Rare books from Herman H. J. Lynge & Son

1934. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1934. Original full red cloth with gilt line-borders to boards, original dust-jacket, somewhat worn, with a red label over the price and chips and nicks to extremities. Minor loss to corners of dust-jacket, and a large loss of upper part of spine of dust-jacket (ca. 6 x 2 cm), thus lacking the title to spine of dust-jacket, and leaving the cloth of the same part of the spine sunned and the gilding of the title on spine almost faded off. Some soiling to dust-jacket. Internally nice and clean. X, (2), 204 pp. An excellent presentation copy of this scarce first edition of the great logician's first book, which is the published version of his doctoral thesis, hailed by Whitehead as a landmark in the history of symbolic logic.Inscribed by Quine "To F. Gomes Cassidy, historian of/ languages, from Van Quine, manu-/ facturer of one. Mathematical/ truth is linguistic convention,/ and logic is the [four Chinese characters]".Frederic Gomez Cassidy… Read More

1933. Warszawa, 1933. Small 4to. Orig. printed wrappers, sunned at the edges, but otherwise near mint condition, also internally. An excellent copy. VII, (1), 116, (1, - errata) pp. The exceedingly scarce first printing of Tarski's most important and influential work, "The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages", which founded modern logical semantics.The work appeared in an extremely small number, in Polish, and many copies of the article have later been destroyed, thus, the work is of the utmost scarcity. In this seminal article the Polish-American logician and mathematician Alfred Tarski devotes himself to "the definition of truth". "Its task is to construct -with reference to a given language- a materially adequate and formally correct definition of the term "true sentence"." (Introduction, English translation, 1956). With this work the face of logic was changed forever. The "Concept of Truth" constitutes a landmark event in 20th century analytic philosophy, and it ranks as one of the most… Read More

1535. Norimbergae [Nürnberg], (Apud Ioannem Petreium), 1535. 4to. Bound in a beautiful contemporary full blindstamped vellum binding over wooden boards. Boards with blindstamped borders with portraits of Marcus, Johannes, Mattheus, Lucas, inside which large square blindstamped centre-piece with floriated decorations and small portriats. Three raised bands to back. Brass clasps to boards partially preserved. A bit of overall wear and general use. Overall a very nice and tight copy. Internally very nice and clean with only a bit of occasional minor brownspotting and soiling. Two leaves with a spot to outer margin (looks like remain of wax or lacquer), far from affecting text. Last four leaves of Greek text with dampstaining. First leaf of Latin text with coloured initial and a couple of red and green underlinings. Woodcut initials. First ab. 10 leaves of text with neat contemporary annotations in Latin and Greek. (6),59, (4) ff. + 84, (24) ff. (The four leaves in between the Greek and the Latin text… Read More

1590. Venetia [Venice], apresso gli heredi di S. Gagliani, 1590. [Colophon: In Vintia, appresso Giorgio Angelieri, a instantia de gli heredi di Simon Gagliani de Karera, 1590]. Small folio. 18th century (ab. 1780-90) half vellum with gilt leather title label to spine. Corners a bit bumped and title label a bit worn, otherwise nice and tight. A very nice copy, on thick, crisp paper. A few quires browned and brownspotted, and some occasional lighter browning. Four leaves with a marginal worm-tract, far from affecting text. Beautiful engraved title-page, consisting of a wide architectural border illustrated with large figures, putti, globes, and various symbols. Beautiful large woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces. 47 half-page engraved maps in the text (by Porro, of islands and continents), excellent, crisp impressions. Large woodcut device to colophon. (12) ff., 201, (1) pp. Third, much enlarged edition (with 47 maps as opposed to the mere 30 of the first edition) of Porcacchi's great book… Read More

1670. Lugduni [Lyon], Apud Ioannem Thioly, 1670. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with simple gilding to spine. Gilt title-label to spine partly missing. Four tiny worm-holes to upper front hinge, just touching front free end-papers and nothing else. Minor edge-wear, but a nice, clean, and tight binding. Ex-libris stamps to title-page (one being R.D.-E. Gelin's, the other unlegible but probably a theological library). Mostly very faint marginal dampstaining to lower margin thorughout, not touching text. Neat old owner's name to inside of front board (Soldner). Without the two blank leaves between the end of the dedication and the beginning of the text (there is clearly no leaf with any text lacking; there is either a pagination-error, or there has been one or two blank leaves between the end of the dedication and the beginning of the work. In the other copies that we have been able to find collations of, there has been no leaf a4 nor A1 either - there is no doubt that the text is complete), and without… Read More

