Search Results: Titles starting with O from Asher Rare Books

[1], [1 blank], VIII, 96, [1 blank], [1] pp.Joaquim Pinto de Campos was born in Brazil, in the province of Pernambuco, in 1819. He became active in provincial politics in 1845, shortly before the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco of 1848-1849. He actively helped maintain public order during this revolt and was rewarded for it by the government by being elected as a general and provincial deputy continuously from then on. He corresponded personally with the emperor in this role, so he could write his work partly from his own observations.In general, Dom Pedro II was well liked. His father and grandfather had helped Brazil win it's independence and he himself was seen as a good ruler. The country flourished while he was on the throne. Pinto de Campos also paints him in a positive light in his biography.With a bookseller's label on the front paste-down (Livraria Olisipo in Lisbon). The bindings shows very slight signs of wear around the spine and corners of the boards, the edges of the leaves are very… Read More

376, 368, 208, 108, [22], [ 2 blank]. Lacks the individual title-pages.Rare edition of the collected works of Luis de Camões, including Os Lusiadas and three Rimas. In the same year, Antonio Craesbeeck published another edition with the same title but with less content and with a different frontispiece. This collection of works is made up of separate publications.Os Lusiadas is the great epic poem of Portuguese exploration, in the original Portuguese, a monument of Portuguese literature that gave a Homeric aura to Renaissance voyages of discovery and colonial conquests, here together with the other works of Camões. Camões's work was first published in Portuguese at Lisbon in 1572. In the early 1530s the great Portuguese historian, João de Barros, most famous for his Decadas de Asia, had called for an epic poem of Portuguese exploration and discovery. Luis de Camões (1524-1580) answered that call four decades later. Camões was educated in a monastic school in Coimbra, and produced poetry and… Read More

146, [2] pp.First edition of a treatise on the medical properties of the perennial herb Geum urbanum, apparently a cure for nearly everything, by the Danish physician Rudolph Buchhave (1737-1796). A second edition appeared in 1794. Hinges slightly damaged, very good copy.l Wellcome II, p. 263; not in BMC NH; Pritzel; cf. Kelly, 18th century medical and scientific imprints German, B808 (2nd edition).

[6], 141, [11]; [10], 19-87, [1], 292, [4] pp.Two first editions, beautifully illustrated and complete with all their plates, of anatomical works by the Dutch physician and anatomist Gerardus Blasius (1625-1692), here bound together. The first work, Observata anatomica in homine, discusses human anatomy, the second (Zootomiae seu anatomes variorum animalium) discusses both human and zoological anatomy (including dogs). The illustrations of this second work includes more detailed depictions of the eye, chest, blood vessels, genitals etc. The engraved title-page, dated 1677, was added later and shows the disection of a human body in an anatomic theatre. Blasius was one of the first Dutch professors of anatomy and one of the founders of comparative anatomy. His anatomical writings were very influential and the present two works are beautiful examples of the his ideas as one of the most important anatomists of the 17th century.With the owner's inscription of François Antoine Martel on the verso of the… Read More

VIII, 139, [1]; 32; [4], 35, [1] pp.First edition of an important treatise on chronometry by Ernest Barthélémy Mouchez, who sailed as French astronomer, geographer and naval officer in the Capricieuse commanded by Roquemaurel. In his work he tried to improve surveying technique and he promoted the use of stationary observational instruments by the navy. The work contains extensive technical and methodological information on chronometry and the use of chronometric instruments, followed by observations made during the Capricieuse's circumnavigation with detailed notes on the Pacific (Marquesas Islands, Tahiti), Cochinchina, the Sunda Islands, and the coasts of China and Korea. Bound with two other valuable essays resulting from scientific expeditions along the coast of South America, notably Brazil, with the object to map the region more precisely. The second work for example discusses the longitudes of principal points along the Brazilian coast which would be used for a new map of the coastal line… Read More

