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.
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CAREY, Henry Charles.
Principles of social science … In three volumes …
Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1858-1859.
First edition, a very attractive copy, of Carey’s principal work. ‘His treatment of social science was original, and led him to a series of supposed discoveries, the order of which he has stated in the introduction of his most important work The Principles of Social Science. His point of departure...
£500
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[CLIFFORD, Jeronimy].
The case of Jeronimy Clifford, merchant and planter of Surinam. Paper, No. 160.
[London, n.p., 1711].
First extended account of Clifford’s long-running legal battle with the Dutch West India Company in Surinam over Corcabo, his sugar plantation. The earlier publications had been just four pages long; this work furnishes us with plantation account details and testimonies, chronologically arranged with...
£650
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[COAL].
The miner’s journal. Coal statistical register, for 1869… also, statistics of the iron trade… rates of wages… together...
Pottsville, PA, Miners’ Journal Office, 1869.
First edition, rare. A synopsis of the trade, transportation and activities connected with coal between Pennsylvania and New York. The Miner’s Journal tracked the pulse of American coal trade, including importations of foreign coal and exports of domestic material. It prided itself on circulating ‘more...
£125
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COMTE, Auguste, and Albert CROMPTON (editor).
Confessions and Testament of August Comte: and his correspondence with...
Liverpool, Young, 1910.
First edition in English of Comte’s Confessions, which first appeared with his ‘testament’ in French in 1884. These take the form of ‘Twelve Saint Clotildes’, a series of annual confessions which he recited to his muse’s grave. Clotilde de Vaux was a divorced woman whom Comte met...
£80
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[CONDORCET, Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de].
Vie de Monsieur Turgot.
‘Londres’, [i.e. Paris?, n.p.], 1786.
First edition of the sole example of Condorcet’s economic writings to employ mathematics. Condorcet’s use of ‘the sign ∫ as a sign of summation of finite quantities’ is an ‘innovation’ in his ten-page footnoted discussion of the various ways ‘in which indirect taxation could be replaced...
£200
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COPE, Walter, Sir.
‘Enchiridion. Certaine breife Remonstrances offered unto his Ma[jes]tie … Touching divers Inconveniences...
[London?], 1613.
A fine, unpublished manuscript treatise on the balance of trade, dedicated to James I, by the administrator, politician, and collector Sir Walter Cope (c. 1553–1614).
£11000
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[DARIEN EXPEDITION].
A perfect list of the several persons residenters in Scotland, who have subscribed as adventurers in the joynt-stock...
Glasgow, reprinted by Hutchinson & Brookman, 1827.
First edition of this reprint of the list, first published in Edinburgh in 1696, of subscribers to William Paterson’s Company of Scotland. Paterson (1658-1719) sat on the first board of the Bank of England, but left following a disagreement with the other board members. Following this he devoted himself...
£50
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DEPARCIEUX, Antoine.
Essai sur les probabilités de la durée de la vie humaine; d’où l’on déduit la manière de déterminer...
Paris, chez les frères Guerin, 1746.
A large, crisp and illustrious copy of the first edition of a classic of statistical science: it is the first to define expectation of life – which Deparcieux calls ‘la vie moyenne’ – and the first to contain life tables for men and women.
£3000
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DE VITI DE MARCO, Antonio.
Principii di economia finanziaria.
Turin, Giulio Einaudi, 1939.
Revised and definitive edition. The economist and politician Antonio De Viti de Marco (1858–1943) was Professor of Political Economy and Public Finance at the Universities of Camerino, Macerata, Piava, and Rome. He ‘was not a prolific writer – he spent much time patiently revising his own works –...
£150
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DOBB, Maurice.
On economic theory and socialism. Collected papers.
London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1956.
First edition, second impression. This work includes Dobb’s critique of ‘market socialism’ as developed by Oscar Lange and Abba Lerner, which first appeared in the Economic Journal, (1933).
