Boris Jardine Rare Books was founded in 2023, specializing in science and technology, modern first editions, and book and printing history.
Boris Jardine Rare Books was founded in 2023, specializing in science and technology, modern first editions, and book and printing history.
Catalogue #7: The Scientist at Work
22 letters, annotated books, archives and artefacts that reveal the extraordinary craft and labour of modern science. Highlights include: a twice-annotated set of lunar maps, used by two generations of pioneering women astronomers; a letter on barnacle classification from Charles Darwin; working copies of books on physics, microscopy, geology, climate science and palaeontology; and the stunning Fred Enock collection of fine entymological microscope slides. The earliest item is an exceptionally scarce unfinished protractor, circa 1700; the most recent is Stephen Jay Gould’s annotated copy of a classic of climate science.
A History of Computing, Part III: CODE – The Language of the Future
Exceptional ephemera, technical documents, books and manuals relating to the history of computer coding, beginning with Grace Hopper’s 1946 Harvard Mark I manual and ending with the famous Apple Pascal poster. This is a story of women in STEM, with important works by Hopper, Beatrice Worsley, Kathleen Booth and Jean Sammet. Two archives tell the story of UK computing in the 1950s and 1960s, with a wealth of material on EDSAC 2 and the Ferranti Atlas, one of the world’s first supercomputers.
22 items from the crucible of research into Artificial Intelligence. Highlights include a virtually unrecorded experiment in AI mainly relying on the work of women computer scientists; a substantial letter from the philosopher David Lewis on the Turing Test; foundational documents in the theory of neural networks. Many of the documents here are otherwise-unpublished technical reports, and as such are exceptionally scarce.
Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare (annotated performance copies), artefacts, manuscripts, scientific breakthroughs… A true summer miscellany, with beautiful objects, vitally important texts and, as always, books that tell a whole range of stories. A highlight is undoubtedly Edward Quin’s extraordinary 1830 ‘Historical Atlas’, which shows black clouds parting in historical cartographic sequence, beginning with our cover image, the stunning miniature map of Eden itself.
The first part of a comprehensive collection on the history of computing. This catalogue begins with a fine Renaissance sector and ends with the realization of Charles Babbage’s dream of an automated calculating machine – realized in the form of the Harvard Mark I, programmed by Grace Hopper. Other highlights include an exceptionally early slide-rule, a rare set of ‘Napier’s Bones’, the offprint version of the parliamentary report on Charles Babbage’s ‘Difference Engine’, and Leibniz’s 1705 publication of binary code.
22 works by or responding to Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), considered by many to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Highlights include Wittgenstein’s own annotated copy of Moritz Schlick’s 1930 book on ethics, and a collection of working copies of Wittgenstein from one of his major interpreters, Sir Anthony Kenny. Wittgenstein’s cultural influence is also explored in art, literature, and film, by Eduardo Paolozzi, Veronica Forrest-Thomson, and Derek Jarman.
25 books, documents and manuscripts that tell extraordinary stories – through their provenance and their historical context. Highlights include the sole copy of the Barnes Wallis’ description of his famous meeting with Lord Beaverbook; a book of psalms from the Fleet Prison; and a book that was once in the ‘Packhorse Library’.
