

1. ‘Ecole Polytechnique. Salle 9. Chimie. 1er [–10eme] Cahier’. 10 sections containing ‘Leçons’ 1–30. Each ‘cahier’ has the title and ‘L. de la Moricière’ or ‘La Moricière’ top left and ‘Mr Gay-Lussac’ top right on the first leaf, verso blank and the last leaf blank as well. Cahier 1, 24 leaves; 2–4, 26 leaves; 5–6, 28 leaves; 7, no title-leaf, text continues from cahier 6, 26 leaves ; 27 leaves (last leaf, probably blank, lacking); 9, 20 leaves, text incomplete, possibly lacking a leaf at beginning and end; 10 24 leaves, text starts mid-sentence, last 8 pages blank. 2. ‘1ere année Chimie.’ 3 sections, without the student’s and Gay-Lussac’s names on the first leaf but with a ‘Resumé’ of the contents; less formally written than the first 10 and with lesson numbers; 18 leaves each, leaf 11 of the second excised, last 14 leaves of the third blank except for a heading ‘Analyse des acides’. 3. ‘Ecole Polytechnique Salle 2. Chimie 1ere [– ] Cahier. 2ème année.’ 5 sections containing ‘Leçons’ 1–12. Each ‘cahier has ‘La Mouricière’ top left and Mr Gay-Lussac’ and is a single gathering with the title written on the first leaf, verso blank and the last leaf is blank as well. Cahier 1, 24

‘a superlative specimen of continuous unassailable experimental reasoning’

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leaves; 2, 24 leaves, 4 pen and ink diagrams; 3, 24 leaves, 1 diagram; 4, 22 leaves; 5, 28 leaves, last 18 blank excpt for rough sketches and calculations on last leaf. 4. ‘Chimie. Lamouricière’ (in pencil, no other title). 1 section, 40 leaves, last 19 blank except for 4 lines (in a later hand?) on the penultimate leaf written from the back. Binding: Contemporary half vellum, blue pasteboard sides, lettered in MS ‘Ecole Polytechnique’ 1ere et 2ème Années. Cours de Gay-Lussac. Chimie. Lamoricière. Head of spine torn.

£6500

¶ A valuable record of Gay-Lussac’s lectures at the Ecole polytechnique, the content of which is otherwise unknown. Although his public lectures at the Sorbonne in 1828 were published (see above), his lectures ‘intended exclusively for the carefully selected students of the Ecole Polytechnique’ were not made public.

In fact a few people from outside the school did attend, including Sir Robert Christison in 1820 (who also attended Thénard’s lectures, see above) who wrote: ‘Gay-Lussac was perhaps the most persuasive lecturer I have ever heard. His figure was slender and handsome, his countenance comely, his expression winning, his voice gentle but firm and clear, his articulation perfect, his diction terse and choice, his manner most attractive, and his lecture was a superlative specimen of continuous unassailable experimental reasoning.’ (Life of Sir Robert Christison, 1885, i, 240.)

Gay-Lussac was appointed professor of chemistry at the Ecole polytechnique in 1810. Probably the most important French chemist after Lavoisier, he wrote numerous research papers but no text book. Stung by the unofficial publication of his Sorbonne lectures in 28 he did begin work on a text book, but never completed it and destroyed the manuscript (Crosland p. 150).

The text of the present manuscript, no doubt based on lessons given in 1824 and 1825 is totally distinct from the 1828 Sorbonne lectures, though the subjects covered in the 30 lectures of the first year are similar. The 12 lectures of the second year however, are devoted to metallurgy, not covered in the published 1828 lectures. The less formally written parts of the manuscript are possibly the students rough notes and cover a range of subjects.

The student. Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière (1806–1865) was born at Nantes and entered the Ecole polytechnique in 1824. He went on to study at the military academy at Metz, named ‘lieutenant en second au 3e régiment du génie’ on 31 January 1829. His matriculation record at the Ecole polytechnique records his physical characteristics: brown hair, good brow (front correct), straight nose, brown eyes, medium mouth, round chin, oval face and 1m 65cm tall. He had a distinguished military career and was minister of war in 1848, opposing the policies of Louis Napoleon.

Maurice Crosland, Gay-Lussac, scientist and Bourgeois (1978), chapter 7, ‘Professor, Academician and editor’, pp. 143–177.

