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 908
(ALMANACH).

(ALMANACH). ~ Le Jockei, ou le confident de mes plaisirs. Almanach chantant. Pour la présente année.

Paris: Langlois, [An VII,  1798-99.]
An attractive almanach with the text of numerous songs. Le Jockei appears unrecorded in any of the usual bibliographical resources (CCFr, KVK, Worldcat etc). No copy listed in the Bn online catalogue.   view more...
£250.00
US$373.95*
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 343
ANACREON. ORGER, Thomas, translator.

ANACREON. ORGER, Thomas, translator. ~ The Odes of Anacreon: with the fragments of Sappho and Alcæus. Literally translated into English prose. By Thomas Orger.

London: printed for R. Hunter,  1825.
First edition of these scarce selections, in a very pretty contemporary binding. Anacreon (570 - 488 BC) was one of the greatest Greek lyrical poets, particularly noted for his bacchanalian and amatory songs. The enduring popularity of his work rests largely on its universal themes of love, infatuation, disappointment and closely-observed comment on every-day life. Orger gives the original Greek verse, with an English prose translation at the foot of each page, for the benefit of "young students" (see his advertisement). Orger had previously translated Ovid's Metamorphosis and published a curious horoscope of Napoleon Bonaparte.   view more...
£360.00
US$538.49*
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 456
ARIOSTO, Lodovico.

ARIOSTO, Lodovico. ~ Dei suppositi commedia del divino Ludovico Ariosto nuova edizione dedicata all'illustrissima Signora Caterina Edwin.

London: Tommaso Edlin,  1737.
An attractive early eighteenth-century London imprint of Ariosto's I Suppositi ('The Pretenders'), a comic play based on Terence's The Eunuch and Plautus's The Captives, which first appeared in prose 1509, with the lyrical version, found here, completed between 1529 and 1532. This edition was published in London by Thomas Edlin, who produced a series of classic and fashionable Italian works by writers including Ariosto, Boccaccio and Ongaro, of which a number were dedicated to English ladies of society. In this case, the dedicatee, is one Catherine Edwin, whose arms appear here as an attractive and unusual frontispiece.   view more...
£250.00
US$373.95*
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 26
[AULNOY, Madame d'.]

[AULNOY, Madame d'.] ~ Le Prince Désir.

[N.p., N.d., but probably Caen: Chalopin,  c.1800-1810]
Rare chapbook style fairy-tale romance, which has the same design as the booklets published by Pierre Chalopin who worked in Caen around 1800-1810. The text is probably derived from that of Madame d'Aulnoy (1650/1-1705).   view more...
£260.00
US$388.91*
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 336
[BASTIDE, Jean François de.]

[BASTIDE, Jean François de.] ~ Les Têtes Folles.

"Londres" [ie. Paris?]: et se trouve à Paris, chez Tilliard,  1753.
First edition, probably printed in Paris. Written by French playwright, journalist and critic Bastide, this epistolary piece takes the form of a long and anguished love-letter, with the reader left waiting for the response of the young lady until the final tantalising pages. The finely-engraved (unsigned) frontispiece is a charming image of a lady in a garden before a bush laden with flower buds in the form of human faces.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 57
BAUDELAIRE, Charles.

BAUDELAIRE, Charles. ~ Un mangeur d'opium.

Paris: La Mandragore,  1945.
First edition thus. Of a total edition of 170 copies, this is one of 16 copies with an additional suite of plates and one original illustration. Un mangeur d'opium is an extract from Des Paradis Artificiels and is illustrated throughout with coloured woodcuts by Leon Masson.   view more...
£400.00
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 34
BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE, Jacques-Henri.

BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE, Jacques-Henri. ~ Chaumière Indienne...

Paris: P. Fr. Didot le jeune,  1791.
First edition, with the words "De l'imprimerie de Monsieur" preceding the imprint and with 130 pages. There are copies on papier velin (e.g. the British Library copy, which lacks a half-title) and paper with vertical chain-lines, as in ours. Several further edition, including piracies appeared in the same year, each with a different pagination. The true first edition is very scarce.Chaumière Indienne tells the story of a Englishman of the Royal Society seeking enlightenment through his travels to distant lands. "Born in Le Havre, [Bernardin de Saint-Pierre] took a delight even as a child in romantic day-dreaming, and after reading Robinson Crusoe set sail for Martinique at the age of 12." He later studied under the Jesuits, became a military engineer and something of nomad. "He became a geographer in Malta, a journalist in Holland, and engineer in Russia, in Warsaw and Vienna he lived by his wits; in Mauritius he appears to have lived as something of an opportunist. On his return to Paris he became a friend of J.-J. Rousseau, whose personality and philosophy were to have a profound influence on him" (New Oxford Companion to French Literature).   view more...
£300.00
US$448.74*
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 872
[BIDPAI.] SCHULTENS, Henrik Albert, translator.

[BIDPAI.] SCHULTENS, Henrik Albert, translator. ~ [Fables, in Arabic.] Pars versionis Arabicae libri Colailah wa Dimnah, sive Fabularum Bidpai philosophi Indi / in usum auditorum edita ab Henrico Alberto Schultens.

Leyden: Henri Mostert,  1786.
The first printing of any part of the Arabic text of the Hindu Indian Fables of Bidpai (also known as the tales of Kalilah and Dimnah): the portion here published being the chapter of the lion and the ox. These animal fables originated in India but passed into Persia before 570 AD where they were translated first into Pahlavi and then into Arabic. The Indian original, together with the Pahlavi translation were then lost, leaving the Arabic version the only one available to later scholars and translators and the means by which the fables entered western literature. It was translated into many European language and exerted a defining influence on fabulists such as LaFontaine. The full text was not printed until 1816 in the edition of Silvestre de Sacy.   view more...
£1500.00
US$2243.69*
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 21
BRONTE, Charlotte.

BRONTE, Charlotte. ~ Jane Eyre ou les mémoires d'une institutrice par Currer Bell. Roman Anglais traduit avec l'autorisation de l'auteur par Mme Lesbazeilles-Souvestre.

Paris: Hachette,  1859.
A rare early edition in French, probably the first by Hachette who held the copyright until 1947, reprinting it numerous times. The translation had appeared first in 1854 (in two volumes), printed by Giraud. The previous Hachette edition (1855) to ours was actually just an abridgment by Dauran-Forgus.   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 117
BUCHANAN, George.

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*
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 906
BUNYAN, John.

BUNYAN, John. ~ The Water of Life: or, a discourse shewing The Richness and Glory of the Grace and Spirit of the Gospel, as set forth in Scripture by this Term, The Water of Life...

London: for Nathanael Ponder,  1688.
First edition. The Water of Life, an exposition of Revelation 22:1 likening God's grace to a river, was one of Bunyan's final works, written and published in the year of his death.Copies retaining all the 16pp. adverts are rare and the copy reproduced by EEBO (Huntington) lacks the last 4 (none of the advert leaves appear in the EEBO version).   view more...
£4500.00
US$6731.08*
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 666
[BUTEL-DUMONT, Georges-Marie, attributed to.]

[BUTEL-DUMONT, Georges-Marie, attributed to.] ~ Journées Mogoles, opuscule décent d'un docteur Chinois...

"Imprimée a Dély. Et se trouve à Paris, Chez J.P. Costard" [Paris],  1772.
First edition. Journées Mogoles mixes a whole series of orientalist themes with Turkish, Indian and Chinese elements. To all this is introduced, in the second part, a charming and desirable English lady, Milady Fanni with whom the hero falls in love. The introduction warns: "Jeune filles ce Livre n'est pas pour vous" and Gay describes the stories as "d'un merveilleux qui frise l'indécence".In the course of her wooing, Fanni introduces the hero to an imaginary personal library (part 2, pp. 57-61) allowing him a glimpse of her annotated catalogue, with her notes on Voltaire and Montesquieu and remarks on D'Alembert, Diderot, Racine, Corneille, Shakespeare, Rouseeau, Toussain and Marmontel.The authorship is uncertain, but the novel is usually attributed to Butel-Dumont, whose other works are on economic and political subjects. He was secretary to the French ambassador in Russia and a Royal Censor. The attractive woodcut vignettes are signed by Jean Beugnet.   view more...
£1000.00
US$1495.80*
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 884
[CAREW, Bampfylde-Moore.]

[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*
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 22
CARY, Henry Francis, the Reverend.

CARY, Henry Francis, the Reverend. ~ The early French poets, a series of notices and translations... with an introductory sketch of the history of French poetry by his son the Rev. Henry Cary...

London: Henry G. Bohn,  1846.
First edition in book form, publisher's presentation copy of this important posthumous collection. Acquainted with both Coleridge and Lamb, Cary was one of the circle of Romantic authors cultivated by the publishers Taylor and Hessey. He is best remembered as the translator of Dante. He collected much of his material on the medieval French poets on a visit to France in 1821, and published several articles on that subject in the London Magazine. It is these that were republished posthumously in the present form with an introduction by the author's son.    view more...
£120.00
US$179.50*
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 63
CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de.

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de. ~ The life and exploits of the ingenious gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha. Translated from the original Spanish... by Charles Jarvis, Esq; the whole carefully revised and corrected, with a new translation of the poetical parts by another hand. The second edition.

London: for J. and R. Tonson, S. Draper and R. Dodsley,  1749.
Jarvis's edition, which "is generally acknowledged as being close in spirit to the original" (Oxford DNB) was first published in 1742 and was frequently reprinted. It includes a reimpression of The life of Michael de Cervantes Saavedra. Written by Don Gregorio Mayáns & Siscár (1738) and A supplement to the translator's preface, more commonly known as A dissertation on the origin of books of chivalry, by William Warburton.   view more...
£850.00
US$1271.43*
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 889
(CHOISY, François-Timoléon, abbé de.)

(CHOISY, François-Timoléon, abbé de.) ~ Histoires secrettes de plusieurs demoiselles; Leurs Aventures galantes.

Paris: Tiger, n.d. [c.?  1800.]
First edition of this version of the adventures of pre-Revolutionary France's most famous transvestite. Born to a member of the household of the duke of Orleans in 1644 the young François-Timoléon was dressed as a girl by his mother. While that in itself was not uncommon in infancy, the young boy continued to dress thus until the age of eighteen. Attempting to revert to male dress thereafter, the young man continued to dress as a woman, reportedly to assist in his various amorous intrigues.He began to lead a clerical life, but finding the notoroius Bussy-Rabutin a neighbour in his benefice at Saint-Seine (Burgundy) his was never a straightforward career. He travelled to Rome and to China and wrote an engaging memoir, published in 1737. The record of his exploits as a woman were, however, left largely in his other manuscripts and published as Histoire de madame la comtesse de Barres (Antwerp, 1735) and again as the Vie de M. l'abbé de Choisy (Lausanne and Geneva, 1742). Our very rare chapbook version by Tiger (who was something of a specialist in galante histories) apparently draws on these accounts. The frontispiece presents a rather glum Choisy in women's dress.   view more...
£450.00
US$673.11*
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 676
[CHOUDARD-DESFORGES, Pierre Jean Baptiste.]

[CHOUDARD-DESFORGES, Pierre Jean Baptiste.] ~ Mille et un souvenirs, ou les veillées conjugales, recueil d'Anecdotes véritables, galantes, sérieuses, bouffonnes, comiques, tragiques, nationales, étrangères, merveilleuses, mystérieuses, etc. Manuscrit trouvé dans les papiers d'une succession...

"Hambourg: chez les principaux libraires",  1799.
One of two editions of 1799, the first year of publication. A series of erotic anecdotes: "Ouvrage érotique, fort immoral, mis à l'index, par mesure de police, en 1825" (Gay).Towards the end of a successful and mainly respectable literary and theatrical career, Choudard-Desforges published (anonymously) 2 erotic memoirs, Le Poète (1798) and the present Mille et un souvenirs. Both were far from respectable and the latter was banned, though reprinted at least twice in the nineteenth century. A very rare book, there are 2 issues dated 1799. Both give Hambourg but one has the imprint "chez les marchands de nouveautés" (noted by both Gay and Cioranescu as the only issue of that year) and has 5 volumes and the other (ours), a different setting in a more "modern" typeface with the complete text in 4 volumes.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 300
CICERO, Marcus Tullius.

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$6581.50*
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 663
COTTIN, [Sophie Ristaud.]

COTTIN, [Sophie Ristaud.] ~ Mathilde, ou Mémoires tirés de l'histoire des croisades.

London: Peltier,  1805.
First British edition, published in the same year as the French, of Madame Cottin's final novel, a tale set in the Crusadses. She died in 1807 at the age of 37. The 6 volumes, each with the Peltier imprint, have the distinction of each being printed by a different London printer: P. Da Ponte, W. Marchant, C. Spilsbury, C. and R. Baldwin, J. Brettell, and J.B.G. Vogel respectively.   view more...
£225.00
US$336.55*
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 317
[COURTILZ DE SANDRAS, Gatien de.]

[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$448.74*
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 186
 

COWLEY, Mrs. [Hannah]. ~ The belle's stratagem, a comedy, as acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden.

London: for T. Cadell,   1782.
First authorised edition of a play considered Cowley's masterpiece. It was dedicated to Queen Charlotte. Two pirated editions were published in Dublin in 1781.   view more...
£125.00
US$186.97*
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 185
 

COWLEY, Mrs. [Hannah]. ~ Albina, Countess Raimond; a tragedy, as it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in the Hay-Market.

London: T. Spilsbury for J. Dodsley; R. Faulder; L. Davis; T. Becket [and 7 others in London],   1779.
First edition of Hannah Cowley's first tragedy. The play began a bitter controversy between Cowley and Hannah More, who produced a strikingly similar play, Percy, shortly afterwards. A charge of plagiarism was levelled at More but never proved. Their exchange appeared in the St James's Chronicle and was reprinted in the Gentleman's magazine.   view more...
£125.00
US$186.97*
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 127
[COYER, Gabriel François, Abbé.]

[COYER, Gabriel François, Abbé.] ~ Chinki, histoire cochinchinoise qui peut servir à d'autres pays.

"Londres,"  1768.
First edition, presumed first issue. Appearing in the same year as Voltaire's l'Homme aux 40 écus, Chinki was often attributed to Voltaire. Another issue of the same year contains a subtitle claiming the work as a sequel to Voltaire. The plight of the peasant Chinki at the hands of his Cochinchinese masters is a thinly veiled critique of the economic policies of the French state before Turgot. Several other issues appeared in the same year with the false London imprint: they were probably all printed inside France.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 222
CREBILLON, Claude-Prosper-Jolyot de,

CREBILLON, Claude-Prosper-Jolyot de, "Crebillon fils". ~ Le Sopha, Conte Moral.

