Justin Croft : Antiquarian Books

AIGNAN, [François-Nicolas.] ~ Le prestre medecin, ou discours physique sur l'établissement de la medecine. Avec un traité du caffé et du thé de France, selon le systeme d'Hippocrate...

Paris: Laurent d'Houry, 1696.

First edition. Aignan was a royal physician who had studied at the University of Padua. This history of medicine is important for its later chapters on Arabic and French coffee, French tea and fermentation. It also considers quinine and its local substitutes with reference to Ramon Lull and Arnald de Villanova. Aignan cultivated barley and rye in Brittany, which he roasted to produce a "French coffee" a cheaper alternative to arabica beans. He also produced a medicinal tea made from various dried balm leaves. view more...

£1100.00

US$1645.37*

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[ALI ABENCUSIAN, pseudonym of Miguel de LUNA]. VIEUX-MAISONS, [Gilles de Rainssant, Sieur de], translator. ~ Histoire Veritable Contenant la vie de Jacob Almançor Roy d'Arabie, qui Conquist le Royaume d'Espagne sur le Roy Dom Roderic, Traduite d'Espagnol en Francois par le sieur de Vieux-Maisons Gentil-home Ordinaire de la Chambre du Roy.

Gervais Clousier, 1638.

First edition in French of the life of Almançor, the Arabic conqueror and ruler of Spain in the 10th century. It is translated from La verdadera historia del rey Rodrigo, en la cual se trata de la causa principal de la pérdida de España, y la conquista que della hizo Miramamol'n Almançor Rey que fue del Africa, y de las Arabias, y vida del Rey Iacob Almançor written by the Moorish apologist Miguel de Luna and published in two parts (1592 and 1600). Although published as a translation from an Arabic manuscript it was almost certainly an original historical work by de Luna.It is an important as a sympathetic account of the Moorish conquest of Spain and it offers numerous accounts of the humanity and cultivation of an Arabic prince. His pre-eminence in science and learning is dwelt upon and there is an interesting account of the formation of his vast library: he is said to have offered twice the market value for any book he found wanting from his collections. This rare French edition marks an early and interesting point in the emergent interest in the Arab world in France. view more...

£500.00

US$747.90*

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

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

First edition. view more...

£275.00

US$411.34*

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

London: R. Hunter, 1835.

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

£450.00

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

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

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

£200.00

US$299.16*

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[BECCARIA,Cesare, marchese di.] ~ An essay on crimes and punishments, translated from the Italian. With a commentary attributed to M. de Voltaire. Translated from the French.

Edinburgh: for Bell & Bradfute, J. Fairbairn, and Mundell, Doig, & Stevenson, 1807.

A scarce Scottish edition. view more...

£125.00

US$186.97*

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BENTHAM, Jeremy and John BOWRING. ~ Observations on the restrictive and prohibitory commercial system; especially with a reference to the decree of the Spanish Cortes of July 1820. From the mss. of Jeremy Bentham, Esq. By John Bowring.

London: for Effingham Wilson, 1821.

First edition. A pamphlet on the advantages of free trade, written by Bentham with his disciple John Bowring in response to the new customs tariff passed by the Cortes. Bentham was inspired by the liberal Spanish government, but soon disappointed with introduction of laws which limited both personal and commercial liberties. view more...

£150.00

US$224.37*

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

London: for W. Pickering and E. Wilson, 1823.

Second edition. One of the central texts in the development of utilitarian tradition, Bentham's Fragment on Government is the first attempt to apply the principle of utility in a methodical and systematic manner to the theory of government, in the form of a detailed criticism of a section of Blackstone's famous work."Admirably written, free from the diffuseness and pronounced mannerisms of his later productions, the book is a model of controversial literature. Bentham's observations went far beyond the text upon which he proposed to comment. They were destructive of the theories in jurisprudence and political philosophy which were then prevalent, and 'were the first publication by which men at large were invited to break loose from the trammels of authority and ancestor wisdom on the field of law.' The 'Fragment on Government' was a new point of departure in jurisprudence." (John Macdonell, DNB, 1885.)During the productive final years of Bentham's life, a number of his early works were republished, including this title which originally appeared anonymously in 1776. Though described on the title page as enlarged, the only significant addition was a long footnote to Ch. I, pp. 45-48. view more...

£275.00

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

London: for W. Pickering and E. Wilson, 1823.