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19

GERMAN HEALTH CERTIFICATE

Nachdemmahlen Vorweise dieses [MS:] Herr Zacharias.

Mainz: 29 June1683.

Half-sheet broadside 190 x 310mm, 7 lines of text with a large decorated initial, proforma filled out in MS, paper seal; docketed on verso. Condition: Old folds, small piece torn from right hand margin, not affecting the text.

£650

¶ The certificate states that the bearer is in good health and from Mainz which is (praise God) free from infection. It is requested that the bearer be allowed to travel and pass freely from place to place.

Health passport

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20

GUNTON, Simon (1609–1676)

The history of the Church of Peterburgh: wherein the most remarkable things concerning that place, from the first foundation thereof: with other passages of history, not unworthy publick view, are represented. By Symon Gunton, late prebendary of that church. Illustrated with sculptures. And set forth by Symon Patrick, D.D. now Dean of the same.

London: printed for Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1686.

Folio: [A]⁴ B–2U⁴ 2X6, 178 leaves, pp. [8] 348. Woodcut initials and decorations, an engraving printed in the text on p. 243 and a woodcut on p. 280. 4 plates, the first and last engraved and unsigned, the other two etched and signed ‘Daniell King sculp:’ numbered 22 and 23 (plates bound together after the prelims). Condition: 361 x 230mm. A good fresh copy. Binding: Contemporary acid mottled calf, gilt spine with orange lettering piece, blind and gilt ruled sides, red page edges. Spine worn, joints cracked and cords weak but holding, head and tail of spine chipped. Provenance: ‘Le Capitaine Bernard’, contemporary or early inscription on title, an annotation drawing attention to the text about ‘The Account of the Beheading of Mary Q. of Scots at Fotheringay Castle and her Burrial in the Church at Peterborough’ on p. 73 in the same hand, and underlining in the same passage. Modern booklable of Clive Leslie George who has tentatively identified Le Capitain Bernard as the owner of Thorpe Hall, Longthorpe in a pencil note on the titlepage; armorial bookplate (eighteenth-century?) on verso of title with name erased. £480

First edition, large paper copy. ESTC R5107; Wing G2246.

¶ The standard antiquarian history of Peterborough Cathedral, of particular interest for the transcript of the library catalogue. Dunton introduces this saying ‘I shall here present an Ancient Catalogue of a Library in this Monastery, which, having no Date annexed to it, must be left to conjecture when it might be taken. The Marginal Illustrations [i.e. notes] I have taken out of Bellarmine, Pitsu, Trithemius, and affixed them thereunto.’ The catalogue, which occupies 50 pages, is headed ‘Matricularium Librariae Monasterii Burgi Sancti Petri pauci libris non examinatis.’ There are 348 volumes (shelf marks (A–Z, A2–Z2 ... A15–Z15, A16–C16) each containining up to half a dozen or more titles so there must be about 2000 titles. Gunton’s marginal notes are in English and give biographical information about authors as well as occasional bibliographical details of later printed editions. Its a fascinating list, discussed in detail by M. R. James who calls it ‘a thoughly abnormal

Wtih a catalogue of the monastic library

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catalogue’ in his work on the reconstruction of the library. The fine etchings by Hollar’s pupil Daniel King (c. 1610–1664) were originally published in William Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum (London: Richard Hodgkinson, 1655); the other engravings are I think original to the present work.

M. R. James, Lists of Manuscripts Formerly in the Peterborough Abbey Library (Cambridge 1929, reprinted 2010). 21

TRITHEMIUS, Johannes (1462–1516)

Catalogus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum, sive illustrium virorum, cum appendice eorum qui nostro etiam seculo doctissimi clarvere. Per venerabilem virum, dominum Iohan[n]em à Tritenhem Abbate[m] Spanhemensem, disertissimè conscriptus ... Anno M. D. XXXI. [Colophon:] Coloniae per me Petrum Quentell. Anno domini. M. D. XXXI..

Cologne: Peter Quentel, 1531.

4to: A–B4 a–zz4, 192 leaves, ff. [8] 184. Roman letter. Woodcut initials. Condition: 207 x 152mm. Single round wormhole through text to sig. z; marginal waterstaining at beginning and end. Binding: Contemporary blind stamped pigskin with brass clasps (replaced?). Somewhat worn. Provenance: About 100 words of contemporary annotation, underlining and marginal marks near the beginning of the book. ‘Conventus Landishutani ordinis Praedicatorum’, contemporary inscription on title; Munich University Library, release stamp on A1v; Herman Wiese, signature dated Nov. [19]70 and engraved bookplate with portrait of Trithemius.

