Justin Croft : Antiquarian Books

ANTOINE, A[ntoine]. ~ Le jeune âge des Bourbons, ou anecdotes remarquables de leur enfance, depuis Henri IV jusqu'à nos jours; suivi de quelques traits d'esprit, de saillies fines, sentimentales de petits enfants, à l'occasion du retour de ces princes.

Paris: Alexis Eymery, 1815.

First edition of this attractive juvenile title, an enthusiastic celebration of the Bourbon restoration in France and a suitably royalist approach to childhood. The frontispiece shows the imprisoned Louis XVI teaching his children, with a globe and dividers. view more...

£300.00

US$583.41*

order now

add to basket

(ARMENIAN). ~ Compendiose notizie sulla congregazione de' monaci Armeni Mechitaristi di Venezia nell'isola di S. Lazzaro. [Title also in Armenian].

[Island of San Lazzaro, Venice: Tipografia di Sudetta Isola, 1819.

First edition of a lovely example of the Armenian typography of the Mekhitarist monks of the island of San Lazzaro in the Venetian lagoon. The island was granted to a small group of Armenian monks led by Mekhitar escaping Turkish persecution in 1717. The monastery (which came to occupy the entire island) became a centre of scholarly renown in the fields of oriental study and philology, welcoming scholars from all over the world. Byron notably spent part of 1816 on the island studying Armenian. This scarce history is in both Armenian and Italian, and includes several notices of the earlier productions of the Mekhitarist press. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

order now

add to basket

BAILEY, Samuel. ~ Discourses on various subjects; read before literary and philsophical societies.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1852.

First edition. view more...

£275.00

US$534.79*

order now

add to basket

BAILEY, Samuel. ~ The rationale of political representation. By the author of Essay on the formation of opinions, &c. &c.

London: R. Hunter, 1835.

First edition. Bailey is best-known as one of the most persistent critics of David Ricardo, but his works of the 1830s are concerned with representation, the most pressing issue of the decade. "The politics displayed in these works are those of a moderate utilitarian radical with a strong objection to state interference" (Oxford DNB). view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

order now

add to basket

BAYLEE, John T. ~ Statistics and facts in reference to the Lord's-day...

London: Seeleys and J.H. Jackson, 1852.

First edtion. Baylee was clerical secretary of the Society for promoting the due observance of the Lord's-day. view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

order now

add to basket

[BERRY, Mary.] ~ A comparative view of the social life of England and France, from the restoration of Charles the second, to the French Revolution.

London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1828.

First editions. Berry, Horace Walpole's protegée and later editor, here provides a richly detailed account of English society from Mid-Georgian to mid-Victorian and of France in the same period. There are especially valuable accounts of Napoleon, Mme de Sta'l, and Princess Caroline. Both works are scarce. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

order now

add to basket

BERTALL (pseudonym of Charles Albert d'Arnoux.) ~ The Communists of Paris.

Paris: Édouard Blot and son for Buckingham and Co in Paris and London and J. M. O'Toole and Son in Dublin, [1873.]

First edition. A superb series of plates depicting the communards of the 1871 insurrection, an event welcomed by Marx as a 'glorious harbinger of a new society' but referred to Bertall here as 'that strange and disastrous Masquerade.' Included are images of the barricades, the female petrol bombers (les Pétroleuses), a communist 'Zoave', the Minister of War etc. Bertall was editor of the Pairs Soir and editor and illustrator of the satirical Grelot during the commune. view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

order now

add to basket

BLANC, Louis. ~ Organisation du travail... IV édition considérablement augmentée, précédée d'une introduction, et suivée d'un compte-rendu de la maison Leclaire...

Paris: Cauville Frères, 1845.

First published in 1839, this edition is of particular interest for the supplements, containing the 1843 accounts of the maison Leclaire, one of the first French companies to offer its employees a proportional share in profits. The accounts did not appear in later issues. view more...

£100.00

US$194.47*

order now

add to basket

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.

First edition of Brougham's famous six-hour speech (the longest in the history of the Commons) which kick-started the long-overdue reform of the British legal system. In the course of the speech "he exposed flaws in virtually every area of law (omitting only chancery reform and the criminal law) and staked his claim to be parliament's prime champion of law reform. Brougham's speech struck the perfect note. He showed himself to be committed to a widescale reform of the legal system, while resisting Bentham's iconoclasm. In preparing the speech he had in fact received much guidance (and many manuscripts) from Bentham, who still considered Brougham as the man best placed... to advance his projects for codification and the abolition of the common law" (Oxford DNB).Though the recipient's name has been erased, this copy has a presentation inscription by Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Lady Holland, the celebrated literary and political hostess. It provides an interesting sidelight on her political sympathies. view more...

£125.00

US$243.09*

order now

add to basket

[BRÉGHOT DU LUT, Claude, Antoine PERICAUD and Pierre-Alexandre GRATET-DUPLESSIS.] ~ Recueil de la chevauchée, faicte en la ville de Lyon: La dixseptiesme de Novembre 1578. Avec tout l'Ordre tenu en icelle.

Lyon: [J.M. Barret], [1829].

One of 100 copies on papier vélin of this critical edition of a sixteenth-century verse account of what, in English, would be called a 'skimmington ride' (a spontaneous and noisy procession to ridicule an erring husband or wife). The text had first been printed in the Collection de pièces relatives à l'histoire de France, but this version contains an interesting introduction with a brief survey of the appearance of the skimmington ride in English literature: Butler's Hudibras, the Tour of Doctor Syntax ("encore peu connu en France, mais qui a eu beaucoup de succès dans son pays natal") and Scott's Fortunes of Nigel. view more...

£50.00

US$97.23*

order now

add to basket

[BURNET, Sir Thomas.] ~ Le Chevalier de St. George, réhabilité dans sa qualité de Jacques III. par de nouvelles preuves. Avec la relation historique des suites de sa naissance, par Mr. Rousset, membre de l'Académie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, &c.

"A Whitehall, de l'ancienne imprimerie du Cokpit", [?Amsterdam], 1745.

A very scarce French work with a false "Whitehall" imprint on the subject of James Stuart (variously the Old Pretender or Chevalier de St. George) recognised by the French and much of Catholic Europe as James III, rightful king of England and Scotland. This is in part a French translation of the Whig Thomas Burnet's incendiary pamphlet of 1713: Some new proofs by which it appears that the Pretender is truly James the Third which is here wrongly attributed (p.10) to the author's brother, Gilbert Burnet. A translation of that work into French first appeared in 1715 but a large part of our much enlarged 1745 edition is given over to a "Relation Historique" of the birth of James and of his claims to the British throne and is offered by the anonymous author as a work of particular contemporary interest. 1745 was the year of the failed "forty-five" rebellion of the Jacobites under James's son, Bonnie Prince Charlie. It is over double the length of the 1715 translation. view more...

