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SENDIVOGIUS, Michael. ~ A new light of alchymy: taken out of the fountain of nature and manual experience, to which is added a treatise of sulphur. Written by Micheel Sandivogius. i.e. anagrammatically, divi leschi genus amo. Also nine books of the nature of things, written by Paracelsus, viz. Of the generations, growths, conservations, life, death, renewing, transmutation, separation, signatures of natural things. Also a chymical dictionary explaining hard places and words met withal in the writings of Paracelsus and other obscure authors. All which are faithfully translated out of the Latin into the English tongue, by J. F. MD.

London: A. Clark for Thomas Williams,  1674.
£1650.00
US$2468.06*





WALKER, William. ~ [A dictionarie of English and Latine idiomes wherein phrases of the English tongue answering in parallels each to the other are ranked under severall heads alphabetically set...] Idiomatologia Anglo-Latina, sive Dictionarium idiomaticum Anglo-Latinum: in quo phrases, tam Latinæ quam Anglicanæ linguæ sibi mutuò respondentes, sub certis quibusdam capitibus secundum alphabeti ordinem è regione collocantur. In usum tam peregrinorum, qui sermonem nostru Anglicanum, quàm nostratium, qui Latinum idioma callere student. Quarta editio. Cui acessit istiusmodi phrasium & idiomatum additio in utraque lingua ad minus trium millium.

London: E. Horton for T Sawbridg,  1685.
£900.00
US$1346.22*




BERTHOLLET, Claude Louis. ~ Elements of the art of dyeing... translated from the French by William Hamilton...

London: by Stephen Couchman, and sold by J. Johnson,  1791.
First edition in English, very scarce, of Berthollet's important scientific contribution to the burgeoning European textile industry. Having collaborated with Lavoisier on the latter's pioneering chemical nomenclature and presented some seventeen memoirs to the Academy, the author was already an influential chemist when appointed inspector of dye works and director of the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins in 1784. The Gobelins had their origins in the workshops of Flemish weavers brought to Paris by Henri IV in 1602 and were formally established by Colbert in 1667 as the "Royal Manufactury of Furnishings to the Crown". They became the pre-eminent centre for tapestry weaving in EuropeIn the Éléments de l'art de la teinture Berthollet "endeavored to place the ancient craft of dyeing on a scientific basis by a systematic discussion of its procedures, coupled with an attempt to find an adequate set of theoretical principles to explain the chemical actions involved. His explanation was that, depending on the variable physical conditions of temperature, quantity of solvent employed, and so forth, when a cloth was dyed the reciprocal affinities of the particles of the dye, the mordants, and the cloth itself were responsible for the kind and quality of dyeing. The colors produced were due to the oxidation of the mordant by the atmosphere" (DSB).The British edition appeared in the same year as the French, reflecting the market for such a treatise in a country where textile production was becoming one of the most important national industries. A second British edition appeared at Edinburgh the following year and several reprints appeared in the nineteenth century, presumably a measure of the popularity and utility of this scientific manual of dyeing in the British industrial revolution.   view more...
£1300.00
US$1944.53*













 

GOWER, John. ~ De Confessione Amantis.

London: Thomas Berthelet,  1532.
Second edition of Gower's great Middle English poem, completed about 1390 and dedicated to Richard II. Gower is chiefly remembered as a friend of Geoffrey Chaucer and his Confessio Amantis is frequently cited as the origin of William Shakespeare's play Pericles (who's story is taken from book 8 of the Confessio) but he should be accepted in his own right as one of the great pioneers of English literature.The plan of the Confessio was doubtless borrowed from the Roman de la Rose, and consists of a dialogue first between the poet, in the character of a lover, and Venus, and afterwards between the poet, in the character of a penitent, and Genius, whom Venus assigns to him as a confessor. In the conversation between the penitent and the confessor the seven deadly sins are discussed and illustrated from Gower's encyclopaedic knowledge of Ovid, Josephus, Vincent de Beauvais, Statius, the Gesta Romanorum, the Bible, and other sources. In the eighth book, having described the duty of a king and prayed for England, the poet bids farewell to earthly love. The work is a profound meditation on human love and morality and in Gower's own words in the Prologue it was "a boke for Englondes sake".The work survives in numerous early manuscripts (attesting to its immediate popularity) and was first printed by Caxton in 1474. Thomas Berthelet's edition of 1532 is considered textually superior to Caxton. Pforzheimer notes that the "edition was printed from a manuscript, resembling MS. Bodley 294, but inferior in correctness, collated with Caxton's edition from which several passages lacking in the manuscript were supplied. In the prefatory note 'To the reader' Berthelet included the alternative form of the introductory lines Prologue 24-92, also from Caxton's edition, so that on the whole this edition is textually an improvement over the earlier one. It is also a good example of workmanlike printing much above the average English work of the period" (Pforzheimer). The third edition of 1554 is merely a paginary reprint of the present.The early ownership inscription of William Sotheby is dated 1532. This copy is handsomely bound in the style of Mackinley for the Earl of Stafford, among the richest men in England at the opening of the nineteenth-century. The Earl was himself a latter-day member of the Gower family (he claimed descent in the male line from Sir Alan Gower of Stittenham, supposedly sheriff of York at the time of the conquest). Several antiquaries had previously suggested that the poet's origins lay in the same place, so this would have been a fitting acquisition for the Earl.   view more...
£15000.00
US$22436.93*


