£4000

Third editon, ‘cum multis additionibus’ but in fact reprinting the text of the second edition, De Scriptorib[us] eccl[es]iasticis (1512). (First edition 1494). There were many later editions. VD16 T1999; Adams T966.

¶ ‘Trithemius’ great bibliography, more commonly known as the De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (On Ecclesiastical Authors) was first printed in 1494 and proved to be one of his most popular works. Based on Saint Jerome’s well-known De viribus illustribus (On Famous Men), Trithemius’ work moves beyond Jerome’s own cautious approach to Classical literature in its enthusiastic recommendation of Hellenistic philosophy, Latin poetry, and rhetoric as essential companions to the study of Christian theology. He even remarked to one correspondent, ‘No one can be called adequately learned in the Holy Scriptures if ignorant in the study of secular literature’.

This copy is in a typical German blindstamped pigskin binding of the period and comes from the Domincan convent of friar preachers at Landshut in Bavaria, founded in 1271. The annotator only got as far as the mid-fifth-century authors.

One of the first printed bibliographies; copy from the Dominican convent at Landshut

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22

LANDO, Giovanni Giacomo (dates unknown)

Aritmetica mercantile... nella quale si vede, come si hanno da fare li conti, per li cambi, che si fanno nelle città principali della christianità. Il modo di raguagliare le piazze, di aggiustare ogni sorte di comissioni de cambi, & mercantie, & formare arbitrii ... In Napoli per Tarquinio Longo. M. D. CIIII. [Imprimatur on p. 270:] Alexander Gratianus.

Naples: Alessandro Graziani for Tarquinio Longo, 1604.

4to: a4 b2 A–L4(blank L4), 142 leaves, pp. [12] 720 (i.e. 270) [2] (misnumbering 243 as 233, 253 as 251, 265 as 269, 266 as 269, 269 as 263 and 270 as 721; last 2 pages blank). Woodcut printer’s device on title, woodcut decorations and initials. Condition: 195 x 139. Tiny wormholes and a few tracks in the blank inner margins; a good fresh copy. Binding: Contemporary limp vellum, MS spine lettering ‘Aritmetica Del Lando’. tear in spine with some loss, a little soiled. Provenance: 1. ‘[..] Gioi: Matthia: Smits 1645’ inscription on free endleaf with calligraphic flourishes and manicules, notes and calculations in his hand on 18 pages of the text and 3 full pages of notes and calculations on the terminal blank and rear pastedown. 2. several early shelf numbers on spine and upper cover; 3. Undeciphered signature and place dated 28 June 1920 on free endleaf.

£6000

First edition. There were no further Naples editions but three Venetian reprints, Giorgio Valentini, 1624, Ghirardo Imberti 1640 and Heirs of Imberti, 1645. Herwood, Historical accounting literature, 244; Goldsmiths’–Kress 337.1.

¶ The rare first edition of an important commercial arithmetic, used and annotated by a near contemporary Dutch merchant. The book deals with exchange calculations, commissions and arbitration in the principal trading cities of Italy as well as Antwerp and Barcelona. For each city Lando gives calculations between Italian and other European currencies, including those of Frankfurt, Lyons, London, Valencia and Zaragoza. The former owner

of this copy, who styles himself Giovanni Mathias Smits, perhaps of Dutch extraction, has added numerous calculations and observations in Italian in a fine legible hand, together with a few manicles and some nice decorations.

Smits comments on exchange rates, commission charges etc in various European financial centres, which he may have visited, including Venice, Milan, Naples, Seville, Antwerp, Amsterdam and London. He sets down his

Annotated by a Dutch merchant in Italy

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own calculations next to Lando’s, introduced by the phrase ‘a mio modo’, which he also puts beside Lando’s working where he agrees with Lando’s method. The annotator clearly delighted in his own penmanship – an important accomplishment for a merchant – not only in his fine, sometimes flourished, script as well as in the three dimensional manicles and neatly drawn leaves. It is not clear if the latter are purely decorative or serve some other function.