"A Gaznah, de l'imprimerie Très-Pieux, Très-Clément & Très-Auguste Sultan des Indes. L'an de l'Hegire MCXX. Avec privilege du Susdit."  [1742].
A celebrated novel of comic transformation, Le Sopha tells of an unfortunate young courtier, who for the sake of former sins is transformed into a piece of furniture, the sopha of the title. He is not to be reincarnated as a man until a man and a woman sincerely in love with each other had consummated their passion on him. It apparently secured Crebillon's temporary banishment from Paris (its characters were rather closely based on prominent society members) but became hugely popular and was translated into English by Eliza Haywood and William Hatchett. Dufrenoy saw it as a key work in the development of the oriental genre in the French novel, and certainly it spawned a host of imitations.While Tchemerzine and Cioranescu list a previous edition under the name Le Sopha couleur de rose, Tchemerzine states that he has never seen a copy. Copies of the first are indeed rare: Worldcat listing 5 copies. Our edition is the second.   view more...
£800.00
US$1196.64*
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 346
[D'URFEY, Thomas.]

[D'URFEY, Thomas.] ~ The Weesils. A satyrical fable: giving an account of some argumental passages happening in the Lion's Court about Weesilions taking the oaths.

London: [n.p.], printed in the year.  1691.
First edition of D'Urfey's anonymously published satire on William Sherlock, lampooning his notorious abandonment of nonjuror principles and satirising the reputed influence of his much-reviled wife. A Church of England clergyman and religious controversialist, Sherlock had allied himself with the nonjurors in 1689 by conspicuously refusing to take the oath to the newly crowned William and Mary. Onlookers were stunned Sherlock subsequently performed a complete about-face and very publicly prayed for the King and Queen as de facto sovereigns in 1690, a move which inevitably provoked much scorn from all sides. D'Urfey himself was a popular comic playwright whose career had flourished under the patronage of Charles II. Briefly left in the political wilderness during the more sober reign of James II, the coronation of William III in 1689 offered new opportunities which D'Urfey was quick to exploit. Having pledged himself to the whigs, he wrote birthday songs and odes for the king and queen and further curried favour by producing a series of anonymous poems in which he satirised those opposed to the new regime.   view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
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 898
D[ONNE], J[ohn].

D[ONNE], J[ohn]. ~ Poems... With Elegies on the authors death.

London: by M.F. for John Marriot,  1633.
First edition of the principal collection of Donne's poetical works, issued two years after his death. This copy has the two inserted leaves with 'The Printer to the Understanders ' and 'Hexastichon Bibliopolæ', not always present, and has the leaf Nn1 in the earlier, uncorrected, state with 35 lines of text on p. 273 instead of 30 or 31, with omission of the usual running headline. The editor of this first edition evidently made use of more than one group of surviving manuscripts. While he made a number of minor changes on his own authority, the 1633 Poems remains the best early text of the most important of all metaphysical collections.   view more...
£22000.00
US$32907.49*
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 672
[DESBIEFS, Louis.]

[DESBIEFS, Louis.] ~ Sophie. Par M. D. B.

"A La Haye, et se trouve à Paris, chez Hochereau, l'a'né" [Paris],  1756.
First and only edition of a very scarce galante novel. According to Cioranescu, Desbiefs published all his known works (Passe-temps des mousquetaires ou le temps perdu; l'Heureuse victime; Nine and Sophie) between 1755 and 1756. The first of these consisted of 58 licentious stories and was reprinted by Gay in 1866. Sophie appears never to have been reprinted.The "La Haye" imprint is certainly false, and 'permission tacite' was granted at Paris on 18 novembre 1756 (CCFr catalogue).   view more...
£850.00
US$1271.43*
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 325
DICKENS, Charles.

DICKENS, Charles. ~ A Tale of Two Cities. With illustrations by H.K.Browne.

London: Chapman and Hall,  1859.
First edition, early issue, bound without adverts in the red morocco cloth, and 7 of the 8 'internal flaws' called for by Smith. According to Smith, 'The plates were not duplicated and consequently most copies have poor impressions because of the large printings made from the one set of plates.' The plates in our copy are relatively good, also suggesting early impressions in the print run. A nice copy of one of the scarcest Dickens titles in cloth.   view more...
£5500.00
US$8226.87*
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 308
(DICTIONARY, French-Latin).

(DICTIONARY, French-Latin). ~ Petit thresor des mots françois, selon l'ordre des lettres, ainsi qui'il les fuat escrire tournez en Latin. Revue et augmenté de plusieurs proverbes, dictions, & manieres de parler, Françoises & Latines...

Rouen: pour la Societé,  1666.
A French-Latin dictionary for Jesuit use. The earliest edition we have found being 1626 (Paris). The additions to this edition contain newer words and usages, together with place names.   view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
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 304
(DICTIONARY, German-English).

(DICTIONARY, German-English). ~ The new and complete dictionary of the German and English languages composed chiefly after the German dictionaries of Mr. Adelung and of Mr. Schwan. Every German Word being rendered into proper English and thoroughly enriched with phrases and terms of Arts and Sciences: A work, which will be useful and even indispensible, and therefore welcome to all such as have a mind to translate or read the works of either of the two languages, elaborated by John Ebers.

Leipzig: for Breitkopf and Haertel,  1796-1798.
First editions of a very extensive German-Dictionary with detailed definitions of a large range of technical, popular and slang words. Little is known of the career of Johann Ebers (1742-1818) save that he was a professor Professor at Halle.    view more...
£800.00
US$1196.64*
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 467
 

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*
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 469
DOYLE, A[rthur]. Conan.

DOYLE, A[rthur]. Conan. ~ The valley of fear. With a frontispiece by Frank Willis.

London: Smith, Elder & Co.,  1915.
A superb copy from the first UK, preferred, edition. Widely considered one of the best illustrations of the Holmes-Watson relationship, The valley of fear was very well received by the wartime public. In 1916 the work was produced by G. B. Samuelson, his second Holmes film, starring H. A. Saintsbury, the British stage Holmes since 1901. Although he played Holmes some 1,400 times on stage, this is his only film appearance.   view more...
£2000.00
US$2991.59*
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 471
DOYLE, A[rthur]. Conan.

DOYLE, A[rthur]. Conan. ~ The hound of the Baskervilles another adventure of Sherlock Holmes.

London: George Newnes, Limited,  1902.
First edition in book form. The title first appeared in serial format in Strand magazine in 1901-2 and remains the best known of the ever-popular Sherlock Holmes series. The novel appeared after Doyle had killed off his hero in an epic struggle with between Holmes and his bitter foe Moriarty, but a public out-cry ensued and The hound of Baskervilles appeared (with the sub-title "another adventure of Sherlock Holmes" to create the illusion that the story was from an earlier date) and was met with unprecedented success. Bauman: "First issue, with "you" for "your" on page 13, line 3 and the illustration facing page 76 reversed (as it was originally in the Strand Magazine, October 1901)."    view more...
£5000.00
US$7478.98*
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 262
DUCLOS, Charles Pinot.

DUCLOS, Charles Pinot. ~ Acajou et Zirphile, conte.

"A Minutie" [?Paris],  1776.
First published in 1744 Duclos' satrical fairy-tale provoked outrage and delight in different quarters. Its publication arose from a bet: the Comte de Tessin had commissioned a suite of engravings from Boucher for a fairy tale, but was unexpectedly recalled to Sweden. Boucher then took them to Mlle Quinault's salon where a contest was held to write a fairy tale around his bizarre scenes (including flying hands and genies in chamber pots). Apparently Voisenon, Caylus, and Duclos submitted entries but only Duclos's has survived. The first edition, like ours, was purported to be printed at 'Minutie' ('Trifles'). It's preface "to the public" is an agressive attack on the frivolities of literary Paris, the very readership at which the book was aimed. The tale itself is also a parody of the fashionable fairy-tale genre and involves two evil genies, a prince and princess (Acajou and Zirphile), and a good fairy. It inspired a response from Fréron and a comic-opera by Favart. The rare first edition of 1744 was printed in quarto with reproductions of Boucher's original illustrations. It was reprinted in duodecimo soon after and exists in several further eighteenth-century editions, including an English translation.   view more...
£300.00
US$448.74*
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 269
EDGEWORTH, Maria.

EDGEWORTH, Maria. ~ The orange man or the honest boy and the thief.

Paris: Truchy's French and English Library,  1835.
An English-language chapbook from Truchy's French and English Library series. A moral tale for young children it originally appeared in the first (1796) edition of The Parent's Assistant. Scarce.   view more...
£100.00
US$149.58*
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 880
(EROTICA).

(EROTICA). ~ Théatre gaillard...

"Londres" [?Paris: Cazin],  1788.
The Théatre Gaillard was a notorious collection of erotic dramas of which earlier editions (the first was 1776) were the object of various confiscations by the authorities in France. This edition, ascribed to Cazin by Kearney, includes an entirely new suite of finely engraved erotic plates and is of exceptional rarity.The plays included are: Le Luxurieux by Legrand; le Tempérament by ?Grandval; Le Bordel, ou le J...-F... puni, by the comte de Caylus; l'Appareilleuse; la Comtesse d'Olonne by Bussy-Rabutin; Vasta, reine de Bordélie; la Nouvelle Messaline by Piron; Alphone l'impuissante; les Deux Biscuits; and les Plaisirs du Clo'tre.   view more...
£2400.00
US$3589.91*
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 877
(EROTICA).

(EROTICA). ~ La cauchoise, ou, Mémoires d'une courtisanne célèbre. Roman pour servir de suite à tous les bons ouvrages de la philosophie de la nature.

"A Libidinibus" [i.e. France?]: "Chez Sensualité, à la Délicatesse, rue du Tempérament, 10308070" [i.e. c.  1783.]
First edition. A famous pornographic novel - a first-person narrative of a young woman who becomes a prostitute - of which only two other copies are now traceable (Harvard and private collection). La Cauchoise is best known for its inclusion of a fictitious library catalogue of 49 pornographic works, some real, some invented, which has continuously intrigued bibliographers and publishers. The catalogue was dropped in all subsequent editions.The work was frequently reprinted in the nineteenth century, under this title and a variant, usually with a variation of our false imprint. The first edition is of exceptional rarity. There is no copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale or British Library, and Worldcat lists only the Harvard copy.   view more...
£2500.00
US$3739.49*
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 879
(EROTICA).

(EROTICA). ~ Julie philosophe ou le bon patriote. Histoire à peu près véritable, d'une Citoyenne active qui a été tour-à-tour agent & victime dans les dernieres révolutions de la Hollande, du Brabant & de la France.

[n.p. ?Paris],  1791.
First edition. A pornographic French Revolutionary novel of the greatest rarity, replete with allusions to some of the most important figures in contemporary society, including Mirabeau, Calonne, la comtesse de la Mothe and the arch-swindler Theveneau de Morande. Gay remarked on its unexpected perspective on the Revolution: "Aussi ce livre appartient-il à l'histoire, et sera t'il toujours lu et recherché lorsque beaucoup d'autres productions érotiques et frivoles auront disparu de la circulation et seront oubliées."The work was attributed to Andrea de Nerciat by Apollinaire in the introduction to his 1910 edition, but this attribution is not generally accepted.   view more...
£3000.00
US$4487.39*
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 878
(EROTICA). [

(EROTICA). ["V.T.H.S.", pseud.] ~ La Rhétorique des putains, ou la fameuse maquerelle. Ouvrage imité d l'Italien, orné de joiles figures en taille-douce.

"Rome" [? France]: "aux dépens du Saint Pere,"  1794.
An especially rare pornographic dialogue, purporting to be a didactic conversation between an older and a younger prostitute (Marthe and Angélique) presented in a series of "lessons". This edition is important for its inclusion of a series of bizarre plates originally intended for another work, "L'Arétin de la Révolution", of which only a single copy is known (according to Dutel). These rather crudely printed plates are humorous caricatures depicting a series of couples in Revolutionary dress and must be among the most extraordinary reflections of the Revolutionary period in the graphic arts.The French text was first printed in 1771, bearing only a slight resemblance to the stated Italian source (Rettorica delle Putane by Ferrante Pallavicino), and including 3 small plates. It was reprinted without plates in 1790 and then in 1794 (ours) with the introduction of the plates discussed. All editions are of exceptional rarity.   view more...
£2000.00
US$2991.59*
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 875
(EROTICA). [SEDAINE, Michel Jean and Pierre Lalmand]

(EROTICA). [SEDAINE, Michel Jean and Pierre Lalmand] ~ La tentation de S. Antoine, ornée de figures et de musique. [Le Pot-Pourri de Loth, orné de figures et de musique.]

"Londres" [Paris: Cazin],   1781.
First edition, de luxe issue on large paper of this pairing of libretti by Sedaine, complete with the 5 erotic plates absent in some copies, on account of their subject-matter.This is a bibliographically complex work. Dutel, in his recent bibliography describes and illustrates an edition of 1781 which has the same plates and pagination (though 1 leaf bearing the word "fin" is bound at the end of the second part in ours, where in his it is bound at the end of the first). However, he cites just "un feuillet de musique gravée" inserted, where ours has a full 20 pages between the 2 parts. Our copy is also clearly different from the point of view of size and paper. His copy measures just 18.8 × 12.4 mm and is apparently on ordinary paper, where ours is notably larger and is luxuriously printed on blue paper and papier vergé. Furthermore, in comparing the 2 title-pages with those he illustrates, while being identical in letterpress details, the typographical ornaments are completely different, though positioned similarly.Dutel also lists a second edition of (Londres, 1782) in even smaller format (18mo) but on blue and thick paper, with an additional part and plate. There were several later editions.Gay cites both 1781 and 1782 editions but it is impossible to tell whether his 1781 edition conforms to ours or Dutel's example, since he gives no pagination or exact size. Of the work he writes: "Ce volume, dont les exemplaires sont très rares, se paierent fort cher aujourd'hui, car lese gravures... sont fort bien exécutées... Tous les curieux de galanteries connaisent ces deux ouvrages, au moins de réputation." he notes the authorship of Sedaine in the first case and suggests Pierre Lalmand as the author of the second. He also admits that their literary quality is "fort mince" being "du pur libertinage" and of a sacrilegious quality.   view more...
£2000.00
US$2991.59*
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 165
(FABLES). PHAEDRUS, Caius Julius and Jean de La Fontaine.

(FABLES). PHAEDRUS, Caius Julius and Jean de La Fontaine. ~ Fables de Phedre, avec la contruction du texte et de la version interlinéaire, auxquelles on a joint les fables que La Fontaine a imitées de cet auteur.

Lyon: les Frères Perisse,  1790.
A nice Lyon-printed interlinear Latin/French fable book, presumably intended for the use of young students of Latin. Several fables of La Fontaine are appended at the end.   view more...
£175.00
US$261.76*
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 5
 

FIELDING, Henry. ~ The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, And his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. Written in Imitation of The Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote... The Third Edition, illustrated with Cuts. In two volumes...