Second edition. One of the central texts in the development of utilitarian tradition, Bentham's Fragment on Government is the first attempt to apply the principle of utility in a methodical and systematic manner to the theory of government, in the form of a detailed criticism of a section of Blackstone's famous Commentaries. "Admirably written, free from the diffuseness and pronounced mannerisms of his later productions, the book is a model of controversial literature. Bentham's observations went far beyond the text upon which he proposed to comment. They were destructive of the theories in jurisprudence and political philosophy which were then prevalent, and 'were the first publication by which men at large were invited to break loose from the trammels of authority and ancestor wisdom on the field of law.' The 'Fragment on Government' was a new point of departure in jurisprudence." (John Macdonell, DNB, 1885.)During the productive final years of Bentham's life, a number of his early works were republished, including this title which originally appeared anonymously in 1776. Though described on the title page as enlarged, the only significant addition was a long footnote to Ch. I, pp. 45-48. view more...

£200.00

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BENTHAM, Jeremy. ~ An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. In two volumes. A new edition, corrected by the author.

London: [B. Bensley] for E. Wilson and W. Pickering, 1823.

London: [J. M'Creery for] Effingham Wilson, 1821.

First published edition, which was originally printed in 1810, but withheld from publication due to its libellous content. Bentham's criticisms were aimed chiefly at English libel law and ironically resulted in a warning by Samuel Romilly that Bentham was at risk of being prosecuted by the very law he was criticising. The advertisement to this edition recounts its controversial publishing history: "This work was printed many years ago. Circumstances prevented its being at that time exposed to sale. In regard to the Author, all that need be said is- that it was not by him that it was then kept back; and that it is not by him, or at his instance, that it is now put forth. If, on either accounts, it were desirable that the causes of its being thus long withheld should be brought to view, those causes would afford a striking illustration of the baneful influence of the principles and practices it is employed in unveiling, and presenting in their true colours." view more...

£400.00

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BENTHAM, Jeremy. ~ The Rationale of Punishment.

First edition. In 1820 a handful of campaigners for parliamentary reform, including George Edmonds and Bentham's radical publisher Thomas Wooler, were tried at the Warwick assizes for their part at a meeting the previous year, at which they had elected the radical reformer Sir Charles Wosley (in his absence) as 'legislatorial attorney' for Birmingham and nominated him as the representative of their grievances at parliament. view more...

£275.00

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(BENTHAM, Jeremy.) DUMONT, Étienne. ~ De l'organisation judicaire, et de la codification, extraits de divers ouvrages de Jérémie Bentham, jurisconsulte Anglais, par Ét. Dumont, ancient member du conseil représentative de Genève.

Paris: Librairie de Hector Bossange, 1828.

First edition. Étienne Dumont's recensions of Bentham's writings were instrumental in establishing Bentham's international reputation, allowing him to reach a wider audience, but perhaps more importantly, presenting his ideas in a simplified and highly readable manner. Originally published in French, as with this title on judicial organisation, the recensions were variously translated into Spanish and later also into English, selling tens of thousands of copies in Europe and Latin America. view more...

£450.00

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(BENTHAM, Jeremy.) HEPP, Ferdinand Carl Theodor. ~ Jeremias Bentham's Grundsätze der Criminalpolitik in einem Auszuge und systematischen Zusammenhange dargestellt von Dr. Ferd. Carl Th. Hepp.

Zübingen, C. F. Osiander, 1839.

First edition of Hepp's digest of Bentham's judicial theory, based on Dumont's French recensions. view more...

£260.00

US$388.91*

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

Paris: Cauville Frères, 1845.

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

£100.00

US$149.58*

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(BLIND EDUCATION). ~ Report of the Catholic Blind Asylum, 59, Brunswick Road, Liverpool, (established in 1841,) read at the annual meeting of the subscribers and friends at the asylum on Monday, the 9th February, 1863, The very Rev. Canon Walmsley president of the institution in the chair; with a statement of the accounts, and list of subscribers, & c.

Liverpool: M. Rourke, Printer, South John Street, 1863.

The eighteenth annual report of the Liverpool Catholic Blind Asylum for children (for the year 1862). Includes also the rules and regulations for the government of the Asylum, founded in 1841 by the very reverend Dr Thomas Youens. view more...

£65.00

US$97.23*

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[BONNEMAIN, Antoine-Jean-Thomas.] ~ Les chemises rouges, ou mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du règne des anarchistes.