This first edition published in Naples seems to have satisfied demand until it was reprinted in Venice in 1623, and again in 1640 and 1645. OCLC locates copies of the first edition (and later editions) at Newberry ( + 1640), Univ. Chicago, Kansas and Columbia (+ 1623 and 1640). The 1640 edition is also held by Harvard Baker Library, and Minnesota; there are no US locations for the 1645 edition.

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23

LUINO, Francesco (1740–1792) and Roger Joseph BOSCOVICH (1711–1787)

Delle progressioni e serie libri duo... coll’aggiunta di due memorie del P. Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich.

Milan: Giuseppe Galeazzi, 1767.

4to: π4 a–b4 A–2I4 (–I4) 2K6 (cancels G1, I3, X3), 143 leaves, pp. xvii [3] 265 [1] (errata). Title printed in red and black with an engraved printer’s device on title showing a printing press, woodcut initials. 1 folded leaf containing two printed tables, ‘Tavola prima [– secunda]’ inserted as a foldout facing p. 24. Condition: 270 x 190, untrimmed. Small hole in blank margin of last leaf, a good fresh copy. Binding: Contemporary half vellum over pasteboard, gilt bands and centre ornaments in spine compartments, black leather lettering piece, blue-green pastedowns. Headcap chipped, short split in upper joint and some other wear. Provenance: Sebasstiano Canterzani (1734–1818), Italian physicist and mathematician with his name inscribed on paper label on the pastedown. Catalogo della libreria privata Canterzani esistente in Bologna via Toresotto di San Martino (Bologna, 1847) p. 61. Short blue chalk line below imprint on title, possibly also associated with Canterzani.

£1400

First (only) edition. Riccardi II, Col. 56; Sommervogel V, col. 181 no. 1 and (for Boscovich) I, col. 1843, no. 80; Whyte, Boscovich, p. 219.

¶ Nothing is known of Luino’s life and education before he entered the Jesuit order in Milan in 1757 after which he studied and taught at the Jesuit college at Brera. The main influence on his mathematics was the Jesuit Roger Joseph Boscovich, professor of mathematics at Pavia and also director of the observatory at Brera. This is Luino’s first work, on arithmetical and geometrical series. It was approved and perhaps promoted by Boscovich and has two of his own papers appended to it: ‘Metodo di evitare i logaritmi negativi’ and ‘Metodo di alzare un infinitinomio a qualunque potenza indefinita’ (pp. 237–265).

Provenance. Sebastiano Canterzani, professor of mathematics at the university of Bologna was particularly known for his work on mathematical analysis. In astronomy, he calculated the orbit of Venus, (see Epistola, qua Eustachii Zanotti observatio, 1764).He was made secretary of the Academy of the Institute of Sciences of Bologna in 1761. Canterzani’s books formed the major part of the library of his son, the bibliographer Giambattista Canterzani, at auction on 5 October 1847.

OCLC locates copies in North America at Harvard, Brown, Bancroft, Burndy, Loyola, and American Philosophical Society.

His first work, promoted by Boscovich

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24

REY DE PLANAZU (OR REY DEPLANAZU), François Joseph

Oeuvres d’agriculture.

Troyes, Orleans, Meaux, Compiegne and Paris: Parts 1 & 26, Paris, de l’imprimerie de Grangé, 1787; Parts 2, 6, 8–11, 13, 14–16, 18 & 19, Troyes, veuve Gobelet, 1786; Parts 3, 5 & 7, Orléans, de l’imprimerie de Courtet de Villeneuve, 1786; Part 4, Meaux, de l’imprimerie d’Augustin-Ponce Courtois, 1786; Parts 5, 17, 19 & 20, Compiegne, de l’imprimerie de Bertrand, 1786; Parts 23–25, Paris, chez la Veuve de l’auteur, 1787., 1786–7.

