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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*







(DEVOTION. MANUSCRIPT PRAYER BOOK). ~ Orationes variae quae tempores augustissimi scarifici missae recitari possunt...

[Germany, n.d., c.  1700.]
A very extensive pocket-size compilation of Devotions at Mass with special emphasis on the Cross and the Wounds of Christ. The writer mixes his own prayers with collects, canticles and hymns from the liturgy. The original contributions are very full and were designed so that the reader could select passages most appropriate to their personal prayers: he asks that the user select "illae quae te ad maximam devotionem excitabunt" (those parts which will most inspire you to devotion). The most striking portion, pp. 113-304, contains 54 points in the ceremonial, matched by incidents in the Passion and Resurrection, from the Garden of Gethsemene to the disciples going out into the world: "Sacerdos ad altare se confert; Christus tendit ad hortum Olivarum" - each scriptural referecne enhancing the meaning of the priest's action during the mass. Additionally, there is an exercise by the sixteenth-century mystic Louis of Blois and another (possibly by the compiler); the "15 O's" of St. Birgitta, Queen of Sweden on the Passion; and, to conclude, a powerful image takent from a vision of St Hedwig (c. 1174-1243, patron saint of Silesia) in which Christ frees his right hand from the nail to bless her with the sign of the cross.This is a remarkable work. At one level it functions as a readily portable and usable guide to the mass (with 12 silk markers at key points remaining in situ), and on another, it is an original, imaginative and occasionally dramatic commentary on the ceremony. The script suggests a German origin, c. 1700. A detailed list of contents is available on request.   view more...
£1200.00
US$1794.95*





 

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*







 

(KABBALAH). ~ Sefer Raziel ha-mal'akh... [Book of Raziel, in Hebrew].

Amsterdam: Mosheh ben Avraham Mendes Koitinyo, "461" [   1701].
First edition. Sefer Raziel ha-mal'akh is a fundamental Kabbalistic text in which is expounded the spiritual laws of birth, life, death and the universe according to Jewish tradition. It contains many pictorial amulets and incantations together with Kabbalistic diagrams of the structure of the cosmos. By Kabbalistic tradition and according to the text, the works which form the book are considered to have been revealed to Adam when driven from Paradise, thus making it the very first "book" of written knowledge. It is further believed that the texts were engraved on sapphire and passed from generation to generation before coming into the possession of Solomon. In historical fact, the Sefer Raziel cannot have taken shape before the thirteenth-century AD, and it is probably to be associated with that strand of Jewish Kabbalistic mysticism known as the Chassidei Ashkenaz developed in Germany around Rabbi Judah the Pious (Rabbi Yehuda HeChassid) of Regensburg. Certainly though it may also contain elements dating back to late antiquity.Medieval manuscripts of the Sefer Raziel survive, but it was not printed until this edition of 1701, a fact not surprising considering the antipathy which existed between Kabbalistic attitudes to sacred texts and the notion of commercial reproduction. It appears to have been well-known in the Renaissance and developed associations with the magical arts. Ownership of the book was and is considered to be talismanic, notably protecting a house against fire.   view more...
£4000.00
US$5983.18*






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*




 

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

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






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

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











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

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


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

  1640-1650.
£3400.00
US$5085.70*






VERGIL, Polydore. ~ Les livres de Polydores Vergile d'Urbin, des inventeurs de choses, traduicts de Latin en Francois, et de nouveau reveuz & corrigez.

Lyon: Benoist Rigaud,  1576.
£850.00
US$1271.43*



WEIZMANN, Chaim. ~ Trial and error the autobiography.

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



£500.00
US$747.90*


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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