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. ANDREADES, Andreas Michael.

    De la monnaie et de la puissance d’achat des métaux précieux dans l’Empire Byzantin . . . Extrait...

    Liège, Imprimerie H. Vaillant-Carmanne, 1924.

    An offprint, with its own title-page and pagination, of this important study. This is a presentation copy, inscribed in ink ‘To Robert Byron. A. A.’ at the head of the front wrapper. Andreades was the first professor of public finance at the University of Athens and the author of a monumental work...

    £45

  2. ANGELL, Sir Norman.

    The money game.

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

    Early edition of this ‘new instrument in economic education’. This unusual, yet educational game combines strategy and economics to provide a little-known, but deeply rewarding alternative to Monopoly. ‘The Money Game’ aims to teach players the principles of economics, including the mechanisms...

    £100

  3. ANTWERP, William C. van.

    The Stock Exchange from Within. Illustrated from photographs.

    New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913.

    First edition of this historical account of the New York Stock Exchange.

    £50

  4. [BANK OF ENGLAND].

    RICARDO, Samson, and others. Collection of 12 works on the Bank of England,

    1837-1838.

    Twelve rare and important texts, witnessing the dispute between J. Horsley Palmer, merchant, banker and governor of the Bank of England, the economist Ricardo Samson, and the banker Samuel Loyd-Jones, one of the leading figures in the monetary history of England: a notable sammelband with a remarkable...

    £2500

  5. [BANK OF SCOTLAND.]

    Act of Parliament for erecting a bank in Scotland. Edinburgh, July 17 1695.

    Edinburgh, printed by the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, 1695.

    Very rare edition of the Act of Parliament establishing Scotland’s first and oldest bank, founded just one year after the Bank of England.

    £650

  6. BELLONI, Girolami, Marchese.

    Del Commercio dissertazione.

    Rome, Niccolo and Marco Pagliarini, 1757.

    Second edition to be authorized by Belloni, (first, 1750) – the first edition to include the author’s considerations on ‘imaginary money’ (pp. 135-154) – of a work notable for its argument in favour of restrictions on the export of money by the Vatican banker Girolamo Belloni (1688–1760)....

    £300

  7. BODEMER, Heinrich.

    Die Wirkungen der Creditpapiere in Bezug die Vehmehrung der Banken in Deutschland.

    Leipzig, Heinrich Hubner, 1853.

    First edition of a rare German treatise on banking, money, paper money and credit. Bodemer argues for a bettering and widening of credit in Prussia at a crucial time of its economic development, where both production and trade required ever more more advanced, unified and modern financial tools.

    £125

  8. BROGGI, Ugo.

    Die Axiome der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung.

    Göttingen, Dieterischen Universitäts-Buchdruckerei, 1907.

    Rare first edition of this doctoral dissertation on the solution of Hilbert’s sixth problem, written under the supervision of David Hilbert. The problem posed tried to axiomatize those branches of science in which mathematics is prevalent. Broggi here aims to establish a system with which to prove...

    £200

  9. CHARLES, King of Sweden and Norway, or OSCAR I (attrib. authors), and Friedrich Ernst FELLER (translator).

    Ueber die Banken. (Von einem schwedischen Fürsten). Deutsch von F....

    Leipzig, Goetz, 1843.

    First edition thus, scarce, of a treatise on banks, banking and money in Sweden in the crucial years from 1800 to 1842, probably a translation of Om banker; skrift meddelad i Conseljen den 15 augusti 1842, attributed to Karl XIV Johan by Linnström, Svenskt boklexikon. Humpert’s...

    £125

  10. [ENGLAND, PARLIAMENT.]

    An ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament. For the speedy raising and levying of moneyes,...

    London, for John Wright, 27 July 1643.

    The ordinance which introduced Excise into England. ‘Excise’ is defined in the OED as follows: ‘A duty charged on home goods, either in the process of their manufacture or before their sale to the home consumers … In England this kind of taxation was first adopted in 1643, in acknowledged imitation...

    £275

  11. ESCHER, Franklin.

    Practical Investing.

    New York, The Bankers Publishing Co., 1914.

    First edition. In the words of a contemporary reviewer, this book “is most serviceable and has the lasting virtue of dealing with a technical subject in a readable manner” (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, p. 245). Concise and accessible, this early work of investment...

    £100

  12. 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

  13. FORTUNE, Thomas.

    A concise and authentic history of the Bank of England. With dissertations on medals & coin, bank notes and bills...

    London, Boosey, 1802.

    Third edition, ‘with considerable additions’. The first two editions of 1797, says Fortune in his ‘advertisement’, were written to defend the bank against the calumny it received from the public after the financial scares in that year, when the bank was forced to suspend specie payments. This...

    £275

  14. FROST, Thomas Gold.

    A treatise on guaranty insurance: including therein as subsidiary branches the law of fidelity, commercial,...

    Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1902.

    Only edition of the first treatise on the theory and practice of guaranty insurance law and its branches.

    £125

  15. [FULIGNATI, Giuntino (pseud. for Tommaso BUONI?)].

    Della famosissima compagnia della lesina. Dialogo, capitoli, e ragionamenti...

    Vicenza, Giorgio Greco, 1601.

    Scarce humorous dystopia of indigence, first edition thus: the first to include a section specifically directed at women. Styled as the statutes and histories of a fictitious society, the ‘Company of Stinginess’, founded to promote thrift in an age of economic depression and scarcity, made its debut...

    £475

  16. GARRIDO, Joam Antonio.

    Taboada curiosa, novamente reformada, e augmentada, em que se trata de todas as regras geraes, e especies...

    Lisbon, Ignacio Nogueira Xisto, 1759.

    Sixth edition of a rare Portuguese merchant’s guide. ‘This all-purpose handbook includes rates of exchange for European currencies, rules for basic math, instructions on bookkeeping for companies, rules of spelling and pronunciation, and a number of odd lists: e.g. notable items for the numbers 1-12,...

    £250

  17. GASTALDI, Louis.

    De la liberté commerciale, du crédit et des banques, avec projet d’une banque générale du crédit et...

    Turin, Mussano, 1840.

    First edition, a very attractive copy with a good provenance, of this important monograph on credit and the banking system, and its role as support in the creation of wealth.

    £850

  18. [GREAT BRITAIN: PARLIAMENT].

    [Drop-head title:] ‘An act for repealing the several duties of customs and excise, and granting...

    London, Charles Eyre and Andrew Strahan, 1787.

    Rare first edition of the consolidation act that revolutionised British handling of customs and excise and the problem of smuggling, in line with Adam Smith’s 1776 recommendations.

    £2750

  19. [GREENE, Asa.]

    The perils of Pearl Street, including a taste of the dangers of Wall Street, by a late merchant.

    New York, Betts & Anstice and Peter Hill, 1834.

    First edition of a very early Wall Street novella, the fictional tale of Billy Hazard, an innocent carpenter’s son from rural New York state determined to make it as a merchant in the city. Billy’s attempts to establish himself in the mercantile trade in New York City are ultimately unsuccessful...

    £2750

  20. [HAMBURG.] 

    A sammelband of material relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg. 

    [Germany, 1842.] 

    A fine and unusual volume of materials relating to the Great Fire of Hamburg of May 1842, comprising a long article by Joseph Mendelssohn published over five issues of Der Komet, special issues of several periodicals devoted to the disaster, a rare poem by Margarethe Hedwig Hülle, and...

    £850