London: for A. Millar,  1743.
First illustrated edition of Fileding's picaresque comedy, his first novel and (in part) a parody of Richardson's Pamela. It had been first printed by Millar the previous year. It might be considered an early example of the road-novel and presents many obvious subjects for illustration: inhabited as it is by a cast of loose women, scoundrels, rogues and fools.   view more...
£350.00
US$523.53*
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 445
[FIELDING, Sarah, attributed to.] Mr. de la PLACE.

[FIELDING, Sarah, attributed to.] Mr. de la PLACE.  ~ L'Orpheline angloise, ou histoire de Charlotte Summers, imitee de l'anglois de M. N****.

London [Liège?]: "et se trouve à Francfort, en foire, chez J. F. Bassompierre, libraire de Liége",   1756.
Third edition in French. This popular work is considered the first imitation of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) and it is most likely this connection that led to speculation that Sarah Fielding, his novelist sister, was the anonymous author. The title was first published as The history of Charlotte Summers, the fortunate parish girl twice in 1750, before being translated into French for publication in 1751, with a second edition in French in 1752.    view more...
£300.00
US$448.74*
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 724
FLEMING, Ian.

FLEMING, Ian. ~ Octopussy and the Living Daylights.

London: Jonathan Cape,  1966.
First edition.   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 460
FLEMING, Ian.

FLEMING, Ian. ~ On her majesty's secret service.

London: Jonathan Cape,  [1963].
First edition of the eleventh Bond title.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 725
FLEMING, Ian.

FLEMING, Ian. ~ For Your Eyes Only.

London: Jonathan Cape,   1960.
First edition. The collection contains From a View to a Kill, For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace, Risico, The Hildebrand Rarity.   view more...
£800.00
US$1196.64*
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 463
FLEMING, Ian.

FLEMING, Ian. ~ Moonraker.

London: Jonathan Cape,  [1955].
First edition of the third title in the James Bond series, with the original price "10s. 6d. net" to dust-jacket flaps and "shoot" not "shoo" to p. 10 (no priority established).   view more...
£3250.00
US$4861.33*
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 349
 

GASKELL, Mrs. Elizabeth Cleghorn. ~ Cranford; preface by Anne Thackeray Ritchie and illustrations by Hugh Thomson.

London: Macmillan and Co.,   1892.
This version first printed in 1891.   view more...
£30.00
US$44.87*
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 144

"GINGLICUTT, John," pseud. ~ A brief account of Mr. John Ginglicutt's treatise concerning the altercation or scolding of the ancients. By the author.

London: for J. Roberts,  1731.
First edition of a nice little satire attributed variously to Swift or (more likely) John Arbuthnot. In the form of an advertisement for a forthcoming work (never issued) the Account described the author's heritage as son of a London purveyor of "fishes of a testacious kind, which exert their stimulating Quality on the Constitutions of such as eat them, and in the Discourse of such as vend them." The fish-wife's son then proceeds to sing the praises of the language of abuse as the true heir to the debating style of the ancients.   view more...
£275.00
US$411.34*
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 851
 

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*
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 675
[GRAILLARD DE GRAVILLE, Barthelemy Claude].

[GRAILLARD DE GRAVILLE, Barthelemy Claude]. ~ Le Mage de Chica.

"Amsterdam, et se trouve a Paris" [probably Paris]: Cuissart  1759.
First edition, rare: a pre-revolutionary attack on feudalism and the French aristocracy through the thoughts of a wise man from a sacred caste of magi in an imaginary land. Graillard de Graville (1727-1764) was a Parisian journalist and writer. Worried by the effects of feudalism, the work solicits rebels to overthrow the anachronistic social structure of 1750s France. There is an extended explanation of why it has been necessary to create a fictional character, in which Graville spells out the faults of all of the existing Continents. Thus, he rejects America on the grounds that the Spanish have reduced all of the natives to ashes; Asia because they are too effeminate; Africa because 'mes Concitoyens ne pourroient souffrir qu'un Nègre eût les vertus d'un Européen'; and Europe because 'ce sont presque tous animaux de differentes especes, quoiqu'avec le même masque'. Having satisfied himself that no known land can furnish the perfect blend of the philosopher and the prodigy, he reluctantly reverts to the depiction of an entirely imaginary land of wise men.   view more...
£975.00
US$1458.40*
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 857
 

(GREENAWAY, Kate, illustrator). KINGSTON, William H.G. ~ Infant amusements; or, how to make a nursery happy. With practical hints to parents and nurses on the moral and physical training of children.

London: [Gilbert & Rivington for] Griffith and Farran,  1867.
First edition, including the first published illustration by Kate Greenaway. The daughter of a London wood engraver, Greenaway trained at the Finsbury School of Art and the National Art Training School. "In 1867 Kate Greenaway's first book illustration-the frontispiece to Infant Amusements, or, How to Make a Nursery Happy-was published, clearly influenced by the style of John Leech and John Gilbert, book illustrators who worked within the picturesque and caricaturist style of the 1830s and 1840s" (Rosemary Mitchell in ODNB).Kingston's little work was influential in brightening the sometimes austere Victorian nursery. He urged the provision of well-made toys made to his own design (the slide he illustrates looks especially appealing) and the use of suitable toys (such as Noah's Ark) for the Sabbath. Activity games are encouraged and a good plain diet recommended.The early inscription from St Petersburg is intriguing, though we are unable to identify the initials.   view more...
£800.00
US$1196.64*
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 681
 

GUYS, Jean-Baptiste. ~ La baguette mystérieuse ou Abizai.

La Haye, et se trouve à Paris, chez Duchesne,  1755.
First edition of a very scarce amorous novel in the oriental mode. A follower of Crébillon fils, Guys is described by Dufrenoy, in no uncertain terms, as one of the "Crébillonnistes décadents" who developed the more undesirable elements of the orientalist genre.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 441
HALIFAX, [George SAVILE, Marquis of].

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*
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 345
HALLER, [Albrecht.] M. le Baron de.

HALLER, [Albrecht.] M. le Baron de. ~ Usong, histoire oriental. Traduit de l'Allemand.

Paris & Lausanne: Valade and Fr. Grasset, & Compagnie,  1772.
First French edition. Baron Haller (1708-1777) was a famous Swiss botanist and poet; his many prestigious positions listed on the title page include "Président de la Société Royale de Gottingue, & de la Société Économique de Berne, and Associé de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris, &c, &c." Usong (1771) was one of three philosophical romances which he published between 1771 and 1774 in which he outlined his views on the relative merits of despotism, limited monarchy and aristocratic republican government. Usong is a staatsroman in which Haller demonstrates his profound admiration for Eastern political systems. Though set in a fictional Persia, the political arrangements of the ideal state are drawn from Chinese Confucian theory where government rests on the principle of accountability.Two further issues of this title also appeared in 1772: the first in Lausanne published by Grasset, and a second published in Paris and Frankfurt by Jean Georg Esslinger.   view more...
£350.00
US$523.53*
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 850
 

HOLBERG, Ludvig, Baron. ~ Voyage de Nicolas Klimius dans le monde souterrain, contenant une nouvelle téorie de la terre, et l'histoire d'une cinquiême monarchie inconnue jusqu'à present. Ouvrage tiré de la bibliothéque Mr. B. Abelin; et traduit du latin par Mr. de Mauvillon.

"Copenhague" [but Dresden]: Jaques Preuss,  1741.
First edition in French, published very shortly after the first Latin edition. The Subterranean Voyage of Nicolas Klim is one of the classics of speculative and utopian fiction, written fifteen years after Swift's Gulliver's Travels and often compared favourably with that work. It is the first fully developed novel to be set in the earth's interior, a setting which has been utilised countless times in later science fiction. Klim, a poor student, falls through a hole in the earth just outside the Norwegian town of Bergen and finds himself on the inside of the earth's crust. He lands on the planet Nazar (which orbits a sun at the centre of the earth's cavity) where he finds a nation that lives according to the laws of reason and nature. The peasantry are considered very highly and therefore are the most distinguished class in the state; many of the highest offices are held by women, who are in every way equal to the men. Nazar presents an enlightened utopia, very much in the mould of the ideals of Montesquieu and Voltaire (who Holberg admired enormously) but Klim also travels to other states where the perfect state of society is not so fully developed or is perhaps degenerate, allowing a vivid comparison of political, social and philosophical systems.Holberg (like his hero Klim) was a native of Bergen at a time when Norway and Denmark existed as a twin kingdom. He saw himself as a fully European writer and the equal of the French philosophes. The majority of his works, including the present, first appeared in Latin, the universal language. The adventures of Nicolas Klim were immediately popular and were rapidly translated into all the major European languages.   view more...
£1150.00
US$1720.16*
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 855
 

[HOLBERG, Ludvig, Baron].  ~ Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum novam telluris theoriam…

Copenhagen and Leipzig: Jacob Preuss,  1741.
First edition. The Subterranean Voyage of Nicolas Klim is one of the classics of speculative and utopian fiction, written fifteen years after Swift's Gulliver's Travels and often compared favourably with that work. It is the first fully developed novel to be set in the earth's interior, a setting which has been utilised countless times in later science fiction. Klim, a poor student, falls through a hole in the earth just outside the Norwegian town of Bergen and finds himself on the inside of the earth's crust. He lands on the planet Nazar (which orbits a sun at the centre of the earth's cavity) where he finds a nation that lives according to the laws of reason and nature. The peasantry are considered very highly and therefore are the most distinguished class in the state; many of the highest offices are held by women, who are in every way equal to the men. Nazar presents an enlightened utopia, very much in the mould of the ideals of Montesquieu and Voltaire (who Holberg admired enormously) but Klim also travels to other states where the perfect state of society is not so fully developed or is perhaps degenerate, allowing a vivid comparison of political, social and philosophical systems.Holberg (like his hero Klim) was a native of Bergen at a time when Norway and Denmark existed as a twin kingdom. He saw himself as a fully European writer and the equal of the French philosophes. The majority of his works, including the present, first appeared in Latin, the universal language. The adventures of Nicolas Klim were immediately popular and were rapidly translated into all the major European languages.   view more...
£2250.00
US$3365.54*
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 52
HUXLEY, Aldous.

HUXLEY, Aldous. ~ Eyeless in Gaza.

London: Chatto & Windus,  1936.
Signed, limited, first edition of Huxley's follow-up to Brave New World. Number 150 of 200 copies.   view more...
£250.00
US$373.95*
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 617
 

INGELO, Nathanael. ~ Bentivolio and Urania, in six books. The fourth edition with large amendments. Wherein all the obscure words throughout the book are interpreted in the margin, which makes this much more delightful to read than the former editions.

London: A[nne].M[axwell]. and R[obert].R[oberts]. for Dorman Newman, at the Kings Arms in the Poultrey,  1682.
Fourth, amended edition. First published in two instalments in 1660 and 1664, Ingelo's best-selling work of moral and religious instruction was soon reprinted with a second edition in 1669 and the third in 1673. The fourth edition, 1682, included "large amendments. Wherein all the obscure words throughout the book are interpreted in the margin". Each of the two volumes was printed by a different printer and ESTC records indicate that they were not intended to be issued together.   view more...
£300.00
US$448.74*
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 450
JUSSIEU, L[aurent]. P. de.

JUSSIEU, L[aurent]. P. de. ~ Simon de Nantua, or le marchand Forain, ouvrage qui a obtenu le prix fondé par un anonyme, et proposé par la Société pour l'instruction élémentaire; en faveur du meilleur livre destiné à servir de lecture au people des villes et des campagnes.

Paris: [Imprimerie de Fain] for "L. Colas, imprimeur-libraire de la Société pour l'instruction élémentaire",  1818.
First edition. This immensely popular novel was published by la Société pour l'instruction élémentaire following a competition, with a prize of 1000 francs donated by an anonymous benefactor, to write a work of no more than 250 pages which "seraient tracés avec simplicité, précision et sagesse, le principes de religion chrétienne, de morale, de prudence sociale" for the improvement of everyday town and country people. The popularity of the title led to numerous subsequent editions appearing in France, as well as translations into languages including Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Greek and even Breton.   view more...
£450.00
US$673.11*
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 328
 

LA FONTAINE, Jean de. ~ La Fontaine's Fables. Now first translated from the French; whit [sic] Elegant Engraved Figures. By Robert Thomson.

Paris: [G. Doyen] "at all the booksellers,"  n.d. [c. 1820.]
A very rare English edition and an interesting example of opportunistic publishing. This English La Fontaine was first printed by Brochot in 1805 and by Chenu in 1806, apparently both with and without illustrations (probably 16 plates). This edition uses the sheets of one of those editions (with their copious decorative tailpieces) and adds new titles on different paper and obviously different typography. The advertised "Elegant Engraved Figures" consist of 4 plates from the earlier edition, each marked "vol. 2" at the head and bound as a frontispiece to each volume. This copy is as issued, with the original printed labels.   view more...
£800.00
US$1196.64*
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 882
[LA PORTE, Joseph de, editor.]

[LA PORTE, Joseph de, editor.] ~ Bibliothèque des génies et des fées...

Paris: Duchesne,  1765-[1764].
First edition of this extensive eighteenth-century fairy-tale collection. The Jesuit compiler Joseph de la Porte drew the tales from a variety of earlier sources (collections by Madame Louise Lévesque and Moncrif and versions by Mdame Fagnan and Henri Pajon printed in Le Mercure). The collection contanins: Merveilleux et Charmante; Le Prince des aigues marines; Le Prince invisible; Grisdelin et Charmante; Les Voyageuses; Le Prince Ananas & la Princesse Moustelle; Eritzine & Parelin; Minet-bleu & Louvette; Alidor & Thersandre; Caressant et Blanchette; Cornichon et Toupette; Néangir et ses freres Argentine & ses soeurs; La Princesse Minon-Minette et le Prince Souci and Aphranor et Bellanire. It was reprinted (in part) as a volume of the Cabinet des Fées in 1785, with the editor's name given.This copy has a distinguished provenance: bearing the arms of Anne-Léon II de Montmorency and hi wife, who were prominent in pre-Revolutionary French society before emigrating to Munster during the Revolution. The later bookplates are of La Rochefoucauld duc de Bisaccia: French ambassador in London and a supporter of the failed restoration of the French monarchy in the 1870s.   view more...
£2000.00
US$2991.59*
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 575
LAFAYETTE, Marie-Madeleine de,

LAFAYETTE, Marie-Madeleine de, ~ La Princesse de Clèves.

"Amsterdam et se trouve a Paris" [probably Paris],   1786.
A nice copy of this famous novel, issued as volumes 4 & 5 of a set of the works of Madame de Lafayette, but bound separately here without the half-titles from the set and the spines numbered "I" and "II".The library of Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex was sold at auction in 1844-45.   view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
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 33
LE PAYS, René, Sieur du Plessis-Villeneuve.

