Search Results: Titles starting with L from Alembic Rare Books

Hildesheim, Zürich & New York: Georg Olms, 1987. Quarto. Original tan and white boards with text in black and white. Minor bump to the lower corner. Excellent condition. First edition, first impression. A very attractive copy in fresh condition. This important study analyses the philosophical milieu and influences of Maupertuis, "one of the greatest scientists and original thinkers of the 18th century. His contributions to mathematics (the Principle of Least Action), and his refutation of preformationist theories alone would have justified his pre-eminence. However, of particular interest was his study and interpretation of pedigrees of genetic traits, the application of the concept of probability to genetic problems, the introducing of experimental breeding as a means of studying the transmission of inherited traits in animals, and his proposed theories of inheritance, all ideas which were far ahead of their time" (Emery, "Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis )1698-1759)", Journal of Medical… Read More

Paris: Masson et Cie, Libraires de l'Académie de Médecine, 1959. Octavo. Original grey wrappers printed in black. 3 double-sided plates from photographs. Wrappers rubbed, a little creased, and partially tanned with a few small spots and marks. Slight crease affecting the margins of the first half of the contents. A very good copy. First edition, first impression of this uncommon and important monograph on bacterial genetics. An exceptional presentation copy signed by author François Jacob, with whom Brenner would partner only a year later to perform one of the most elegant experiments in the history of biochemistry, proving the role of messenger RNA and elucidating a key mechanism in the cell's process for decoding DNA. Cheekily inscribed by Jacob's co-author, Elie Wollman (1917-2008), "To Sydney Brenner, to disgust him / a good of bacterial sex" (possibly missing the word "dose" or similar before "bacterial sex"). And with Brenner's ownership signature in pencil on the upper cover. Wollman and… Read More

Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998. Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine in copper, blue endpapers. With the dust jacket. Colour illustrations throughout. Just a tiny spot of delamination at the lower edge of the jacket. An excellent, fresh copy. First edition, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould on the front free endpaper, "For Steven [sic], This was written to you. Warm regards, Tim Mitchell". Loosely inserted is a bookmark promoting Gould's talk "Pattern and Lack of Progress in the History of Life", the keynote lecture for Dinofest International 1996. The Last Dinosaur Book was the first comprehensive, critical enquiry into the depiction of dinosaurs in popular culture, revealing "a cultural symbol whose plurality of meaning and often contradictory nature is emblematic of modern society itself". Author W. J. T. Mitchell is a professor of English literature and art history at the University of Chicago. "A… Read More

Paris: L. Hachette, 1841. Small folio. 19th-century quarter calf, spine compartments in blind, brown pebble-grain cloth, olive endpapers. Text in French. 6 double-page engraved plates. Joints splitting, some rubbing and marks to the cloth, light spotting to contents. Very good condition. Second edition, volume II only. An unusual educational text on Greek mythology for girls between ten and fourteen by the French literature professor Nicolas Eugène Géruzez (1799-1865) of the Sorbonne, attractively illustrated with six double-page plates of mythological figures. This volume begins with the seventh week of lessons and continues through the 12th, so presumably the first volume covers the first six weeks. Though the title page states that this is the second edition, the publishing history of these mythological texts by Geruzez is confused, with several appearing in WorldCat under slightly different titles during the late 1830s and early 40s, though all are rare on the market.

London & Paris: R. Ackerman; L. Janet, 1822. Hardcover. Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. 12mo. Original pink boards, printed paper label to spine. Frontispiece and hand-coloured folding plate. Near-contemporary ownership inscription dated 1842. Boards rubbed and tanned at the edges with some small marks and spots, spine browned, ends of spine worn and chipped, corners bumped and worn, a few lights spots to early and late leaves, otherwise contents fresh. A very good copy. First edition of this guide to miniature painting designed for the education of young ladies. The author, Andre Leon Larue was born in 1785 and known professionally as Mansion. The son of a portrait painter, he worked as a miniaturist and also achieved remarkable results as a tinter of photographs during the 1840s and 50s. This was his first book on painting; the second was The Principles and Practice of Harmonious Colouring in Oil, Water, and Photographic Colours on Paper, Glass and Silver Plate. The present volume was… Read More

London: Hutchison, 1959. Octavo. Original grey cloth, title to spine in gilt on red ground, top edge dyed red. With the dust jacket. Facsimile manuscript letters within the text. Bookseller's ticket of H. K. Lewis and Co. Cloth a little toned at the upper edges of the boards, light spotting to the margins and edges of the text block. A very good copy in the jacket which is tanned along the spine and edges with a few small marks and mild creasing at the lower corner. First UK edition, first impression of one of the key texts of the philosophy of science. Originally published in Germany in 1934 as Logik der Forschung, Popper rewrote and republished it in English in 1959. The New York edition of the same year takes precedence, but the UK edition is less common.

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963. 56-page pamphlet, wire-stitched. Original buff wrappers printed in black. 3 double-sided plates, illustrations and charts within the text. Wrappers a little creased and toned, with some small marks and scratches, minor crease affecting the lower corner of the contents. Very good condition. A rare offprint of a book chapter by the geologist and optical scientist who was considered the foremost authority on the Moon. This copy is inscribed for presentation by his daughter and co-author, science historian Helen Wright, and it comes from the library of Allan R. Sandage, the astronomer who determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble Constant and the age of the universe and was considered "the greatest and most influential observational astronomer of the last half-century" (NY Times obituary, November 17, 2010). Worldcat locates only two other copies of this offprint, at the Huntington and the US Naval Observatory. Frederick Eugene Wright… Read More