Paris: Deroy & Maret, "An VII" [ 1799.]

First edition of this account of two of the most brutal episodes of the Terror - the execution of 9 members of the town council of Orleans implicated in a supposed murder attempt on Léonard Bourdon, member of the National Convention, and the summary execution of 54 men and women accused of having been part of a royalist plot against Robespierre, Collot d'Herbois and other members of the revolutionary government. The latter were hastily dressed in sack-cloth (the "chemises rouges") an attire reserved for murderers. They included the 19-year old Cécile-Aimée Renault, who was adopted as a martyr of the anti-revoultionary movement.The work provides detailed transcripts from the trials and biographical details of the accused. The engraved frontispiece to the first volume is a melodramatic rendering of the condemnation of the "Orleans 9" in the tribunal. view more...

£650.00

US$972.27*

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(BREAD). [House of Commons Report]. ~ Report from the Committee in laws relating to the manufacture, sale, and assize of bread. [Communicated by the Commons to the Lords.] Ordered to be printed 6th July 1815.

[London], 1815.

First editions of two detailed reports on the flour and baking trade, with detailed interviews conducted with dealers and bakers in town and country and statistical appendices. view more...

£250.00

US$373.95*

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BREREWOOD, Edward. ~ Recherches curieuses sur la diversité des langues et religions, par toutes les principales parties du Monde. Par Ed. Brerewood, Professeur à Londres, et mises en François par I. de la Montagne.

Paris: Olivier de Varennes, 1640.

First edition in French of Enquiries touching the diversity of languages, and religions through the cheife parts of the world (London, 1614). This is a translation of the most important of Brerewood's many works, an enterprising early study of linguistics and ethnology. It is known especially for Brerewood's thesis that America had been peopled principally from Asia and thus that the native Americans were in fact of Asian descent. It evidently attained some currency in France and there are several seventeenth-century editions in French.The author's intention was to classify the cultures of the known world according to a fourfold division (Christians, Muslims, idolaters and Jews) and to understand the historical origins of Christianity. Reflecting the author's profession as mathematician and professor of astronomy at Gresham College, the work is an interesting exercise in quantifying proportionally the relative influence over the globe of each of the dominant cultures. He concludes that if the known regions of the earth are divided into "30 equall parts" the Christian part was five, the Muslim six, the idolators' nineteen, with Judaism dispersed among them all. view more...

£480.00

US$717.98*

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(BREWING). [TOURNAI ORDONNANCES]. ~ Ordonnances de messieurs du magistrat de la ville & cité de Tournay des 26. 8bre & 15. novembre 1718, portant reglement pour les brasseurs & brasseuses, cabaretiers, cabaretires & débiteurs de bierres; comme aussi pour les commis & employez à la conservation des droits & impôts de cette ville, de même que pour les brouteurs, &c.

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

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

[London: Glover, 1832.]

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

£475.00

US$710.50*

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

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

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

£200.00

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

London: by the author, 1831-2.

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

£700.00

US$1047.06*

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

London: for Joseph Mawman, 1800.

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

£350.00

US$523.53*

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(COMMERCE.) ~ Tarif générale, ou comptes faits pour faire et recevoir des paimens en monnaies et espèces des Pays-Bas, de Brabant, de Hollande, de Liége, de Luxembourg, de France, d'Allemagne et d'Angleterre. Calculé d'après la loi du 28 septembre 1816 et les décrets des 18 août, 12 septembre 1810, et 30 novembre 1811. Suivi 1. De tableaux de monnaies anciennes et étrangères...

Brussels: M.-E. Rampelbergh, [n.d. c. 1816].

A commercial ready-reckoner for European merchants with attractive woodcuts of current and historic coins and with numerous vellum page tabs for easy reference. view more...

£125.00

US$186.97*

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

London: for Richard Stevens and Charles Reader, 1822.

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

£400.00

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[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

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[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

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

[Edinburgh, 1752.]

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

£550.00

US$822.69*

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

London: for James Knapton, 1700.

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

£350.00

US$523.53*

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DOBSON, William. ~ Kunopædia. A practical essay on breaking or training the English spaniel or pointer. With instructions for atttaining the art of shooting flying. In which the latter is reduced to rule, and the former inculcated on principle.

London: printed by C. Whittingham, for the editor; and sold by J. Callow, and Whittingham and Arliss, 1814.