LE PAYS, René, Sieur du Plessis-Villeneuve. ~ Amitiez, amours et amourettes...

'Grenoble, & se vend a Paris': Charles de Sercy,  1664.
A rare and celebrated courtly collection of amatory letters and verses. It was reprinted numerous times (several editions appeared in the same year). Le Pays' post as a government official at Grenoble apparently left him ample leisure for literary composition, and this, his best-known work was much admired by the duchesse de Nemours, who became his patron. Several of the 1664 editions bear identical or very similar imprints, Gay denotes our edition (with the Sercy imprint) the second. Despite the number of editions, legitimate or pirated, printed in the same year all are now very rare outside France.   view more...
£300.00
US$448.74*
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 219
 

LEE, Miss [Sophia Priscilla]. ~ The chapter of accidents: a comedy, in five acts, as it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in the Hay-Market.

London: for T. Cadell  1780.
First edition. "Lee planned her first play, The Chapter of Accidents (1780), while in debtors' prison with her father in 1772, and had written a novel before that. It was not until her father was on his deathbed, leaving his four daughters without prospect of any provision, however, that she overcame her reluctance to publish. Having submitted The Chapter of Accidents to Thomas Harris (d. 1820), manager of the Covent Garden Theatre and her father's employer at the time, she endured his contemptuous treatment and delays until the elder George Colman (1732–1794) produced it to acclaim at the Haymarket Theatre on 5 August 1780. A serio-comic play influenced by Diderot's Le père de famille, it was controversial in eliciting sympathy for a heroine who fails to maintain perfect virtue. It was performed over a hundred times in London and Bath by the early nineteenth century, was often reprinted, and was translated into French and German" (ODNB).   view more...
£100.00
US$149.58*
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 442
 

LINTON, William James, "Hattie BROWN", pseudonym. ~ Catoninetales a domestic epic. By Hattie Brown. A young lady of colour lately deceased at the age of 14.

London: Lawrence and Bullen,  1891.
One of 330 numbered copies. An eccentric poem about the nine lives of a cat, written and illustrated by the radical liberal wood-engraver and poet William James Linton, an Englishman who later emigrated to the United States. Linton invents a nostalgic biography of the fictional young author, "a young lady of colour", whose humbled origins as the uneducated daughter of field-hands are left behind as her literary genius emerges, before her untimely and premature death.   view more...
£170.00
US$254.29*
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 298
 

(LONDON). MACQUEEN-POPE, W[alter]. ~ Haymarket: theatre of perfection.

London: W.H. Allen,  1948.
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£10.00
US$14.96*
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 318
LOVEDAY, R[obert].

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.
First edition. The letters and poems of Robert Loveday were published posthumously by his brother Anthony in 1659 and subsequently reprinted several times. Loveday's education at Peterhouse, Cambridge, was interrupted by the Civil War and he became a secretary in the Clinton family; in this capacity he travelled extensively throughout England, spending time at the Clintons' seat, Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, and at the Clares' residence, Thurland House, Nottinghamshire. Loveday was an accomplished translator whose most notable work was a three-volume translation of La Calprenède's Cléopâtre; however it is arguably his letters which remain his greatest legacy. By all accounts an unusually charming and attractive personality (even the running title reads 'Loveday's Letters. The Perswasive Secretary'), Loveday's agreeable style may be illustrated by a touching display of fraternal love which he pays his brother: "I am deep in your debt for abundance of loving expressions, and want words to tell you how tenderly I entertained them; the task is too big to let you know how dear you are to me; do me but the Courtesie to fancy an affection, pure, unbiassed, unreserved, that scorns limits, loaths change, and is onely less excellent than that which makes Angels clap their wings".   view more...
£850.00
US$1271.43*
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 143
M'QUHAE, William.

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*
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 862
(MANUSCRIPT NOVEL).

(MANUSCRIPT NOVEL). ~ [A fictional narrative of the adventures of Valsain and Aspaisie and their friends Qisnhy and Carithe in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Northern Europe and America.]

[?France c.  1800-1801.]
A manuscript novel, almost certainly authorial and unpublished. It is in part a series of imaginary voyages, with a strongly utopian flavour, but fused with various other literary tropes, notably a captivity narrative and strong elements of the eighteenth-century French romans philosophiques and romans du sérail. It also contains long passages of social and political commentary upon the major European powers. This is a remarkable and wide-ranging text, clearly written over a considerable period of time, with several changes of style and with substantial additions and revisions: all in a single hand. The hero, Valsain (a French-born Knight of Malta) is a model of the universal man: widely travelled and educated in the languages and customs of many countries.In the first draft of the manuscript, the action begins almost immediately with the arrival of the Napoleonic fleet off Malta en route for their famous Nile expedition, which Valsain promptly joins. However, a lengthy addition occupying the final 11 pages, tells the story of his life before this and his adventures in North America where he lived for several years after the Wars of Independence, taking his chances as a soldier (a naval engagement between American and British ships is described) and his engagement to an American girl. The engagement was broken only by his need to return to France on a lengthy and much-delayed passage of eighteenth months, finding on his arrival a series of long-out-of-date letters from her family asking for news and finally giving up hope of seeing him again. He also made several expeditions to the Greek Islands, Constantinople, Smyrna and Alexandria. Valsain's adventures with Napoleon are short-lived, since he is captured on his return from Egypt and imprisoned in a cave, from where is rescued by a couple of young women. One of them, Aspasie, a native of the Greek island of Naxos, becomes his lover. In the manner of the conte orientale, she tells him her tale: an education with a French tutor on Naxos, her kidnapping and imprisonment in the harem at Alexandria and her escape from Osman Bey's household when in Egypt. Aspasie is cast as a perfect counterpart for Valsain: noble, European-educated (a perfect fusion of French and Greek culture) but with an uncommon knowledge of the languages and ways of the East. The couple settle on an island in the River Nile, the very model of the utopian household, soon finding another counterpart to their own lives in their friends Qisnhy and his wife Carithe, natives of Abyssinia who came to Egypt with a trading caravan. Conversations between the friends allow the author to engage in a series of allegories: with Qisnhy recounting a series of semi-magical journeys to unknown countries (glossed in the margin in the author's hand: Russia, Poland, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey etc). The descriptions of Britain and France occupy several pages and are clearly comments on the contemporary situation. Britain is characterised as rich, busy and commercially successful but damned by a corrupt political and legal system based on antiquity: two emblematical scenes are recounted: a typical British boxing prize-fight and the sale of a wife. France, by contrast, is depicted as economically troubled by former political strife but blessed with a powerful, visionary and energetic leader, clearly Napoleon himself.The final part of the narrative recounts the return of Valsain and Aspasie to their spiritual and cultural home in Napoleonic France: where Aspasie refinds her French tutor and Valsain finds himself in the service of the Emperor.This text is a significant discovery: and can be read as a richly-layered reflection of cultural attitudes in France at the height of Napoleonic enthusiasm. It contains important cross-cultural reflections on the characteristics of the inhabitants of the world, and the relative importance of innate "natural" traits, language, culture, religion, politics and education. The story is audacious in scope: linking the culture of the Orient with that of Europe and America in the adventures of a single hero, provoking a chain of questions on the European encounter with the rest of the world at this crucial moment of French expansionism and youthful American independence. As a source-text for understanding the nature and extent of Orientalism in France, the story of Valsaim and Aspasie is surely unique.The authorship of the manuscript is, at this stage, unknown. It is interesting to consider the gender the anonymous author. A notable feature of the text is a consistent interest in gender relations and especially in the position of women in society. Those societies (particularly British) which underestimate the potential of women are censured and Aspasie herself is seemingly offered as a model of female culture and education and a perfect equal to her mate, Valsain. One of the many long asides has Aspasie describing the origins and childhood of tutor, Amelie and the sources of her own model education.   view more...
£8000.00
US$11966.36*
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 488
MARESCALCHI, Ferdinando, Conte.

MARESCALCHI, Ferdinando, Conte. ~ Antonio e Cleopatra; tragedia.

Bassano:  1788.
First edition of this play. Marescalchi was born in Bologna, then in the Papal States, on 26 February 1754, into a noble family, he became a hereditary member of the Senate of that town. He later supported Napoleon in Italy and prospered under his patronage.   view more...
£300.00
US$448.74*
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 684
[MAYEUR DE SAINT-PAUL, François.]

[MAYEUR DE SAINT-PAUL, François.] ~ Le vol plus haut, ou l'espion des principaux théatres de la capitale; contenant une histoire abrégée des acteurs & actrices de ces mêmes theâtres, enrichie d'observations philosophiques & d'anecdotes récréatives. Dedié aux amateurs.

"Memphis: chez Sincere, Libraire réfugié au Puits de la Verité" [?Paris,]  1784.
First edition of a notorious libelle, directed against the Parisian theatrical world and some of its luminaries, usually attributed to the wayward actor Mayeur de Saint-Paul and occasionally to one or more associates: the arch-libellist Charles Thévereau de Morande, François Poultier and the actor Dumont. It includes a particularly grimy attack on the morality of the dancer François Nivelon (author of the English best-seller, Rudiments of Genteel Behavior) and a series of well-known actresses are accused of prostitution.This scurrilous exposé of several leading figures was not universally appreciated and the work was quickly banned. Robert Dawson found 43 copies listed in the registers of books held at the Bastille after having been confiscated at customs or elsewhere (Dawson, Confiscations at customs: banned books and the French booktrade, 2006, p. 258.)The work is here bound with an issue of Mayeur de Saint-Paul's earlier (and equally notorious) theatrical libelle: Le désœuvré. This issue has the title-page of the first edition (giving "Londres, 1781") but is without the preliminaries usually found with that edition. It is probable that these were never present in this copy and indeed it seems that there were several early issues with variant titles and pagination not fully ennumerated in the bibliographical catalogues.Both works are rare, having been subject to suppression over a long period of time.   view more...
£850.00
US$1271.43*
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 680
MILTON, John.

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.
First edition of these literal translations of Milton's Comus into French and Italian, commissioned, edited, introduced and privately printed, in a characteristically handsome manner, by Francis Henry Egerton, the eccentric eighth Earl of Bridgewater. The masque was first performed at Ludlow Castle before his ancestor John, the first Earl, and the edition here is based on the Bridgewater manuscript, copied for the Earl at that time. 'Having travelled to Paris in 1802 during the peace of Amiens, Egerton found himself under house arrest when hostilities were resumed, and he was not able to return to England until 1806 when Sir Joseph Banks procured his release' (Oxford DNB). The present work is a product of that period. He later returned to France, to a splendid house on the rue St. Honoré, where his increasing eccentricities included a menagerie of cats and dogs dressed as people and captive game for him to shoot in his garden. Best known as a patron of learning and a scholarly collector of manuscripts, he bequeathed £8000 for the publication of the famous Bridgewater Treatises (1833-6) and left his valuable collection to the British Museum.   view more...
£800.00
US$1196.64*
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 692
(MOLIERE.) ARTAUD, [Jean-Baptiste.]

(MOLIERE.) ARTAUD, [Jean-Baptiste.] ~ La Centenaire de Molière, comédie en un acte, en vers et en prose; Suivie d'un Divertissement relatif à l'Apothéose de Molière par M. Artaud; Représentée pour la première fois par les Comédiens françois ordinaires du Roi, à Paris, le jeudi 18 février 1773. Et à Versailles, Devant Sá Majesté, le mardi 3 mars 1773.

Paris: [C. Simon for] la Veuve Duchesne,  1773.
First edition. This celebratory comedy in honour of the centenary of Molière combined a cast of over 20 characters from his most famous plays. It was popular enough to have spawned a number of printed editions, with or without music, all roughly contemporary. Ours, with 70 pages and music is the most elaborate, with its ornaments by Beugnet. It is the only edition noted by Cioranescu.   view more...
£300.00
US$448.74*
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 134
MONTESQUIEU, Charles de Secondat, baron de.

MONTESQUIEU, Charles de Secondat, baron de. ~ Lettres persanes... nouvelle edition, augmentée de douze Lettres qui ne se trouvent point dans les précédentes; et suivie du Temple de Gnide.

"Londres" [but Paris],  1784.
A particularly nice copy of Montesquieu's satire on French (especially Parisian) society in which the king, the absolute monarchy, the Parliament, the Academy, the University, and the Catholic church are all very transparently ridiculed. Purporting to be the correspondence of Persian travellers in Europe, the work expressed opinions far more cutting than was traditionally possible, since the views expressed purport to be those of Mohammedans. It was first printed in 1721, and appears here in this false "Londres" imprint with Montesquieu's early short erotic novel, Temple de Gnide.   view more...
£385.00
US$575.88*
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 171
MOORE, Frank.

MOORE, Frank. ~ Songs and ballads of the American revolution.

New York: D. Appleton & Company,  1856.
First edition. A selection of verses from the songs sung by the Revolutionary War patriots. Each is preceded by a brief description of the author and background of each song. The volume includes The Irishman's epistle to the troops in Boston.   view more...
£100.00
US$149.58*
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 704
 

[NOGARET, François Félix.] ~ Le Fond du Sac, ou restant des babioles de M. X*** Membre éveillé de l'Académie des Dormans.

"Venise: chez Pantalon-Phébus" [Paris: Cazin],  1780.
First edition of a celebrated collection of gently licentious pieces in verse and prose by the courtier and prolific man of letters Nogaret. Fond du Sac is an elegant Cazin production, complete with the famous frontispiece, and 9 excellent engraved headpieces after Durand (one of which is represents a library interior with a group of women struggling with a large folio volume). Though neither seditious nor terribly immoral, the work appears in Robert Darnton's Corpus of Clandestine Literature (262) and was confiscated at customs in one instance. Fond du Sac was later reprinted several times.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 397
[OLIVIER, Abbé Jean.]

[OLIVIER, Abbé Jean.] ~ L'Infortuné Napolitain ou Les Aventures du Seigneur Rozelli, qui contiennent l'histoire de sa naissance de son esclavage, de son état monastique, de sa prison dans l'Inquisition, et ses différentes figures qu'il a faites, tant en Italie, qu'en France, & en Hollande. Nouvelle edition, revue, corrigée & augmentée d'un grand nombre de figures en taille-douce.

