This page contains a selection of truly rare and expensive books and manuscripts.
- MORLAND, Sir Samuel. “The description and use of two arithmetick instruments”.
First edition of the first book in English on a mechanical calculating machine, and the first separate work on the subject since Napier’s Rabdologiae (1617). Nothing more of any significance was published in English on calculating machines until Babbage in the 19th century. $20,000 - EUCLID — BYRNE, Oliver. “The first six books of The Elements of Euclid”.
The first six books of The Elements of Euclid in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters for the greater ease of learners. First edition, rare in the original cloth, of this celebrated book, “one of the oddest and most beautiful books of the whole century” (McLean). The use of colour is its most striking feature, with equal angles, lines, or polygonal regions assigned one of the three artistic primaries. $22,500 - COPERNICUS, Nicolaus. “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, Libri VI”.
“In quibus stellarum et fixarum et erraticarum motus, ex veteribus atque recentibus observationibus, restituit hic autor. Praeterea tabulas expeditas luculentasque addidit, ex quibus eosdem motus ad quoduis tempus mathematum studiosus facillime calculare poterit. Item, de libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici narratio prima, per M. Georgium Ioachimum Rheticum ad D. Ioan. Schonerum scripta”. $185,000 - NEWTON, Sir Isaac. “The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series”.
“The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series; with its Application to the Geometry of Curve-lines”. Translated from the author’s Latin Original not yet made public. To which is subjoined, A Perpetual Comment upon the whole Work, Consisting of Annotations, Illustrations, and Supplements, In order to make this Treatise A compleat Institution for the use of Learners. By John Colson, M.A. and F.R.S. Master of Sir Joseph Williamson’s free Mathematical-School at Rochester. $65,000 - DARWIN, Charles. “On the Origin of Species”.
“On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”. First edition of “the most influential scientific work of the 19th century” (Horblit) and “certainly the most important biological book ever written” (Freeman), in which Darwin explained his concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection, which would become the foundation of modern evolutionary theory; 1,250 copies were printed (London: John Murray, 1859). $300,000