Rare first edition of the first book on the training of spaniels as working dogs. Smollett favourably reviewed the title on its publication in 1814: "This treatise will be found very entertaining to the veteran sportsman; and very useful to the novice. It is an admirable vade mecum to the cockney: it will enable him to distinguish a covey of partridges from a flight of tame ducks; and will so instruct him, that he may learn, how to shoot a farmer's pig, without wounding his own dog." (The Critical Review, or, Annals of Literature). view more...

£200.00

US$299.16*

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[DODSLEY, Robert, attributed to.] ~ Le miroir des dames et de la jeunesse ou Leçons de toutes les vertus qui honorent les deux sexes. Ouvrage tiré d'un Manuscrit Indien Rempli de Maximes, et de Sentences. Appropriées a tous les Version libre de l'Anglois âges et a tous rangs. Version libre de l'Anglois.

Paris: [Firmin Didot for] Le Fuel & Delaunay, n.d., [c. 1820.]

An elegant little Didot production, presumably designed as a gift for children or parents, combining cursive and civilité typefaces with a lovely series of stipple-engraved plates. view more...

£450.00

US$673.11*

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

London: John Murray, 1842.

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

£450.00

US$673.11*

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

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

Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1900 [but 1899].

First edition of Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams". "This is unquestionably Freud's greatest single work. It contains all the basic components of psychoanalytic theory and practice: the erotic nature of dreams, the 'Oedipus complex', the libido, and the rest; all related to the background of the 'unconscious', later to be called the 'sub-conscious'".The manuscript of Die Traumdeutung was finished by 11 September 1899; Freud sent a copy to his close associate Wihelm Fleiss which was inscribed with the date 24 October 1899 (cf. Norman F33, Fleiss's copy). According to Jones, the work was "actually published on November 4, 1899, but the publisher chose to put the date 1900 on the title page" (Jones, Sigmund Freud: Life and Work, I, p.395). The first edition was of 600 copies. view more...

£12000.00

US$17949.54*

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

Macclesfield: P. Hall, 1817.

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

£400.00

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GALLINI, Giovanni-Andrea. ~ Critical observations on the art of dancing; to which is added, A collection of cotillons or French dances.... [A new collection of forty-four cotillons, with figures properly adapted; also the music for six select dances, two of which may be used as cotillons.]

A rare prospectus for a new keyboard instrument, the immediate precursor of the harmonium: the instrument which was to revolutionise public music-making, especially church music, in Victorian England and abroad. Green was the first to patent the use of a vibrating metal bar acted upon by wind to reproduce the sound of a much larger organ, thereby allowing a practical and inexpensive keyboard intstrument to be installed in even the smallest meeting house.Green notes in his prospectus that "the sound is produced on a principle never before thus applied to musical purposes; the nearest approach to it, though at an immeasurable distance, being the Jew's Harp, the musical Snuff Box, and a small Chinese instrument [the shêng]." A major advantage of the free reed system he proposed was trueness of pitch in all climates: he mentions examples of the instrument succesfully shipped to India, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia and America and notes "he has heard of one being sold in India for 200 guineas; and in New York it has excited an extraordinary sensation, being regularly used as the organ in Grace Church..." view more...

£300.00

US$448.74*

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

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

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

£400.00

US$598.32*

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

London: John Murray, 1820.

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

£175.00

US$261.76*

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

London: Matthew Gillyflower, 1697.

Paris: chez l'auteur, 1889 [1890].

First edition, issue with a rare 1890 addendum. Honore's text is essentially a treatise on the possibilities of man-powered flight through his proposed construction of a 'pteronave' and its potential to bring peace and harmony to the world. However, in a complete about-turn, the remarkable 1890 addendum was added against a background of war-mongering in Europe and the recent alliance of Britain with Germany against France, its feverish headline urging: "L'heure des pteronaves est peut-être venue?... Il est urgent, pour la France, de songer à tous les moyens de défense". This early text on aerial flight opens with an introductory 'Préambule', which recounts his 1852 petition to the President of the Republic to construct "un Navire Aerien a vapeur" and his 1852 prediction that it would become possible to circumnavigate the world in just 15 days, ideas which at the time were considered sheer folly. The main text outlines in detail the engineering principles on which man-powered flight would operate, including mention of 'Les Hélicoptères' (p. 26) and its wider effects, optimistically predicting that it will "tuer la guerre pour l'avenir, au profit du bonheur de l'humanité". view more...

