Amsterdam, A.M. van den Broecke, 1896. 8vo (23.7 x 16.0 cm). 21 pp.; frontispiece illustration of the first Röntgen photo. Original pink, printed wrappers.

Extremely rare first Dutch edition. The photo shows a hand with a ring. Wilhelm Konrad (or Conrad) Röntgen (1845-1923) was born in Lennep (Germany) but his mother was Dutch, and at age three his family moved to the Netherlands (Apeldoorn), where he grew up. Röntgen attended high school at Utrecht Technical School. In 1865, he was unfairly expelled from high school. Without a high school diploma, Röntgen could only attend university in the Netherlands as a visitor, so he went to Zurich where he could enter the Federal Polytechnic Institute. Later he became professor of several German universities. The original German edition (offprint issue) of the announcement of the discovery of the X-ray was published in Würzburg in late 1895. It was the foundation stone of the science of radiology. For his work, Röntgen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901. Only one copy mentioned, in NCC (Delft). The wrappers, made of thin, wood-pulp paper, are toned towards the edges and have the upper outer corner chipped. We found only three auction records, including two of inferior copies. Garrison-Morton, 2683; Norman, 1841; PMM, 380 (all: German edition); Waller, 8077 (Dutch edition).