Parts 1 & 26, Paris, de l’imprimerie de Grangé, 1787; Parts 2, 6, 8–11, 13, 14–16, 18 & 19, Troyes, veuve Gobelet, 1786; Parts 3, 5 & 7, Orléans, de l’imprimerie de Courtet de Villeneuve, 1786; Part 4, Meaux, de l’imprimerie d’Augustin-Ponce Courtois, 1786; Parts 5, 17, 19 & 20, Compiegne, de l’imprimerie de Bertrand, 1786; Parts 23–25, Paris, chez la Veuve de l’auteur, 1787. 4to, 26 parts, in all 129 leaves. Separate dated titlepage to each part except 21 and 22 (plates without text); text within rule borders, engraved arms in dedication in part 23, woodcut head and tailpieces, headpiece in Pt. 1 signed ‘Bernard’ and dated 1778. Each titlepage has the author’s (or his widow’s) authenticating signature and most have stencilled initials ‘R.P.’ as well. 30 engraved plates printed on lightly blue tinted paper, an allegorical frontispiece in pt. 23 and 29 hand-coloured plates of agricultural machinery and apparatus with the arms of a dedicatee on most plates. Each plate has the author’s (or his widow’s) authenticating signature and, in most cases, stencilled initials. Condition: 255 x 195mm. Browning to a few text leaves near the beginning, occassional light foxing. A number of the plates and text leaves have been scribbled over with a graphite pencil. This has been professionally treated but could not be eliminated entirely. The scribbling affects in Pt. 6, 7 no. 2, 9 (almost invisible), 10 (insignificant), 11, 13, 14 (affecting the arms only), and is also visible, but very faint, on the versos of a few plates and text leaves. Binding: Contemporary mottled calf, gilt spine, red lettering piece, marbled endleaves, red edges. Head and tail caps and corners restored. Provenance: A price of 23fr has been written on the free endleaf and a number ‘258’ on the rear free endleaf.

£7250

First edition, bound from the original parts. A ‘Nouvelle édition’, continuously paginated, was published in Paris: Meurant, 1801.

¶ While the eighteenth-century Agricultural Revolution is often described as a British affair (and indeed in the 19th century British agricultural output was 80% higher than the European average), enlightenment thinking in Europe

Enlightenment agriculture

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meant there was no lack of enthusiasm for scientifically based improvement on the continent. Here Rey de Planazu describes a whole range of inventions from threshing machines to an incubator for poultry at the same time promoting the appreciation of well managed land and happy workers as equivalent to Buffon’s unveiling of the wonder of the natural world.

A member of the Société Physique et Economique de Zurich, Rey de Planazu gave a series of lectures in 1786 on agriculture and technology. These lectures resulted in invitations to some of the great estates of eastern France to advise on improvements and gather information. As he travelled about, the Oeuvres d’agriculture were published in separate parts printed in different centres. Each part was sponsored by an aristocratic patron whose coats of arms is included on the plates and whose farming innovations are described in the text. The first 18 parts describe agricultural machinery and crop rotation and Part 19 is a treatise on agricultural economy and farm management, ‘Recueil, contenant différents procédés d’économie rurale’.

With the sudden death of De Planazu in 1786 (he was 39) after the appearance of Part 20, publication was taken over by his widow, who saw the work to its conclusion, issuing two parts (21 and 22) with only engraved text on the plates and no letterpress, followed by Part 23, ‘Spectacle de la Nature. Considérée dans les Produits de l’Agriculture et de l’Economie Rurale, .’ The title is borrowed from Pluche whose enormously popular work was first published from 1732–1750. De Planazu more specifically invokes Buffon for awakening our interest and reverence for the natural world. The cultivated world should equally excite our admiration and joy and it is encumbent on landowners to live on their farms to improve the land and look after their workers. This part is provided with an elaborate allegorical frontispiece. The final three parts revert to the description of machines and bee keeping.

OCLC locates complete copies in North America at Getty, Iowa, Indiana, Kress, Linda Hall, Swarthmore, Virginia Tech, Washington State, Yale and McGill as well as locations for single issues. The Newberry has a prospectus for Part 15.

CONTENTS. 1. Traité sur les causes de l’état de langueur et d’engourdissement de

l’agriculture en France. 2. Traité sur les moyens simples de composer un engrais des plus

économiques et des plus avantageux. 1 plate. 3. Tableau de la division des terres en douze sols de façon qu’il n’y en ait

jamais d’incultes, en repos ou jachères. 1 plate. 4. Traité sur la pomme de terre avec un moulin pour en extraire la farine. 1

plate. 5. Traité sur l’usage des différentes herses, avec la description d’une herse

à cylindre propre aux terres argileuses. 1 plate. 6. Traité sur les différentes manières de semer, avec la description d’un

semoir nouveau de son invention. 1 plate. 7. Traité sur les moyens de cultiver toutes sortes de fourrages de prairies. 5

plates.