£20
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[DOBB, Maurice.] FEINSTEIN, C. H., editor.
Socialism, Capitalism and Economic Growth. Essays presented to Maurice Dobb.
Cambridge, University Press, 1967.
First edition. A Festschrift for Maurice Dobb with contributions from Joan Robinson, Michael Kalecki, Jan Tinbergen, Robert Solow, etc. It is valuable too, for the comprehensive bibliography of Dobb’s writings.
£60
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DOUBLEDAY, Thomas.
The Touchstone: a series of letters on social, literary, and political subjects. Originally published in the...
Newcastle, R. Todd, 1863.
First edition. Thomas Doubleday (1790–1870), the son of a Newcastle soap manufacturer, ‘was a radical of Cobbett’s stamp [and] of great influence during the agitation for the Reform Act of 1832’ (Palgrave I, 634). He had also indirectly attacked Malthus in The True Law of Population shewn to...
£250
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DUBOIS-AYMÉ [Jean Marie Joseph Aimé DUBOIS, known as].
Examen de quelques questions d’économie politique, et notamment de...
Paris, Pelicier, 1823.
First edition. Dubois-Aymé uses mathematical methodology to examine two of the cases he considers. In the first instance he ‘compares the power due to the riches of two countries. This power he maintains is in proportion to the goods available to each country over and above its indispensable requirements...
£250
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DUNOYER, Charles-Bathélemy.
L’industrie et la morale considérées dans leurs rapports avec la liberté.
Paris, A. Sautelet, 1825.
First edition of this defence of the old economic liberalism against the new democracy by the French economist and politician Dunoyer (1786-1863). ‘In anticipation of Spencer, Dunoyer here developed the idea that society was an organism, in which it fell to the lot of a congeries of institutions and...
£150
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[FASCISM.]
Ordinamento Corporativo dello Stato Fascista.
Padua, Edizione di propaganda corporative, 1935.
Italian Fascism primarily followed the economic model of corporatism to organise capital and labour interest groups into trade unions and employer associations such as agriculture, industry, commercial trade, professionals and artists, as well as banks and credit associations. These trade associations...
£2500
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FAY, Charles Ryle.
Copartnership in Industry.
Cambridge, at the University Press, 1913.
First edition. Charles Ryle Fay (1884–1961) was a favourite pupil of Alfred Marshall, and in 1908 was elected to a fellowship at Christ’s College where he later became a reader in Economic History.
£50
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FENNING, Daniel.
The Ready Reckoner; or Trader’s most useful Assistant, in buying and selling all sorts of Commodities either...
London: Printed for S. Crowder … and B. C. Collins … in Salisbury. 1785.
First edition thus, edited by the mathematician and almanac-maker Joseph Moon of Salisbury.
£250
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FISHER, George.
The instructor: or, young man’s best companion … to which is added the family’s best companion.
London, for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch et al. [not before 1735].
Second edition (the first appeared in 1727). ‘Volumes entitled “The Young Man’s companion” exist in many versions and go back to the 1680s when William Mather produced the first of them. They are compendiums of useful information, intended for self-improvement. They concentrate on English, Mathematics,...
£350
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FISHER, Irving.
The theory of interest. As determined by impatience of spending income and opportunity to invest it.
New York, Macmillan, 1930.
First edition. Fisher’s Theory of Interest, a revised version of his earlier book The Rate of Interest (1907), was dedicated to John Rae and Böhm-Bawerk, and is a further development of their ideas: ‘its greatness as a book lies wholly in its outstanding pedagogic qualities......
£750
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FISHER, Irving.
Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices. Read April 27, 1892. [in:] Transactions of...
New Haven, by the Academy, 1892.
First appearance of Fisher’s ‘startlingly original PhD thesis’ (Blaug) which contained, among other things, the design of a machine to illustrate general equilibrium in a multi-market economy. This work expounds his monetary theories and established his international reputation.
£5500