1758. Holmiae, Laurentius Salvius, 1758-59 + 1768. 8vo. Beautifully bound in two recent full mottled calf bindings, in pastiche, with five raised bands, and gilt title-labels to spine. Gilt borders to boards and blindstamped ornamental borders to inside of boards. Title-page of volume 1 with two neatly repaired tears, no loss. Very discreet stamp in blind to title-page (Boston Society Natural History). A few leaves lightly brownspotted, otherwise exceptionally clean (vol. 1 presumably cleaned). All in all a lovely copy. (4), 823, (1, -errata, being p. (824)); (4) pp, pp. 825-1384 + 236, (20, -Index) pp. + 3 folded, engraved plates. The rare seminal tenth edition of Linnaeus' main work (here bound together with the 3rd part, published 10 years later), being the most important edition of this foundational work, as "[i]t is in this edition that Linnaeus carried out the definitive plan of binominal nomenclature, with diagnosis and synonyms, for the fist time, including the generic and the trivial… Read More

1623. London, Joannis Haviland, 1623 [later altered in manuscript to 1624]. Small folio. Bound in a lovely early 19th century full vellum binding with gilt borders to boards and gilt ornamentations and gilt title-label to spine.Lower front hinge cracked, but bindning still tight. A bit of edge wear, but overall very nice. Woodcut title-vignettes (burning heart) and woodcut initials in beginning. Text within single woodcut borders. (18), 493, (1 - errata) pp. Complete with both title-pages (no final blank). Old owner's name to title page (along with the dates 1624 and 1648), unlegible scribbles to second title-page, and "collated e perfect" in old hand to last leaf. A very nice and clean copy with good margins. The extremely rare first edition of what is arguably Bacon's main work "De Augmentis Scientiarum", in which he sets out to lay the foundations of science entirely anew and reform the process of knowledge for the advancement of learning. Bacon believes that the advancement of learning will… Read More

1879. San Francisco, Wm M.Hinton & Co, 1879. 8vo. In the original full cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine and a bit of blindstamping to boeards. A bit of light spiotting to front board, spine faded, and capitals worn. Hinges internally a bit weak, and a professional closed tear to cloth at spine, barely noticeable. All in all an excellent copy in this fragile original binding. Internally very nice and clean. With the bookplate of Grove L. Johnson to inside of front board. (4), 512 pp. The exceedingly scarce first edition, printed in merely 200 copies (namely the "Author's edition), of one of the most influential books ever published. Henry George's masterpiece of social reform, "Progress and Poverty", founded the ideology known as "Georgism", from which the worldwide social reform movement arose. The work initiated the Progressive Era and had a larger impact and "a wider distribution than almost all other books on political economy put together", as John Dewey put it (John Dewey's Foreword… Read More

1558. Nürmberg, Gabriel Heyn, 1558. Folio. Bound in a nice later (around 1840) hcalf. Raised double bands. Gilt spine. Gilt lettering. Marbled endpapers. Stamps on foot of title-page. A sort of frontispiece (full-page) is printed on the verso of the title-page, depicting the Putto as the spirit of architecture.Title-page printed in red and black. Dedication and content (4 unnumb.lvs.) - Geometry & Perspective (Ff I-C ) - Geometrischen Büchsenmeisterei (Ff I-XLVIII.) - Befestigung (Ff I-XLIIII ) - Geometrischen Messung (Ff (4),I-XLVI,(3)) - Wag und Gewicht (Ff I-XVII) - Schnelwagen (Ff I-X) ending with colophon and woodcut printer's device. Having more than 300 (many full- and half page) fine wood-engravings executed by V. Solis, G. Pencz, H. Brosamer and Peter Floetner. Internally in extraordinary fine clean condition with only a few minor scattered brownspots. 3 leaves with a minor repair to upper right corner. Scarce second edition (the first 1547) of this profusely illustrated encyclopedia of… Read More

1867. Hamburg, Otto Meisner, 1867. 8vo. Nice contemporary black half calf with gilt spine. Minor wear to hinges and capitals, which have tiny, barely noticeable professional restorations. Inner hinges re-enforced. Contemporary owner's names (Emil Kirchner and Karl Kirchner (1887)) to front free end-paper. Contemporary book-plate to inside of front board (Ernst Ferdinand Kirchner). A very nice copy with just the slightest of occasional brownspotting. Housed in a very nice custom-made black full morocco box with gilt llettering to spine. XII, 784 pp. Scarce first edition of Marx' immensely influential main work, arguably the greatest revolutionary work of the nineteenth century. With its attack on capitalists and capitalist mode of production, this cornerstone of 19th century thought came to determine the trajectory of economics and politics of the Western world. Marx' groundbreaking "Das Kapital" originally appeared in German in 1867, and only the first part of the work appeared in Marx' lifetime. PMM 358.

