Amsterdam 1720. First German edition of this important work from the German philosopher and mathematical genius Leibniz [1646-1716]. The work was originally published in French in 1710, but this edition also has his biography, his portrait and the foldable plate of his famous calculator. Book no. 707386

Nicolaus Müller, Copenhagen 1774-78. The account of one of the most renowned expeditions to the Middle East. The Danish based crew of scientists, under the command of Frederik Christian von Haven,set out from Copenhagen in 1761, landed in Alexandria and travelled over Sinai to Arabia and Yemen. Sadly, the members of the expedition died one after one, and only Niebuhr survived the exhausting sojourn to tell the tale and publish all the groundbreaking material. Book no. 729297

London 1782-1788. One of the milestones of historical writing. Gibbon has inspired and enlightened numerous generations on antiquity and the Middle Ages [the work covers the time from the Death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD to the Fall of Constantinoble in 1453], and even though many of his ideas and chronologies have later been rebuked, the majestic and ground breaking work is still in print and read today. Book no. 831202