£700.00

US$1047.06*

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HUME, David. ~ The life of David Hume, Esq. Written by himself.

London: for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1777.

First edition, first issue (with the reading "myself" on p. 29), Hume's final summation of his life and philosophy and the work he intended as his "funeral oration" (p. 35). Printed at the end is the Letter from Adam Smith to the publisher William Strahan on Hume's final days. view more...

£950.00

US$1421.01*

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

[Probably Kintbury, Berkshire, Barton Court or Speen Hill House, , n.d. [c. 1850.]

An engaging Victorian album compiled for amusement, perhaps by a youngster. The majority of the drawings (21) form a narrative: a lonely young man obtains a gaggle of geese for company, he then meets a charming young lady and is invited to dinner, to which he takes a goose for the table saying "pray accept this bird as a token of my gallantry". He hears her at the piano and resolves to learn the flute, with which he serenades her at her window (folding flaps in the accompanying drawing reveal her sillhouetted figure). Advised to go to Africa for his health, he takes a final walk with his sweetheart in Kensington Gardens. He adventures in Africa, coming upon a princely castle (rendered in quasi-Indian style rather resembling the Brighton Pavilion) where he rescues a fair damsel from a giant (actually in Turkish costume with a sabre). He is imprisoned in a tower and is rescued by the damsel with a rope ladder, in neat reversal of fairy-tale convention and returns home safely to is friends.The remainder of the album illustrates "in" jokes and limericks: with a rather grotesque rendering of a baby as the "Barton Court Pet" and woolly lapdog as the "Speen Hill Pet". On another leaf a young lady knits rabbit-wool mittens for her mother in illustration of a limerick below: the whole composition owing a debt to Edward Lear. view more...

£2600.00

US$3889.07*

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

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

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

£200.00

US$299.16*

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

London: Whittaker, Treacher, Arnot, 1834.

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

£450.00

US$673.11*

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

London: by W. Clowes and sons, 1838.

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

£250.00

US$373.95*

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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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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

US$747.90*

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KNOTT, Johann Nepomuk. ~ Praktische Grundsätze des Acker, - Wiesen-, Futterkräuter- und Gartenbaues, der Viehzucht und aller übrigen Zweige der Landwirthschaft...

Munich: Johann Baptist Strobel, 1792.

First edition of this agricultural handbook. It contains an interesting bibliographical table listing no less than 75 printed agricultural works in German. view more...

£200.00

US$299.16*

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[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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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

US$897.48*

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(LAW. Manuscript). GIGON DU BESSIX. ~ Dissertation sure les partages et les appanages de la maison de France.

[France], 1751.

An extensive manuscript treatise on the French system of apanages, probably unpublished. By the custom of apanage the younger sons of French kings were granted portions of the royal fiefs, which would revert to the crown on the extinction of the male line of each son. The system was deeply rooted in the politcal and legal structures of France and contributed greatly to the country's regional character.Gigon du Bessix, who had served as an avocat in the royal courts under Louis XV and his regents, cites several earlier (printed) works on the subject but seeks to present a comprehensive legal history of the subject. We have found no printed version of Gigon's text in any of the usual bibliographical sources. view more...

£1600.00

US$2393.27*

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LEBRUN. ~ Manuel des jeux de calcul et de hasard; ou, Nouvelle académie des jeux.

Paris: Roret, 1828.

First edition of this very scarce manual of games which includes chess, draughts, roulette and numerous card-games. There are quite substantial materials on chance and probability in games. It was reprinted several times in the nineteenth-century with the later editions having one or more folding plates. No plate is called for in this first edition. view more...

£300.00

US$448.74*

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

New York: Harper & brothers, 1841.

First edition. view more...

£135.00

US$201.93*

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LINGUET, [Simon Nicolas Henri]. ~ Mémoires sur La Bastille, et sur la détention de M. Linguet, écrits par lui-même.

London [i.e. Berne: Weller]: T. Spilsbury, 1783.

An early edition of Linguet's memoir of his incarceration in the infamous Bastille prison from 1780-82. This issue is an imitation of the original edition in volume 10 of Annales politiques, civiles et litteraires du dix-huitieme siecle, which was published in 1783 also with the T. Spilsbury imprint. Numerous other editions with the false Spilsbury imprint of were also published in the same year on the Continent, most of which are presumed to have been printed in Brussels or Hamburg, with at least one further Berne imprint. view more...