Amsterdam: Henri Desbordes,   1761.
A comic picaresque novel and an anti-Jesuit satire recounting the life and adventures of Rozelli in a series of fanciful catastrophes and disasters, in the course of which he becomes a Catholic clergyman and then converts to Judaism. The title was first published in 1708 and went on to be republished a number of times during the eighteenth century, with translations into English, German and Dutch. The illustrations appeared first in an edition of 1729.   view more...
£350.00
US$523.53*
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 926
 

(OPERA BILL.) (COOKE, Thomas Simpson, composer.) ~ Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. This Evening, Saturday, May 2, 1829. His Majesty's Servants will act (By Particular Desire) 42nd time, a new Drama, in two Acts, called Charles the XIIth... After which, the Farce of The Portrait of Cervantes... To conclude with (for the 12th Time) a New Grand Melo-Dramatic Fairy Tale, entitled Thierna-Na-Oge Or The Prince of the Lakes. The Overture and Music composed and selected by Mr. T. Cooke. The whole produced under the direction of Mr. W. Barrymore... Monday next, May 4, will be produced, (for the first Time) A New Grand Opera, Masaniello; Or The Dumb Girl of Portici... The new Melo-Dramatic Fairy Tale of Thierna-na-Oge; Or, The Prince of the Lakes, Every Night! Colman's Comedy of the Jealous Wife.

London: J.Tabby, Printer, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, [  1829.]
Cooke's Thierna-na-Oge is one of the first operas by an Irish-born composer to make use of the country's rich store of legends: Thierna-na-Oge being the mythical Irish Atlantis. 1829 was its first season.   view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
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 928
 

(OPERA BILL.) (GLUCK, Christoph Willibald.) ~ (ALCESTIS). Royal St.James's Theatre. King Street, St. James's. Under The Management of Mrs. Seymour. First Time On The English Stage Alcestis, A Lyrical Play, In Which Miss Vandenhoff, (Who is expressly engaged for this character) Will make her First Appearance. Mr. Barry Sullivan Will also make his First Appearance at this Theatre. The Choruses & Entr'Acte Music from the Works of the celebrated Maestro, Gluck. The Chorus will consist of 60 Voices. The Orchestra Considerably Increased. Musical Director, Sir H. R. Bishop.This Evening, Monday, January 15th 1855, And During The Week, Will Be Presented For The First Time On The English Stage, The Lyrical Play, Entitled Alcestis Adapted from the Greek of Euripides, By Henry Spicer, Esq. The Choruses and Entr'Acte Music from the works of the Celebrated Maestro, Gluck, Selected and Arranged by Mr. Wellington Guernsey. Musical Director, Sir Henry R. Bishop. The Orchestra has been Considerably Increased: Leader, Mr. C. Hall. An Efficient Chorus of 60 Voices Has Been Expressly Engaged... That which (Every Evening)... a Fairy Extravaganza. Being somewhat a distant relation (on the farther side) of the "Sleeper Awakened," written by the author of Shylock, and called Abon Hassan: Or, The Hunt After Happiness...

[London:] Hassan Steam Press, W S. Johnson,60, St.Martha's Lane,Charing Cross, [  1855.]
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£100.00
US$149.58*
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 925
 

(OPERA BILL.) (MEYERBEER, Giacomo, composer.) ~ Theatre Royal, Drury Lane This Evening, Monday, April 8th, 1833, Their Majesties' Servants will perform, (for the First Time this Season), Meyerbeer's Grand Opera of Robert The Devil With the Whole of the Music, for the First Time on an English Stage. On this occasion Mr. H. R. Bishop will preside in the Orchestra... To conclude with the Ballet Opera of The Maid of Cashmere. (With the whole of the Music, for the Eighth Time in this Country, by Auber,) Arranged and Adapted to the English Stage by Mr. H.R.Bishop...

[London:] SG. Fairbrother Printer, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, [  1833.]
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£150.00
US$224.37*
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 924
 

(OPERA BILL.) (ROSSINI, Gioachino,) ~ [William Tell.] Brilliant Success And Most Extraordinary Combination Of Attractions! Rossini's Guillaume Tell! Mr. Van Amburgh and His Lions!! and The New Ballet of The Spirit of Air!!! On The Same Evening. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The Public is requested to take notice that the Overture will commence at a Quarter before seven o'clock. This Evening, Friday, December 14th, 1838, Her Majesty's Servants will perform Rossini's renowned Opera (in Four Acts) of Guillaume Tell...After the Opera Mr.Van Amburgh Will Exhibit A Series of Extraordinary Performances, With The Whole Of His Trained Animals To conclude with the First Act of the grand Fairy Ballet, entitled The Spirit Of Air!...

[London:] W.Wright, Printer Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, [  1838.]
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£100.00
US$149.58*
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 927
 

(OPERA BILL.) (VERDI, Giuseppe.) ~ (Otello). Royal Lyceum Theatre... Italian Opera... Friday, July 5th, 1889, at 8.20 p.m., First Peformance in London of Otello Grand Opera, in Four Acts, By Verdi. Libretto by Arrigo Boïto. (The Opera is founded on Shakespeare's tragedy.) The Music of "Otello" published by G.Ricordi, London and Milan.

[London,  1889.]
Rare opera bill advertising the first performance in England of Verdi's Otello.   view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
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 15
 

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius. ~ Metamorphoses [in Latin, edited with commentary by Thomas Farnaby.]

'Amsterdam: Joannem Blaeu' [but probably Paris,]  1668.
An attractive 'faux Elzevir' edition, with the notes by the English grammarian Thomas Farnaby (which first appeared in the London edition of 1637).   view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
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 344
OVIDIUS NASO, Publius.

OVIDIUS NASO, Publius. ~ Ovid's Art of Love, in three books. Together with his amours, and remedy of love. Translated into English verse, by several eminent hands. To which are added, The Court of Love, a tale from Chaucer. And the History of Love. Adorn'd with cutts.

London: printed for J. Tonson; and sold by W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-noster Row,  1719.
A scarce early edition. Three editions had previously been published, the first in 1709, and this popular title went on to be republished numerous times during the eighteenth century. The translators are identified in the text as John Dryden, Nahum Tate and William Congreve. 'The history of love' is by Charles Hopkins and 'The court of love' is a metrical paraphrase by Arthur Maynwaring.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 135
OWEN, John.

OWEN, John. ~ Epigrammatum Ioannis Oweni, Cambro-Britanni Oxoniensis, editio postrema correctissima posthumis quibusdam adaucta & instructa gemino indice, addita sunt in fine Exercitia Memoriae Poetica, in usum adolescentiae alicunde collecta.

Bratislava: Joh. Adam. Kästneri,  1680 [but probably 1683].
An exotic imprint of one of the bestsellers of continental Europe. Though he was a Welshman educated at Oxford, Owen's Epigrams were one of Britain's most succesful literary exports. "It was Owen, not Shakespeare, whom seventeenth-century Europeans knew and admired. Continental editions of Owen outnumber the English by a ratio of over three to one. Poole-Wilson has identified forty-five continental editions of Owen's Latin text before 1800" (Oxford DNB, citing "A best-seller abroad: the continental editions of John Owen" by Nicholas Poole-Wilson in Theatrum Orbis Librorum; liber amicorum presented to Nico Israel). The "Exercitia" section at end has separate pagination and part-title dated 1683. However, the register is continuous, suggesting that the edition was actually published in 1683.   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 451
PASSE PARTOUT (Le) galant par Monsieur **** Chevalier de l'Ordre de l'Industrie & de la Gibeciere.

PASSE PARTOUT (Le) galant par Monsieur **** Chevalier de l'Ordre de l'Industrie & de la Gibeciere.  ~ 

'A Constantinople [i.e. Holland?], A l'Imprimerie de Sa Hautesse',   1710.
Gay describes this gossipy little book as a "recueil de pièces satiriques, dirigées pour la plupart contre la clergé", with the Jesuites du College de Louis le Grand and Louis XIV's great general, the Maréchal de Villars singled out for special attention. The anonymous author satirically describes himself as "Chevalier de l'Ordre de l'Industrie & de la Gibeciere" ('chevalier d'industrie' means swindler in French and 'gibecièr' is a gamebag or satchel), but his real identity remains a mystery. This is the second edition. A more common issue with the imprint 'la présente année' is considered variously to have been printed from 1700 to 1708. The BL catalogue suggests Holland as the place of publication for our edition. No source hazards a guess at the author.De Courtin's work purports to be an early self-help manual which offers practical advice on dealing with jealousy in a marriage, which, as the advertisement proclaims: "De toutes les maladies de l'esprit, La Jalousie est assurément la plus dangereuse, & la plus difficile à guerir". Despite being described by Gay as an "ouvrage ennuyeux et mal ecrit", the frequency with which the title was reprinted after its first publication in 1764 is testament to its contemporary popularity.The final work Octavie ou l'Epouse fidelle was first published in 1683; this imprint is not dated, but other undated copies are suggested to have been published c.1700.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 324
[PEACOCK, Thomas Love.]

[PEACOCK, Thomas Love.] ~ Nightmare Abbey: by the author of Headlong Hall.

London: T. Hookham; and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy,  1818.
First edition of Peacock's hilarious gothic pastiche, with the famous caricature of Shelley as Scythrop, the novel's hero. Against the gloomy setting of a Lincolnshire Abbey and largely without the incumbrence of a meaningful plot, Peacock sets in motion a glittering series of characters: including the pessimists Mr Glowry, Scythrop his son, and Mr Toobad, together with Mr Flosky (doubtless a caricature of Coleridge), Mr Cypress (Byron), and several other malcontents. Scythrop prevaricates between the attentions of two highly eligible young ladies of wildly opposing tempraments, succeeding in losing them both through his whimsical and melancholic mood-swings. He is only saved from suicide by Raven his bungling butler.Peacock had been introduced to Shelley by Hookham his publisher in 1812 and they becames close friends when both settled at Great Marlow. Peacock played a part in the revision of Laon and Cythna (which appeared in its first version in 1818) and after Shelley's departure for Italy, the two began a correspondence which produced some of the poet's most magnificent descriptive prose in his letters from Italy. Shelley seems not to have minded in the least that his good-natured friend should parody his character so in Nightmare Abbey.   view more...
£1500.00
US$2243.69*
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 267
PETRARCA, Francesco.

PETRARCA, Francesco. ~ Il Petrarcha, con l'espositione d'Alessandro Vellutello; di novo ristampato con piu cose utili in varii luoghi aggiunte.

Venice: "al segno della speranza,"  1550.
A handsome copy of one of the greatest Italian renaissance poems, here in the arrangement of Venetian editor Alessandro Velutello together with his commentary (first published in 1525).   view more...
£900.00
US$1346.22*
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 257
ROSS, Alexander.

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.
A cento in Virgilian verse giving the principal Biblical events from the death of Abel to the ascension of Christ, mainly concerning the life of Christ and the prophecies of his Messiahship, the text extensively revised and enlarged from the author's Virgilius evangelisans, sive, Historia Domini & Salvatoris Nostri Jesu Christi (1633). Ross was born in Aberdeen but spent much of his later life in England, being vicar of Carisbrooke in the Isle of Wight from 1634 to his death twenty years later. He was a voluminous and well-regarded writer, and is best known for his translation of the Koran (from the French), the first version in English.This is an interesting copy, its binding bearing Tudor rose devices on the covers, a relatively late example of what was in any case a rare emblem among bookbinding tools. Our copy is without the printed title, like the copy (Universty of Minnesota) reproduced for Early English Books Online. It retains a neat stub, suggesting deliberate cancellation rather than loss. The book is known for the variances in its makeup, notably in the final leaves. In our copy there are stubs of 2 cancelled leaves before the final leaf (a cancel) the text ending correctly p. 312 and the imprimatur of William Bray dated 1637.   view more...
£825.00
US$1234.03*
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 305
ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel.

ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel. ~ Ballads and Sonnets.

London: [Chiswick Press for] Ellis and White,  1881.
First edition of Rossetti's final collection, published the year before his death. A nice association.   view more...
£120.00
US$179.50*
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 370
SAINT-PIERRE, Bernardin de.

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
US$2692.43*
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 659
 

[SALLE, Antoine de la, attributed to.] ~ Les Cent nouvelles nouvelles. Suivent les cent nouvelles contenant les cent histoires nouveaux qui sont moult plaisans à raconter en toutes bonnes compagnies ; par manière de joyeuseté.

"A La Haye" [but probably France], chez P. Gosse and J. Neaulme,  1733.
A nice edition of this famous collection of bawdy stories told at the court of Louis XI in the fifteenth century. Some 14 or 15 of the 100 stories are taken from Giovanni Boccaccio, and as many more from Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini or other Italian writers, or French fabliaux, but about 70 are probably original.   view more...
£100.00
US$149.58*
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 665
 

[SAURIN, Bernard Joseph.] ~ Mirza et Fatmé, conte indien traduit de l'Arabe.

"A la Haye" [Paris],  1754.
First edition. A rare novel for young readers, in the form of a fairy tale set in India, with a full complement of requisite genies and magical occurrences; a preface by the "translator" tells of the discovery in Delhi of an Arabic manuscript from the library of the Grand Mogul. Saurin (1706-1781) was a dramatist and poet with a particular interest in contemporary English writing; he published translations and imitations of Pope, Thomson, Lillo, etc. He was very friendly with Helvétius, who secured him a pension which enabled him to abandon law and dedicate himself to writing.   view more...
£350.00
US$523.53*
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 25
(SCOTTISH VERSE.) KIDD, A.

(SCOTTISH VERSE.) KIDD, A. ~ Poems by a railway porter.

Paisley: James Paton Ltd.,  1928.
First edition of a warm-spirited collection of verse by a railwayman of the Bridge of Weir (Renfrewshire). Many of Kidd's poems are in dialect and are variations on traditional Scottish themes ("Address to White Horse Whisky" etc). The collection also includes a series of the author's couplets first 'published' in white pebbles arranged on the station embankment: "Dispense with Drugs, but don't despair / Try Bridge of Weir for pure health-giving air."   view more...
£60.00
US$89.75*
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 226
SETTLE, Elkanah.

SETTLE, Elkanah. ~ Eusebia triumphans. The Hannover succession to the imperial crown of England, an heroick poem.

London: for John Nutt,  1702.
First edition of the Restoration dramatist's celebratory poem in rhymed heroic verse on the future of the Hanoverian succession, bound like many of his works in a presentation binding under the instruction of the author, or even (as has been suggested) by the author himself. This example is without the armorial centrepiece found on many of his bindings: Settle habitually presented copies of his works to potential noble patrons and added their arms. Settle was a very prolific playwright whose reputation has perhaps been unjustly coloured by the attacks of contemporaries such as Dryden, who wrote of Settle's work: "free from all meaning, whether good or bad, / And, in one word, heroically mad" (Absalom and Achitophel). Certainly his language is extravagant, even bombastic, but this reflects Settle's genius for spectacle. In 1680 he had been engaged by the Earl of Shaftesbury to create a pageant for one of his anti-Catholic Pope-burning events in the City of London, a spectacle which was said to have cost £1000 to produce.   view more...
£800.00
US$1196.64*
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 173
 

[SHERIDAN, Frances Chamberlaine.] ~ The dupe, a comedy. As it is now acting at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's servants. By the author of the Discovery.