[4], 114 pp.Rare first edition of an extensive account of several scientific observations made to improve the astronomical and geographical information on regions in China and India. The work contains several reports on China and Siam, made by various Jesuits, including father Richaud who comments on the astronomy and calendar of the Siamese, and François Noël who calculated the longitude and latitude of several villages in China. Other reports concern, among others, Cassini's tables of Jupiter's satellites, Tartary at the frontier with China, a journey from the Junnam province in China to the city of Ava as it was made by some 30,000 Chinese fleeing from Tartary, and observations on a comet that had appeared in 1689. All these reports were collected and provided with commentaries by father Thomas Gouye (1650-1725). The two engraved maps depict a part of India, one showing the course of the river Ganges and the other the course of the river Ava. The engraved plate depicts the different letters and… Read More

89-92; 1215-1230; 1262-1265 pp.Three astronomical articles (2 in the form of letters) by England's first Royal Astronomer, John Flamsteed (1646-1719) at the Greenwich Observatory from its establishment in 1675, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the British Royal Society in the years 1683 and 1685. The first article gives observations of a 1682 lunar eclipse by Flamsteed himself, Edmund Halley and a certain Haynes. The second gives Flamsteed's calculations of the eclipses of Jupiter's four moons for the coming year 1686, intended in part as an aid to the determination of longitude. The third gives an engraved dial with four scales around its perimeter, with Flamsteed's description of its use to calculate the positions of Jupiter's moons.. Flamsteed's magnum opus, his great star catalogue and charts, appeared posthumously in 1725 and 1729, so his most important publications during his own lifetime were a single book in 1680 and a dozen short astronomical articles in the years 1672 to 1686,… Read More

VIII, 19, [1 blank] pp.A very rare missionary pamphlet published in India by Alexander Duff (1806-1878), a Scottish missionary who sought to improve education in India, and William Pearce (1794-1840), the owner of the Baptist mission press. During their missionary work, Duff and Pearce had noticed that Hindus and Muslims who converted to Christianity were disqualified from holding or inheriting their family's property, according to the laws of their previous faiths. In this pamphlet, they explain why they think these laws are unjust and offer potential solutions to circumvent them.The Baptist mission press was established by Pearce in 1817 and only closed in the early 1970s. Pearce was a British missionary who had trained at the Clarendon press in Oxford. His company published works from various genres in over 30 different Indian languages, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu and Pushtu. The press was also one of the first to use moveable type for a publication in Chinese. The… Read More

XXXII, 438; XVI, 452 pp. ; 55 ll.Very rare account by Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811) of his second expedition to Russia in 1793-1794. This time he studied the southern provinces of Russia, especially the steppes near the Caspian Sea, the northern Caucasus, the Crimea and the Black Sea. Although Pallas published an extensive account in German of his second expedition in 1799-1801, it never gained as much attention as the first expedition to Russia and Siberia (1768-1774). The present work is the French translation of this German account.In this account of his travel to South Russia, the Crimea and the Black Sea, Pallas not only describes his route through the Russian Empire, he also - as a geologist and naturalist - gives an excellent physical and topographical description of the landscape. He notes the differences in the landscapes he faces along his way, not only differences in nature, but also how these Crimean landscapes have historically changed over years. He describes their historical geological… Read More

[16], 192 ll.First edition of a very popular Latin presentation of the secrets of nature, considering physiological, physical, medical, religious and moral topics, by Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568), attempting to explain extraordinary natural phenomena. “Bits of medical and natural lore are thrown together hit-or-miss” in this work, but it was not without importance “since it was often cited by subsequent learned authors, and since the numerous editions and translation of it show that is was well suited to the taste of the time” (Thorndike). Lemnius clearly intended both to educate and to entertain the reader. Despite his interest in the occult and his astrological beliefs in the influence of the stars and the moon on people, Lemnius always remains pragmatic. Examples are the effects of human saliva, whether it is better to sleep with one’s mouth open or closed, whether people should drink white wine before red, the use of vinegar in times of plague, the quarrelsome effect of Poitou-wines and the… Read More