£150.00

US$224.37*

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

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

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

£2000.00

US$2991.59*

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

London: Henry Herbert & Co, 1878.

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

£250.00

US$373.95*

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

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

£60.00

US$89.75*

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

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

Paris: Denys Thierry and Christophle Ballard, 1681.

First edition of Colbert's famous codification for Louis XIV, the basis of modern maritime law in all parts of the world. Derived from a combination of Roman law and from a mass of local custom and usage, the history of French maritime law thus codified represents an interesting case of the persistence of distinct Roman models alongside non-Roman law practiced in other fields.The Ordonnance also occupies an important place in the history of insurance, both in the field of marine insurance (which is fully described) and life insurance, since maritime law was one of the earliest instances in which lives may be insured as opposed to goods. It has been suggested that this resulted from the need for shipowners to insure cargos of slaves or against the possibility of the ransoming of captured passengers and crew. Slaves were legally 'goods' rather than people in their own right, so could be insured under the Ordonnance, while ransomed individuals would acquire a monetary "price". The codification of proceedure in these cases began a culture in which human life could be valued in monetary terms for the purpose of insurance. view more...

£3000.00

US$4487.39*

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MARSHALL, John. ~ An account of the population in each of six thousand of the principal towns and parishes in England and Wales, as returned to Parliament at each of the three periods, 1801, 1811, & 1821... shewing also the estimated annual value of the real property in each town and parish as assessed to the property tax in 1815...

London: for the author, R. Jennings and W. Chaplin, 1831.

First editions of these massive statistical works compiled while Marshall was employed on the commission to inspect the boundaries of the cities and boroughs, for purposes of the Reform Bill. All are very scarce in commerce. view more...

£750.00

US$1121.85*

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MARTINELLI, Vincenzio. ~ Istoria del governo d'Inghilterra e delle sue colonie in India, e nell' America Settentrionale, scritta da Vincenzio Martinelli a sua eccellenza il Sig. principe D. Lorenzo Corsini.

Florence: Gaetano Cambiagi, 1776.

First edition of this Italian account of the constitution of England, of which the largest part is devoted to a description of the British colonies in the East Indies and in America. The chapters on the East Indies include several reflections on the tea and coffee trade, and the introduction of coffee to London in 1652. Published in the year of the American Revolution it includes descriptions of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, Georgia, Florida, New England, New York, New Jersey, Nova Scotia, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland, and Canada. view more...

£900.00

US$1346.22*

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McCULLOCH, John Ramsey. ~ The principles of political economy: with a sketch of the rise and progress of the science.

London: for William Tait in Edinburgh, Longman in London and Curry in Dublin, 1830.

Second edition "corrected and greatly enlarged" of the most influential manual of political economy before Mill. view more...

£225.00

US$336.55*

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MENA, Antonio Manuel de. ~ Estado general del Imperio Rusiano ò Moscovita, desde su origen hasta la toma de Azoff en la presente guerra. Tomo I... [Tomo II].

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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PLAYFAIR, William. ~ A fair and candid address to the nobility and baronets of the United Kingdom; accompanied with illustrations and proofs of the advantage of hereditary rank and title in a free country...

London: W. Lewis, for the proprietors of family antiquity, 1809.

First edition of Playfair's resounding endorsement of the benefits of an hereditary nobility, an unapologetically elitist thesis aimed squarely at fashionable republicanism. Playfair is a fascinating figure who grew up among the intelligentsia of the industrial revolution (Watt, Boulton, Priestley and other members of the Lunar Society were early associates). He also invented the graph, the bar-chart and the pie-chart and was one of the promoters of the Scioto land company which aimed to settle French emigrants on the Ohio river. He also edited the first critical edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, which is alluded to on the title-page of this work. view more...

£350.00

US$523.53*

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POILROUX, Jacques. ~ Traité de médecine légale criminelle...

Paris: Levrault, 1834.

First edition, rare, of this very comprehensive (and early) treatise on medicine in law. It is written from the perspective of a practising doctor (Poiloux worked in the Basse-Alpes region of France) and contains numeorous first hand accounts of medical evidence in police and criminal proceedings. Its contents include consideration of the corpse, evidence of a variety of violent deaths, suicide and infanticide. There is a lengthy chapter on the evidence of poisoning, another on the evidence of wounds, and a final chapter on gynaecological/obstetric evidence. It was reprinted in 1837. view more...

