This collection consists of roughly 6,000 titles, some of which are digitized here, on chemistry and chemical industries, as well as other landmark books in the history of science and technology collected by Roy G. Neville (1926-2007) between approximately 1950 and 2004, when it was purchased and donated to the Science History Institute. Spanning from the 15th to the 20th century, the collection is especially strong in early modern science, the history of alchemy, chemistry, mining and metallurgy, dyeing and bleaching, gunpowder and fireworks, balneology, and pharmaceutical chemistry.
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71 items
The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer: Being a Complete System of Occult Philosophy
- 1801
The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer, first published in 1801, is a handbook of occult or ceremonial magic written by Francis Barrett. The book covers subjects such as natural magic, alchemy, talismanic magic,…
- Printer Knight and Compton
- Author Barrett, Francis
- Subject Trithemius, Johannes, 1462-1516, Barrett, Francis, Occultism, Alchemy, Magic, Numerology, Talismans, Cabala
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11 items
Basilica chymica
- continens philosophicam propriâ laborum experientiâ confirmatam descriptionem et usum remediorum chymicorum selectissimorum é lumine gratiae et naturae desumptorum
- 1611
Basilica chymica: continens philosophicam propriâ laborum experientiâ confirmatam descriptionem et usum remediorum chymicorum selectissimorum é lumine gratiae et naturae desumptorum: in fine libri additus est authoris…
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6 items
Essai sur l'electricité des corps
- 1746
Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700-1770) was an 18th-century French experimental physicist known for discovering osmosis in 1748 and conducting foundational research on electricity. This book, published in 1746, features an…
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22 items
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45 items
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262 items
La pyrotechnie de Hanzelet
- Lorrain ou sont représentés les plus rares et plus appreuvez secrets des machines et des feux artificiels. Propres pour assiéger battre surprendre et deffendre toutes places
- 1630
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15 items
Essay sur les feux d'artifice pour le spectacle et pour la guerre
- 1745
18th-century work that covers both the aesthetic use of fireworks for celebrations and their practical, tactical applications in military conflict. The title page and plates have been digitized.
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2 items
Lavoisier manuscript
- Document by Lavoisier 1791
- 1791-Sep-28
A document signed by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) as the Director of Government Powder Mills (1776-1794).
- Creator Of Work Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794
- Subject Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794
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32 items
The most famous history of the learned fryer Bacon
- shewing his parentage and birth, how he came to be a scholar and to study art-magick ; with the many wonderful things he did in his life-time, to the amazement of the whole world, in making a brazen head, to have walled all England with brass ; with his penitent death, also, the merry waggeries of his man Miles ; and the exploits of Vandermaster, a German, and Fryer Bungy, an English conjurer ; with the manner of their woful deaths, as a warning to others ; being all very profitable and pleasant to the reader
- 1500s
An early edition of an anonymous chapbook written probably towards the end of the sixteenth century, on which Robert Greene may have founded his play "The honorable historie of Friar Bacon and Friar Bongay." Many…
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9 items
Viatorium, hoc est, De montibus planetarum septem seu metallorum
- 1651
Frontispiece, title page, all plates from De montibus planetarum septem seu metallorum.
- Author Maier, Michael, 1568?-1622
- Subject Alchemy, Alchemy--Early works to 1800
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7 items
Annales de Chimie
- Recueil de mémoires concernant la chimie et les arts qui en dépendent
- 1791 – 1793
The title page of the Annales de Chimie changed repeatedly in the first few years of its publication in response to rapid changes brought about by the French Revolution. Initially it published with the permission and…
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8 items
Nouvelle Chymie du goût et de l'odorat, ou, L'art de composer facilement et à peu de frais les liqueurs à boire et les eaux de senteurs
- L'art de composer facilement et à peu de frais les liqueurs à boire et les eaux de senteurs
- 1774
The third edition of a work concerning the operations of infusion, distillation, composition, and filtration used in the preparation of spirits, flavors, perfumes, and essential oils. The work also discusses the…
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20 items
Men of Science from the Keystone State: Address Delivered Before the Franklin Institute
- 1914-May-20
Edgar Fahs Smith (1854-1928) was an American electrochemist known for his interest in the history of chemistry; he founded the American Chemical Society's Division for the History of Chemistry in 1922. Smith's résumé…
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12 items
Musaeum Metallicum in Libros IIII
- 1648
Volume 13 of the monumental Opera omnia (Bologna, 1599–1668) by Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), professor of natural history at Bologna. Only the first four volumes of the Opera were published in his lifetime, and the…
- Author Aldrovandi, Ulisse, 1522-1605?