[32] pp.Second and nearly definitive edition of the 1621 charter granted to the Dutch West India Company (WIC) by the Dutch States General, here for the first time with three additions from later proclamations by the States General. The 1621 charter established the WIC as a joint stock company on 3 June 1621, less than two months after the expiration of the Twelve Years’ Truce with Spain during the Eighty Years’ War for Dutch independence from Spain. The truce had forbidden Dutch incursions in the Spanish and Portuguese colonial trade, including that in the Americas, and the WIC was established explicitly to trade in their American territories and even to conquer their territories when possible and establish Dutch colonies. In fact, the WIC’s first major expedition was intended to capture the Portuguese colonies in Bahia (the heart of the sugar plantations) and Sãu Paulo (the centre of the American trade in African slaves) in what is now Brazil, and the fleet set off in December 1623 and 1624,… Read More

5, [3 blank] pp.Handwritten proclamation concerning the rights and commitments of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) with respect to the inheritances of employees of the Company who died in, on their way to, or returning from the East Indies without leaving a last will (“ab intestinao”) - especially with regard to their back pay. The States General promulgated the present proclamation based on a report by Huygens (Constantijn Huygens junior (1628-1697)?) and others. Contemporary copy from a pamphlet in the Groot placaetboek.In good condition.l Groot placaetboek 1658-1770, II, p. 2634.

[34], 260 pp.Rare second, enlarged edition of a description of the botanical garden of the author: Johann Christian Cuno (1708-1783). The first edition (1749), also in German, does not include Büttner's botanical commentary. Cuno, born in Berlin, migrated to Amsterdam and made a fortune as a merchant. He spent his spare time in his garden estate near Haarlem and wrote this book about it. Cuno became an important figure in Amsterdam society, befriending many authors, including Linnaeus, who named a plant family after him: Cunonia. The first edition is extremely rare (not in WorldCat, but the SB Berlin has a copy). Owner's name in ink on first endpaper: "Jongman 1940". Small tear in the margin of the folding title-plate. A few wormholes throughout, more in the last pages. Spine and board edges worn.l STCN (4 copies incl. 1 incompl.); Paradisus Batavus 52; not in Arnold Arboretum; Hunt.

[6], 109, [1 blank] pp.First edition of a collection of sacred songs in verse selected from his own works by Jean Baptiste Rousseau (1671-1741), most of them based on psalms and a few on other biblical texts. Born in Paris, Rousseau published his Cantates françoises around 1705 and established a good reputation for his lyrics. His lampoons and some obscene verses supposedly written by him occasionally got him into trouble, but he had a promising career ahead of him when he published his Oeuvres in 1712. In that year, however, a dispute over offensive verses supposedly written by him forced him into exile in Brussels. He lived there and elsewhere abroad for the rest of his life, sometimes publishing selections of his work, such as the present one, and returning to Paris only for a clandestine visit around the time he published the present collection. Although his poetry appears to have sold fairly well and his lyrics continued in demand with musicians, he remained in financial straits, his exile… Read More

[in total about 7500 pp.].First edition of the works of Denis Diderot (1713-1784), published fourteen years after his death. Diderot, one of the widest ranging and most creative minds of the Enlightenment, is best known as the motive force behind and author of many articles in his 28-volume Encyclopédie (1764-1772), which occupied him for more than twenty years, but he published works on a wide range of subjects before and after the Encyclopédie. The present 15 volumes, published from Diderot's manuscripts (including correspondence) and totalling about 7500 pages, therefore covers plays, novels and poetry as well as essays on philosophy, mathematics (including music), literature, art and religion, and includes correspondence with numerous men and women, including Voltaire. Although his Encyclopédie articles are not included, many were based on or carried further in publications included here, and 220 pages of vol. III are devoted to the Encyclopédia. Diderot's Encyclopédie, though enormously… Read More

