Joseph Needham (1900-1995) trained at the University of Cambridge as a biochemist, but it was as a historian of science and Sinologist that he wrote his most influential works. Needham became interested in the history of Chinese scientific and technological innovation in the 1930s and spent several years in China in the mid-1940s. When he returned to Cambridge in 1948, he intended to write a single volume about the history of Chinese scientific, technological, and medical innovation. That modest goal blossomed into Needham's magnum opus, the towering series Science and Civilization in China, a project which still continues under the leadership of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge.

Octavos, Nine volumes. Very Good, with Good to Very Good minus dust jackets. All volumes in matching dust jackets with off-white spines and black lettering. All shelf-worn, lightly marked, and lightly age-toned with prices clipped, several with tears to edges. Bindings lightly shelf-worn. Text blocks lightly age-toned.

CONTENTS: Vol. I. “Introductory Orientations” (xxxviii, 318 pages + 2 folding maps) – Vol. II. “History of Scientific Thought” (xxii, [2], 696 pages) – Vol. III. “Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth” (xlvii, 877 pages) – Vol. IV, Part I. “Physics and Physical Technology: Physics” (xxxiv, 434 pages) – Vol. IV, Part II. “Physics and Physical Technology: Mechanical Engineering” (lv, 759 pages) – Vol. IV, Part III. “Physics and Physical Technology: Civil Engineering and Nautics” (lvii, 931 pages plus 3 folding maps) – Vol. V, Part II. “Chemistry and Chemical Technology: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Magisteries of Gold and Immortality” (xxxii, 510 pages) – Vol. V, Part III. “Chemistry and Chemical Technology: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Historical Survey, from Cinnabar Elixirs to Synthetic Insulin” (xxxv, 481 pages) – Vol. V, Part IV. “Chemistry and Chemical Technology: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts” (xlviii, 772 pages). ?Please note that Volume V: Part I is not included in this listing. SH consignment.

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