55
203
203. NORMAN, Haskell F. — CHRISTIE’S. The haskell F. norman Library of Science and medicine. Part i: The middle Ages and the Renaissance [—Part ii: The Age of Reason; —Part iii: The modern Age]. new York: Christie’s, 1998.
£195
4to (266 x 210mm), 3 volumes. original printed, paper-covered boards, light- grey endpapers reproducing norman’s booklabel; pp. i: pp. 263, [3], [2 (blank l.)]; ii: 475, [3], [2 (blank l.)]; iii: 411, [3]; numerous colour-printed and monochrome illustrations, some full-page; minimal light rubbing, small bruise on lower edge of vol. ii upper board, nonetheless a fine set.
The monumental, three-volume sale catalogue of the remarkable collection of scientific and medical books formed by haskell F. norman mD (1915- 1996), which was sold at auction by christie’s in new York in three sales on 18 march, 16 June and 29 october 1998, and comprised some 1,384 lots which totaled more than US$18 million. The first catalogue is prefaced by Felix de marez oyens’ introduction, outlining the history of the collection and its formation through the agency of such well-known bookdealers in the field as Ernst Weil, Richard Gurney, otto Ranschburg, Lucien Scheler, John Boyle, etc. The majority of the works in the sale were described in Jeremy norman and Diana h. hook’s collection catalogue The Haskell F. norman Library of Science and Medicine (San Francisco: 1991), and some of them had also been included in Stanford University’s 1991 exhibition ‘Sigmund Freud: An Exhibition of original Editions, Autographed Letters, and Portraits from the Library of haskell F. norman’ and the Grolier club’s celebrated 1994 exhibition ‘one hundred Books Famous in medicine’, curated by haskell F. norman.
Amongst the books described in these three catalogues are the editio princeps of Aristotle’s Opera (venice: 1495-1498); the editio princeps of hippocrates’ Opera omnia (venice: 1526); a presentation copy from Grynaeus to Walter hermann Ryff of the editio princeps of Euclid’s Elementa geometriae (Basel: 1533); charles v’s finely-coloured copy of vesalius’ De humanui corporis fabrica libri septem(Basel: 1543); the first edition of Falloppio’s Observationes anatomicae (venice: 1561); the first edition of Kepler’s Astronomia nova ([heidelberg]: 1609); the first edition of Galileo’s Siderius nuncius (venice: 1610); huygens’ copy of the first edition of harvey’s Excercitatio anatomica de motu cordis (Frankfurt am main: 1628); a presentation copy of the first edition of Descartes’ Principia philosophiae (Amsterdam: 1644); a presentation copy of hooke’s Micrographia (London: 1665); presentation copies of the first editions of huygens’ Horologium oscilatorium (Paris: 1673) and Traité de la lumière (Leiden: 1690); the first edition of newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (London: 1687); newton’s copy of the first edition of Locke’s An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (London: 1690); the exceptionally rare first publication of Lobachevskii’s ‘o nachalakh geometrii’ in Kazanskii vestnik (Kazan: 1829-1830); a presentation copy of the first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (London: 1859), with an autograph signed presentation slip from Darwin inserted; and an inscribed presentation copy of the first edition of Freud’s Die Traumdeutung (Leipzig and vienna: ‘1900’ [recte 1899]). Each volume concludes with a concordance of lot numbers and entries in the norman collection catalogue, Garrison and morton’s Medical Bibliography, Dibner’s Heralds of Science, Printing and the Mind of Man, Grolier Medicine, and Grolier Science, and a bibliography of the principal references cited. Loosely inserted are the printed lists of prices realised.
204 hAnD coLoURED nURSERY RhYmES
204. [NURSERY RHYMES]. illustrated Ditties of the olden Time. Brighton; R. Folthorp, Royal Library, north Street; London, D. Bogue, Fleet Street. [1850].
£388
Large square 8vo. original grass green cloth elaborately and decoratively blocked in gilt to both covers and spine, all edges gilt, original pink patterned endpapers; ff. [33], printed on card on rectos; with gilt decorated presentation page, decorative lithographed title-page in blue and sepia with a little handcoloured highlighting, a decoratively panelled dedication leaf, and 29 exquisitely lithographed plates with twig borders, each delicately, precisely, and skilfully handcoloured; recently expertly rebacked preserving the whole of the original decorated spine; externally with a little light rubbing; internally generally very good with small marking to front free endpaper, old glue staining to inner gutter of front blank, light fox-blooming to margins of title-page and dedication leaf and one or two other sporadic, but minor, spots and marks; with a neat contemporary gift inscription dated December 1850; scarce.
First edition. A delightful mid-victorian collection of 31 traditional nursery verses including: “Sing a Song of Sixpence”; “Little Boy Blue”; “humpty Dumpty”; “Ding Dong Bell”; “hush-A-By Baby” and “Three Blind mice”. The illustrations are unsigned but the printed dedication page reads; “This little volume is affectionately dedicated to Geraldine for whose amusement the illustrations were originally designed by her mother”.
205.OPPENHEIM, E. Phillips. A Lost Leader. Boston. Little Brown and Company. 1907.
£98
8vo., original decorative cloth, lettered in gilt on spine. A little browning to leaves adjacent to the illustrations otherwise a near fine copy.
First edition. illustrations by Fred Pegram.
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