Authors starting with B from B & L Rootenberg Rare Books & Manuscripts

With the engraved title page. Original vellum; in excellent condition. First edition of the Latin text following the original London folio of 1620. Intended as a six-part work on a new method of investigating the natural world, novum organum, the new instrument or new method, was never completed and only fragments of it were published. All of Bacon's philosophical writings were intended to form part of a great plan for a general renewal of all the sciences, which he called his Instauratio magna (1620). ... more information

Contemporary leather-backed boards. A very good copy; some stains to endpapers. An early work by Baer on alcoholism. What distinguishes the book is the extensive use of statistical samples and an astonishing attention to all facets of the disease from its incipient forms right through delirium tremens. Included is an overview of the problem in other European countries and a section devoted to the means of overcoming the problem for the community and individual. A superb piece of social history and hygiene.... more information

With 3 folding handcoloured engravings. Original wrappers bound into contemporary pasteboards, rebacked. Presentation copy inscribed in French to M. Valenciennes; gift bookplate of the Boston Society of Natural History, by the bequest of its first president, Benjamin D. Greene, M.D., dated 1863. FIRST EDITION of the first part of von Baer's classic of embryology, complete in itself. The author here treats the development of the chicken in the egg. He describes vertebrate embryonic development from conce... more information

Contemporary calf, rebacked, new spine with gilt and raised bands. Leaves browned, some staining. Later edition. Included in the present volume is the author's tracts on earthquakes, the tarantula and the text of his Praxis Medica. Baglivi (1668-1707) was a distinguished Italian physician and experimenter on muscular physiology. As the founder of "solidism" (which refers all changes to charges in the solid parts of the body), he claimed that acids alone possess vital properties and can be the ... more information

With decorative woodcut headpieces. Contemporary half-calf over boards; occasional browning, otherwise an excellent copy from the library of Jacob and Friedrich Schurer with their bookplate. First edition of Bailly's valuable history of Eastern astronomy which was separately published as a supplement to his outstanding work on ancient and modern astronomy. The author here expands upon his earlier theories that the astronomical sciences of various Eastern civilizations were remnants of a single ancient... more information

With 1 engraved plate. Blue cloth boards; a presentation copy in excellent condition, with the author’s complements inscribed to “Cap. W.H. Smyth R.N.” on title. Original offprint of this very scarce and celebrated paper in which Baily first describes the curious solar phenomenon which produces what are now called “Baily’s Beads.” The beads refer to a number of bright spots which momentarily appear and split apart just before the sun is eclipsed. The phenomenon is an illusion f... more information

Engraved title-page, woodcut initial letters, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf with blind-ruled boards, re-backed, spine with 5 raised bands and morocco label, head and tail chipped, boards a bit scuffed; light soiling and toning, title chipped on fore-edge margin and 2-inch tear with no loss of image. Signed label of Shakespeare scholar Charles Tyler Prouty. Third edition. Wing 504.... more information

Contemporary mottled sheepskin with black morocco spine label, advertising end-papers, all edges marbled; paper residue to front paste-down, small damp-stain to fore-edge margin of first 100 pages, binding lightly scuffed and soiled, overall a solid very good copy. First edition.... more information

Original green cloth, very slightly worn, otherwise an excellent copy with the bookplate of the University of Southern California Special Collections on the paste-down. First edition of the first successful attempt at a complete text of comparative embryology. Considered a classic, the work sums up all previous knowledge on the subject and includes Balfour's own important contributions. "Not only did Balfour survey developments peculiar to each phylum and give a comparative survey of the embryology... more information

Newspaper format. With 5 large plates as listed below:1. Transportation of the packing case containing the balloon, June 14, 18972. Inspection of the balloon, July 2, 18973. The balloon house in Virgo Bay, Danes Island (gun boat Svensksund)4. Pike's log house on Danes Island and gas works (gas pipe to balloon)5. Andrée's balloon, The Adler.... more information

Titles in red and black. Each with frontispiece and illustration. Red cloth bindings with gilt spine titles, mostly in excellent condition (back cover to Vol. VIII waterstained). Works include Cousin Betty; César Birotteau; Scenes from a Courtesan's life; The Government clerks; Cousin Pons; The Thirteen; Father Goriot; and Middle Classes.... more information

Engraved frontispiece by F.H. Van Howe. Text in double columns. Recent calf in an antique style; light foxing on first and last leaves. Contemporary ownership inscription of R. Offley with price. First edition in English of the Praxis Barbettiana (Leiden, 1669), based on the large and successful medical practice of the Dutch physician Paul Barbette. Describes diseases of the head, epilepsy, apoplexy, palsy, diseases of the kidneys, liver, stomach and chest, obstetrics and gynecology; general uses of herbs... more information

Contemporary calf, gilt spine. Originally published as a series of dialogues under the title Historia medicinae (1710), this collection of medico-historical essays deals with practices of and attitudes towards medicine in antiquity through the middle ages, including thirty pages on Chinese medicine; the second part treats the period of Paracelsus to Stahl, with special emphasis on the iatrochemists and a valuable discussion of John Mayow. Of particular interest are passages on acupuncture and blood transfus... more information

Contemporary green pebbled cloth, re-backed; preliminary and endleaves detached. Inscribed by the author to Doctor B. Abrams, New Orleans, 19th April, 1867. First edition. Barker, a banker originally from the north, moved to New Orleans, and was chosen to represent that city with his published political views and statements regarding the Rebellion. He was opposed to slavery but sympathetic to the South. Howes, B139; Sabin, 68326. ... more information

Engraved frontispiece portrait and 2 copperplates (1 folding). Contemporary (possibly author's) text corrections. A superb large paper copy on extra thick paper and in the original hand-blocked printed wrappers. First edition. This landmark work in the history of plastic surgery details the results of Baronio's experiments on autogenous skin grafting in animals at the close of the eighteenth century, the first such study to be carried out in scientifically organized experiments. G&M, 5736.... more information

Green cloth with gilt eagle vignette on front cover; light internal soiling, wanting front free end-paper, very light shelf-wear, at least very good. This copy appears to be in a contemporary [publisher's?] cloth binding, though most copies were issued in wrappers and as such is in much better condition than usually found. Sixth edition. Although the book relates the tale of the eagle captured by O-ge-mah-we-ge-zhig, and who accompanied the Eighth Wisconsin Regiment through three years of the Civil War... more information

Original printed wrappers, faded, front wrapper detached; interior good. First edition, without the advertisements. Rare in this original condition.... more information

Original printed wrappers (top wrapper only), chipped, needs re-sewing (first few leaves loose; very fragile. Interior fine. Uncut and unopened. One of the most comprehensive bibliographies of the literature of the Civil War. Sabin, 3743. ... more information

Marbled wrappers. Presentation inscription from the author to Isaac Goodwin (?) on the title page. From the library of the Perez Morton, attorney general of Massachusetts, with his manuscript verse on the last leaf verso (see below). First edition of a rare satirical poem read by Bartlett to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard. The dedication by the author reads: "To critics of every description, this poem, a delicious morceau, for their malicious appetitles, is respectfully offered, by one, who expe... more information

With 72 full-page hand-coloured plates, each with facing page of explanation (plates IX and XI misbound). Contemporary half-calf, marbled boards, backstrip and covers somewhat worn; plates clean, occasional foxing in text (especially the blank endpapers). From the libraries of John Churchill and E. J. Angle, with their bookplates. Second edition. This classic of modern dermatology, in its second printing, is notable for the fine coloured plates. Bateman (1778-1821), a pupil of Willan's, continued his ... more information