£750.00

US$1121.85*

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RAYMENT, Robert. ~ The corn-trade of Great Britain, for eighteen years, from 1748, to 1765. Compared with the eighteen years, from 1771, to 1788. Shewing the national loss in the latter period to have been above twenty millions of money...

London: for T. Whieldon, 1790.

First edition. view more...

£350.00

US$523.53*

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RICHMOND, Alexander Bailey. ~ Narrative of the condition of the manufacturing population; and the proceedings of government which led to the state trials in Scotland, for administering unlawful oaths, and the suspension of the habeas corpus act, in 1817, with a detailed account of the system of espionage adopted at that period, in Glasgow and its neighborhood. Also, a summary of similar proceedings, in other parts of the country, to the execution of Thistlewood and others, for high treason, in 1820.

London: for John Miller, 1824.

First edition of Richmond's remarkable account of industrial unrest in the Scottish weaving trade. Though having spent much of his early life in Ireland, Richmond, a weaver, found himself at the heart of the Scottish weaving trade at a critical moment in industrial history. He was first accused of fomenting unrest among textile workers and later of being a government agent charged suppressing an alleged "reform" conspiracy. A duplicitous figure, Richmond had earlier been courted by Robert Owen who offered him a post of assistant schoolmaster at New Lanark, an offer retracted when Richmond's political principles were found dubious. This work was reprinted in 1825. view more...

£500.00

US$747.90*

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

[London?], 1714.

[London : Henry Denham for William Brome], 1584.

First edition of the first systematic and rational account of the practice of witchcraft in England. view more...

£24000.00

US$35899.08*

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[SCOTLAND.] [CROKER, John]. ~ Silver medal struck to commemorate the 1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland.

1707.

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*

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(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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STUART, Gilbert. ~ An historical dissertation concerning the antiquity of the English constitution.

Edinburgh: printed for A. Kincaid & J. Bell; and for W. Sanby, J. Dodsley, E. Dilly, and T. Cadell, London, 1768.

First edition of this influential Scottish Enlightenment contribution to the debate over the origins of English liberty. "Published in 1768, the work summarizes the history of English liberty from the time of the first Britons to the Norman invasion. Implicit in this whiggish perspective was a challenge to David Hume, whose History of England had put a relativist historiographical agenda at the forefront of the debate on the nature of British liberty. In this ambitious attempt to synthesize the conjectural method of such writers as Kames and Adam Ferguson with the controversial approach of his relative Thomas Ruddiman, Stuart applied the legal scholarship of Montesquieu and John Dalrymple" (Zachs, Oxford DNB). The title-page bears a quote from Montesquieu on the origins of the British political system concluding "Ce beau systême a été trouvé dans le bois." view more...

£850.00

US$1271.43*

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SULLY, Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de. ~ Memoires de sages et royales oeconomies d'estat, domestiques, politiques et militaires de Henry le Grand, l'exemplaire des roys, le prince des vertus, des armes et des loix, & le pere en effet de ses peuples François. Et des servitudes utiles obeissances convenables & administrations loyales de Maximilen de Bethune l'un des plus confidens; familiers & utiles soldats & serviteurs du grand Mars des François. Dediez à la France, à tous les bons Soldats & tous peuples François.

"A Amstelredam: chez Alethinosgraphe de Clearetimelee, & Graphexechon de Pistariste, à l'enseigne des trois vertus couronées d'Amaranthe," n.d. [1638];