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8. Description d’une machine servant à découper les turneps et autres racines en terre pour servir d’engrais. 1 plate.

9. Description d’un levier simple et peu dispendieux à l’usage des habitans de la campagne qui ne peuvent se procurer les secours et la ressource du cric. 1 plate.

10. Traité sur les boeufs. 1 plate. 11. Description des différentes sondes à échappemens pour rechercher la

nature et la qualité des terres à diverses profondeurs. 1 plate. 12. Machine à battre les grains. 1 plate. 13. Traité sur la culture des turneps et sur l’avantage de cette nourriture

pour les bestiaux, avec la description d’une machine pour les hacher. 1 plate. 14. Description d’un charriot propre à transplanter de grands arbres. 1

plate. 15. Description et explication d’une machine pour conserver les fruits à

pépins pendant l’hiver. 1 plate. 16. Machine hydraulique. 2 plates. 17. Description d’un moulin à manivelle pour hacher les pailles et les

feuilles.1 plate. 18. Traité sur toutes espèces de volaille ou oiseaux de basse-cour. 1 plate. 19. Recueil contenant différents procédés d’économie rurale. 20. Machines pour découper les gazons. 1 plate. 21. Méthode facile de planter par le moien d’un double cordeau. 1 plate

with engraved text (no letterpress). 22. Machine pour égluier le seigle. 1 plate 1 plate with engraved text (no

letterpress). 23. Spectacle de la nature considérée dans les produits de l’agriculture et

de l’économie rurale, dédié au Roi de Prusse. Engraved arms of the dedicatee printed in the text, allegorical plate.

24. Description d’une herse pour arracher le chaume. 1 plate. 25. Description de deux machines dont l’une sert à ouvrir des sillons pour

semer à des distances égales, et l’autre recouvre les semences après qu’elles sont semées. 1 plate.

26. Traité sur les abeilles. 2 plates.

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25

TURNER, Thomas

Thomas Turner huius libri possesor est: Anno domini 1701. Questions of measuring.

Croston, Lancashire? 1701–1709.

8vo, 162 x 104mm, manuscript on paper written in a neat legible hand, 64 leaves including blanks, paginated [2], 11, [5], 9 [1 blank], 15 [1 blank], 1 [3 blank] [2] [14 blank] plus an inserted leaf written on the recto only and a slip, 73 x 79mm with text on recto and diagram on verso.

£1800

¶ A fascinating compendium on measuring and arithmetical operations, with a final section, perhaps the most interesting, on a ‘weather rope’. This is a type of hygrometer, whose use is apparently not described in Britain in other sources, which was first described by Santorio in 1612.

The first section, ‘Questions of Measuring’ is a series of worked examples, of the kind used in mathematical education, many relating to the building trades. This is followed by 5 pages of detailed calculations of the quantities and costs of glazing, smiths work and brickwork undertaken on Turner’s own house in 1707. The tradesmen are named as Will Nelson and Ralph Law. The next section, 15 pages, deals with the extraction of roots and (on the following leaf) the calculation of the height of the frustum of a cone, an operation which calls for the extraction of square roots.

The final section and the inserted slips are about calculating the scale for a weather rope 4.55 feet in length, the dimensions of which he says are ‘taken from one of Joseph Boltons of Croston [Lancashire] by his consent, which was erected by Mr Watterson, Arithmetician’. The scale, which is 2.2 inches long is marked ‘Wett, Changeable, Fair, Very Fair’. This instrument is described and illustrated by Santorio Santorio (1531–1636) in Commentaria in primam fen primi libri canonis Avicennae (Venice, 1625) as the first of two types of ‘string hygrometer’. It consists of string stretched between two nails with a weight in the middle. When the air is moist the string contracts and the weight rises and it falls again as the air dries. The position of the ball is read off from the scale on the wall behind. Turner only shows this scale, with ‘Wett’ at the top and ‘Very Fair’ at the bottom.

I am grateful to Anthony Turner for identifying the instrument and alerting me to the account of Santorio’s instrument given by E. Knowles Middleton in Invention of the meteorological instruments, Baltimore, 1969, p. 87. Turner, one of the leading experts on scientific instruments of the period, has not come across any other references in English to this type of hygrometer.

Weather rope – not a joke