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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. The four earliest agreements were also published as a collection in London by J. Debrett in 1793. The identical title pages of the first two Russian treaties make it impossible to identify which edition is held at each of the 5 libraries listed on ESTC. The final treaty, published by A. Strahan, is particularly scarce, with only one copy recorded on ESTC (Cambridge).

First German edition of Charnock’s biography of Nelson. First published in English in 1806, the work is notable for Charnock's use of Nelson's original letters and first-hand accounts of his life. The engraved plates appear to have been specifically prepared for this rare German edition, of which there appear to be no institutional copies in the UK or US. No copies located in British Libraries (and none outside continental Europe).

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.

First published 1903.

Oxberry’s edition. Moore’s play opened in 1753 with a run of 10 nights at the Drury Lane with Garrick in the lead role and remained popular until the middle of the nineteenth century. Only three copies listed on COPAC, at Oxford, Manchester and Birmingham.

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. Wing D2790B

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. ESTC gives 7 locations: BL (2 copies), John Rylands, Manchester (2 copies). McMaster University and Universities of Illinois and Waterloo.

Scarce first edition of this work on the medieval Scottish church, inscribed by the author: ‘James T. Gibson Craig esqe with the author’s compliments.’ Nineteenth-century author and historian, Joseph Robertson (1810-66) wrote widely on the history of Scotland; this pamphlet preceded by some years his seminal work on medieval ecclesiastical history, Concilia Scotiae (1866), a two-volume edition of the pre-Reformation Scottish church’s canon law and constitutions.

Sole edition. A dissertation on the physiology of the male erection, submitted to the medical school at Montpellier. Belou cites Ruysh, Albinus, Eustachius, Lametrie and others as authorities while the celebrated physicians Paul Joseph Barthez and Jean-François Imbert are listed as chancellors and examiners at the school. OCLC lists the National Library of Medicine copy only.

A finely-illustrated history of France in the sixteenth and early-seventeenth century. The second part (1589-1611) is printed here for the first time; the first part originally having been published in 1621 as Journal des choses memorables advenues durant tout le regne de Henry III (Cioranesco 13602).

The imprint is certainly false, and Brussels is the more likely origin, though the woodcut device on the first title is that of Antoine Vincent of Lyon. The frontispiece is notable and is a violent allegory of this turbulent century, the female personification of France is beset by a crowd of petitioners in the form of vagrants, a monk, nobles and merchants while in the background several brutal excutions are enacted, with the city of Paris and the towers of Notre Dame in the distance. It is the work of Richard van Orley (1663-1732), a Brussels painter and engraver, and engraved by François Harrewijn (1700-1764), also a Brussels engraver, pupil of Romeyn de Hooghe, known primarily for his portraits of historical figures. Harrewijn also supplied the excellent suite of 33 portraits of kings and queens (including Mary Stuart) and leading members of church and state.

First editions. Tiphaigne de la Roche’s L’Amour Dévoilé is a notable attempt to explain love and sexual attraction in mechanistic terms. The author considers the role of ‘la matière Sympathique’, which he believed to be a type of vapour exhaled by both animals and humans, and its action upon the senses of a member of the opposite sex. This rational approach to the subject makes overt reference to Leeuwenhoek who had explained the action of skin pores and appears to prefigure modern research into pheromones.

The author studied medicine at the University of Caen and practised as a physician. L’Amour Dévoilé is his first published work preceding several speculative and utopian novels, notably Giphantie (1760, the title an anagram of his name) in which he anticipated several modern developments including photography and synthetic food.

Pernetti, author of the moral romance Histoire de Favoride was a canon of the cathedral at Lyon and a prominent antiquary of that city. He was also a freemason and wrote a short treatise on that subject. Gay I, 115 (L’Amour Dévoilé).

First edition of this comprehensive study of the sociology of gambling by French writer and self-confessed ex-gambler Jean Dusaulx (1728-1799). Gambling was deeply-rooted in French society, especially in Paris, where all classes (including the court) were obsessed with card games and lotteries. Dusaulx sought to analyse this craze and to point out the moral depravity which it both reflected and encouraged. He includes numerous anecdotes to illustrate the irrationality of the gambler, making De la Passion du Jeu an important account of this aspect of the social history of pre-Revolutionary France.

First edition of this Jesuit missionary Hindustani-Portuguese grammar.

First edition of one of Carus’s pioneering works in the emerging science of psychology. The author’s major contribution was in exploring the psychology of the unconscious and he is considered the precursor of Jung (who acknowleged his debt to Carus) in this field. The author was a prolific figure who wrote on many aspects of psychology, medicine and philosophy. He was an accomplished landscape artist in the Romantic tradition and had studied under Caspar David Friedrich. He was also a friend of Nietzsche, Humboldt and Goethe.

The Vorlesungen über Psychologie is especially notable for its wide frame of reference outside the discipline of medicine. Many of Carus’s examples are drawn from literature, with a special emphasis on the works of Shakespeare: in the course of his argument he refers variously to Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry IV, Romeo and Juliet and Othello. OCLC lists the National Library of Medicine copy only outside Europe.

First edition. Blake, 483; Waller 10136.

An influential seventeenth-century exhortation to thrift and monetary economy. This edition is the fourth printing, being preceded by editions of 1641, 1647 and 1664. It is usually referred to as the third edition, the 1641 edition (which survives in a single copy) having been printed for private circulation only.

“The Worth of a Peny... was first privately issued for presentation to the author's friends, was printed originally, as internal evidence shows, in 1641, and not in 1647—the year which appears, by an error, on the title-page. It was dedicated to Richard, eldest son of Richard Gipps, one of the judges of the Guildhall, London. It discusses, without much plan, the economic condition of the country, but includes many interesting anecdotes illustrating social life. A new edition in 1664 added some biographical observations by a friend of Peacham, who knew him in the Low Countries.” The author is best known for his emblem books and the popular Compleat Gentleman Wing P952.

A collected edition of numbers 1-55 of Addison’s political journal, which was published twice weekly from December 1715 to June 1716. Macaulay later wrote: “Towards the close of the year 1715, while the rebellion was still raging in Scotland, Addison published the first number of a paper called ‘The Freeholder’. Among his political works the Freeholder is entitled to the first place. Even in the Spectator there are few serious papers nobler than the character of his friend Lord Somers; and certainly no satirical papers superior to those in which the tory fox-hunter is introduced.” (Modern British Essayists, T. Babington Macaulay).

An expanded version of Maddison’s Englands looking in and out (1640). Maddison, a forward looking and enterprising landlord was a vocal advocate for the regulation of the money markets, arguing that foreign exchangers and unscrupulous merchants had devalued the currency for personal gain. He developed his ideas in the work above mentioned to include the demand that an accurate account be kept and made available of the balance of trade. “In 1655 he published an updated version of his 1640 tract entitled Great Britain's remembrancer, looking in and out; tending to the increase of the monies of the Commonwealth. Presented to his highness the lord protector and to the high court of parliament now assembled (1655). His recent experience of office can account for new calls for a bank, a council for the mint, and free ports, but his general economic views remained unchanged” (ODNB). Wing M245.

First edition. The folding map shows the countries and places mentioned in the New Testament. Wood (1765-1826) was a Manchester-born Wesleyan minister, serving the circuits of the Wesleyan Connexion as an itinerant preacher for 39 years. He published at least six books (including this one) issued at Whitby and Huddersfield. COPAC gives Oxford and Cambrige only. OCLC lists US copies at Arizona, Yale, United Library (Illinois), Fordham and Toronto.