£650.00

US$1264.05*

order now

add to basket

(CARADOC, Saint, of Llancafarn.) ~ Die Historie van Walles, in sich haltend derer Printzen von Walles Leben und Thaten, von Cadwalader ... biss auf Lhewelinum ... Vormahls geschrieben in Brittischer Sprache von Caradoco Lhancarvanensi; nachmahls von D. Powel in Englisher publiciret, und von Mr. Wynne vermehret; ietzo aber aus dieser ins Teutsche gebracht.

Coburg: Paul Gunther Pforenhauer, 1725.

First edition in German of the Welsh medieval Chronicle of the Princes, commonly known as the Chronicle of Caradoc of Llancarfan. The German version is taken from the English translation by H. Lhoyd, edited by David Powel, first printed in 1584 and later augmented by William Wynne. The German translation is by Philipp Georg Huebner and is dedicated to Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxony.Sabin notes of the first English edition that "a special interest in this work for the American collector consists in its relation of the most ancient 'Voyage and Discovery of the West Indies, performed by Madoc, the sonne of Owen Guined, prince of North Wales, anno 1170'" (Sabin 40914). This episode is found also in the German edition. view more...

£800.00

US$1555.76*

order now

add to basket

CARRANZA, Bartolomé. ~ Summa Co[n]ciliorum et pontificum a Petro usaque ad Julium tertium succincte coplectens omnia quae alibi sparsim tradita sunt...

Paris: Charlotte Guillard, widow of Claude Chevallon, 1555.

A rare imprint bearing the name of Charlotte Guillard, the foremost woman-printer of the French Renaissance (see B. Beech, Renaissance Quarterly, XXXVI [1983], 345-367). "Charlotte Guillard, spent, by her account, fifty years as a printer. After sixteen years married to the printer Berthold Rembolt, she managed his business from 1518 until 1520 when she remarried Claude Chevallon... With her second husband, she published other works that contained recognition of both his and her contribution... When Chevallon died in 1537, Guillard took over the business, managing it for twenty years until her death in 1557... she published... under her own name 'At the House of Charlotte Guillard'. Several works she published contained praise of her expertise and the accuracy of her publications" (Susan Broomhall, Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth-Century France, p.55). The present imprint appears to have been a collaboration with a consortium of male colleagues in the Paris trade, since there exist copies of this work with the same collation and date but with (individually) the names of Jean Ruell, L'Angelier, Thibout and Turrisan. All are rare, recorded in just a handful of copies between them in the usual library catalogues. The CCFr lists a single copy of the Guillard issue. This work is not found in the list of publications of Charlotte Guillard in A. Erdmann's My Gracious Silence; Women in the mirror of 16th century printing in Western Europe, pp. 246.Carranza, a Spanish Domincan theologian had briefly been Confessor to Mary I of England, later becoming Charles V's envoy to the Council of Trent (1546). His history of the earlier church councils had, significantly, been first printed in 1546 (Venice). It became very influential to judge by the number of reprints into the seventeenth century. view more...

£1300.00

US$2528.10*

order now

add to basket

CASTIGLIONE, Baldassare, Count. ~ The Courtier. Written in Italian by Balthasar, Count Castiglione. In four books. I. Of the Form and Manner of a Court Life. II. Of the Qualifications of a Courtier. III. Of the Accomplishments of a Court Lady. And, IV. Of the Duty of a Prince. Hic est Ille. Translated from the original.

London: printed for A. Bettesworth, E. Curll, J. Battley, J. Clarke, and T. Payne, 1724.

First edition of this translation by Robert Samber of the classic Renaissance manual of etiquette and deportment. "Many of [Samber's] works, such as The Courtier, translated from the original by Castiglione, demonstrate that he was a very competent translator—having French, Latin, and Italian—and that he was highly interested in the problems posed by editing and translating. In the preface to The Courtier he shows an intimate knowledge of the English publishing history of Castiglione, and discusses past and present English versions" (J. & F. Blom in ODNB). Samber incorrectly states that the first English edition (that of Thomas Hoby) was printed in 1588, since it had first appeared as early as 1561. He also dismisses that version thus: "It is certain the Sir Thomas did not understand his Author, or at least his Language is such, that I do not understand Him..." view more...

£700.00

US$1361.29*

order now

add to basket

CHALMERS, Thomas. ~ Sermons preached in the Tron church, Glasgow.

Glasgow: for John Smith and Son, William White and Co in Edinburgh and Longman et al in London, 1819.

First edition, very scarce, of a work reprinted twice in the following decade. Chalmers was a pioneer social reformer whose work was carried out in the context of his poor parish in the rapdly industrializing city of Glasgow. "Chalmers became convinced that the fundamental problem in Glasgow and other Scottish cities was the breakdown of communal spirit. The middle and upper social orders had lost their sense of personal responsibility for the poor and unchurched. Moreover, many of the poor had become degraded to the status of 'paupers', dependent on institutional poor relief and suffering a loss of self-respect. His reading of Malthus convinced him that the major cause of poverty was the growth of population beyond the capacity of the country's agricultural resources to sustain it in decent comfort" (Oxford DNB). view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

order now

add to basket

(CHARLES X, King of France.) ~ Arrivée de Charles X en Angleterre.

[Marseille: Rouchon, n.d. ?1830.]

A rare Marseille-printed pamphlet announcing the arrival of the recently-abdicated French King at Porstmouth. The ex-King's party, consisting of two American ships (flying American colours) and several French vessels anchored at Spithead and made it known that Charles was aboard. Sir Colin Campbell boarded and several French emmissaries were landed to prepare the way for Charles' arrival on British soil. Charles had abdicated on 30 July 1830 (an event known as the July Revolution) at Rambouillet in favour of his cousin, the Comte de Chambord, and left for England.The text is an extract from the Constitutionnél of 21 August 1830. view more...

£75.00

US$145.85*

order now

add to basket

(CHARTISM). The rise and fall of Chartism in Monmouthshire. ~

[Newport: John O'Dwyer for] A.H. Bailey in London... "to be had of all the principal booksellers in Monmouthshire, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh and throughout the kingdom generally", 1840.

First edition of this very scarce Newport-printed account of the Monmouth rising and its genesis, the most violent episode in the history of Chartism. Twenty-four Chartists were killed by soldiers or died later of their injuries: more than twice the death toll of the Peterloo Massacre. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

order now

add to basket

(CHURCH OF ENGLAND). SEABURY, Samuel, the Reverend. ~ The continuity of the Church of England in the sixteenth century: two discourses: with an appendix and notes...

New York: Pudney & Russell, 1853.

First edition of a work "designed to explain and defend the position of the Church of England, so far as it involves that of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States" (Preface). Seabury was of a dynasty of American protestant churchmen: his grandfather (also Samuel) had been the first American Episcopal bishop. view more...

£120.00

US$233.36*

order now

add to basket

CICERO, Marcus Tullius. ~ [The complete works, in Latin].