 

[RIDPATH, George.] ~ Parliamentary right maintain'd or the Hanover succession justify'd. Wherein The Hereditary Right to the Crown of England asserted &c. Is Consider'd, in III. Parts. The Ist Examins the Plea from Scripture. The II. That from the Laws & History of England, for Indefeasible Right, Nonresistance & Disposition of the Crown by Will. The III. Whether the Parliament, can repeal the Hanover Succession, as now Establish'd by the Treaty of Union. With Reflections on the Treasonable Schemes of the Party, as they occurr in their Book: & Particularly that of a new lurking pretender.

[London?],  1714.
£300.00
US$448.74*








ROSS, Alexander. ~ Virgilii evangelisantis Christiados libri XIII. In quibus omnia quæ de Domino nostro Iesu Christo in utroque Testamento, vel dicta vel prædicta sunt, altisona divina Maronis tuba suavissime decantantur…

London: Richard Thrale,   1638.
£825.00
US$1234.03*



[BERKELEY, George, editor]; Richard STEELE [preface]; F. M. JANIÇON, translator. ~ Bibliotheque des Dames, contenant des regles génerales pour leur conduite, dans toutes les circonstances de la vie. Ecrite par une dame, & publiée par Mr. le Chev. R[ichard]. Steele, traduite de l'Anglois par Mr. Janiçon. Seconde edition.

Amsterdam: Du Villard et Changuion,   1719-24.
£550.00
US$822.69*



BUCHANAN, George. ~ Paraphrasis Psalmorum Davidis poetica multo quam antehac castigatior; auctore Georgio Buchanano, Scoto, po'tarum nostri saeculi facilè principe. Adnotata sunt argumenta, & carminum genera. Accesserunt duae eiusdem Buchanani tragoediae sacrae: Jephthes, & Baptistes sive Calumnia.

London: Richard Field,  1592.
A rare London pocket edition of Buchanan's Latin verse paraphrases of the Psalms: "The work which more than any other has secured to [Buchanan] his eminent place among modern Latin poets. Buchanan's translation of the Psalms may fairly be considered one of the representative books of the sixteenth century, expressing, as it does, in consummate form, the conjunction of piety and learning which was the ideal of the best type of humanist" (Cambridge History of English and American Literature).Buchanan, though a Scotsman, travelled widely on the continent. The two plays, Jephthe and Baptistes, which also appear in our edition were composed at Bordeaux during a spell of teaching at the newly founded Collège de Guyenne (where Montaigne was among Buchanan's pupils). The Paraphrasis was begun at Coimbra (Portugal) where Buchanan had been teaching at the time of the Inquisition. He had gone to teach there in 1547, only to find the university soon overrun with Jesuits who observed his every movement and confined him to a nearby monastery to reform his humanist tendency towards satire (and the eating of meat in Lent). The Paraphrasis was the product of his penance: an unmistakeable triumph of humanist piety and scholarship. The work was dedicated to Mary Queen of Scots (and the dedication is repeated in our Elizabethan edition) who appointed Buchanan tutor to her son, the future James VI. It was first printed by the Estiennes in 1566, but was also printed in England in 1580 and 1583.   view more...
£875.00
US$1308.82*


STRUTT, Joseph. Antoine Marie Henri BOULARD, translator.  ~ Angleterre ancien, ou, Tableau des mœurs, usages, armes, habillemens, &c. des anciens habitans de l'Angleterre; c'est-à-dire, des anciens Bretons, des Anglo-Saxons, des Danois & des Normands. Ouvrage traduit de l'anglois de M. Joseph Strutt, par M. B***, & pouvant servir de suite aux Recueils de Montsaucon & de Caylus.