The Mémoires are the principal source for the political, economic, military and legal history of the reign of Henry IV ("le Grand"), compiled by the king's most able and most trusted minister. Henry's reign marked the rehabilitation of France's fortunes after the near-disintegration of the country during the Wars of Religion. Sully's collection represents a very immediate account of the period between 1570 and 1628, including episodes such as Henry's conversion to Catholicism (arguably a political expediency urged by Sully himself, who remained Protestant); the Edict of Nantes (which promised religious toleration for the Huguenots); negotiations with the English crown (both Elizabeth and James I); and war with Spain (in alliance with England). Sully's own contrubution to the state is amply recorded - he is remembered for his reorganisation of the country's finances and system of office-holding as well as for his engineering projects (the Place Royale and the Briare Canal linking Seine and Loire being the best known). The Mémoires are historiographically advanced and include both critical narrative and a large number of transcribed diplomatic material. They have, however, been criticized for partiality and for containing "many fictions, such as a mission undertaken by Sully to Queen Elizabeth in 1601, and the famous 'Grand Design,' a plan for a Christian republic [or a United States of Europe], which some historians have taken seriously" (Ency. Brit, 1911). The work was completed posthumously by a second volume (present here) under the editorship of J. Le Laboureur. The bibliography of this work has been contentious. For a long time, our edition with the coloured frontispieces was accepted as the first, published with a false imprint at the Chateau de Sully itself. It is now clear that there were actually as many as 3 issues bearing versions of these title pages: the exceptionally rare true first edition printed under Sully's eye (with a different collation to ours); our swiftly-produced contrefaçon of the same year, and one other pirate edition. Complete sets of any edition are rare. view more...

£1400.00

US$2094.11*

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SÉGUR, L.[ouis]-P.[hilippe], Comte de. ~ Contes, Fables, Chansons et Vers...

Paris: F. Buisson, Mongie l'a'né and Frère l'aïné at Rouen, "An IX" [1801.]

Meissen: Friedrich Traugott Uz, [n.d. c. 1826.]

A later (fourth) edition of this rare handbook for travelling journeymen, who had completed their apprenticeship but had not yet become a master. Designed as a pocket book the work contains the necessary information for his educational journey: indispensible travellers' tips about distances, lodgings, behaviour, notable towns, basic medicine, currencies and measures, language (with a short pronouncing dictionary of German, French, English and Italian), chronology and basic astronomy.The book is styled a "taschenbuch" and thus was probably usually issued with the hand-coloured pictorial wrappers. This copy is more sophisticated and ultimately more practical, retaining the wrappers but being placed in a wallet style binding with pockets for the accompanying charts. This binding may be considered a publisher's production: the imprint of the folding map describes the publisher Uz as "Buchbinder in Meissen". view more...

£900.00

US$1346.22*

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

London: Edward Johnston, 1793.

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

£1200.00

US$1794.95*

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[TUFNELL, Edward Carlton.] ~ Character, object and effects of trades' unions; with some remarks on the law concerning them.

London: James Ridgway and sons, 1834.

First edition, presentation copy. "Appointed an assistant commissioner by the royal commission on the poor laws in July 1832 to conduct local investigations into the working of the poor law, Tufnell visited Edinburgh to obtain Thomas Chalmers's views on poor relief. In the following year he was a member of the royal commission on children's employment in factories. He published in 1834 Character, Objects, and Effects of Trades Unions, which restated many of the contemporary objections to trade unions" (Oxford DNB). view more...

£975.00

US$1458.40*

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(TUSCANY). GALLUZZI, Riguccio. ~ Istoria del Granducato do Toscana sotto il Governo della casa Medici... edizioni seconda.

Florence: Gaetano Cambiago, 1781.

Second edition, published in the same year as the first. view more...

£350.00

US$523.53*

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[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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(VICTORIAN SEASIDE). ~ Recollections of Deal.

First edition of this satire directed against Charles Philippe d'Albert, duc de Luynes and his brothers, favourites of Louis XIII. Charles actually died as this pamphlet was published, but had become hugely unpopular as Constable of France, directing military operations against the Protestants. The satire ends with an earnest entreaty to Louis XIII to rule with a Council rather than through favourites, and to make peace with his exiled mother Marie de Medici.The satire was rapidly translated into English as The favovrites chronicle (also 1621, STC 15203). view more...

£125.00

US$186.97*

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~ Le Fourbe puni ou le duel des rivales.

[n.p.] 1740

London: for B.Fellowes, 1832.

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the Halesworth book club. view more...

£250.00

US$373.95*

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WHITELEY, Henry. ~ Three months in Jamaica, in 1832: comprising a residence of seven weeks on a sugar plantation.

London: [Samuel Bagster for], Hatchard and Son, 1833.

First edition, first issue. A scarce and influential anti-slavery pamphlet. Whiteley shocked his readers with graphic accounts of the treatment of slaves in Jamaica. Two issues of 1833 are known, ours and another for the Anti-Slavery Society (also by Bagster) which is called a "verbatim reprint" of our Hatchard issue. view more...

£350.00

US$523.53*

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

Social Sciences