Paris: Simon de Colines & Robert Estienne, 1543-1547.

An exceptionally rare complete set of the Colines-Estienne Cicero in a handsome uniform binding. Publication of the 10-volume series was begun by Simon de Colines in 1543 and completed by his stepson Robert Estienne in 1547. Some of the the individual volumes are very rare in themselves, some never having been seen by Renouard, the bibliographer of Simon de Colines.Cicero was the supreme orator of the Roman Empire and was pre-eminent among the classical authors valued by Renaissance humanists: "The ancient writer who earned their highest admiration was Cicero. Renaissance humanism was an age of Ciceronianism in which the study and imitation of Cicero was a widespread concern." (Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and Its Sources). Such was the stature of Cicero that the word "humanism" was often interchangeable with "Ciceronianism." In the sixteenth-century Cicero represented several ideals: his language and composition were a model for any use of language, particularly Latin. His works were, for the humanists, the epitome of eloquence. As a philosopher, he combined both wisdom and eloquence, a combination which became the Renaissance ideal. He was also a man of the world, embodying the highest ideals of the renaissance philosopher or politician. Needless, to say his works were at the centre of the university curriculum in the sixteenth-century, and demand for complete and accurate editions of all his works was consistently strong. Few such editions can match the utility and functional beauty of the Paris Colines-Estienne editions.The individual volumes comprise the following:I. [Orations]. Orationum volumen primum [-tertium]. Paris: Simon de Colines, 18 November 1543-1544. Three vols, 1: ff. 424; 2: ff. 348 (misnumbered 356, due to faulty foliation, which skips from 208 to 217), [2] (last blank); 3: ff. 359 (misnumbered 357 due to faulty foliation: ff. 320 and 321 numbered 312 and 319 respectively), [1]. All three titles within Colines's "Figura architectonica" border. Text in italic; capital spaces with guide-letters. (See Renouard, Estienne, p. 70, note ad 14.). Appended to Part 2 are two Latin elegiac poems by H. Sussannaeus, addressed, respectively, "Ad Ioan. Gelinum Britonem Dioeceseos Briocensis" and "Ad Anianum Samesmynum Aurelium."II. [De Officiis & other philosophical works]. Officia diligenter restituta. Eiusdem De amicitia, & De senectute... Paradoxa, & Somnium Scipionis. Cum annotationibus Erasmi Roterodami, & Philippi Melanchthonis. Item, Annotation[ibus] Bartholomaei Latomi in Paradoxa. Paris: S. de Colines, 1543. ff. 174, [48] leaves. Title neatly backed, presumably at time of binding. With the comments of Erasmus and Melanchthon.III. [Philosopical works]. De Philosophia, prima pars [Philosophia volumen secundum]. Paris: Simon de Colines, May 1545-10 October 1545. Two vols, 1: ff 317, [3] (last two blank); 2: ff. 256. Colines's "Tempus IV" device on both titles. Texts in italic, capital spaces with guide-letters. Last leaf torn with loss of blank lower forecorner, neatly repaired by backing at time of binding. The full titles are (Vol. 1): De Philosophia, prima pars, id est, Academicarum quaestionum editionis primae liber secundus, editionis secundae, liber primus. De finibus bonorum & malorum libri V. Tusculanarum quaestionum libri V; (Vol. 2): Philosophia volumen secundum, id est, De natura deorum libri III. De divinatione libri II. De fato liber I. De legibus libri III. De universitate liber I. Qu. Ciceronis de petitione consulatus ad M. fratrem liber I.IV. [Letters to His Friends]. Epistolae familiares, diligentius quam quae hactenus exierunt, emendatae. (Edited by Claude Chaudière). Paris: Simon de Colines, 8 February 1545. Ff. 327, [8] (last blank). Colines's "Tempus IVb" device on title (being a variant of "Tempus IV", here signed with the cross of Lorraine). Text in italic, headings in roman, index in smaller roman; extensive use of Greek. A rare book of which we can locate only one other complete copy (Glasgow, an incomplete copy was described in Schreiber's Colines catalogue [no. 218], then believed to be unique). Renouard, whose note for this edition is particularly garbled and incomplete, states that this is the only Colines imprint to bear Henri [sic] Estienne's device. The text was overseen by Claude Chaudière, Regnault's son. In the preface Claude Chaudière emphasizes his position as Colines's grandson on his mother's side, and the care he has taken in establishing the text. After Colines's death, in 1546, Regnault and Claude were to take over his printing house. Ff. TT3-6, comprise Chaudière's Latin translations of Cicero's Greek citations: "Graecorum quae in his epistolis sparsim interferuntur, Latina interpretatio", and some passages concerning Cicero from Catullus, Quintilian, Silius Italicus, and Pliny the younger.V. [Rhetorical Works]. Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium. lib. IIII. De inventione lib. II. Topica ad Trebatium lib. I. Oratoriae partitiones lib. I. Paris: Simon de Colines, 1545. Ff. 218, [6] (last two blank). Colines's "Tempus V" device on title (its first [and only?] use: reproduction in Renouard, p. 404). Text in italic; use of Greek.VI. [De Oratore]. De Oratore ad Quintum fratrem lib. III, etc. Paris: Robert Estienne, 1546. Ff. 281, [3]. Estienne device on title. VII. [Letters to Atticus & Brutus]. Epistolae ad Atticum [Epistolarum ad Brutum liber]. Paris: Robert Estienne, 1 April 1547. Two parts in one volume: ff. 336 and 142, [2] leaves (last blank). Estienne device on title. view more...

£4400.00

US$8556.66*

order now

add to basket

(CIVIL LIST.) ~ The Devil's menagerie of state paupers. An alphabetical list of places, pensions, sinecures, grants, and compensations.

[London: Glover, 1832.]

First edition of this very scarce exposé of individuals receiving state pensions and other favours, with marvellous woodcut illustrations. The engraved title gives "No 1" at its foot. The British Library record also gives a second issue of the same year. view more...

£475.00

US$923.73*

order now

add to basket

[CLINTON, Henry Pelham, Duke of Newcastle.] ~ Thoughts on times past tested by subsequent events.

London: T. and W. Boone, 1837.

First edition. A collection of a number of the Duke's principal pamphlets and letters on political events. The 4th Duke was associated with the Tory "Ultras" staunchly supporting the traditional establishment of Church, Country and State. He was a vehement opponent of policies such as Catholic Emancipation, and also of electoral reform. This stance led to attacks on his property during the Reform Bill Riots of 1831. Nottingham Castle was burnt to the ground and his residences at Clumber, Nottinghamshire and Portman Square, London, also had to be fortified against the mob. The Duke's opinions were not altered, however; he had been accustomed to exercising his political influence in areas where he was the major landholder, and complained bitterly that the Reform Bill had lost him the patronage and influence of six boroughs, including Aldborough, Yorkshire and Newark, Nottinghamshire. view more...