Paris: [widow Herissant for]: Maradin,  1789.
£750.00
US$1121.85*


(STUART, Charles, Baron Stuart de Rothesay). ~ [5 fine blue morocco bindings by Simier from the Rothesay collection.]

  1640-1650.
£3400.00
US$5085.70*



(TREATIES). ~ [12 treaties between Britain and her allies following the French declaration of war in 1793] [comprising:] Convention between His Britannick Majesty and the Empress of Russia. Signed at London, the 25th of March, 1793. Published by authority.

London: Edward Johnston,   1793.
A collection of 12 scarce treaties between Britain and her allies following the French declaration of war in 1793 and one further treaty negotiated with Bavaria in 1800. The backbone of the British war policy, these 1793 agreements were designed to create an allied coalition against the French, of which the axis would be Britain and the German powers, with further support from subsidiary powers in the Baltic, Mediterranean and Atlantic. However, the speed and efficiency with which these agreements were signed belies the complex and conflicting aims of each nation and the subsequent rapid disintegration of the policy.Britain's initial admiration for the evolving Revolution in France quickly changed to alarm with the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793, followed by the French declarations of war on Britain and the Dutch Republic on February 1 and Spain on March 7. French war-mongering had already led to the annexation of Savoy, Belgium and the Rhineland in 1792 and French ambitions were spelt out by Danton in the National Convention: "The frontiers of France have been mapped by nature, and we shall reach them at the four corners of the horizon, on the banks of the Rhine, by the side of the ocean and at the Alps. It is there that we shall reach the limits of our Republic."Notably, the first two agreements were conventions signed with Russia, one uniting the two countries as allies against the aggressions of France and securing Russia's cooperation in the naval war, the other being a trade agreement, which finally settled a longstanding commercial dispute between Britain and Russia. Signed on the same day in March 1793, a contemporary commentator wryly noted that it seemed the two powers were competing as to "who shall be most fond and shall kiss the first". However, despite the apparent goodwill on both sides, the conventions never led to full and binding treaties.Similarly, the terms of the convention signed with Prussia unravelled almost as soon as the ink was dry and within two months Frederick William II was demanding significant additional terms. Lord Grenville, Britain's Foreign Secretary, took a dim view of such demands and having first shored up his own position by negotiating a separate agreement with Austria, he initially refused to comply with Prussian requests. However, under pressure from Pitt and Dundas, Grenville was forced to negotiate further with the Prussians, with the result that the Austrians were in turn estranged.Like Russia, the Spanish had their own motives for joining the war and despite the successful signing of the convention of Aranjuez, which committed both parties to explore the prospects of an alliance, a further agreement was never reached. Alliances with Portugal, Sardinia and Sicily proved equally problematic in the following months.   view more...
£1200.00
US$1794.95*


LONGINUS, Caesar. ~ Trinum magicum, sive secretorum magicorum opus. Continens I. De magia naturali artificiosa et superstitiosa diquisitiones axiomaticas. II. Theatrum naturae praeter curam magneticam, & veterum sophorum sigilla & imagines magicas, etiam conclusiones physicas, elementales, coelestes & infernales exhibens. III. Oracula zoroastris, & mysteria mysticae philosophiae, Haebraeorum, Chaldaeorum, Aegyptiorum, Persarum, Orphicorum, & Pythagoricorum. Accrssere nonulla secreta secretorum & mirabilia mundi. Et tractatus de proprii cujusque nati daemonis inquisitione.

