The Library's holdings of classic milestones in the history of science are extensive and impressive, but there is always room for improvement.
The title page of De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius (Basel, 1543), depicts Vesalius—pioneer anatomist and professor of medicine at the University of Padua—conducting a dissection. - Jan Stephan van Calcar
Some years ago, what is now the Science, Technology and Business Division initiated the Horblit Project, with the aid of a volume that is one of the most authoritative guides to its subject, Harrison D. Horblit's One Hundred Books Famous in Science (New York, 1964).
Despite its title, the Horblit book (based on a 1958 exhibit at the Grolier Club in New York City) describes 129 items. The Library's aim has been to procure originals or facsimiles of all of these items for scholarly research. When that has not been possible, early editions have been considered acceptable, so long as they were printed in the same language as the originals.
Of course, many of the Horblit items are of great rarity. That rarity, their importance and the fact that they are listed by Horblit, ensure their high prices in the antiquarian book market. No library is known to have every one of the Horblit originals; after all, the book was based on an exhibit of materials borrowed from many libraries. In the future, the Library hopes to acquire more of the originals, when opportunities occur and funds are available.
When the project began, the Library had originals of more than 70 of the exact editions listed by Horblit. The first was acquired when Congress purchased Thomas Jefferson's library in 1815; it is Jefferson's copy of a work that laid the foundation for much of modern chemistry, Antoine L. Lavoisier's Traité élémentaire de chimie (Paris, 1789). Over the years, the Library obtained numerous others, including what historians of science consider the three most influential scientific titles: Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Nuremberg, 1543), his explanation of the heliocentric nature of the solar system, as opposed to the previous assumption that the sun and planets revolved around Earth; Isaac Newton's Philosophiœ naturalis principia mathematica (London, 1687), which mathematically presented the principle of universal gravitation; and Charles R. Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (London, 1859), outlining the way in which favorable variations lead to survival and the formation of new species, thus continuing the process of evolution.
Acquisition of Horblit editions proceeded apace through fiscal year 2000, when the Library was able to purchase Claude Bernard's Nouvelle fonction du foie (Paris, 1853), on the glycogenic function of the liver, and Nicolaus Steno's De solido intra solidum (Florence, 1669), one of the foundation works of geology, concerning the origin of sedimentary rocks and the effects of faulting and erosion.
The first edition of Rudolph J. Camerarius' De sexu plantarum epistola (Tübingen, 1694), which demonstrated the sexual characteristics of plants and the role of pollen in fertilization, is an extremely rare imprint; only about six copies are known to exist, and these do not appear on the market. However, Camerarius' letter was reprinted in Michael B. Valentini's Polychresta exotica (Frankfurt am Main, 1701), and the Library obtained a copy of that edition in 2000.
As the Horblit project nears completion of its goal, the acquisition of all of Horblit's titles in their original editions, facsimiles of the originals or early editions, several problems are yet to be overcome. Two Horblit items, papers on relativity published by Albert Einstein in Annalen der Physik ("Zur Electrodynamik bewegter Körper," 1905, and "Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie," 1916), are not in the Library's collections. The same is true with Nicolai I. Lobachevskii's publication (in Russian) On the Elements (Principles) of Geometry (Kazan, 1829-30). John Napier's Mirifici logarithmorum canonis constructio (Edinburgh, 1619), the inventor of logarithms' explanation of the construction of logarithmic tables, exists at the Library only in a 19th century English translation, considered unsuitable for this purpose. The Library is now seeking copies of these Horblit items and would be grateful for information about available copies.
Several of the Library's multi-volume sets of Horblit titles lack particular volumes. Examples are Karl Ernst von Baer, Über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere (Königsberg, 1828-88), which lacks volumes 2 (1837) and 3 (1888); Otto Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones (Strassburg, 1530-36), needing volume 3 (1536); and John Harris, Lexicon technicum (London, 1704-10), lacking volume 2 (1710).
The Library is attempting to remedy this situation by obtaining original volumes or photocopies. Most of the Library's original Horblit items are in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, but many are still in the general collections. Volumes in the latter category will be transferred to the rare book collections.
The end of the project is in sight.