£150.00

US$291.70*

order now

add to basket

COBBETT, William. ~ Cobbett's paper against gold: containing the history and mystery of the Bank of England, the funds, the debt, the sinking fund, the bank stoppage, the lowering and raising of the value of paper-money; and shewing, that taxation, pauperism, poverty, misery and crimes have all increased, and ever must increase, with a funding system. No.1[-15].

[London]: W. Molineux, [1817.]

First published in the Political Register 1810-15; then in two vols in 1815; then in parts (as here) in 1817. At the opening of the nineteenth-century Cobbett "became increasingly obsessed with financial issues, especially the national debt and the government's increasing reliance upon paper money. He opposed these trends for the rest of his days, regularly decrying government debts and paper currencies in his writings, notably in his Paper Against Gold (1815). By the early 1820s Cobbett was convinced that the debt was too large ever to be paid off, and accordingly vowed to roast himself on a gridiron if the government could restore payment in specie without defaulting on the debt (henceforth Cobbett and his critics included sketches of gridirons in their writings and cartoons)" (Oxford DNB). view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

order now

add to basket

COBBETT, William. ~ Cobbett's two-penny trash; or politics for the poor. Vol.1 [parts 1-12]; [Vol. 2 parts 1-12].

London: by the author, 1831-2.

First edition, a complete run (there was no issue for March 1832). Cobbett's earlier Political Register had been denounced as "two-penny trash", a name he gladly adopted for this later work. view more...

£700.00

US$1361.29*

order now

add to basket

COLQUHOUN, Patrick. ~ A treatise on the commerce and police of the river Thames: containing an historical view of the trade and port of London; and suggesting means for preventing the depredations thereon, by a legislative system of river police. With an account of the functions of the various magistrates and corporations excercising jurisdiction on the river; and a general view of the penal and remedial statutes connected with the subject...

London: for Joseph Mawman, 1800.

First edition of this celebrated treatise by the Benthamite reformer and pioneer of the London police forces. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

order now

add to basket

(COMMITTEE OF SECRECY.) ~ Report of Committee of Secrecy of the House of Commons. Ordered to be printed 15 March 1799.

Edinburgh: printed and sold by William Brown, and sold also by James Simpson, [1799.]

A very rare Edinburgh imprint of this report by the Committee of Secrecy announcing "the clearest proofs of a Systematic Design, long since adopted and acted upon by France, in conjunction with Domestic Traitors... to overturn the Laws, Constitution, and Government, and every existing establishment, civil or ecclesiastical, both in Great Britain and Ireland; as well to dissolve the connection between the two kingdoms..." The Committee met in an atmosphere of suspicion and recrimination, arising from the Burke-Paine controversy which emerged in the aftermath of the French Revolution, from the aborted Irish rebellion of 1798 led by Wolfe Tone, and from mutiny within the armed forces and the enquiry into the extent of seditious activity anatomized the opposition. Blame for agitation is here laid firmly at the door of the Political (or 'Corresponding') Societies and the Society of United Irishmen, the radical groups with working class support who preached reform at every level of society. Throughout the '90s a network of government spies and other agents had uncovered a proliferation of underground meetings in Scotland, Ireland and England and had made strenous attempts to suppress them - notably the suspension of the right of habeas corpus and the treason trials of 1794. This report further describes the movement of opposition in the light of the failed Irish rebellion and of the threat of a Napoleonic collaboration with the rebels and concludes that the kingdom remains in grave danger. The appendices give transcripts of the evidence and include seditious hand-bills, letters, oaths of solidarity, public addresses, the evidence of court martial proceeding against mutinous soldiers and sailors and the letter sent by the rebels to the French general Humbert giving instructions for the invasion of England via Cornwall. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

order now

add to basket

COTTU, Charles. ~ On the administration of criminal justice in England; and the spirit of English government... translated from the French.

London: for Richard Stevens and Charles Reader, 1822.

First complete edition in English (a much abbreviated version had appeared in the Pamphleteer in 1821). An important sympathetic account of the English system of criminal law, especially trial by jury. In 1821, Cottu, a French magistrate and founder of the Societé de l'Amèlioration de Prisons, was commissioned by the French government to study English criminal justice. The resulting work was not only an attempt to reform the "barbarous" French system but was also an expert first-hand account of English justice. It was widely read and translated. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

order now

add to basket

[COURTILZ DE SANDRAS, Gatien de.] ~ Histoire du maréchal de Fabert, lieutenant général des armées du roy, gouverneur des ville & château de Sedan &c.

Amsterdam: Henri Desbordes, 1697.

First edition of this biography of one of France's greatest seventeenth-century military leaders. Born at Metz in 1599, the son of a printer, Fabert commanded the garrison at Metz and became it's governor in 1638. He was made 'maréchal de camp' by Louis XII at the siege of Donchery, and became governor of Sedan in 1642. His success lay as much in his diplomatic skills as his undoubted military prowess.The author was prolific, being known also for his popular fiction, often based on historical figures. In his early life he had seen service with the Musketeers, experience which he used as the basis for his Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan (1700) which in turn was the inspiration for Dumas's Les Trois Mousquetaires. view more...

£300.00

US$583.41*

order now

add to basket

CURWEN, John Christian. ~ Hints on agricultural subjects, and on the best means of improving the condition of the labouring classes... second edition, improved and enlarged.

London: for J. Johnson and B. Crosy, 1809.

Second edition, enlarged (first published 1808 under the title Hints on the economy of feeding stock and bettering the condition of the poor ). Curwen founded the Workington Agricultural Society in 1805, which had a profound affect on agricultural improvement in the Cumberland region. He was also an active parliamentarian who supported Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform, and the repeal of the corn laws. This copy has an intriguing provenance, bearing the bookplate of Josiah Spode and a manuscript note by Spode Junior, presumably to be identfied as the pioneer Stoke potter and his son. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

order now

add to basket

D[AVIES], J[ohn]. ~ The ancient rites, and monuments of the monastical, & cathedral church of Durham. Collected out of ancient manuscripts, about the time of the suppression. Published by J.D. of Kidwelly.

London: for W. Hensman, 1672.

First edition, prepared by John Davies of Kidwelly, putatively from a Latin manuscript dating from the "Suppression". It is a detailed antiquarian survey of the church and particularly of the shrine of St Cuthbert, which is described in quite sumptuous detail. It includes (not from the original manuscript, if it existed) an explanation of the tradition forbidding women from entering into the presence of the relics of St Cuthbert. The saint had once lived as a hermit at Corwen and was falsely accused of deflowering the local King's daughter. When challenged by King and daughter, Cuthbert prayed to God, to the effect that the ground opened with a hissing sound, promptly conveying the lying princess to Hell. Through Cuthbert's generous intercession the Princess was returned to life, on the condition that no woman should ever resort to him again. view more...