Frankfurt: Jacob Gothofred Seyler,  1673.
Probably from the collection of Isaac Newton: a collection of treatises on hermetic and magical philosophy. The volume contains no obvious marks of Newton's ownership (inscriptions in his hand, dog-earing etc) but it contains the shelf-marks and engraved bookplate of James Musgrave. It does not contain the Huggins bookplate and does not appear in the first listing of Newton's library made after his death for Huggins. However, in view of the subject matter it is quite likely to have been Newton's copy: since not all of his books came to have the Huggins plate and many books later proved to be Newton's were not listed in Huggins's inventory.The dispersal of Newton's library after his death was definitively recounted by John Harrison. Dying intestate, most of Newton's books were rapidly sold to John Huggins, Warden of the Fleet Prison and installed in the house of his third son, Charles Huggins at Chinnor Rectory. They later passed, with the house, by marriage to Dr James Musgrave who later moved (with his library) in 1778 to Barnsley Park in Gloucestershire. There they remained, largely undisturbed, before dispersal at auction in the early part of the twentieth-century.Books demonstrably from Newton's library have been recognised through a variety of means: notably the contemporary lists compiled of both the Huggins and Musgrave libraries, but also from the bookplates and shelf-marks they contain, and, occasionally from Newton's own annotations and trade-mark "dog-earing" of corners. Our little Longinus, in its early to mid-eighteenth century binding contains no obvious Newtonian markings and did not appear in the first listings listings of Newton's library made by Huggins and does not contain a Huggins bookplate. It does however contain two sets of Musgrave's markings (the Chinnor and Barnsley Park shelf-marks) plus Musgrave's distinctive bookplate.As Harrison points out, while Huggins' first list is the most useful of all the lists of Newton's books, it does have limitations, especially in relation to smaller books in octavo or duodecimo and volumes with multiple contents (tracts). A good number of books known to have been Newton's appear in the Musgrave list only but are missing from the Huggins list. While most larger books were fully listed, smaller books were far less accurately recorded. For example, Harrison cites the entry "3 Dozen of small chymical books", among which a volume such as ours could easily have passed unrecognised. Furthermore, such an arcane hermetic text is highly unlikely to have been added to the library from elsewhere by either Huggins or Musgrave. Certainly Musgrave added books (perhaps as many as 130 volumes) but these tended to be on more general non-scientific subjects. "The great majority of the doubtful books are theological (particularly sermons), and the rest comprise a few classical texts, works on modern history and biography, and works of English literature, together with a reference book or two" (Harrison p. 46). On the other hand, it is precisely the sort of book Newton had been reading avidly between c. 1670-90 (see Brewster, Newton Handbook, 11).The binding of the book is of interest, dating from the eighteenth rather than the seventeenth century. If we are correct in suggesting that the book had its origins among Newton's books then a rebinding must have taken place under the instruction of Musgrave while still at his house at Chinnor (the book's pastedown bears a Chinnor marking). It is known that Musgrave did oversee a degree of conservation and rebinding, especially among the flimsier tract volumes, though the style of our binding is quite different to these. The Longinus has not only been rebound, but has had its rather frayed title carefully repaired by backing on a blank leaf (not watermarked).In sum, the Musgrave markings and the subject matter strongly suggest Newton's earlier ownership, though, on present evidence, this cannot be definitively proved. A work was first published with this title in 1609, and again, in a form closer to our text in 1614. Thereafter it appeard in numerous editions throughout the seventeenth century. The first part considers the different varieties of magic with an added section on the medicinal and magical properties of plants, minerals and animals,;the second is a treatise on cures reputedly effected at a distance by means of the the "weapon salve" (unguento armaro); the third contains the oracles of Zoroaster in verse, and the mystic philosophy of the Hebrews, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Orphics and Pythagoreans in prose; and the final part, possibly added for this edition concerns the nature of the devil.   view more...
£4000.00
US$5983.18*












OWEN, Robert. ~ The revolution in the mind and practice of the human race; or, the coming change from irrationality to rationality...

London: Effingham Wilson,  1849.
First edition, presentation copy. As the title suggests, this later work is essentially Owen's response to the European political upheavals of 1848, the year of the Paris Commune and of the publication of Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto. Since Owen had made his first practical statement of socialist principles in A New View of Society (1813-14) the socialist movement had become the central theme of European politics: "A revolution from wrong to right, from falsehood to truth, from oppression to justice, from deception and misery to straightforward honesty and happiness, has commenced" (Revolution in the mind and practice..., Ch. 3, p. 39). Owen, for his part, had also accrued the experience of his social experiments at New Lanark, New Harmony (United States) and Queenwood. He fundamentally opposed the principle of 'revolutionary socialism' which advocated violence as the only way of fomenting the necessary change in society. The present work opens with envoys both to Queen Victoria and "To the Red Republicans, Communists and Socialists of Europe" - the latter being a stinging reprimand for the mistakes of 1848 in which he accuses the Communists of committing the same errors as their enemies by resorting to violence rather than reason and kindness.The work provides a succinct retrospective account of the New Lanark experiment as an illustration of Owen's principles (and as a mature admission of the limitations of his first experiment) and proceeds to rehearse the basic principles and laws of a genuinely rational society, many of which he had earlier developed in the The Book of the New Moral World (1836-44). A supplement to the work appeared later in 1849.   view more...
£4000.00
US$5983.18*









 

BROUGHAM and VAUX, Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron. ~ The present state of the law. The speech of Henry Brougham, Esq., M.P., in the House of Commons, on Thursday, February 7, 1828, on his motion, that an humble address be presented His Majesty, praying that he will graciously be pleased to issue a commission for inquring into the defects occasioned by time and otherwise in the laws of this realm, and into the measures necessary for removing the same.

