Small 8vo. Full calf with black leather and gilt spine label. iv, 588pp, (2pp). Good plus. Almost, but not quite, rates very good, for it's tight,... Ouvrir

Small 8vo. Full calf with black leather and gilt spine label. iv, 588pp, (2pp). Good plus. Almost, but not quite, rates very good, for it's tight, clean and quite handleable. Though quite edgeworn and age toned (with darkening at tail of spine), the spine and rear cover (archivally rehinged) are original, while the front calf board and front pastedown are expert modern "aged" replacements (also archivally hinged); text block moderately age toned throughout, with sporadic foxing. Housed in a black cloth clamshell case. Rare first edition of this coveted cornerstone of any Mormon collection, with the two-page "Testimony" at the conclusion. Supposedly printed in an edition of 5000 copies. Inner front flyleaf bears a pencilled vintage ownership signature (ca. early 20th century), from whose family this long buried copy emerges. All in all, a lovely copy of this desireable rarity. Fermer

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New York: published for the Author, [1870]-1872. 2 volumes, folio. (23 1/2 x 18 inches). 2pp. subscriber's list. 79 fine hand-colored lithographic... Ouvrir

New York: published for the Author, [1870]-1872. 2 volumes, folio. (23 1/2 x 18 inches). 2pp. subscriber's list. 79 fine hand-colored lithographic plates (including 1 folding plate of feathers) after Joseph Wolf by Joseph Smit (58) or John Gerrard Keulemans (21), printed by M. & N. Hanhart and P.W.M. Trap, coloured by J.D. White, 2 uncolored lithographic plates by and after Smit, on India paper mounted. (Expert neat repairs to titles, the lower margin of the folding plate of feathers, and the text leaf in vol. II describing the Lady Amherst's pheasant). Contemporary red morocco gilt by Bickers & Son, covers with elaborate gilt border composed from fillets, decorative rolls and stylized foliage tools at cornerpieces, spines in seven compartments with double raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth, the others with overall decoration of massed small tools, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, g.e. The most splendid of Elliot's great monographs, and a rare American publication of this elegant class of books. Issued in 6 parts between June 1870 and October 1872, A Monograph of the Phasianidae is described by Sitwell as "the equal in every way to any work by Gould." The magnificent size and beautiful coloring of the plates after Joseph Wolf's drawings reflect the importance which Elliot attached to the Phasianidae. Of all the families in the ornithological system, he regarded it as the one most vital to the human race, "containing within it the species that afford food for thousands of mankind, and also those which are the original source of all the domestic poultry met with throughout the civilized world." He generously dedicated the work "To my friend Joseph Wolf", calling his "unrivalled talent...its chief attraction." Anker 130; Fine Birds Books (1990), p. 95; T. Keulemans & J. Coldewey Feathers to brush... John Gerrard Keulemans 1982, p.61; Nissen IVB 295; Wood p. 331; Zimmer p. 206. Fermer

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Five engraved plates & numerous woodcut diagrams & illus. in the text. 4 p.l., 66 (i.e. 64), 255 pp. Folio, cont. vellum over boards... Ouvrir

Five engraved plates & numerous woodcut diagrams & illus. in the text. 4 p.l., 66 (i.e. 64), 255 pp. Folio, cont. vellum over boards (binding a little warped, bottom corner of lower cover a little worn, occasional browning but rather less than usual), ties gone. Linz: J. Planck for G. Tampach, 1619. First edition, first issue, and a fine copy of this great book. Copies of the first issue are distinctly rare. This epochal work contains Kepler's discovery of the third law of planetary motion. Kepler regarded this work as his crowning achievement in elucidating the harmonic regularities of the universe. It was Kepler's three laws which formed the basis of Newton's principle of universal gravitation. "In the Mysterium cosmographicum the young Kepler had been satisfied with the rather approximate planetary spacings predicted by his nested polyhedrons and spheres; now [in 1619], imbued with a new respect for data, he could no longer dismiss its 5 percent error. In the astronomical book V of the Harmonice mundi, he came to grips with this central problem: By what secondary principles did God adjust the original archetypal model based on the regular solids?... "In the course of this investigation, Kepler hit upon the relation now called his third or harmonic law: The ratio that exists between the periodic times of any two planets is precisely the ratio of the 3/2 power of the mean distances...the law gave him great pleasure, for it so neatly linked the planetary distances with their velocities or periods, thus fortifying the a priori premises of the Mysterium and the Harmonice."-D.S.B., VII, pp. 301-02. An attractive copy in a contemporary binding. Two cm. strip at head of title clipped away and renewed at an early date, small rectangle (2.5 x 1.5 cm.) of blank portion of title renewed at a more recent date, and two small burn holes in title caused by an ink inscription. Several early inscriptions on title including: "auctori damnari et operis cum expurgat neo permissi." ❧ Caspar 58. Dibner, Heralds of Science, 6. Gingerich, Rara Astronomica, 33. Horblit 58. Printing & the Mind of Man 112. Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 115. . Fermer

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