£300.00

US$583.41*

order now

add to basket

[DALRYMPLE, David, Sir.] ~ Proposals for carrying on a certain public work in the city of Edinburgh.

[Edinburgh, 1752.]

First edition of a humorous and scatological skit on Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Minto's Proposals for carrying on certain public works in the city of Edinburgh which had appeared in the same year: the pioneering work of Enlightenment urban improvement which persuaded the town council to begin its celebrated building projects. Dalrymple's rather ungenerous pamphlet is concerned principally with sewers and the public "necessary-house" and it has recently been argued that while satirical in tone it was actually meant seriously. Dalrymple demonstrated a longstanding and enlightened interest in public health and hygiene as part of the regeneration of human societies (Patrick Cadell sub. Dalrymple, Oxford DNB). view more...

£550.00

US$1069.58*

order now

add to basket

[DAVENANT, Charles.] ~ A discourse upon grants and resumptions. Showing how our ancestors have proceeded with such ministers as have procured to themselves grants of the crown-revenue; and that the forfeited estates ought to be applied towards the payment of the publick debts... the second edition.

London: for James Knapton, 1700.

Second edition, published in the same year as the first, of this protest against the policy of gifting forfeited lands away by the crown and proposing precedents for their resumption. Contains the 8-page postscript clarifying an apparent criticism of the Duke of Leeds. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

order now

add to basket

DENNIS, George. ~ The cities and cemeteries of Etruria.

London: John Murray, 1848.

First edition of the first detailed and accurate archaeological account in English of the Etruscans. "[In] 1848, when it at last appeared, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, in two volumes, consisted of 114 plus 1085 pages of text, and gave the most detailed descriptions that had yet appeared in any language of all recorded Etruscan sites. It was heavily illustrated with Dennis's own drawings" (Oxford DNB). The author's achievment is no less remarkable for the fact that he was an autodidact who had received almost no formal schooling. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

order now

add to basket

DODWELL, Henry. ~ A discourse concerning the use of Incense in divine offices. Wherein its is proved, that the practice, taken up in the middle ages, both by the Eastern and Western churches, is, notwithstanding, an innovation from the doctrine of the first and purest churches, and the traditions derived from the apostles. Serving also to evince, that even the consent of those churches of the middle ages, is no certain argument, that even the particulars, wherein they are supposed to consent, were faithfully derived from the apostles, against the modern assertors of the infallibility of oral tradition. In a letter to a friend...

London: by J. Hepinstall, for James Holland, 1711.

First edition, printed in the year of the author's death (from a cold caught while walking from his home at Shottesbrooke, near Maidenhead, to London.) Dodwell was a scholar of remarkable industry and versatility, though not universally admired by his contemporaries. Gibbon, for example, criticised his method and style as "the one perplexed beyond imagination, the other negligent to a degree of barbarism" (DNB). In retrospect, however, Dodwell's method appears remarkably apposite: witness the philological and palaeographical discussion of the relative antiquity of various manuscripts and books in A discourse concerning the use of Incense. Certainly his critical skills outlived him in the person of Thomas Hearne who was partly brought up by Dodwell at Shottesbrooke.On the issue of incense, Dodwell was perhaps ahead of his time. While always a point of discussion within the church, the matter did not become critical until later in the nineteenth-century when the use of incense in the Church of England was outlawed by Archbishop Temple. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

order now

add to basket

DRUMMOND, Henry, editor. ~ On the condition of the agricultural classes of Great Britain and Ireland. With extracts from the parliamentary reports and evidence, from 1833 to 1840. And remarks by the French editor, published at Vienna...

London: John Murray, 1842.

First edition in English, very scarce, of this translation of De l'agriculture et de la condition des agriculteurs en Irlande et dans la Grande Bretagne (1840), based on the parliamentary commission of 1833-6. The first volume is entirely devoted to Ireland and the second to Great Britain. The second volume contains much of banking interest in addition to the agricultural materials. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

order now

add to basket

DUNCKLEY, Henry. ~ The charter of the nations; or, free trade and its results: an essay on the recent commercial policy of the United Kingdom, to which the council of the National Anti-Corn Law League awarded their first prize.

London: W. and F.G. Cash and M'Glashan in Dublin and Menzies in Edinburgh, 1854.

First edition, presentation copy. The Anti-Corn Law League offered prizes for essays showing the results of the repeal of the corn-law and the free-trade policy, and Dunckley, a pioneering journalist of social causes, gained the first prize of £250 for this work view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

order now

add to basket

(EDUCATION, America). GOULD, Benjamin Apthorp Jr. ~ An American University. An oration before the Connecticut Beta of the phi beta kappa fraternity at Trinity College, Hartford, 1856, July 15.

Hartford: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1856.

First edition. Having graduated at Harvard College in 1844, Gould studied mathematics and astronomy under C. F. Gauss at Göttingen, Germany, and became the first American to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy. He later discovered the southern portion of a belt of bright stars on the edges of the Milky Way now called the Gould belt in his honour view more...

£40.00

US$77.79*

order now

add to basket

(ENGLAND). BLACK, Adam and Charles, publishers. ~ Black's Guide to England and Wales containing plans of the principal cities, charts, maps, and views, and a list of hotels.

Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1870.

£45.00

US$87.51*

order now

add to basket

(FRIENDLY SOCIETIES). ~ Rules and orders to be observed by the Union Society, Macclesfield. Founded January 28th 1783... revised by the committee.

Macclesfield: P. Hall, 1817.

A very rare set of Friendly Society regulations, with additonal evidence of their operation in the form of slips and notes of payment to a member. Though the history of this form of co-operative insurance goes back to early times it is considered to have formally begun in England with the Acts encouraging their formation of the late eighteenth-century. Thousands of such societies sprang up at the opening of the nineteenth century. Though initially encouraged, they were also viewed with suspicion in some quarters as hot-beds of political sedition. The Macclesfield rules are notable in this respect, being insistent on the exclusion of all topics of political or religious dispute in meetings, anyone contravening was to be either fined or expelled. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

order now

add to basket

GATTEY, François. ~ Éléments du nouveau systême métrique, suivis des tables de rapports des anciennes mesures agraires avec les nouvelles...

Paris: Bailly and Rondonneau, 'An X' [1801].