London: for A. Millar,   1764.
First edition of the second of Mrs Sheridan's comedies. Dublin born, Frances Sheridan became a much respected novelist (Miss Sidney Biddulph) and playwright, admired by Johnson, Boswell and Young. The Dupe was produced at Drury Lane by George Colman before being withdrawn after three nights, allegedly because 'of the theatrical cabals of a popular actress [Kitty Clive]' (ODNB).   view more...
£60.00
US$89.75*
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 260
SHERWOOD, Mrs. [Mary Martha].

SHERWOOD, Mrs. [Mary Martha]. ~ The shawl.

London: Darton & Co.,  n.d. [c.1844-1862.]
Very scarce tale for children issued as part of the Penny chapbook series. This issue with the Darton & Co imprint, presumed slightly later than examples with the Darton & Clark imprint.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 657
[SMITH, Horatio.]

[SMITH, Horatio.] ~ Torr Hill. By the author of "Brambletye house," etc., etc.,

Paris: [A. Belin for] A. and W. Galignani,  1827.
Smith's popular historical romance set at Glastonbury in the time of Henry VIII and the Reformation. This edition was printed for Galignani's popular foreign language bookshop in Paris in the year following the first English edition. It was also published in French in 1827. Though printed in Paris, this copy seems to have soon found a German home: the handsome contemporary binding uses German marbled paper and beneath the pastedowns are visible sheets of printer's waste bearing bold black-letter text.   view more...
£200.00
US$299.16*
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 709
 

(STERNE). GORGY, [Jean-Claude.] ~ Nouveau voyage sentimental. Par M. de Gorjy, (sous le nom d'Yorik). Nouvelle édition, beaucoup augmentée.

"Londres" [but probably Reims], Cazin,  1785.
A false London imprint of this imitation of Sterne by Gorgy. First published in 1784.   view more...
£125.00
US$186.97*
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 904
(STERNE.) [NEWTON, Richard, illustrator.]

(STERNE.) [NEWTON, Richard, illustrator.] ~ Designs to illustrate Sterne's Sentimental Journey.

London: J. Wallis, [n.d., c.  1820.]
A rare re-issue by Wallis of the 1794 plates to Sterne by Richard Newton, sometimes attributed to Rowlandson, with double borders added and lettering altered.Richard Newton, a radical London artist, never attained the critical stature of his contemporary Gillray but has been described as "'an extraordinarily original and "modern" humorist'... whose 'comic simplification and exaggeration of line' are closer to the cartoons of the twentieth century than to the academic art of the eighteenth..." (Alexander and Donald cited by Pottle in the Oxford DNB).   view more...
£2500.00
US$3739.49*
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 722
STEVENSON, R[obert] L[ouis].

STEVENSON, R[obert] L[ouis]. ~ Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

London: Longmans, Greene, and Co,  1886.
First British edition. Dr Jejyll and Mr Hyde was published both in cloth, at one shilling and sixpence, and paper wrappers, at one shilling. Publication was originally intended to be in December 1885 and the date on the front cover here is printed as 1885 but the last number is altered (as always) to '6' in manuscript. The book was held over to 9 January 1886 to avoind competing with the large number of Christmas books published that year. According to publishers' records, the New York edition was published by Charles Scribner's Sons on 5 January 1886, thus just preceding this as the first edition.The inscription is of Richard Garnett, the British librarian, poet and editor.   view more...
£1250.00
US$1869.74*
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 470
STOKER, Bram.

STOKER, Bram. ~ Dracula.

Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company,  1897.
First edition. This superb copy is from the issue with the 16-page publisher's catalogue at the rear, including an advert for Dracula "5th edition" and R. Austin Freeman's Travels in Ashanti and Jaman, both of which were published in 1898. The first issue was printed on thick paper and included no adverts at all, with the second issue with a one page advert for The shoulder of Shasta. Subsequent issues include the 16-page publisher's catalogue, of which later issues include the advert for Dracula.   view more...
£8500.00
US$12714.26*
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 874
(STUART, Charles, Baron Stuart de Rothesay).

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

  1640-1650.
A handsome group, superbly bound in Paris by Simier for Charles Stuart, Baron Stuart de Rothesay, British ambassador to France 1815-24 and 1828-31. Charles Stuart was widely considered one of the most discriminating English connoisseurs and collectors in Paris: he bought extensively for himself and, on occasion, for George IV. After his return from Paris his purchases furnished Highcliffe Castle (Christchurch, Dorset) which he had built in romantic and picturesque style. His books are notable for their fine French bindings, like these by Simier in typical ornately gilt blue morocco. The contents of Stuart's exceptional library were sold by Sotheby and Wilkinson over 14 days in May 1855. Many seem to have returned to France, a French compliment to an Englishman's taste in binding. While books bearing the Rothesay arms occasionally appear in commerce it is rare to find them in groups such as this. The British Library contains several similar examples with identical decoration by Simier or red and blue morocco bindings.These quite probably formed part of a much larger (probably comprehensive) collection of works from the Elzevir and associated presses. Notable among them is the first appearance of Saumaise (Salmasius)'s edition of the erotic romance, Leucippe and Clitophon, the only suviving work of Achilles Tatius and Corvinus' edition of Clapmarius' De arcanis rerum publicarum, an important German work on the philosophy of state.   view more...
£3400.00
US$5085.70*
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 860
TEXIER, [Alex Adrien de].

TEXIER, [Alex Adrien de]. ~ Les colons de toutes couleurs. Histoire d'un établissement nouveau a la côte de Guinée.

Berlin: George Decker,   1798.
First edition. A remarkable but little-known utopian novel set in Africa, exploring the theme of inter-racial marriage and relations between the inhabitants of "toutes couleurs". The work is revolutionary in every sense, applying the principles of 1789 to a newly-founded fictional colony, founded in Africa by refugees from the insurrection of Saint Domingue (later Haiti). Central to the novel is the marriage of Adrien and Zara, as an emblem of racial harmony. The fine plates depict mixed tableaux, notably the scene of a white woman suckling a black child, which graphically demolish the racial taboos of the previous era. Although several earlier novels had considered sexual relations between black and white, they almost always mirrored earlier stereotypes, with black protagonists in subordinate roles or as exotic interlopers: none provided a serious consideration of the possibility of complete integration of the type Texier describes.The work is dedicated to the Queen of Prussia (Princess Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick) and the first plate depicts the presentation of a portrait medallion to her husband, Frederick the Great. The fine plates were engraved by D. Berger, C. H. Grünler after J. D. Schubert and W. Chodowiecki.   view more...
£3250.00
US$4861.33*
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 206
 

(THEATRE). TOBIN, John. ~ The honey moon: a comedy, in five acts. As performed at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane, with universal applause.

London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, by T. Davison,   1805.
First edition of an attempt to recreate the comedy of Shakespeare and Fletcher. Rejected by Covent Garden in 1804, the play was never seen by its author, who died of tuberculosis on board ship bound for the West Indies in 1804. It was finally staged at Drury Lane in January 1805 and proved a resounding success, being later translated into French and revived for the American stage.   view more...
£90.00
US$134.62*
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 201
 

(THEATRE). [ANON.] ~ Love's Telegraph. A comedy in 3 acts.

London: Samuel French,   n.d. [?1850].
Later edition (first 1846) issued as part of French's Acting Edition (Late Lacy's) series of this anonymous comedy.   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 197
 

(THEATRE). [ARNOLD, Samuel James]. ~ The woodman's hut: a melo-dramatic romance, in three acts. As now performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The music by Mr. Horn.

London: for J. Miller,   1814.
First edition.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 212
 

(THEATRE). [DIBDIN, Thomas]. ~ Of age tomorrow, a musical entertainment, in two acts, as performed by their Majesties Servants, at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane: Now first published, and printed exactly conformable to the performance.

London: printed and published by J. Barker Dramatic Repository,   1805.
First edition. Attributed to Thomas Dibdin by Nicoll.   view more...
£145.00
US$216.89*
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 207
 

(THEATRE). [JOHNSTONE, James.] ~ The disbanded officer; or, the Baroness of Bruchsal: a comedy. As performed at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-Market.

London: for T. Cadell,  1786.
First edition of the only play by Johnstone to be listed by Nicoll. It also appeared in a Dublin imprint later that year.   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 180
 

(THEATRE). [KELLY, Hugh.] ~ The school for wives. A comedy. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane.

London: for T. Becket,   1774.
First edition of a popular comedy which achieved five editions within two years, and had various stage revivals during the next forty years. Kelly was born in Killarney, the son of a Dublin tavern keeper. Becoming a lawyer in London to support a growing family he found considerable success in the theatre. "Kelly's third play, The School for Wives (1774), was the most successful drama in Drury Lane's 1773–4 season. Another comedy involving marriages and disguises, the play ran for twenty-four nights. It was printed in five editions and was seen in 1805 in Bath" (ODNB). He died in 1777 from complications arising from a failed operation at the New Street Bagnio to remove an abcess in his side.   view more...
£95.00
US$142.10*
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 216
 

(THEATRE). [YOUNG, Edward]. ~ The brothers. A tragedy. Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane.

London: for R. Dodsley,   1753.
First edition of a work which marked the end of Edward Young's theatrical ambitions. He withdrew the play from rehearsal at Drury Lane in 1724 while seeking a place in the Irish church and it was not to be performed or published for many years. It is based directly on Corneille's Persée et Démétrius.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 182
 

(THEATRE). ARNE, Tho[mas] Aug[ustine]. ~ The guardian out-witted. A comic opera. At the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden. The musick composed by Tho. Aug. Arne, Doctor in music.

London: for J. and R. Tonson, and T. Lowndes,   1764.
One of two editions of 1764. This is the libretto of the opera and is ascribed to Arne (who also wrote the music) though he apparently denied the attribution (Nicoll).   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 217
 

(THEATRE). AYSCOUGH, George Edward. ~ Semiramis, a tragedy: as it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane.

London: for J. Dodsley,   1776.
First edition. Based on the play by Voltaire.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 174
 

(THEATRE). BEAZLEY, Samuel. ~ Jealous on all sides, or, The landlord in jeopardy! A comedy in two acts. First performed at the Theatre Royal, English Opera on Wednesday, August 19, 1818. The music composed by Mr. [John Marks] Jolly.

London: William Fearman Library,  1818.
First edition. A comic opera (this the libretto only) performed to music by Jolly, fittingly. Beazley was a prolific actor and playwright, but perhaps made his greatest contribution as a theatrical architect, remodelling no less than 7 London theatres.   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 189
 

(THEATRE). BIRCH, Samuel. ~ The adopted child, a musical drama, in two acts. As it is performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

London: for C. Dilly,   1795.
First edition. Birch was a man of many talents and occupations, like many of his theatrical contemporaries. He earned his living variously as a politician, playwright, and pastrycook.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 210
 

(THEATRE). BOADEN, James. ~ The Italian monk, a play, in three acts; and first performed the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 1797.

London: for G.G. and J. Robinson,  1797.
First edition. Adapted from Mrs Radcliffe.   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 211
 

(THEATRE). BOADEN, James. ~ Cambro-Britons, an historical play, in three acts. First performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, on Saturday, July 21, 1798. With a preface.

London: for G. G. and J. Robinson,   1798.
First edition. Nicoll's appended note states that this is "a very interesting specimen of early melodrama". "In Cambro-Britons (1798), set in the time of Llewelyn and Edward I, Boaden gothicizes Celtic myth, drawing partly on Gray's ode The Bard" (ODNB).   view more...
£150.00
US$224.37*
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 181
 

(THEATRE). BROOKE, Henry. ~ Gustavus Vasa, the deliverer of his country. A tragedy. As it was to have been acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane.

London: for R. Dodsley,  1739.
First edition. Variant without the list of subscribers but with printed price (one shilling and six-pence). Epilogue by Mr Ogle.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 187
 

(THEATRE). CAREY, George Saville.  ~ The dupes of fancy, or every man his hobby; a new farce: in two acts. As performed at the King's Theatre-Royal in the Hay-Market, with great applause.

London: for Alex. Hogg; and sold by T. Lewis and by all other booksellers and stationers in every city, borough, town, and village in Great Britain and Ireland,   1792.
First edition of one of the few plays by Carey to have actually been performed on the London stage.   view more...
£95.00
US$142.10*
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 179
 

(THEATRE). COLMAN, George, the Elder. ~ The man of business, a comedy. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden.

London: for T. Becket,   1774.
First edition. Epilogue spoken by Mrs. Bulkley (although on account of its length many lines omitted from the theatre).   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 183
 

(THEATRE). COLMAN, George, the Elder. ~ The English merchant, a comedy. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane.

London: for T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt; and R. Baldwin,  1767.
First edition. Based on Le café ou l'ecossaise by Voltaire and with an epilogue written by David Garrick.   view more...
£80.00
US$119.66*
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 204
 

(THEATRE). COLMAN, George, the Younger. ~ John Bull; or, The Englishman's fireside: a comedy, in five acts. First performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden, on the 5th of March, 1803.

London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,  1805.
First authorised edition. A pirated edition was published in Dublin in 1803.   view more...
£85.00
US$127.14*
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 177
 

(THEATRE). COLMAN, George, the Younger. ~ The poor gentleman: a comedy, in five acts. As performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. (First acted on the 11th of February 1801).

London: A. Strahan for T. N. Longman and O. Rees,  1802.
First performed in 1800 and published 1801. Prologue written by Francis North, 4th Earl of Guilford.   view more...
£100.00
US$149.58*
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 214
 

(THEATRE). DENIS, Charles. ~ The siege of Calais. A tragedy. From the French of Mr. de Belloy. With historical notes.

London: J. Lister, for J. Fletcher and Co., and T. Davies,   1765.
First edition, translated from the French of M. de Belloy [Pierre Laurent Buyrette].   view more...
£80.00
US$119.66*
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 196
 

(THEATRE). DIBDIN, T[homas]. ~ Five miles off, or, The finger post : a comedy, in three acts, as acted at the Theatre-Royal, Hay-Market.

London: Barker and Son, Dramatic Repository,  1806.
First edition.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 194
 

(THEATRE). DIBDIN, Thomas. ~ The Will for the Deed, a comedy, in three acts, as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden.

London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,   1805.
First authorized edition. A rare edition bearing the date 1804 was probably unauthorized.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 195
 

(THEATRE). DIBDIN, Thomas. ~ The English fleet in 1342: an historical comic opera, in three acts: as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden.

London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,  1805.
First edition of the libretto. The opera had been performed in 1803 and the songs and duets had appeared in print that year.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 193
 

(THEATRE). DIBDIN, Thomas.  ~ Family quarrels: a comic opera, in three acts, as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden.

London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,   1805.
First edition, performed to music by Music by W. Reeve, J. Moorhead, J. Davy, M. Corri, and J. Braham.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 200
 

(THEATRE). DIMOND, William. ~ The doubtful son, or, Secrets of a palace: a play, in five acts as acted at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-market, with general applause.

