Search Results: Titles starting with S from Comellas Rare Books

Ponte ad Monticulum (Pont-à-Mousson), apud Carolum Mercatorem, 1618. 4to. 14 leaves. 451 pages (i.e. 445). 2 leaves. Contemporary full calf, ornamented spine with nerves. First Edition printed in Pont-à-Mousson. This work was the main production of the Lorraine physician Charles Le Pois (1563-1633) who was the Pont-à-Mousson medicine university founder and the appointed physician of Charles III of Lorraine. He deals successively with the diseases of the head, internal and external, then the diseases of thorax, of the stomach and of the members. It contains in particular an important chapter dedicated to hysteria which, for the first time, locates its origin in the brain and not in the uterus, establishing at the same time the existence of masculine hysteria. "Piso (1618) explained epilepsy, migraine, and hysteria as cerebral diseases, thus paving the way for future developments in neurology and brain research. (…) His book on diseases (1618) was widely known and quoted up to the late-18th century.… Read More

4 works in 1 volume, 8vo. 1). 31 unnumbered leaves (1 blank leaf). 2). 62 numbered leaves (i.e. 52). 8 leaves. 3). 8 leaves. 27 numbered leaves. (1 blank leaf). 4). 24 leaves. 112 numbered leaves. Full vellum, flat spine, inked author's name and date ("1579") on back (contemprary binding). Precious collection of four rare works by Roch Le Baillif de la Rivière (1540-1605), Breton physician and alchemist of mythical fame. One of the first representatives of the Paracelesian doctrine in France, he was sued by the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. The four books gathered here provide an interesting panorama of his work, following his 1578 trial. They were published between Paris and Rennes, a city where he returned after his banishment from Paris, and where he was acquainted with Breton personalities such as Noël du Fail, Bertrand d'Argentré or some of the members of the Parliament of Brittany. 1). First Edition. Defence presented by Roch Le Baillif as a response to the accusations made against him by… Read More

Excudebant Parmae, Alberttus Pazzonus et Paulus Montius Socii, 1694. 12mo. 112 pages. 13 out-of-text engraved plates, of which 8 are folding. Contemporary full vellum, spine with nerves. First Collective Edition, printed in Parma, of this valuable collection of geometric problems solved by the Sicilian mathematician Ruggero Ventimiglia (1670-1698) and his correspondent Girolamo Saccheri (1667-1733), the famous precursor of non-Euclidean geometry, respectively aged twenty-four and twenty-seven. Coming from a prominent Sicilian family that had maintained links with renowned mathematicians Francesco Maurolico (1494-1575) and Giovanni Borelli (1608-1679), Ventimiglia had published in 1690, at the age of twenty, the solutions to twelve geometric problems that an anonymous Dutch geometer "hidden behind the blackboard" ("geometra post tabulam latens") had published around 1675 as an academic challenge. These solutions ("Enodationes duodecim problematum a Geometra post tabulam latente propositorum") were… Read More

Urbini, cum Privilegio Gregorii XIII, 1575. 4to. 2 leaves. 70 pages. (i.e. 80). Contemporary limp vellum, handwritten title on the spine. First Edition of this important work by the Greek inventor and mathematician Heron of Alexandria (1st century AD.C.), devoted to the automata and mechanical devices of his invention. Songbirds, puppets, slot machines, a fire pump, a hydraule and, his most famous invention, the eolipile. This machine, the oldest to use steam, consists of a sphere mounted on a pot with an axial rod and equipped with two no no noles that produce a rotational movement when the steam escapes (see Encyclopaeida Universalis). "Although many of the devices are toys or parlor-tricks, that was a fashion of the day, and Hero's matter-of-fact treatment clearly indicates that his interest was in the way they worked. Cardwell notes that Hero of Alexandria had, or at least proposed, a model steam engine in the form of a reaction turbine, that would actually work". Many wood engravings in the text… Read More

Collection of 7 works in 1 volume, 4to. 1). 1 leaf. 20 pages. 1 leaf. 2). 4 leaves. 93 pages. (pages 48-49 do no exist). 7 leaves. 133 pages. 4 leaves. 3). 24 pages. 4). 12 leaves. 5). 12 leaves. 6). 16 numbered leaves. 7). 7 leaves. (1 blank leaf). 103 pages. Contemporary soft vellum, early handwritten inscription on spine: "volume de mélanges grecs latins". Precious collection of seven rare works concerning the study of Greek language and culture. 1). Original Edition. Matthaios Kamariotis (d. 1490) was one of the last Byzantine scholars. A native of Thessalonica, he was teaching rhetoric in Constantinople when the city was taken by the Turks on May 29, 1453. 2). First Latin Edition. The lexicographer and grammarian Phrynichios Arabios lived in the 2nd century AD, and his lexicon of the Attic dialect is a precious testimony to the use of Greek in his time. 3). Editio Princeps of this declamation by the great Greek rhetorician Libanius (314-400), accompanied by its Latin translation. This text,… Read More