First edition of an important practical guide to the new metric system, designed to counteract the persistence of local customary measurements in the regions of France and containing numerous tables for conversion from the old measures to the new. François Gattey was, with Legendre, one of the members of the convention established in 1795 to enact the definitive adoption of the metric system."One of the most significant results of the French Revolution was the establishment of the metric system of weights and measures....On June 19, 1791, a committee of 12 mathematicians, geodesists, and physicists met with Louis XVI, who gave his formal approval. The next day, the king attempted to escape from France, was arrested, returned to Paris, and was imprisoned; a year later, from his cell, he issued the proclamation that directed two engineers, Jean Delambre and Pierre Méchain, to perform the operations necessary to determine the length of the metre. The intervening time had been spent by the scientists and engineers in preliminary research; Delambre and Méchain now set to work to measure the distance on the meridian from Barcelona, Spain, to Dunkirk in northern France. The survey proved arduous; civil and foreign war so hampered the operation that it was not completed for six years. While Delambre and Méchain were struggling in the field, administrative details were being worked out in Paris. In 1793 a provisional metre was constructed from geodetic data already available. In 1795 the firm decision was taken to enact adoption of the metric system for France. The new law defined the length, mass, and capacity standards and listed the prefixes for multiples and submultiples. With the formal presentation to the assembly of the standard metre, as determined by Delambre and Méchain, the metric system became a fact in June 1799. The motto adopted for the new system was 'For all people, for all time'" (Ency. Brit.). view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

order now

add to basket

[GAWLER, George.] ~ The crisis and close of the action at Waterloo, by an eye-witness.

Dublin: Richard Milliken and son, 1833.

First separate edition of Gawler's highly contentious paper. "He served with the 52nd light infantry through the Peninsular campaign from Nov. 1811 to the end, being wounded at Badajoz and San Munos. At Waterloo, he led the right company of his regiment, and attained the rank of colonel. In 1833 he contributed to 'The United Service Journal,' part ii., a paper 'The Crisis and Close of the Action at Waterloo, by an Eye-Witness,' which was re-issued as a pamphlet (Dublin, 1833), and caused great controversy. Gawler contended that his own regiment (the 52nd), supported by the rest of Adams's brigade, and not the guards, defeated Napoleon's final attack." (DNB).Gawler later became the second governor of the newly founded colony of South Australia. view more...

£300.00

US$583.41*

order now

add to basket

(GLOGOV.) ~ Auspicio D.T.O.M. Indultu Invictiss. R. Imp. D. Rudolphi II. semp. augusti, & c. suffragio: illustris, & magnifici, domini: Johan-Albert Rhai, à Zilinou. Phil. & J.V. Doct. S. Caes. Maj. &c. Consil. Com. Pal. & Imp. &c. Eq. Aur. C. Rom. Orat. & Poetae Caes. &c. Dextrâ: Nobilis, Clariss, & Ampliss. Dn. M. Joh. Hornii, Hall. Not. Apost. & Imp. &c. eiusdem &c. à Secr. ordinarii, &c. Laurus Poetica missa Christophoro Preis, Fraunstadiensi, SS. Th. Stud. A. 1609.

Glogau: Joachim Funck, [?1609.]

An unusual and ephemeral production, comprising a series of Latin congratulatory verses printed in Glogov addressed variously to Christophorus Preis, Rudolph II, Joannes-Albertus Rhajus, Johannes Hornius and Johannis Georgius a Rottenberg 'pharmacopaeo Pragensi'. Few substantial printed works emanated from the town in the seventeenth century (a particularly volatile and violent period for such a contested territory). The relatively few contemporary imprints consist mainly of similar collections of formal orations and odes on the occasion of civic and private celebrations (notably marriages and funerals) issued by Funck and his press. view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

order now

add to basket

GODWIN, Francis, Bishop. ~ De praesulibus Angliae commentarius:omnium episcoporm, necnon et cardinaleium eiusdem gentis, nomina, tempora, seriem, atque actiones maximè memorabiles ab ultima antiquitate repetita complexus...

London: [by William and Stansby and Elliot's Court Press,] "ex officina Nortoniana, apud Joannem Billum," 1616.

First Latin edition, expanded from Godwin's Catalogue of the bishops of England, since the first planting of Christian religion in this island, together with a briefe history of their lives and memorable actions, so neere as can be gathered out of antiquity (George Bishop, 1601). Godwin, Bishop of Landaff, was one of that group of scholars educated in the 1580s and 90s who developed a taste for history and antiquarianism and who helped to rewrite the history of the British Isles. His friends included both William Camden and Sir Robert Cotton.The Catalogue of Bishops was intended as a complete biographical register, though some of the lives run to only a few lines. It can be interpreted as one of several attempts to formalise the history of the Church of England in the face of Catholic and Puritan criticism. The Latin edition was significant as a vehicle for making this important British work available to the international audience. It incorporates the enlargements made to the Catalogue in the edition of 1615, including Godwin's discourse on the first conversion of the Britain to christianity. view more...

£650.00

US$1264.05*

order now

add to basket

GREGG, William Rathbone. ~ Essays on political and social science, contributed chiefly to the Edinburgh Review.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853.

First edition in book form of these influential essays. Gregg was son of a Cheshire millowner and was commissioner of Customs and comptroller of the Stationery Office. The collection includes essays on social philosopy, taxation, investments, the working classes, socialism, labour relations and electoral reform. A scarce work. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

order now

add to basket

GRENVILLE, [William Wyndham Grenville, Baron]. ~ Substance of the speech of the Right Hon. Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, November 30, 1819. On the Marquis of Lansdowne's motion, that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of the country, and more particularly into the distresses and discontents prevalent in the manufacturing districts, and the execution of the laws with respect to the numerous meetings which have taken place. Pp. [iv] (half title and title), 62, [2] (advert).

London: John Murray, 1820.

An interesting collection of speeches by leading lights of British politics given between 1819-1822. The majority relate to distresses of the countryside and the manufacturing districts. view more...

£175.00

US$340.32*

order now

add to basket

[HARDY, Thomas.] ~ The patriot. Addressed to the people, on the present state of affairs in Britain and in France. With observations on Republican government, and discussions of the principles advanced in the writings of Thomas Paine.

Edinburgh: for J. Dickson and G. Nichol in London, 1793.

First edition of a rather reactionary consideration of Paine's republicanism which includes notice of the earlier critique by John Quincy Adams. A second edition appeared later in the same year. Hardy was a Scottish cleric, not to be confused with the radical Thomas Hardy, founder of the London Corresponding Society. Their positions cannot have been much farther apart. view more...

£150.00

US$291.70*

order now

add to basket

HELPS, Alfred, Sir. ~ The claims of labour. An essay on the duties of the employers to the employed.

London: William Pickering, 1844.

First edition. view more...

£65.00

US$126.41*

order now

add to basket

(HIGHWAYMEN). ~ The life of Jack Rann, otherwise Sixteen-String Jack, the noted highwayman; who was executed at Tyburn, November 30, 1774.

London: by and for Hodgson and Co., n.d. [c. 1825.]

A scarce and especially colourful offering from Hodgson's sixpenny series; works which were characterised by marvellously racy folding frontispieces. This one has the usual central portrait of the hero and four larger images: "thrown from a window at Bagnigge Wells"; "getting in at the window of one of his ladies & taken by the watch"; "examined at Bow Street"; "invites 7 of his women to dine with him the day before his execution." That the Life is aimed at younger readers is suggested by the chiding of Rann for his lack of the ability to love (despite his success with the ladies) and the recommendation of an instructional pamphlet for the young entitled the Lover's New Guide: "Young persons cannot purchase, or parents present a more admirable production, as a guide on the most important concerns of human life." view more...

