ChemistryThere are 10 items
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Quilatador de oro, plata, y piedras. Compuesto por Iuan de Arphe y Villafañe, natural de Leon, Escultor de Oro, y Plata, en las Casas Reales de la Moneda de Segovia
Madrid, Antonio Francisco de Zafra [at the expense of Doña Maria del Ribero], 1678A collected edition of Juan de Arfe's highly influential writings on the assaying of metals, with woodcut illustrations of precision balances, smelting furnaces, and other laboratory apparatus, faceted gems, and a diameter gauge for pricing pearls, taken from the original blocks. The author writes of Peruvian and Brazilian emeralds, mentions amethysts imported from the West Indies, and the pearl-fisheries of Panama, Cuba, and Cabo de Vela. -
Some early treatises on technological chemistry. Supplement II § Supplement III § Supplement IV § Supplement V § Joannes Matthaeus and his tract "De rerum inventoribus" § Bibliographical note on the “De triumpho stultitiae” of Perisaulus Faustinus
Glasgow & London, Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, 1890-1916Seven items (22-23.5 cm), offprints, as issued, in printed wrappers. ¶ Wrappers of one offprint slightly damaged; otherwise very good, unmarked copies. -
Bibliotheca chemica : Catalogue of the alchemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical books in the collection of the late James Young
Glasgow, James Maclehose & Sons, 1906Two volumes (27 cm), xxi (1), 487 (1); (iv), 598, (2) pp., photogravure frontispiece portrait of James Young in each volume (tissue guardsheet present). Uniform publisher’s quarter-morocco, brown cloth. - Original edition of a work that has served as a beacon and pilot for generations of collectors. The collection was donated by James “Paraffin” Young (1811-1883) to Anderson’s College, and is now incorporated in the University of Strathclyde Library, Glasgow. The compiler of the catalogue, John Ferguson, was Regius Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow, and himself an active collector of books on alchemy and the occult sciences (Ferguson’s own gift to the University included 104 incunabula and 317 manuscripts). This catalogue was printed for private distribution in an edition of 250 copies. ¶ Fine copy, untrimmed and unopened, the bindings very slightly rubbed. Exlibris of Robert Honeyman; sold by Sotheby’s, The Honeyman collection of scientific books and manuscripts, Part VII, London, 19-20 May 1981, lot 3231. -
A history of Greek fire and gunpowder
Cambridge, Heffer & Sons, 1960(25.5 cm), xvi, 380 (2) pp., frontispiece and 21 illustrations. Publisher’s red cloth, printed dust jacket. - Original edition of a classic study of incendiary devices used as military weapons, packed with information culled from primary sources. “The summa historiographica of virtually all scholarship on gunpowder’s history up to 1960, and the starting point for any serious investigation in the future” (Bert Hall, in the Preface to a reprint, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). ¶ Annotation in margin (p.159); otherwise a clean, unmarked copy. Dust jacket rubbed and slightly worn. -
Bibliographical notes on histories of inventions and books of secrets
London, Holland Press, 1981Two volumes in one (22.5 cm), c. 600 pages (various sequences). Publisher’s blue cloth binding (no just jacket issued). - The “books of secrets” were technical “how-to” books, typically revealing recipes, formulae, and “experiments” associated with the crafts, household and garden, or medicine. These might be instructions for making dyes, pigments, and drugs; directions for preserving fruits or increasing yields in the garden; or chemical preparations useful to a goldsmith or tinsmith. The information they contained was “secret” in the sense that it was likely to have been the property of specialised craftsmen and retained within the guilds. The advent of printing opened up opportunities to publish “secrets” for a profit and a huge number of books were published across Europe. The number of editions drops off sharply after 1700, but some were still being reprinted until late in the eighteenth century. Facsimile reprint of the first collected edition, London 1959. Preface by E.A. Osborne. ¶ Excellent, unmarked copy. -
