An educational and informational site about rare, old and antiquarian books.
The field of mathematics has a long and fascinating origin. Its foundation is based in logic, which has greatly enhanced its significant development. This invaluable foundation in logic is seen in a work that took place in ancient Greece in the centuries preceding Euclid. I am currently reading a very interesting commentary on the history […]
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In 1543 Andreas Vesalius published his opus De Humani Corporis Fabrica Librorum Septem (Fabrica) and, later the same month, the companion volume De Humani Corporis Fabrica Librorum Epitome (Epitome). The two volumes are considered to be the foundation of modern Anatomy. Vesalius viewed the Epitome as an introduction for the novice in medicine, serving as […]
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When an Apple I computer was put up for sale at the Sotheby’s Fine Books and Manuscripts auction last month, we could not help but wonder how close we are to the times when such events will carry the additional “…and Electronic Devices” somewhere in the name. Let’s hope that we are nowhere near such […]
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No other copy of the Voynich manuscript, “the world’s most mysterious manuscript,” exists in any other collection in the world, besides the one at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The book was donated to the university library in 1969 through a gift of the legendary rare book dealer, Hans P. Kraus, who […]
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About this time seven years ago, Christie’s auctioneers at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, sold a number of rare books, manuscripts, documents, offprint papers, etc., having as common denominator the topic of computer science. The event was titled “The Origins of Cyberspace” and it consisted of 133 lots and earned a total of 714,060 USD. While […]
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Among gloriously illuminated paper lanterns and grandiose and elaborate paper dragons, China will be observing the New Year – 2012, with an expanded advocacy toward book publishing, a significant and prominent boost of book sales, a strong multinational attendance of local book fair events, and an extremely rare Chinese book purchase by Brown University! In […]
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Since the invention of the printing press, in the second millennium AD, scientific works have been documented in publications such as: scientific journals, research papers, books, essays, offprints and various other collections. Manuscripts were slowly replaced by the convenience of the printing press that brought improvements in reproduction, legibility and readability. The result was a more […]
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In compiling our list of the most significant scientific discoveries published since the second millennium AD (the time period of the invention of the printing press), we primarily considered the significance of the work, while keeping scarcity secondary. What we ended up with are 9 rare books that have something unique to tell us about […]
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It has been more than 200 years since the birth of Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), and more than 150 years since the first publication of his incredibly rare book, On the Origin of Species. London: John Murray 1859. Arguably, one of the most influential seminal works of the nineteenth century, it describes the theory of evolution […]
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One of the most valuable publications, and certainly one of the rarest books, was returned to the shelves of the library in a suburb of Sydney with 122 years delay. The officials of the institution could not believe their eyes, when they got their hands on the first edition of “Insectivorous Plants’, Insect eating Plants, […]
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