London: for W.H. Wyatt,  1810.
First edition.   view more...
£45.00
US$67.31*
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 178
 

(THEATRE). DIMOND, William.  ~ The foundling of the forest: a play, in three acts: As now performing at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with the most distinguished success.

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,   1809.
First edition of a melodrama first performed in June 1809 with the sub-title "Twice the Dagger Struck." Nicoll comments of the vogue for melodrama at the opening of the nineteenth-century: "...melodrama, like the poor, will no doubt always be with us; but when we think of early nineteenth century theatres we think of them as the home par excellence of spectacularism and dramatice effect" (IV, 100).   view more...
£100.00
US$149.58*
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 639
 

(THEATRE). HOLCROFT, Thomas. ~ The choleric fathers. A comic opera. Performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden.

London: for G.G.J. and J. Robinson,   1785.
First edition of this very popular comic opera which brought Holcroft £140 over the course of seven performances.   view more...
£60.00
US$89.75*
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 191
 

(THEATRE). HOLCROFT, Thomas. ~ Duplicity: a comedy. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden.

London: for G. Robinson,   1781.
First edition. "Duplicity, whose plot resembles the story of Edward Moore's popular tragedy The Gamester, was staged at Covent Garden on 13 October 1781 and was performed six more times, but was postponed on several occasions because of a leading actor's illness" (ODNB).   view more...
£110.00
US$164.54*
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 203
 

(THEATRE). JACOB, Hildebrand.  ~ The fatal constancy. A tragedy. As it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's servants.

London: for J. Tonson,   1723.
First edition of a blank-verse tragedy acted six times at Drury Lane, twice by command of the princess of Wales.   view more...
£80.00
US$119.66*
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 218
 

(THEATRE). JAMESON, H. ~ A wild-goose chase: a farce, in two acts. First performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on Tuesday Nov. 21. 1820.

London: for John Miller,   1820.
First edition.   view more...
£80.00
US$119.66*
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 208
 

(THEATRE). KNOWLES, James Sheridan. ~ Old maids: a comedy, in five acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.

London: Edward Moxon,  1841.
First edition. Born in Cork, Knowles moved with his family to London in 1793 where he became acquainted with Hazlitt, Coleridge and Lamb. He existed as both actor and playwright with very mixed critical success.   view more...
£95.00
US$142.10*
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 213
 

(THEATRE). MACKLIN, Charles. ~ The man of the world. A comedy. As performed at the Theatres-Royal, Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden.

London: John Bell,   1793.
First published Dublin 1785.   view more...
£60.00
US$89.75*
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 184
 

(THEATRE). MACLAREN, Archibald.  ~ Britons to arms! or, The consul in England. A musical drama.

London: printed and sold for A. Maclaren by A. Macpherson,   1803.
First edition. Libretto only. Maclaren, a Scottish highlander, was both a soldier and playwright. He served in the American War of Independence under Howe and Clinton and returned to Scotland in 1783, joining a group of itinerant players, where he found some success with Scottish and Irish roles. His interpretation of English characters was said to be hampered by a broad Scottish accent. He re-enlisted with the Dumbartonshire Highlanders in 1794 and played a part in the suppressing the Irish Rebellion. Thereafter he lived in London, adapting his military experiences for the stage.   view more...
£125.00
US$186.97*
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 176
 

(THEATRE). O'KEEFFE, John. ~ Tony Lumpkin in town: a farce. As performed at the Theatre-Royal in the Hay-Market.

London: for T. Cadell,   1780.
First edition of this farce by the Dublin playwright O'Keeffe. There is a Dublin edition of the same year, but Nicoll gives the London edition precedence.   view more...
£145.00
US$216.89*
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 175
 

(THEATRE). O'KEEFFE, John.  ~ The prisoner at large: a comedy. In two acts. As performed at the Theatre Royal in the Hay Market with universal applause.

Dublin: for Messrs. H. Chamberlain, D. Williams, H. Colles, L. White, P. Byrne and 8 others in Dublin,   [1789].
A farce, first printed in London 1788, with this probably a pirated edition.   view more...
£125.00
US$186.97*
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 202
 

(THEATRE). PLANCHÉ, J[ames]. R[obinson]. ~ Rodolph the wolf: or, Columbine Red Riding-hood; a comic melo-dramatic pantomime. As performed at The Olympic New Theatre, Newcastle Street, Strand, Monday, December 21, 1818.

London: for John Lowndes,  1819.
First edition of this early Planché pantomime, apparently rare.   view more...
£145.00
US$216.89*
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 188
 

(THEATRE). POCOCK, [Isaac]. ~ The miller and his men, a melo-drama in two acts as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden on Thursday, October 21st, 1813. By J. [sic] Pocock.

London: for C. Chapple,  1813.
First edition. The melodrama was first performed in the year of publication as The Bohemian Miller. The music was by Henry Bishop.   view more...
£125.00
US$186.97*
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 192
 

(THEATRE). REYNOLDS, Frederic. ~ The blind bargain: or hear it out; a comedy in five acts. As performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden.

London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,   1805.
First edition. Reynolds was apparently as much a cricketer as a playwright and was a member of the MCC.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 199
 

(THEATRE). REYNOLDS, Frederick. ~ The blind bargain: or, Hear it out: a comedy, in five acts. As performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden.

London: for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,  1805.
First edition.Reynolds was apparently as much a cricketer as a playwright and was a member of the MCC.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 198
 

(THEATRE). REYNOLDS, Frederick. ~ Folly as it flies: a comedy, in five acts, as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden.

London: by A. Strahan, for T. N. Longman and O. Rees,  1802.
First edition. Reynolds was apparently as much a cricketer as a playwright and was a member of the MCC.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 215
 

(THEATRE). SHEIL, Richard Lalor. ~ The apostate: a tragedy, in five acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden.

London: John Murray,   1817.
?First edition. One of four editions of 1817. A tragedy of the Moors of Spain and a notable success.   view more...
£125.00
US$186.97*
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 205
 

(THEATRE). TOBIN, John.  ~ The school for authors: a comedy, in three acts. As performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, by Their Majesties servants, from the Theatre Royal Covent-Garden.

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme,   1808.
First edition of Tobin's succesful prose comedy, based on Marmontel's tale The Connoisseur.   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 190
 

(THEATRE). WHITEHEAD, William. ~ The Roman father, a tragedy. As it is acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's Servants.

London: for R. Dodsley; and sold by M. Cooper,   1750.
First edition. Whitehead was son of a Cambridge baker. "His first major piece was The Roman Father, a tragedy based on Corneille's Horace, performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 24 February 1750. The play was a tremendous commercial success: it was reprinted frequently after its first publication in 1750, adapted by Whitehead for revival in 1767, and even translated into French; and it brought Whitehead into contact with Garrick (though he had already written a flattering poem to the actor on his appointment as patentee at Drury Lane), who played the leading role. This was the beginning of an association lasting over twenty years" (ODNB).   view more...
£75.00
US$112.18*
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 695
[VADÉ, Jean Joseph.]

[VADÉ, Jean Joseph.] ~ Desserts de petits soupers agréables dérobés au chevalier du pélican, auteur du Déjeuné de la Rapée. Po'me Gaillardi-poissardi-marins-ironi-comique.

"De l'imprimerie de la joye" [?Paris],  1755.
First edition. A collection of popular and bawdy songs in the "poissarde" vein by the acknowleged master of this semi-ethnographic style, in which popular Parisian speech from the streets was transcribed in quasi-phonetic style. The publisher's catalogue lists a good number of other examples of publications in this style.This copy bears the inscription of Jules Bobin a close friend of J-K Huysmans and a colleague at the ministère de l'Intérieur. Bobin was a voracious bibliophile, specialising in the curious and occult.   view more...
£750.00
US$1121.85*
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 238
VIDOCQ, Eugène François.

VIDOCQ, Eugène François. ~ Memoirs of Vidocq, principal agent of the French police. Written by himself. Translated from the French. In four volumes...

London: Whittaker and Co.,   n.d. [c. 1828-1830s?]
Vidocq is recognised as the first detective novel, though it is loosely based on the real career of criminal-turned-investigator Vidocq. It first appeared in French in 1828-9 and in English in the same years. The first English edition was published by Hunt and Clarke and carried the additional name of Whittaker only in the two later volumes. It also contained a frontispiece portrait, not present here. Our issue, apparently using the sheets of the first English edition contains titles obviously tipped-in as cancels, bearing the name "Whittaker and Co." in all volumes. We have been unable to find records for this undated imprint in any of the catalogues consulted, though Whittaker also issued a dated edition of all four volumes in 1830, apparently without a portrait, as here.   view more...
£400.00
US$598.32*
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 4
YONGE, Charlotte.

YONGE, Charlotte. ~ The Armourer's Prentices.

London: Macmillan and Co.,  1884.
First edition. "I have attempted here to sketch citizen life in the early Tudor days, aided therein by Stowe's Survey of London, supplemented by Mr. Loftie's excellent history, and Dr. Burton's English Merchants" (from the Preface).   view more...
£85.00
US$127.14*
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 3
YONGE, Charlotte.

YONGE, Charlotte. ~ The Chaplet of Pearls; or, The White and Black Ribaumont. By the author of "The Heir of Redclyffe" In two volumes.

London: Macmillan and Co.,  1868.
First edition of Yonge's historical novel set in sixteenth-century France at a time when the persecution of the Huguenots was at its height. It famously opens with a 'baby-marriage' to secure an alliance between families.   view more...
£110.00
US$164.54*
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 696
 

 ~ Le Fourbe puni ou le duel des rivales.

[n.p.]  1740
First edition of a rare galante novel which opens with a duel between two women. A second edition appeared in 1741.This is a distinct work from Marivaux's La Fausse Suivante ou le Fourbe puni, a comedy performed in 1724.    view more...
£450.00
US$673.11*
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 55
[CARACCIOLI, Louis Antoine de.]

[CARACCIOLI, Louis Antoine de.] ~ Le livre à la mode.

"Verte-Feuille, de l'imprimerie du Printemps au Perroquet," [Paris]:  'L'Année nouvelle,' [1759].
First edition of a famous bibliographical eccentricity, printed in green ink throughout. Caraccioli's text is ostensibly a polemic, suggesting that the tyranny of black ink should be swept away in favour of books printed in colours more suited to their subject. Addressing a youthful audience Caraccioli forsees a didactic funtion for such books, bringing a renewed pleasure to the task of learning, and he writes that Pascal, Descartes and Newton have had their day. While there is much semi-serious meditation on the nature of colour and its affect on the mind, one suspects a satirical intention, directed against the relentless quest for novelty in French literary society.The Preface announces a future publication in red ink, which duly appeared the following year. There are two issues of the Le livre à la mode, with slightly differing pagination and wording of the imprint. While our issue gives "printemps" the other gives "printems".   view more...
£475.00
US$710.50*
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 56
PIRANDELLO, Luigi

PIRANDELLO, Luigi ~ Liola.

Rome: A. F. Form'ggini,  1917.
First edition. Considered to be the best play the author wrote in the traditional medium, a landmark in the history of the Italian theatre. The author was later the first Italian playwright to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.    view more...
£475.00
US$710.50*
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 679

 ~ L'aventurier Chinois.

"A Pekin et se trouve a Paris chez Merigot le Jeune..." [?Paris],  1773.
First edition, rare, of an interesting philosophical novel which has been interpreted as a response to Voltaire's critique of optimisim in Candide. Reflecting the literary vogue for chinoiserie, the tale is set in China and the East Indies. It begins with an elaborate variation of the "lost manuscript" trope as an explanation of the origin of the text. The preface recounts how a Chinese philosopher loses a manuscript to a European merchant who makes a translation of it; while travelling onwards to Alexandria he purchases an Egyptian mummy and wraps it in the pages of his manuscript. Sending both mummy and manuscript to Paris, he finds them confiscated and is himself arrested on arrival. He is released and the mummy restored, while the manuscript somehow finds itself back in circulation aboard a ship of the Compagnie de Indes, travelling the world, where they were used to wrap some "petites miniatures assez indécents". The merchant miraculously comes upon them on a future trip to China, rescuing them and bringing them to publication (the latter playfully explaining the false Peking imprint). This preface is both an amusing variation on the trope and a wry comment on the politics of trade and confiscation of texts in pre-Revolutionary France.The tale itself has been extensively discussed as a repsonse to Voltaire, particularly in relation to the theme of women in an interesting article by A. Owen Aldridge, 'The Vindication of Philosophical Optimism in a pseudo-confucian imitation of Voltaire's Candide', Asian and African Studies 6, 1997, 2, p. 117-125.   view more...
£500.00
US$747.90*
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 472
[BERKELEY, George, editor]; Richard STEELE [preface]; F. M. JANIÇON, translator.

[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.
First complete edition in French, in 3 volumes, the earlier edition (1716) comprising volume 1 only. The work was originally published in English as "The ladies library. Written by a lady. Published by Mr. Steele." in 3 volumes in 1714; it was formerly attributed to Lady Mary Wray, but is now known accepted as having been compiled "from the several writings of our greatest divines" (preface) by George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne and philosopher, whose contract for it with Jacob Tonson is extant in the Osborn Collection at Yale. Steele's part in the publication was merely "to write a preface & to subscribe his name" (contract). Berkeley and Steele, fellow Irish compatriots in London, became close friends early in Berkeley's career and it was Steele's introduction to his own publisher Tonson which led to the publication of this work. "Berkeley undertook compilation of the three-volume Ladies Library (purporting to be 'by a Lady') for Tonson, for which Steele wrote a preface. This quite heavily edited set of readings on social convention, the family, and religion was intended to better women's education and social standing, and went through six editions in Berkeley's lifetime." (Stewart in Oxford DNB).   view more...
£550.00
US$822.69*
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 137
BUCHANAN, George.

BUCHANAN, George. ~ Psalmorum Dauidis paraphrasis poetica, nu[n]c primùm edita, authore Georgio Buchanano... Eiusdem Buchanani tragoedia quæ inscribitur Iephthes...

[Geneva:] apud Henricum Stephanum, & eius fratrem Robertum Stephanum,  1566.
The first edition to include Buchanan's play Jephthes, printed very shortly after the first edition of 1565/6. "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 play Jephthes (first printed 1554) which also appears in our edition was 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 who appointed Buchanan tutor to her son, the future James VI.    view more...
£700.00
US$1047.06*
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 848
 

CHAUCER, Geoffrey. ~ The poetical works... in fourteen volumes. The miscellaneous pieces from Urry's edition 1721, the Canterbury Tales from Tyrwhitt's edition of 1775.