£275.00

US$534.79*

order now

add to basket

HOLT, Ardern. ~ Fancy dresses described; or what to wear at fancy balls... third and greatly enlarged edition. With additional coloured illustrations.

London: Debenham & Freebody, Wyman & sons, [1882].

You're going to fancy dress party in 1882. You want to go as a nun? A Burmese peasant? Marie Antoinette? Salome? A watercress gatherer? Perhaps a carrier pigeon? This book tells you how. It did first in the edition of 1879, but without the full complement of coloured plates found here. view more...

£60.00

US$116.68*

order now

add to basket

HONE, William. ~ The three trials of William Hone, for publishing three parodies; viz. the late John Wilkes's cathechism, the Political litany, and the Sinecurist's creed; on three ex-officio informations, at Guildhall, London, during three successive days, December 18, 19, & 20, 1817...

London: by and for the author, 1818.

William Hone, political writer and satirist became a champion of people's rights and freedom of speech following these celebrated trials for blasphemy. Each of the accounts was issued individually in multiple editions of the same year, Hone then issued them collectively using whatever sheets he had to hand, this copy has part titles for the sixteenth, fourteenth, and fourteenth editions respectively. view more...

£125.00

US$243.09*

order now

add to basket

[HOTMAN, François.] ~ La vie de Messire Gaspar de Colligny Seigneur de Chastillon, Admiral de France. A laquelle sont adiousté se Memoires sur ce qui se passa au Siege de S. Quentin.

Leyden: Bonaventure & Abraham Elzevir, 1643.

First Elzevir edition of this biography of the French protestant hero Gaspard de Coligny. Coligny had been appointed Admiral of France in 1552 and was captured at the siege of St Quentin in 1557. In the two years of his captivity he became a convinced Calvinist and went on to lead the French Huguenots in the religious wars against Catholic dominance in France. He was implicated in the murder of Francis, Duke of Guise in February 1563, an event which was to lead ultimately to the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572, in which Coligny himself was killed under the direct supervision of the Duke's son, Henry.Coligny's life became an inspiration to Protestants throughout Europe. It was first printed in Latin in 1575 and had previously appeared in French earlier the same year, in a quarto edtion. view more...

£500.00

US$972.35*

order now

add to basket

HUNT, Henry. ~ To the radical reformers, male and female, of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

"Ilchester Bastile, 26th day, 7th month, 2nd year of the Manchester massacre, without retribution or enquiry, April 11" [London: Thomas Dolby,] 1821.

Two rare issues of Henry Hunt's radical addresses from Ilchester jail, where he was imprisoned for his part in various reform meetings and the events leading to the Peterloo Massacre. At least 47 separate issues were printed, and they were later published as an addenda to Hunt's Memoirs. view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

order now

add to basket

HUTCHINS, John. ~ The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset: compiled from the best and most ancient historians, inquisitiones post mortem, and other valuable records and MSS. in the public offices and librairies, and in private hands. With a copy of Domesday Book and the Inquisitio Gheldi for the County: interspersed with some remarkable particulars of natural history; adorned with a correct map of the county, and views of antiquities, seats of the nobility and gentry . &c... the third edition, corrected, augmented, and imporved, by William Shipp and James Whitworth Hodson.

Westminster: John Bowyer Nichols, 1861-1870.

Third and best edition. view more...

£1300.00

US$2528.10*

order now

add to basket

HÜNERSDORF, Ludwig. ~ Anleitung zu der natürlichsten und leichtesten Art Pferde abzurichten. Für Liebhaber des Reitens aus dem Militär- und Civilstand. Nebst einem Anhang, wie diese Anleitung auf die Abrichtung des Cavalleriepferdes und den gemeinen Reiter anzuwenden ist.

Marburg: neuen akademischen Buchhandlung, 1791.

First edition of perhaps the most innovative German handbook of horsemanship published during the late eighteenth century, considered the first practical German cavalry manual.Ludwig von Hünersdorf (1748-1813) was known as one of the best riders in Germany. He was head groom to the Hessian Guard and after publishing Anleitung zu der natürlichsten und leichtesten Art Pferde abzurichten was appointed stable master to the Hessian Prince and later to Friedrich I of Württemberg. He was knighted by Friedrich for his services to the art of horsemanship. He opposed the traditional "decorative" equestrian arts and taught his riders to attain rhythm and harmony on horseback: his aim being to create an entirely practical combination of horse and rider.The work was reprinted at least six times in fifty years and remains in print. The first edition is rare. view more...

£650.00

US$1264.05*

order now

add to basket

INGLIS, Henry David. ~ The Channel Islands: Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, &c: (the results of a two year's residence).

London: Whittaker, Treacher, Arnot, 1834.

First edition of a scarce work which ran to several editions. Inglis, son of an Edinburgh advocate, was a prolific travel writer. His monograph on the Channel Islands was prepared during a two-year stint as editor of the Jersey Newspaper The British Critic. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

order now

add to basket

(IRELAND.) NICHOLLS, George. ~ Poor laws - Ireland. Three reports by George Nicholls, Esq., to her Majesty's principal secretary of state for the home department,

London: by W. Clowes and sons, 1838.

First edition. Nicholls examined the state of affairs in Belgium and Holland before making his recommendations, which were strenuously in favour of the introduction of Poor laws in Ireland. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

order now

add to basket

[JAMES II, King of England.] ~ Declaration du Roy de la Grande Bretagne. A tous ses fidèles sujets pour leur commander de l'assister contre le Prince d'Orange & ses Adherants.

Paris, 1692.

A translation of His Majesties most gratious declaration to all his loving subjects, commanding their assistance against the Prince of Orange and his adherents (St. Germain, 1692). It is probably the first edition in French, though we find at least 2 issues among the few copies located by the CCFr, one with the date 1692, the other undated. Following his exile at the Glorious Revolution, James made several abortive attempts to regain the English throne. In April 1692 a full-blown invasion of England was planned and a series of pamphlets were issued from his 'court' at St Germain asking his subjects (and interested Frenchmen) to assist the expedition. His hopes were thwarted by the English defeat of the French at the naval battle of La Hogue in May. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

order now

add to basket

(JESUITS). OLIVER, George, the Reverend. ~ Collections towards illustrating the biography of the Scotch, English, and Irish members of the Society of Jesus.

London: Charles Dolman, 1845.

First edition, one of 250 copies of this valuable biographical dictionary. view more...