XVI, 390; [4], XIV, 316; XXII, 371, [1] pp. plus folding tables and plates.The complete posthumous works of Louis de Cormontaingne (ca. 1696-1752), the leading French fortifications engineer of his day and from 1748 Maréchal de Camp in the French army. The three volumes form a complete handbook of fortification, with the first devoted to the design and construction of permanent and temporary fortifications, the second to offense in siege warfare and the third to defence. All three are extensively and clearly illustrated. Cormontaingne joined the Corps du Génie less than a decade after the death of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707) and is regarded as his successor, establishing his reputation with the fortifications of Metz in 1728. Vauban completely dominated French and to some degree international fortification for decades after his death, but offensive tactics steadily gained ground while defensive tactics remained largely the same, so Cormontaigne introduced some improvements into… Read More

[28] ll.First issue of the first and only edition of a pamphlet on the "true Evangelical doctrine", by the German Lutheran theologian and reformer Nicolaus von Amsdorf (1483-1565). The pamphlet was published after Johann Pfeffinger held two disputations on the nature of free will. This pamphlet "... reproduced Pfeffinger's teaching in distorted form, maintaining that Pfeffinger and his colleagues had taught that human beings can prepare themselves for grace by their own free will and situate themselves so that God can give them grace..." (Kolb). The text is followed by a section against the "bitter falsehoods" as believed by Justus Menius (1499-1558) and others. Included at the end is a brief and sharp reply by Pfeffinger.A few marginal water stains, otherwise in very good condition.l Kolb, Lutheran ecclesiastical culture: 1550-1675, pp. 47-48; VD16, A2381 (A2382, the second issue).

XX, [2], 195, [1] pp.A British propaganda publication, printed in Calcutta, transcribing “secret” documents that the British supposedly found in the palace of Seringapatam: primarily Tipu Sultan’s correspondence with the French, considered a betrayal of the British. Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India, took part in a long-standing military feud with the British, but made peace with them in 1792. When the French under Napoleon made a push for India in 1798 the British attacked Tipu’s forces once again, starting the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and eventually killing Tipu Sultan in the attack on Seringapatam. He had a fearsome reputation as the “Tiger of Mysore” and the present publication attempts to discredit him as a traitor. His supposed affiliation with the French Jacobin Club would have especially concerned British readers. Most of the correspondence between Tipu Sultan, the French and their allies (including Zaman Shah Durrani, ruler of what was to become… Read More

[4], 68 pp.Third edition of a catalogue of medicines for sale at the Societas Pharmaceutica at London by Nicolaus Staphorst, director of the chemical laboratory of the Royal College of Physicians in London. Staphorst was an immigrant from Hamburg who belonged to an important family of ministers and church historians.The first edition of this booklet was published in 1685 in London by Miller; the second appeared in Hamburg in 1686.Spine damaged, otherwise in good condition.l A.C. Zeven, “Who was Staphorst, collector of Guinea plants?”, in: Taxon, 25/1 (1976), pp. 151-153 (on Staphorst’s son Nicolaus).

[452] ll.The Opera omnia of Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494), one of the great Florentine humanists and tutor to Lorenzo de 'Medici's children, printed by the most famous printer and publisher of its time: Aldus Manutius at Venice. According to Renouard, the great bibliographer of the Aldine editions, this rare edition is "l'une des plus belles qui soient sorties de l'imprimerie Aldine".The publication of the Opera omnia of Poliziano has a complex history. It has been usual to regard the edition as part of some 'grand design' of humanist publication: apart from Aldus' admiration for Poliziano as the embodiment of that perfect philological skill to which he himself aspired, we might notice that the book was printed as a large folio, costing 1.4 ducats and demanding typographic experiments such as the first use of Hebrew letters (Lowry).Indeed Poliziano was the outstanding humanist of his day, a talented scholar whose breadth of reading was very great and whose range of interests included history, politics,… Read More