London: Henry Colburn,  1828.
£125.00
US$186.97*








































 

MILL, John Stuart. ~ Autobiography.

London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer,  1873.
£200.00
US$299.16*















M'QUHAE, William. ~ The difficulties which attend the practice of religion, no just argument against it. A discourse from James, chapter I, verse 12.

Edinburgh: by Balfour and Smellie,  1775.
First and only edition of M'Quhae's only published work, a sermon preached in the presence of Charles, Lord Cathcart. M'Quhae, though unprolific in published work, had been a major influence on the young James Boswell, who had written his early "Journal of My Jaunt, Harvest 1762" for M'Quhae and John Johnston. The 21-year-old Boswell had met M'Quhae in 1761 and found in him a firm and sympathetic friend. "Only three years Boswell's senior, he had come into Lord Auchinleck's household as domestic tutor... By that time Boswell himself had passed beyond the need of a tutor's ministrations, and was able to associate with the new governor on purely social and friendly terms, M'Quhae's manliness pleased him greatly. At the University of Glasgow he had been a favourite pupil of Adam Smith; he was well educated, loved polite literature, and, though he had decided to be a clergyman in the country, was not without a relish for the scenes of active life" (Pottle, Boswell, Earlier Years, p. 75-6). The friendship did not however survive Boswell's European tours and M'Quhae lived a relatively quiet life as minister of St Quivox from 1764. He became, however, a respected member of the "New Licht" faction within the Church of Scotland, a movement which reflected the liberal attitudes of the Enlightenment against the conservative and Calvinsist "Old Licht faction". Burns humorously referred to him in "The Twa Herds" as "That curs'd rascal ca'd M'Quhae", and mentioned also "M'Quhae's pathetic manly sense."   view more...
£1500.00
US$2243.69*

























































PRIDEAUX, Humphrey. ~ Marmora Oxoniensia, ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata. Recensuit, & perpetuo commentario explicavit, Humphridus Prideaux ædis Christi alumnus. Appositis ad eorum nonnulla Seldeni & Lydiati annotationibus. Accessit Sertorii Ursati Patavini De notis Romanorum commentarius.

Oxford: [University Press],   1676.
£500.00
US$747.90*


















 
£60.00
US$89.75*





STILLINGFLEET, Edward. ~ The unreasonableness of separation: or, An impartial account of the history, nature, and pleas of the present separation from the communion of the Church of England. To which, several late letters are annexed, of eminent Protestant divines abroad, concerning the nature of our differences, and the way to compose them. By Edward Stillingfleet, D.D. Dean of St. Pauls, and chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty.

London: printed by T[homas]. N[ewcomb]. for Henry Mortlock, at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard,  1681.
First edition of Stillingfleet's major work, urging unity in the Church of England in the face of emerging dissent at home and in the American colonies. It was developed from the author's controversial sermon The Mischief of Separation preached on 11 May 1680 before the whig lord mayor of London, Sir Robert Clayton, which caused a furore among Dissenters. Passionately committed to Protestant unity, Stillingfleet accused the Dissenters of an innate tendency to sectarianism which threatened the entire Protestant enterprise in the face of Catholic resurgency in England."Stillingfleet was clearly taken aback by the opposition to his sermon. In 1683 he produced a major work, The Unreasonableness of Separation, which enlarged upon the earlier sermon. Even if occasional conformity were accepted as the norm there would be no end to dissenters pressing for their various ideas of a perfect church, and so perpetuating schism. He admitted that various reforms were desirable in the Church of England, especially in the church courts to restore the puritan ideal of church discipline; but dissenters maintained their nonconformity only because of certain 'accidental appendices' and some 'circumstantials of worship' whereas the Church of England's schism with Rome rested on doctrinal issues—a very different matter" (Till in Oxford DNB).The work has considerable historical value, since Stillingfleet presents a very careful anatomy of the various phases of dissent, both in England and abroad. There are several interesting accounts of the early churches in North America and discussions of the debates between Roger Williams, John Cotton and Samuel Gorton.   view more...
£250.00
US$373.95*


LOVEDAY, R[obert].  ~ Loveday's Letters Domestick and Forrein. To several persons, occasionally distributed in subjects philosophicall, historicall, & morall. By R. Loveday Gent. the late translator of the three first parts of Cleopatra.