£150.00

US$291.70*

order now

add to basket

[JOHNSON, Samuel, "the Whig."] ~ Julien l'apostat ou abrege de sa vie. Dans lequel, on voit l'horreur que les meilleurs Chrétiens d'entre ses sujets témoignoient publiquement contre lui, en Paroles, en Actions & méme dans leurs Devotions publiques; avec une Comparison du Papisme & du Paganisme; et une autre idee Generale du Papisme, avec un Petit traité de l'Antechrist. Traduit de l'anglois.

[n.p.], 1688.

First edition in French of Johnson's polemic against the succession of the Duke of York (later James II). Published in English in 1682 "It was an overnight sensation... The tract drew an elaborate parallel between the fourth-century apostate emperor, Julian, and the Catholic successor to the crown, James, duke of York. The moral of the story was that, as the primitive Christians of the fourth century had openly resisted their pagan emperor, so the English might oppose a popish prince. The tract justified both the efforts of whigs to exclude the duke of York from the throne as well as active resistance to him. Julian Johnson, as Johnson soon became known, was praised and celebrated by fellow whigs" (Zook in Oxford DNB). The work was supressed and the remaining copies burnt. Johnson was imprisoned for seditious libel.The French edition, presumably aimed at a continental Protestant audience was issued in the year of James's effective abdication and escape to France. In certain French eyes, the thrust of its argument seems to have become quickly diverted towards their own monarch, since in 1696 it was issued under a false Cologne imprint under a new title La peste du genre humain, ou la vie de Julien l'Apostat. Mise en paralelle avec celle de Louis XIV. view more...

£480.00

US$933.45*

order now

add to basket

[JUSTINIAN I.] ~ Les Institutes impériales de Justinian, joinctes avec la jurisprudence françoise... naguères faict en latin par M. Jacques Buchereau,... et maintenant mises en françois par Guy de La Roche...

Paris: Guillaume de la Nou', 1580.

First edition of this rare combination of a French translation of the Institutes of Justinian and a very extensive marginal gloss, also in French. The gloss, which relates the Roman law to French historical and near-contemporary practice in the courts, at times amounts to almost two-thirds of the printed page, surrounding just a few lines of the Justinian. The translation itself appears to be that of Nicolle de Lescut, first printed in 1543, and the gloss is that of Jacques Buchereau ("Conseiller et Referendaire" in the French Chancery), originally composed in Latin (published in Paris in 1576) but translated by Guy de la Roche "Advocate". The collection, being entirely in the vernacular besides the headings of the books, appears to be aimed at a non-specialist legal audience.The "Polwarth" inscription, probably early eighteenth-century, suggests that the book was in Scotland from at least this date. view more...

£1400.00

US$2722.57*

order now

add to basket

KAMES, Henry HOME, Lord. Mathieu Antoine BOUCHAUD, translator. ~ Essais historiques sur les loix, traduits de l'Anglois, par Mr. Bouchaud... avec des notes et une dissertation du traducteur.

Paris: [Quillau for] Vente, 1766.

First edition in French. In his introduction to this translation of Kames' first two "Essays on several subjects concerning British antiquities", Bouchaud explains how he has somewhat reorganized his original and added his own extensive critical and expository notes, as well as a 103 page dissertation on the law of property (the subject of the second essay) "Observation sur la loi Cincia". Bouchaud omitted Kames' essays on the history of British law, which he judged would be of little interest to a French audience - but the very different reception of even the more general essays (translated here) in Britain and France marks the gulf between two different traditions of jurisprudence. view more...

£850.00

US$1652.99*

order now

add to basket

LESTER, C. Edwards. ~ The glory and the shame of England...

New York: Harper & brothers, 1841.

First edition. view more...

£135.00

US$262.53*

order now

add to basket

LOCH, James. ~ An account of the improvements on the estates of the Marquess of Stafford, in the counties of Stafford and Salop, and on the estate of Sutherland. With remarks.

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820.

First edition. Loch was a central figure in the improvement and modernization of agricultural and industrial property in Victorian Britain. Educated at Edinburgh and profoundly influenced by the philosophies of Adam Smith (through the teaching of Dugald Stewart) he pursued a hugely succesful career as manager of estates to some of the most prominent landowners of England and Scotland. His methods were controversial, not least on the Sutherland estates, his most audacious project. He was in favour of the highland clearances and pursued them with vigour in the belief that rural Scotland would thereby be released from feudal squalor. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

order now

add to basket

(LONDON). ~ Hardwicke's shilling handy book of London, an easy and comprehensive guide to everything worth seeing and hearing in and around the metropolis. Compiled from authentic sources and personal inquiry. New edition, illustrated.

London: Robert Hardwicke, n.d., [c. 1872].

£15.00

US$29.17*

order now

add to basket

(LONDON). BANKS, John Henry, & Co. ~ A Balloon View of London [as seen from Hampstead].

London: "published as the act directs, May 1st 1851, by, Banks & Co... Effingham Wilson," 1851.

The very scarce first edition of Banks's famous Balloon View, issued to coincide with the opening of the Geat Exhibition: and depicting Crystal Palace in its orginal site in Hyde Park. The map was frequently reissued in following decades and the first edition is now very hard to find. view more...

£2000.00

US$3889.39*

order now

add to basket

(LONDON). COBBETT, R[ichard] S[tuteley]. ~ Memorials of Twickenham: parochial and topographical.

London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1872.

First edition. view more...

£30.00

US$58.34*

order now

add to basket

(LONDON). HERBERT, Henry, publisher. ~ London (illustrated). A complete guide to the places of amusement, objects of interest, parks, clubs, markets, docks, principal railway routes, leading hotels, and also a directory, in a concise form, of first class reliable houses in the various branches of trade. Seventh year of publication.

London: Henry Herbert & Co, 1878.

A very attractive and scarce Victorian guide to London, copiously decorated and illustrated and especially interesting for the series of photographic illustrations by Elliot and Fry, mainly depicting current luminaries of the London stage (Mesdames Albani and Marie Roze, the Bateman sisters, J.B. Buckstone, D. James and T. Thorne, Henry Neville, Miss Ada Swanborough, the Vokes sisters, the Girards, Miss Heath, Lydia Thompson, Edward Righton and Moore & Burgess (managers of the Saint James Minstrel troupe). view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

order now

add to basket

(LONDON). KELLY, publisher. ~ Kelly's map of the suburbs of London.

London: Kelly's Directories Ltd, n.d. [c.1870].

£60.00

US$116.68*

order now

add to basket

(LONDON). LEIGH, Samuel, publisher. ~ Leigh's new picture of London, or, A view of the political, religious, medical,literary, municipal, commercial and moral state of the British metropolis presenting a luminous guide to the stranger on all subjects connected with general information, business, or amusement to with are subjoined a description of the environs, and a plan for viewing London in eight days.

London: for Leigh and Son, and Baldwin and Craddock, 1834.

£150.00

US$291.70*

order now

add to basket

Justin Croft : Rare & Fine Antiquarian Books - Specialist in antiquarian books, especially in the field of history

History