Human Sciences

Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alfred Pasternack or Barbara Scalvini

Human Sciences at Quaritch embraces a wide range of books and manuscripts documenting the history of ideas from the earliest times up to about 1960. Our strengths are in the history of economic thought and in philosophy, but we also deal in law; finance and banking (including speculation, actuarial science and insurance); politics and political theory; sociology; psychology; agriculture; education; logic; and the theory of language.

Some notable items which have recently passed through our hands include the only known copy of the Communist Manifesto inscribed by Karl Marx, Rudolf Carnap’s annotated copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung), Joseph Penso de la Vega’s Confusion de Confusiones (1688, the first book to describe the practice of a stock-exchange) and a copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (4th edition, 1786), inscribed in Smith's own hand to Bonnie Prince Charlie's private secretary.

As well as dealing in individual books and manuscripts, we also offer collections. In recent years we have sold author collections of Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim and Jeremy Bentham. Among subject collections we have offered are the Herwood Library of accounting literature (including Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, 1494, the first printed exposition of double-entry book-keeping); the philosophy of language; texts pertaining to the theory and study of language in the West, and the history of probability - the calculus of probabilities, statistics and their applications.

  1. ACTON, William.

    Prostitution, considered in its moral,...

    London, [Savill and Edwards for] John...

    First edition of this medico-social analysis...

    £1250

  2. [AGRIPPA, Heinrich Cornelius.]

    De la grandeur et de l’excellence des...

    Paris, François Baruty, 1713.

    The third translation into French, but...

    £650

  3. AINSWORTH, William Harrison.

    The Combat of the Thirty. From a Breton...

    London: Chapman and Hall … 1859

    First edition of the first English translations...

    £550

  4. ALBERTI, Leon Battista.

    El Momo. La moral e muy graciosa historia...

    Alcalá de Henares, Joan Mey Flandro, 1553.

    First edition in Spanish of Alberti’s...

    £3800

  5. ALLAIS, Maurice Félix Charles.

    The hereditary and relativistic formulation...

    June 1975.

    The Nobel Prize economist Allais obtained...

    £100

  6. ALMEIDA, Theodoro de.

    Lisboa destruida poema, author o P. Theodoro...

    Lisbon, Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, 1803.

    First edition of this poem in six cantos,...

    £175

  7. ALVAREZ DE ARENALES, Jose.

    Noticias historicas y descriptivas sobre...

    Montevideo, [Imprenta del Comercio del...

    Rare second edition, after the first of...

    £100

  8. ANDREADES, Andreas Michael.

    De la monnaie et de la puissance d’achat...

    Liège, Imprimerie H. Vaillant-Carmanne, 1924.

    An offprint, with its own title-page and...

    £45

  9. ANDREUCCI, Andrea Girolamo.

    De vicariis basilicarum urbis tractatus...

    Rome, typis Antonii de Rubeis in via Seminarii...

    First edition, rare, of Andreucci’s treatise...

    £250

  10. ANGELL, Sir Norman.

    The money game.

    London, J.M. Dent, [n.d.].

    Early edition of this ‘new instrument...

    £100

  11. [ANGLO-SOVIET DIPLOMACY.] 

    Papers regarding the Anglo-Soviet Negotiations...

    London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office,...

    A proof copy, complete with typed errata...

    £750

  12. [ANON.] 

    Le moine galant, ou la vie de Don F…...

    [S.l., s.n.,] 1756. 

    Scarce first edition of this satirical...

    £450

  13. ANSWER OF THE MERCHANTS-PETITIONERS,

    and Trustees for the Factory at Legorn,...

    London: Printed in the Year 1704.

    First and only edition, scarce, part...

    £1350

  14. ANTONIUS de Vercellis. 

    Sermones quadragesimales de XII mirabilibus...

    Venice, Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis,...

    A remarkable copy of the first edition...

    £8500

  15. ANTWERP, William C. van.

    The Stock Exchange from Within. Illustrated...

    New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913.

    First edition of this historical account...

    £50

  16. [AQUHORTIES.]

    Abstract of the Rules and Regulations for...

    Edinburgh, J. Moir, [1799?].

    Broadside rules for the newly established...

    £850

  17. [ARISTOTLE – ELIAS.]

    Biblioteca Armeno-Georgica. I. Commentarii...

    St Petersburg, Academiae Imperialis Scientarum,...

    Uncommon edition, published by the Imperial...

    £250

  18. Aristotle: From Antiquity to the Modern Era.

    Preface by Martin J. Gross. Essays by Benjamin...

    Lewes, D. Giles Ltd for the Martin J....

    Aristotle’s influence towers over western...

    £30

  19. ATLANTICUS, pseud.

    Ein Blick in den Zukunftsstaat. Produktion...

    Stuttgart, J. H. W. Dietz, 1898.

    First edition of this utopian discourse...

    £100

  20. AUGIER DU FOT, Anne Amable.

    Catechismo d’ostetricia per istruzione...

    Venice, Stamperia Graziosi, 1787.

    Uncommon first Italian edition of this...

    £550