Edinburgh: Apollo Press, by the Martins,  1782 [-1783].
An excellent set of the works of Chaucer printed by the Apollo Press for the Bell's Poets series (which ran to 109 volumes). The Chaucer set was issued last in the series and is often to be found separately bound as an entity in its own right. It includes introductory materials from Tyrwhitt's edition, including the Life of Chaucer, textual notes and an excellent glossary. The distinctive engraved title pages represent one of the few 18th-century sequences produced prior to the Romantics and presents a refreshingly "ungothic" view.   view more...
£600.00
US$897.48*
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 437
[CHOUDARD]-DESFORGES, [Pierre Jean Baptiste].

[CHOUDARD]-DESFORGES, [Pierre Jean Baptiste]. ~ Tom Jones a Londres, comédie en cinq actes, en vers, tirée du roman de Fielding, répresentée, pour la première fois, par les comédiens Italiens ordinaires du Roi, le Mardi 22 Octobre 1782.

Paris: F. J. Baudouin,  1782.
First editions. A dramatic adaptation of Fielding's Tom Jones for the French stage by Choudard-Desforges, with its sequel. The plays were written for performance by the Comédie-Italienne, of which the playwright Desforges had been a member.   view more...
£500.00
US$747.90*
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 232
[COURTILZ DE SANDRAS, Gatien de.]

[COURTILZ DE SANDRAS, Gatien de.] ~ Les apparences trompeuses ou les amours du Duc de Nemours et de la marquise de Poyanne.

n.p. [?Rouen],  1715.
First edition of this rare clandestine novel which appeared with neither an author's name or place of publication. The work has an interesting place in the popular literature of the eighteenth-century. By telling an alternative story of the loves of the Duc de Nemours, Courtilz would have been well aware that it would be read with Madame de La Fayette's Princesse de Clèves (1678) in mind, since Nemours played the leading male part in that landmark novel. This may of course have been a straightforward ploy to pass off an inferior novel as something of a sequel, but recent critical studies have suggested a more interesting relationship. Assaf, for example, has read the novel as a palimpsest of the Princesse (that is, more than just a pastiche) or "un commentaire sur la dégradation de la magnificence et de la galanterie qui caractérisèrent la France au fort d'un règne, en plein désarroi au moment où s'écrit ce texte." Certainly, the death of Louis XIV in the year of publication and the accession of the 5-year-old Louis XV brought to an end a period of unparalleled magnificence at court, heralding a more troubled political and social scene in which the galanteries of aristocratic life would be viewed far more circumspectly by those outside.   view more...
£600.00
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 706
 

[COUSTELIER, Antoine-Urbain and Nicolas JONIN.] ~ Lettres de Montmartre par M. Jeannot Georgin.

"A Londres"[i.e. Paris?],  1750.
First editions of two scarce novels. Lettres de Montmartre is a rather lewd epistolary novel and an excellent example of the fashionable poissard genre, in which the dialect and grammar of popular speech is carefully imitated. Jeannot Georgin is an archetypal paysan parvenu in Paris, who takes advantage of all the delights of the city and even finds a degree of fortune. His letters to his father, his faithful sweetheart and the village priest back home chart his swift rise and fall (he wins a lottery and makes some advantageous connections) before his return to the countryside as a chastened man. Gay and others note the probable collaboration of Nicolas Jonin and that the work reputedly made Voltaire laugh.Lettres Siamoises uses the by-now ubiquitous trope of the oriental ambassador (Nadazir) observing the mores and morals of contemporary European society. The frontispiece depicting Nadazir is clearly copied from the images of Confucius from earlier editions of the works of the sage and the engraved vignette is a charming piece of chinoiserie. The work was reprinted in 1761 with the same pagination.   view more...
£700.00
US$1047.06*
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 303
(DICTIONARY, Dutch-French). MARIN, Pieter.

(DICTIONARY, Dutch-French). MARIN, Pieter. ~ Groot nederduitsch en fransch woorden-boek, vervattende de woorden en spreekwyzen van den laagen, den boertigen, den gemenzaamen, en den vehreven styl: spreuken en spreekwoorden. Gelyk ook de gebruikelykste woorden der kunsten en wetenschappen, der hanteeringen, ambachten en uitspanningen in beide taalen. Grand dictionnaire, hollandois & françois, contenant les facons de parler basses, burlesques, familiers, & celles du stile soutenu, les sentences & les proverbes, les termes les plus usitez des arts & des sciences, ceux des professions, des metiers & des divertissements en l'une & l'autre langue...

Dordrecht: Joannes van Braam and Amsterdam: Adriaan Wor, G. onder de Linden, Jan van Eyl,  1730.
'Second edition', but actually the third, the first edition having appeared in 1701 and a second in 1710. It is accompanied by the third edition of the companion volume. These are especially valuable in providing technical translations for many specialist terms used in the trades, industries, crafts and commerce of the eitghteenth century.   view more...
£500.00
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 489
(FAUST, Johann). CAYET, Pierre-Victor Palma

(FAUST, Johann). CAYET, Pierre-Victor Palma ~ Histoire prodigieuse et lamentable de Jean Fauste, grand magicien avec son testament et sa vie epouventable.

"Cologne, chez les Héritiers de Pierre Marteau" [i.e. Bruxelles G. de Backer],   1712
A very scarce edition. The translation, first published in 1598, is the oldest French translation of the 1587 Spies edito princeps of Historia von Doctor Johann Fausten.   view more...
£650.00
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 162
[FIELDING, Sarah, attributed to.]

[FIELDING, Sarah, attributed to.] ~ L'orpheline angloise, ou histoire de Charlotte Summers, imitée de l'anglois de M. N**** par Mr. de la Place.

"Londres et se trouve à Paris" [probably printed in Paris]: chez Rollin fils,  1752.
A rare edition of the French translation of The history of Charlotte Summers; the first imitation of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) and translated by Fielding's own French translator. The work is occasionally, though not securely, attributed to Sarah Fielding. L'orpheline angloise had first appeared the previous year also with a (false) Londres imprint. ESTC lists a total of 5 copies only for the two editions and no UK copies of our 1752 edition.   view more...
£600.00
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 464
FLEMING, Ian.

FLEMING, Ian. ~ You only live twice.

London: Jonathan Cape,  [1964].
First edition, first state with "First published 1964" to copyright page and with the original price "16s. net" to the dust-jacket.   view more...
£500.00
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 461
FLEMING, Ian.

FLEMING, Ian. ~ Thunderball.

London: Jonathan Cape,  [1961].
First edition, with the original price "15s. net" printed on the front flap of the dust-jacket.   view more...
£750.00
US$1121.85*
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 163
HELIODORUS of Emesa.

HELIODORUS of Emesa.  ~ Amours de Theagénes et Chariclée. Histoire Ethiopique...

"Londres" [but Paris],  1743.
First edition of this anonymous translation of the third century Greek romance Aethiopica, a work highly prized in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe as perhaps the earliest prose adventure. It was admired and imitated by European authors such as Racine, Mme de Scudéry, Marin le Roy de Gomberville, Cervantes, and Aphra Behn and exercised a profound influence on the development of the European novel. This translation is sometimes ascribed to Louis-François de Fontenu.   view more...
£500.00
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 105
 

KNIGHT, Richard Payne. ~ An analytical inquiry into the principles of taste.

London: C. Mercier for T. Payne,  1805.
First edition of an important work in the history of aesthetics, by one of the respected arbiters of eighteenth-century taste. It is also an important work in the philosophy of sensory perception, following Hume's formulation "Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind, which contemplates them, and each mind perceives a different beauty." There are excellent discussions of Burke, Hume and Reynolds, among others. A noted collector, Knight was a member of Society of Dilettanti and devoted a great deal of study to classical Greece.   view more...
£500.00
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 701
[KRÜDENER, Barbara Juliane de Vietinghoff, Baronne de.]

[KRÜDENER, Barbara Juliane de Vietinghoff, Baronne de.] ~ Valérie, ou Lettres de Gustave de Linar à Ernest de G...

Paris: Henrichs,  1804.
First edition. This novel became a literary sensation in Paris, praised and loathed in equal measure: Napoleon hated it and suggested Mme. Krüdener wrote in German in future, while others placed it alongside Werther and La Nouvelle Hèloise in importance.Briefly married to a Russian diplomat, Mme. Krüdener left her husband in 1801 to pursue a literary and mystical career, the former ambition encouraged by Bernardin de Saint Pierre. Valérie, her first novel, was inspired by the author's romantic liaison with Alexandre de Skatieff and is in parts autobiographical. Mme. Krüdener became a celebrated figure in fashionable society, as her embrace of various spiritualist movements accelerated. She converted to Moravian pietism and championed a number of contemporary mystics. She held considerable influence in Paris and is said to have held sway over the mind of Czar Alexander I.   view more...
£550.00
US$822.69*
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 484
LAMOTHE-LANGON, E[tienne] L[eon], Baron de.

LAMOTHE-LANGON, E[tienne] L[eon], Baron de. ~ L'Espion de Police, Roman de Moeurs.

Paris: Ambroise Dupont,  1826.
First edition of an interesting novel in which a young soldier and his lover are pitted against the malevolent and corrupt police informers of the reign of Louis XVIII. It predates the Memoirs of Vidocq, considered the first work of detective fiction, by a couple of years.Lamothe-Langon, and associate of Charles Nodier and a prolific writer trod a wayward path between fact and fiction in his many works. Many of his historical "memoirs" have been proved to be mostly fiction and his Histoire de l'Inquisition en France (1829) which purported to be a study of the French Inquisition and the great 14th century Witch crazes of southern France has been shown to be almost entirely a fabrication.   view more...
£600.00
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 399
[LONGUE, Louis Pierre de.]

[LONGUE, Louis Pierre de.] ~ Les Princesses Malabares, ou le Celibat Philosophique. Ouvrages interessant & curieux, avec des notes historiques & critiques.

Andrinople [Paris]: Thomas Franco,   1734.
First edition.   view more...
£600.00
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 865
MARLOWE, Christopher.

MARLOWE, Christopher. ~ The Works...

London: William Pickering, Talboys and Wheeler in Oxford, T. Combe and Son in Leicester,  1826.
First collected edition of Marlowe's works, edited by George Robinson, with an introduction by Alexander Dyce.This copy bears dense annotation by an anonymous contemporary scholar: with substantial textual mendation and critical notes to the upper and lower margins, especially detailed for the text of Doctor Faustus.   view more...
£675.00
US$1009.66*
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 923
 

(OPERA BILL.) (WEBER, Carl Maria.) ~ Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden. The Last Time of acting before the Holidays, Mr. Fawcett's Night Saturday next, March 18, 1826. The performance of the Evening will commence with The Overture to Der Freischütz, Which, the Composer, Carl Maria Von Weber, has kindly volunteered to conduct in the orchestra, for that Night only. After which will be revived the Comic Opera of Love in a Village... With the musical Farce of A Roland for an Oliver... To which will be added (in one act) the ballet of The Deserter of Naples To conclude with The Ceremony of Shooting a Deserter. Tickets and Places to be had of Mr. Fawcett, 4, Tavistock-street, Covent-Garden; and at the Box-Office, Hart-street.

[London:] W. Reynolds, 9, Denmark-court, Strand, [   1826.]
A rare Covent Garden bill, advertising a unique performance of the overture of Weber's opera Der Freischütz, conducted by the composer himself. Weber had recently arrived in London and was at Covent Garden to compose and produce Oberon, based on Christoph Martin Wieland's poem of the same name. The composer was already seriously ill with tuberculosis and he died in London in June.The main peformance on the night of March 18th was of the Thomas Arne's ballad opera Love in a Village, accompanied by Thomas Morton's A Roland for an Oliver and The Deserter of Naples.   view more...
£500.00
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 54
[RAGUENET, François, Abbé.]

[RAGUENET, François, Abbé.] ~ Défense du parallèle des italiens et des français, en ce qui regarde la musique & les Opéra...

Paris: the widow of Claude Barbin,  1705.
First edition of this bitter polemic by a champion of Italian opera over its French rival, intended as a defence of the author's earlier Parallèle des Italiens et des Français. Raguenet, a scholarly French priest, had published the Parallèle in 1702 "which caused a lively controversy because of its author's manifest preference for Italian music. The Parallèle was the object of much discussion and created a small body of literature. An English translation... appeared in 1709, one German version... in 1722, and another...in 1759 and 1760. Le Cerf de la Viéville, a staunch supporter of Lully, answered in 1705 with a Comparaison de la musique italienne et de la musique française, which in turn elicited a rebuttal, Défense du Parallèle, from Raguenet in the same year" (Musical Quarterly). The spirited Défense pursues a page-by-page demolition of his critic's work, and inlcudes a defence of Raguenet's biography of Oliver Cromwell. Both the Parallèle and the Défense are important documents of eighteenth-century aesthetics, but both are rare in their first editions.The Stanford copy contains an engraved frontispiece, but none of the other library records or the bibliographies make mention of a frontispiece. There is no sign that one has ever been present or removed from our copy.   view more...
£650.00
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 453
(VOLTAIRE.)

(VOLTAIRE.) ~ Dialogue entre le dix-neuvieme et le vingtieme siécles, au moment où le premier va expirer, & le second commencer; précédé & suivi d'eclaircissemens & de notes. Par Mm. Legopanof & Alethowits. Ouvrage trouvé dans la Bibliothèque de Constantinople parmi les manuscrits du célèbre & mal célébré Voltaire.

"Constantinople" [Paris]: "2001"  [1780].
First edition. It would be hard to find a work published with a more elaborate arsenal of fictitious obfuscations: supposedly printed at Constantinople in the year 2001, by the editors "Legopanof & Alethowits" with the claim that the text was found among various papers (improbably also in a library at Constantinople) of Voltaire. This satirical philosophical poem is written in the style of Voltaire's various Dialogues entres.... and is possibly the work of Antoine Rivarol, reactionary writer, epigrammatist and self-styled French count. A number of contemporary works of a philiosophical caste are singled out for ridicule (usually among the numerous footnotes), with Marmontel coming in for special censure with mockery of his Bélisaire ("Roman Philosophique, rempli de lieux communs de morale, & vuide d'action"); his Les Incas ("aussi dénué d'intéret que le prêcêdent"; and his translation of Lucan's Pharsale, the Contes Moraux, The work was included (without the preface and notes) in Œuvres complètes de Rivarol (Paris, 1808), v. 3, p. 314-322. We can find no further editions.   view more...
£525.00
US$785.29*
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 899
WALTON, Izaak, & Charles Cotton.

WALTON, Izaak, & Charles Cotton. ~ The Complete Angler.

London: Charles Tilt, J. Menzies in Edinburgh and T. Wardle in Philadelphia,  1837.
The very scarce Tilt edition of the Compleat Angler, notable as the first with an American publisher's name on the title. The frontispieces are by Ebenezer Randells, a pupil of Bewick.   view more...
£600.00
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* Given as a guide only. Based on an exchange rate of £1 = US$1.495795 for the day 10 March 2010 but liable to fluctuate.

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10 March 2010