London: J.G. for Nath. Brook, at the Angel in Corn-hill,  1659.
£850.00
US$1271.43*




£850.00
US$1271.43*




WILLUGHBY, Francis. ~ De Historia Piscium Libri Quatuor, Jussu & Sumptibus Societatis Regiae Londiniensis editi. In quibus non tantum De Piscibus in genere agitur, Sed & sepcies omnes, tum ab aliis traditae, tum novae & nondum editae bene multae, naturae ductum servante Methodo dispositae, accurate describuntur. Earumque effigies, quotquot haberi potuere, vel ad vivum delineatae, vel ad optima exemplaria impressae; Artifici manu elegantissime in Aes incisae, ad descriptiones illustrandas exhibentur. Cum Appendice Historias & Observationes in supplementum Operis collatas complectente. Totum Opus Recognovit, Coaptavit, Supplevit, Librum etiam primum & secundum integros adjecit Johannes Raius e Societate Regia.

Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre,  1686.
£4250.00
US$6357.13*



 

PENN, William, Robert BARCLAY and Joseph PIKE. ~ Three treatises in which the fundamental principle, doctrines, worship, ministry and discipline of the people called Quakers, are plainly declared. The first, by William Penn, in England; the second by Robert Barclay, in Scotland; the third, by Joseph Pike, in Ireland. [PENN, William. A brief account of the rise and progress of the people called Quakers... The sixth edition;] [BARCLAY, Robert. The anarchy of the ranters, and other libertines; the hierarchy of the Romanists, and other pretended churches, equally refused and refuted, in a two-fold apology for the Church and people of God, called in derision, Quakers;] [PIKE, Joseph. An Epistle to the National Meeting of Friends, in Dublin, concerning good order and discipline in the Church.]

Philadelphia: re-printed by Joseph Crukshank,   1770.
£300.00
US$448.74*






[CAREW, Bampfylde-Moore.] ~ The life and adventures of Bampfylde-Moore Carew, commonly called the King of the beggars. Being An impartial Account of his Life, from his leaving Tiverton School at the Age of Fifteen and entering into a Society of Gipsies; wherein the Motives of his Conduct are related and explained: The great Number of Characters and Shapes he has appeared in through Great Britain, Ireland, and several other Places of Europe: with his Travels twice through great Part of America: Giving a particular account of the origin, government, laws, and customs of the gipsies, with the Method of electing their King. And a dictionary of the cant language used by the mendicants.

London: for J. Buckland, C. Bathurst and T. Davies,  1793.
The celebrated life of a colourful swindler and impostor, first published in 1745 and reprinted numerous times. This is one of two editions printed for Buckland, Bathurst and Davies in 1793. The final 5 pages contain a notable cant dictionary.Carew fell in with a band of gypsies as a wayward young boy. "After a year and a half Carew returned home for a time, but soon after resumed a career of swindling and imposture, which saw him deceive people to whom he had previously been well known. Eventually he embarked for Newfoundland, but stayed only a short time. On his return to England he passed as the mate of a vessel, and eloped with the daughter of a respectable apothecary from Newcastle upon Tyne, whom he later married.Carew soon returned to the nomadic life, and when Clause Patch, a Gypsy king or chief, died Carew was elected his successor. He was convicted of being an idle vagrant, and sentenced to be transported to Maryland. On his arrival he attempted to escape, but was captured and made to wear a heavy iron collar; he escaped again, and encountered some Native Americans, who removed his shackles. On departure he travelled to Pennsylvania. He was then said to have swum the Delaware River, after which he adopted the guise of a Quaker, and made his way to Philadelphia, then to New York, and finally to Boston, where he embarked for England. He escaped impressment on board a man-of-war by pricking his hands and face, and rubbing in bay salt and gunpowder, so as to simulate smallpox" (John Ashton, rev. Heather Shore in Oxford DNB).This biography is variously attributed to Bampfylde Moore Carew himself, to Robert Goadby and to his wife Mrs. Goadby.    view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
















 

BENTHAM, Jeremy. ~ A fragment on government; or, a comment of the commentaries: being an examination of what is delivered on the subject of government in general, in the introduction to Sir William Blackstone's commentaries: with a preface, in which is given a critique on the work at large. Second edition, enlarged.

London: for W. Pickering and E. Wilson,  1823.
£275.00
US$411.34*



 

BENTHAM, Jeremy. ~ A fragment on government; or, a comment on the Commentaries: being an examination of what is delivered on the subject of government in general, in the introduction to Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries: with a preface, in which is given a critique on the work at large. Second edition, enlarged.