- Editor Ambrosini, Bartolommeo, 1588-1657
- Publisher Typis lo. Battista Ferronij
- Subject Geology, Natural history, Mineralogy, Metallurgy, Fossils, Archaeology
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533 items
Metallotheca : Opus Posthumum
- 1717
Although written in the sixteenth century, this first edition printing was edited and published by Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654–1720) in 1717. By as early as 1574, Mercati (1541–1593), director of the Vatican botanical…
- Author Mercati, Michele, 1541-1593
- Publisher Ex officina Jo: Mariae Salvioni
- Editor Lancisi, Giovanni Maria, 1654-1720
- Subject Minerals, Fossils, Shells, Mineralogy, Paleontology, Sixtus V, Pope, 1520-1590
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422 items
Conversations on Chemistry: In Which the Elements of That Science are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by experiments and plates
- To Which Are Added, Some Late Discoveries on the Subject of the Fixed Alkalies by H. Davy, Esq., of the Royal Society
- 1809
Conversations on Chemistry is an introductory chemical textbook. To this third American edition (the first and second: Philadelphia, 1806, and 1809), the anonymous editor has added new material on mineral waters and the…
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10 items
Elementa Chemiae : Quae Anniversario Labore Docuit, in Publicis, Privatisque Scholis, Volume 2
- The Elements of Chemistry : Which is Taught in Public and Private Schools
- 1732
Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a Dutch botanist, chemist, and physician. Boerhaave introduced a quantitative approach to medical training and was the first to integrate chemistry into the medical curriculum; he is…
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275 items
Geberis Philosophi Perspicacissimi Summa Perfectionis Magisterii in sua Natura ex Bibliothecae Vaticanae Exemplari Undecunque
- 1542
Work from the "pseudo-Geber" corpus, a group of writings falsely attributed to the Arabic alchemist, Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (died c. 806–816, Latinized as “Geber"). These writings are actually from 13th or…
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8 items
Tractatus Quinque Medico-Physici : quorum primus agit de sal-nitro, et spiritu nitro-aereo. Secundus de respiratione. Tertius de respiratione foetus in utero, et ovo. Quartus de motu musculari, et spiritibus animalibus. Ultimus de rhachitide.
- Five Medical-Physical Treatises : the first of which deals with salt-nitro and spirit of nitro-air. The second on respiration. Third on the respiration of the fetus in the womb and the egg. Fourth on muscular motion and animal spirits. The last on rickets.
- 1674
John Mayow (1643–1679) was an early researcher of respiration and the nature of air. Mayow published tracts on respiration and rickets while studying at Oxford in 1668; in 1674 these were edited and reprinted with three…
- Author Mayow, John, 1641-1679
- Publisher E Theatro Sheldoniano
- Engraver Faithorne, William, 1616-1691
- Subject Physiology, Oxygen--Physiological transport, Oxygen in the body, Respiration, Cardiovascular system, Medicine, Muscles, Fetus--Development, Combustion, Oxygen
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8 items
Tractatus de Corde : item de motu & colore sanguinis, et chyli in eum transitu
- Treatise on the heart: likewise, on the movement and volor of the nlood, and the passage of chyle into it
- 1669
Work on the anatomy and physiology of the circulatory system. Explores the structure and function of veins and arteries. Correctly describes the heart as a four-chambered organ and accurately describes the flow of the…
- Author Lower, Richard, 1631-1691
- Publisher Apud Danielem Elzevirium
- Subject Heart, Blood--Circulation, Blood, Cardiovascular system, Veins, Arteries, Medicine, Human anatomy
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89 items
Elementa Chemiae : Quae Anniversario Labore Docuit, in Publicis, Privatisque Scholis, Volume 1
- The Elements of Chemistry : Which is Taught in Public and Private Schools
- 1732
Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a Dutch botanist, chemist, and physician. Boerhaave introduced a quantitative approach to medical training and was the first to integrate chemistry into the medical curriculum; he is…
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72 items
Lectures on Coal Tar Colours and on Recent Improvements and Progress in Dyeing and Calico Printing
- Embodying Copious Notes Taken at the Last London International Exhibition and Illustrated with Numberous Patterns of Fabrics Dyed with Aniline and Other Colours
- 1860s
Frederick Crace Calvert (1819–1873) was a professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, Manchester. From 1835 to 1846 he lived in France, studying chemistry under the chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), who…
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76 items
Theatrum Botanicum
- The Theater of Plants, or An Herball of a Large Extent
- 1640
Immense volume, consisting of 1,688 pages and approximately 3,800 plant descriptions. Theatricum Botanicum is the magnum opus of John Parkinson (1567-1650), an early English herbalist, apothecary, and botanist. It is…
- Author Parkinson, John, 1567-1650
- Printer Cotes, Thomas
- Engraver Marshall, William, active 1617-1650
- Subject Botany, Herbals, Medicinal plants, Botany, Medical, Herbs--Therapeutic use, Materia medica
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22 items
An Essay on the Chemical History and Medical Treatment of Calculous Disorders
- 1819
Alexander Marcet (1770-1822) was a Genevan physician who specialized in urinary calculi. Marcet was one of few medical practitioners of the time who used chemistry in their explanation and treatment of disease. He was…
- Author Marcet, Alexander, 1770-1822
- Publisher Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
- Subject Calculi, Urinary organs--Calculi, Gallstones, Kidneys--Calculi, Bladder--Calculi, Therapeutics, Medicine, Urology
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201 items
An Essay on Combustion : With a View to a New Art of Dying and Painting
- The Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Hypotheses are Proved Erroneous
- 1794
Elizabeth Fulhame was an early British chemist who invented the concept of catalysis and discovered photoreduction. Fulhame’s interest was in the reduction reaction that led to the deposition of metals. As she notes in…