Catalog of the Sidney M. Edelstein Collection of the history of chemistry, dyeing and technology
Jerusalem, Jewish National and University Library Press, 1981(34 cm), (2) 182 pp., frontispiece (reproduction of the collector’s exlibris). Publisher’s beige cloth. - Short-title catalogue of 4,021 items in the collection assembled by the chemist and inventor Dr Sidney Milton Edelstein (1912-1994) and presented in 1976 to the Jewish National and University Library. ¶ Gilt lettering on spine flaking; otherwise as new. -
Bibliotheca alchemica et chemica : an annotated catalogue of printed books on alchemy, chemistry, and cognate subjects in the library of Denis L. Duveen § H.P. Kraus, Inc. Catalogue 62: The Duveen collection of alchemy and chemistry : Supplementing the Bibliotheca alchemica et chemica : The Duveen collection of balneology
Utrecht, HES Publishers, 1986Two parts in one volume (25 cm), (10) 669 (1) pp., [16] p. of plates (pls.I-XVI); (6) 98 pp. Publisher’s black cloth binding (no dust jacket issued). - Facsimile reprints of the editions London 1949 and New York 1953. “This book is a goldmine… it contains descriptions of much that is rare, or very rare. A pity, but understandably, this reprint is not provided with one or more printers’ indexes. However an important book is again available” (from a notice by R. Breugelmans, in Quaerendo, volume 176, 1987, p.311).Duveen (1910-1992), a chemist and chemicals manufacturer, commenced collecting books on alchemy and early chemistry while a student at Oxford. In 1949, he emigrated to the United States, where he met the physician Herbert S. Klickstein, who helped him catalogue the more than 3000 separate works in his collection. In 1950-1952, Duveen negotiated the sale of the collection to the University of Wisconsin (John Neu, “History of Science Collections in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries” in Science & Technology Libraries, volume 14, 1995, pp.17-24). He continued to collect in all areas of chemistry and also balneology, and in 1953 sold a “second collection” consisting “almost entirely of items not represented in my original library” to H.P. Kraus; thereafter, Duveen specialised in the chemistry of Lavoisier, acquiring much of Lavoisier’s personal library and archives from the Chazelles family (via Lucien Scheler). That collection, also catalogued with the help of Klickstein, was sold to Cornell University via H.P. Kraus in 1963. Denis I. Duveen, “Contemporary Collectors XI: The Duveen Alchemical and Chemical Collection” in The Book Collector, Winter 1956, pp.331-342. ¶ Corner of front board bumped; otherwise as new.
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Alchemy : a bibliography of English-language writings
London, Boston, & Henley, Routledge & Kegan Paul / Library Association, 1989(24 cm), vii (1), 439 (1) pp. Publisher’s cloth, printed dust jacket. - 3188 entries for English-language writings on alchemy and related Hermetic arts, written between 1597 and 1978. Preface “On Alchemy and its bibliography” (pp.1-19). ¶ One marginal annotation (p.432); otherwise a very good, unmarked copy. -
Due trattati di metallurgia della Biblioteca Marciana di Venezia : Tecniche di estrazione e raffinamento dei metalli tra XV e XVI secolo (Università del Salento, Dipartimento dei beni delle arti e della storia; Fonti medievali e moderne, 11)
Galatina, Congedo Editore, 2007(24.5 cm), 252 pp. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - Introduction by Antonella Capitanio and transcriptions (pp.38-55, 109-216) of two manuscripts, both published for the first time. ¶ As new. -
La Conoscenza del fare : ingegneria, arte, scienza nel De la pirotecnia di Vannoccio Biringuccio (series: Automata. Rivista di natura, scienza e tecnica nel mondo antico; 5)
Rome, Libreria Editrice L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2012(24 cm), 224 pp., 150 illustrations. - Based on the author’s doctoral thesis (Università di Firenze). Reviewed by G. Ferrario, in Ambix, volume 61 (2014), pp.200-201. ¶ As new.
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