London: for W. Pickering and E. Wilson,  1823.
£200.00
US$299.16*







HALIFAX, [George SAVILE, Marquis of]. ~ Conseils d'un homme de qualite a sa fille.

London: Matthew Gillyflower,  1697.
A very rare French edition (albeit with "Londres" imprint) of Halifax's Advice to Betty, a counsel for young ladies of high birth on how to behave and manage themselves despite the prevailing inequalities of the sexes. Halifax wrote the book for his young daughter and it was only intended to be privately circulated; however, a pirated edition appeared in 1688 as The Ladies New-Year's Gift, or, Advice to a Daughter and by 1765 it had reached its fifteenth numbered edition, with translations also appearing in French and Italian. An edition with the imprint "chez Jaques Partridge à Charing-Cross, & Matieu Gilliflower dans Westminster-Hall", had appeared in 1692, and ESTC does not list this 1697 edition. Bound with the probable first edition of La Chalotais' revolutionary programme for an enlightened public system of education. The Essai was praised by Voltaire and was widely reprinted in its first year. Several issues are dated 1763, and ours is usually (though not bibliographically certainly) considered the first. La Chalotais was instrumental in dismantling the apparatus of Jesuit education in France, and his programme is his proposal for its replacement. Based on the acquisition of reason before the considerations of religion, the system divides education into primary (up to 10 years) and secondary phases and he here considers the relative merits of letters, history, geography, natural history, mathematics, physics (including astronomy and mechanics), literature, logic and metaphysics. Any study of religion is confined to a tertiary phase.   view more...
£950.00
US$1421.01*










 

DONNE, John. ~ Biathanatos. A declaration of that paradoxe or thesis, that self-homicide is not so naturally sin, that it may never be otherwise. Wherein the nature, and the extent of all those lawes, which seeme to be violated by the act, are diligently surveyed.

London: for Humphrey Moseley,  1648.
First edition, second issue, giving the date '1648'. Keynes suggests that the work was first published in 1647, since although it is undated, it first appears in the Stationers' Register in the autumn of 1646. The second issue uses the unsold sheets of that first issue with a cancel title.Donne frankly admits his fascination for the act of suicide in his Preface "...whensoever any affliction assailes me, mee thinks I have the keyes of my prison in mine owne hand, and no remedy presentes it selfe so soone to my heart, as mine own sword." He chose not to publish his meditations on the subject and only circulated the Biathanatos among friends in manuscript. He sent a copy to Sir Edward Herbert, and, in 1619, another to Sir Robert Karre, writing: "It was written by me many years since; and because it is upon a misinterpretable subject, I have always gone so near suppressing it, nor many eyes to read it: onely to some particular friends in both Universities, then when I writ it, I did communicate it: And I remember, I had this answer, That certainly, there was a false thread in it, but not easily found: Keep it, I pray, with the same jealousie; let any that your discretion admits to the sight of it, know the date of it; and that it is a Book written by Jack Donne, and not by D. Donne: Reserve it for me, if I live, and if I die, I only forbid it the Presse, and the Fire: publish it not, but burn it not; and between those, do what you will with it'"(cited by Keynes). It was published posthumously by John Donne the younger, and dedicated by Lord Herbert's sone Phillip.   view more...
£3000.00
US$4487.39*













(HUMOROUS DRAWINGS. MANUSCRIPT.) ~ (Album containing 31 pen and ink drawings with calligraphic borders and text, partly in the form of a comic narrative).

[Probably Kintbury, Berkshire, Barton Court or Speen Hill House, , n.d. [c.  1850.]
£2600.00
US$3889.07*







WEIZMANN, Chaim. ~ Trial and error the autobiography.

New York: Harper and Brothers,  [1949].
Presentation first edition of the autobiography of the first President of Israel, with an excellent and well documented provenance: "To Admiral Sir John Edelsten with cordial regards Chaim Weizmann […] 27.VI.50".The dedicatee, Admiral Sir John Edelsten, added an additional note in his own hand: "This book was presented to me by President Weizmann of Israel on the occasion of my visit to Telaviv in 1950. I was the first naval officer of any nation to fire a 21 gun salute to the new State of Israel.This book is of great interest in that it was the only copy left of the original edition. When the President was revising the book he used this copy only, & one can see the thumbing outside, where in places the gold lettering has disappeared completely. His staff were loath to produce this book when he asked for a copy to present to me, but he insisted & here it is. J H Edelsten. 27.VI.50." John Edelsten rose rapidly through the ranks of the Royal Navy and following an exemplary war-time record, he became a full admiral in February 1949 and was appointed as commander-in-chief, Mediterranean, the following year. Possessing outstanding organisational and diplomatic skills, Edelsten played a key role in fostering British strategic relations in Israel. Following his visit to Haifa in July 1950, Edelsten reported that Israel's 'siege mentality' and severe economic problems made her more amenable to defence talks with the West. This assessment was one of the British government's key indicators of Israel's pro-Western disposition.   view more...
£2000.00
US$2991.59*