1789. Paris, Chez Baudouin, Imprimeur de l'Assamblée Nationale, 1789. 8vo. Bound in an exquisite later red half morocco with gilt spine. Top edge gilt. (1) f. (title-page), 8 pp. ("Déclaration des droits de l'Homme en société"), 6 pp. ("Articles de Constitution"), (1) f. ("Réponse du Roi"), (1) f. (blank). Woodcut head-pieces. Title-page slightly bowned, otherwise in excellent condition. A truly excellent copy. The exceedingly scarce true first printing, in an incredibly rare form of off-print/separate printing, of one of the most important and influential documents in the history of mankind, namely the French Human Rights Declaration, containing also the articles for the first French Constitution. This groundbreaking publication constitutes a monumental change in the structure of the human world, providing all citizens with individual rights that we now take for granted. This monument of humanist thought appeared in the "Procès verbal de l'Assemblée Nationale", copies of which are also… Read More

1929. Wien & Leipzig, Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1929. 8vo. In the original printed wrappers. Very light wear to extremities. First and last leaf with light brownspotting. A very fine and clean copy. XII, (1)-147, (1), [Blank] pp. First edition of Hayek's first book, famously stating that there is a business cycle and that it is caused by the organization of the monetary system - it was later to be known as the Austrian Business Cycle. The present work established Hayek's ideological position within the economic community and laid the foundation for his future career. Here, he wrote of the necessity of the trade cycle and that all economic phenomena present that regular wave-like appearance that we observe in cyclical fluctuations. "For Hayek, the cycle was a virtually unavoidable consequence of a credit economy"; "Hayek's fundamental point is that the business cycle is an unfortunate but unavoidable concomitant of a credit economy". (Bruce Caldwell, Hayek's Collected Works).Hayek's principal… Read More

1792. Kiøbenhavn, Høppfner, (16. Martius, 1792). 4to. The entire volume of "Forordninger...", 1792 bound with the entire volumes of 1790 and 1791 as well in a very nice strictly contemporary brown full calf binding with four raised bands, gilt title-label and lovely gilt ornamentatiions to spine as well as the gilt, crowned monogram of King Chritian the VII to top of spine. Light wear and a closed tear to top capital. Otherwise in splendid condition, in- as well as ex-ternally. Stamp from the Danish Royal Military Library to front free end-paper. Pp. 69-71. [Entire volume: 146, 12 pp., 1 f. blank + 288, (8) pp., two folded tables + 323, (13) pp. woodcut vignettes of the Danish Elephant-order to title-pages]. Extremely rare first printing of the very first law anywhere in the world to abandon slave trade. From the library of King Christian VII, who passed the law, with his crowned gilt monogram to spine. With the completely groundbreaking "Forordning on Neger=Handelen" ("Decree about the… Read More

1919. (Paris), 1919. Folio. With a nice, later paper backstrip. Entire issue 27, 1919 of La Presse Médicale present (pp. 353- 360). Passot's article: 7 columns on pp. 258-261. With one illustration, depicting the ways to reduce wrinkles on a face. Well preserved. The very rare first printing of this pioneering work of plastic surgery - one of the very first - most likely THE first - publication on face lifting, consisting mainly in the elevating and redraping of the facial skin. The first facelift was reportedly done in either 1901 or 1907, but "[n]ot all writers of rhytidectomy spread their innovations through publication; some were teachers instead of writers. Sooner or later, however, those they taught began to write. Giving credit to his masters, Pozzi and Morestin, as well as Mlle. Pertat, Raymond Passot in 1919 described the following technique for eliminating cheek wrinkles and the buccolabial sulcus: First, he began the operation by "withdrawing miniscule amounts of tegument in the… Read More

1598. Wandesburg (i.e. Wandsbeck, for the author by Philip Ohrs), 1598. Small folio. In the original blue silk binding with richly gilt ornamentation to boards. Professionally recased in the 1970'es with 90% of the original silk boards preserved over new blue silk. Green silk ties. A small, neat restoration to the border of the title-page, barely noticeable. A4 and H2 restored and at margins with newer paper margins in perceftly matching paper. The restoration touches the outer borders, most significantly on H2, where the inner border is almost covered by the new paper. The lower blank border of A4 cropped. Otherwise in splendid condition. 42 ff. With 22 magnificent full-page illustrations, of which 4 are engraved and the rest are woodcut. Title printed in red and black and all pages, including the title-page, printed within woodcut ornamental border. Large woodcut device to title-page, with spere and compass, and allegorical woodcut to colophon. Title-page (which is printed in red and black) is… Read More