ROBINS, Benjamin. ~ New principles of gunnery: containing, the determination of the force of gun-powder, and an investigation of the difference in the resisting power of the air to swift and slow motions. By Benjamin Robins, F. R. S.

London: for J. Nourse,   1742.
First edition."New Principles of Gunnery transformed ballistics into a Newtonian science. Galileo's vacuum theory was the only practical theory before 1742, but only for low-velocity mortars as demonstrated in Bélidor's Le bombardier français (1731). Robins made it applicable for gunpowder weaponry in general. His key contribution was the invention and utilization of the ballistic pendulum. With Huygens's law of pendulum motion and Newton's law of linear momentum, he deduced the bullet's impact velocity from the subsequent swing angle. Robins then used the ballistic pendulum to verify his interior-ballistics theory, relying on Boyle's law, the thirty-ninth proposition from book one of the Principia, and the pneumatic chemistry techniques of Francis Hauksbee the elder and Stephen Hales. By applying Newton's second law of motion to velocity measurements at varying ranges, Robins also obtained the air-resistance force acting on musket balls. This revealed the significant limitations of Galileo's vacuum ballistics theory and of Newton's air-resistance function when approaching the speed of sound" (Steele in Oxford DNB).Robins was born of Quaker stock in Bath. He was initially self-educated but was later taught by the Newtonian editor Henry Pemberton and became a significant exponent of Newton's physics. He had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1727. His New principles of gunnery was widely-read and was translated into German by Euler and also into French.   view more...
£950.00
US$1421.01*


MILTON, John. ~ Como, Dramma con Maschere … rappresentato a Ludlow Castle, nel 1634, in presenza di Giovanni Egerton … Traduzione sostenuta ad litteram // Comus, Masque … représenté au Chateau de Ludlow, en 1634, devant John Egerton … Traduction littérale …

Paris, De l'Imprimerie de Charles Crapelet  1806.
£800.00
US$1196.64*







SAINT-PIERRE, Bernardin de. ~ Paul and Virginia. Translated from the French of Bernardin Saint-Pierre; by Helen Maria Williams, author of Letters on the French Revolution, Julia a novel, Poems, &c.

[N.p. but Paris: John Hurford Stone,]   1795.
First edition of this translation, a rare imprint from the English Press at Paris. The origin of this book has caused bibliographers some trouble - with its apparently English typography and use of catchwords, but rather outlandish overall appearance. It is described in some catalogues as being provincial English and it appears in the English Short Title Catalogue. Its true origin has been identified by John Bidwell of the Morgan Library, who writes in the online catalogue of that library "Given the French origins of the paper, type, plates and binding, and the quality of the typesetting, this edition was printed in Paris, almost certainly at the English Press of the expatriate radical John Hurford Stone, who was living with Helen Maria Williams at this time. Cf. Madeleine B. Stern, "The English Press in Paris and its successors," PBSA 74 (1980): 307-89."The type is indeed of ultimate English origin, being cast from Baskerville's punches by the Dépôt des caractères de Baskerville in Paris, established by Beaumarchais in 1791 and closed ca. 1795-1796. Beaumarchais (who considered Baskerville a genius) purchased the bulk of the Birmingham printer's punches from his widow after his death. Cf. John Dreyfus, "The Baskerville punches 1750-1950", The Library, 5th ser. 5 (1951): 26-48. (also cited by Bidwell).Helen Maria Williams was a central member of an important group of English radicals who had settled in Paris after the Revolution which included Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin and Thomas Paine. She formed an association with the radical printer Stone, who divorced his wife in 1794 and was possibly secretly married to Williams that year. Paul and Virginia was translated at the height of the Terror, when Williams was imprisoned in the Couvent des Anglaises on account of the war between England and France. Stone's English Press remained active throughout these years in the Rue de Vaugirard, succesfully printing works by authors such as Paine and Joel Barlow.   view more...
£1800.00
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£500.00
US$747.90*