Recent Acquisitions

  1. [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

  2. [MACKY, John.]

    A Journey through England. In familiar Letters from a Gentleman here, to his Friend abroad … The Second Edition,...

    London: Printed for J. Hooke … 1722.

    Second edition of Vol. I, more than a hundred pages longer than the edition of 1714 and long delayed because ‘immediately after the Publication …. Queen Anne’s Death, and King George’s Accession to the Throne, took up so much of the Attention of Mankind, that the Author could...

    £950

  3. [WISHART, George.]

    I. G. de rebus auspiciis serenssimi, & potentissimi Caroli Dei gratia Magnae Brittanniae, Franciae & Hiberniae...

    [Amsterdam or The Hague,] 1647.

    First edition, rare, a fine paper copy in a handsome binding, of an account of the campaign of James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, against the Covenanters in 1644−46.

    £1750

  4. [WALKER, Patrick.]

    Some remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr. Alexander Peden, late Minister of the Gospel at Glenluce...

    Glasgow: J. and M. Robertson, 1794.

    Very rare chapbook life of the Covenanter Alexander Peden (1626–1686), first published 1724 and much reprinted; the ‘second part’ first appeared in an edition of 1778.

    £225

  5. SPOTISWOOD, John.

    An Introduction to the Knowledge of the Stile of Writs, Simple and Compound, made Use of in Scotland ... The...

    Edinburgh: William Brown and John Mosman, and sold by William Brown, 1727.

    Third edition, annotated by Neil Ballingall (1750–1843), factor to the Balfour family at Balbirnie, Fife.

    £500

  6. MARTIN, Theodore, Sir.

    Horace and his Friends. Two Lectures delivered at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution …

    Printed for private Circulation. 1881.

    First editions of two privately-printed pamphlets by the poet, translator and biographer Theodore Martin (1816–1909) – presentation copies, to the Scottish journalist John Skelton, a frequent contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine (as was Martin).

    £400

  7. CHALMERS [CHAMBERS], David, Lord Ormond.

    Histoire abbregée de toutes les Roys de France, Angletaire, et Escosse … [with:]...

    Paris, Robert Coulombel ‘at the sign of Aldus’, 1579.

    First edition of the three principal works of David Chalmers (c. 1530–1592), a faithful follower of Mary, Queen of Scots, who appointed him Lord of Session and Privy Counsellor.

    £2500

  8. [AQUHORTIES.]

    Abstract of the Rules and Regulations for the Students in the College of Aquhorties …

    Edinburgh, J. Moir, [1799?].

    Broadside rules for the newly established Aquhorties College, the only Roman Catholic college in Scotland, presumably designed to be posted up around the school.

    £850

  9. [ALMANACK.]

    Edinburgh Almanack, for the Year M.DCC.LI. being the third after leap year …

    Edinburgh, R. Fleming, and sold by the Widow of James Voy, [1750.]

    Very rare Edinburgh almanack for the year 1751, dedicated on the title-page to the provost, baillies and council of the city.

    £325

  10. LA SALLE, Jean-Baptiste, Saint. 

    Les règles de la bienséance et de la civilité chrétienne, divisées en deux parties. 

    Rheims, Le Batard [– Barbier], 1808. 

    Rare edition of La Salle’s pedagogical work, printed in civilité type and bound in printed and manuscript waste.  The Règles of St Jean-Baptiste La Salle (1651–1719) first appeared in 1702 and, an immediate success, were reprinted innumerable times until well into the nineteenth...

    £750

  11. BUCKNILL, Charles.

    Notes from medical lectures.

    London, February – April 1798.

    A most interesting medical manuscript by one Charles Bucknill recording lectures given in 1798 by the Scottish anatomist Matthew Baillie (1761–1823) and the English obstetrician John Clarke (1758–1815). Bucknill – likely a forebear of the psychiatrist and mental health reformer Sir John...

    £4500

  12. JUVENAL.

    The Satires … translated: with explanatory and classical Notes, relating to the Laws and Customs of the Greeks and Romans …

    London: Printed for J. Nicholson, in Cambridge; and sold by S. Crowder … and J. and F. Rivington … 1777.

    Third edition of this parallel-text translation edited by Thomas Sheridan, first published 1739.

    £1250

  13. [MONTEMAYOR, Jorge de, and Gaspar GIL POLO.]

    The Troublesome and Hard Adventures in Love. Lively setting forth, the Feavers, the...

    London, Printed by B. Alsop ... 1652 [but 1651].

    The rare second edition of a text of 1594 known in a single imperfect copy (STC 153.3).

    £7500

  14. [BROOKES, Joshua, Paul, or John?.]

    Bous Potamous, or the River Cow of Egypt, from the Banks of the Nile, (A Species of the Hippopotamus)...

    [London, dated in manuscript May 1799.]

    Unique broadside advertising the exhibition, and subsequent sale, of a live hippopotamus – possibly the earliest record of a live hippo in England – they were notoriously difficult to transport and keep alive and the arrival of a baby at London Zoo in 1849 was touted as the first in Europe...

    £1850

  15. ARM’S OF TILLY (The).

    The Virtues and Effects, of the Remedy, named Medicamentum gratia probatum, id ist: the Remedy approved...

    [Colophon:] Printe [sic] by John Enschedé, Printer of the City of Haarlem in Holland, [c. 1764–73].

    Unrecorded printing of an advertising broadside for Haarlem Oil, a panacea containing ingredients such as sulphur and terebinth oil which is still sold today as a dietary supplement. The oil was first marketed in 1696 by Claes Tilly, a Haarlem schoolmaster, who was succeeded by his step grandchild...

    £1500

  16. BOURNE, Immanuel.

    A Gold Chain of Directions, with twenty Gold-Linkes of Love, to preserve Love firm between Husband and Wife,...

    London, Printed by J. Streater, for George Sawbridge … 1669.

    First edition, very rare, of a charming work of marriage guidance, inscribed by the author ‘To my welbeloved sonn Mr Obadiah Bourne … daily prayinge to Gode for a blessing uppon him and upon the people under his charge … with mine and Deare mothers Blessinge I give this little book for a...

    £1750

  17. [FORZONI, Stefano.] 

    Metodo facile trovato coll’esperienza di piu’ anni utilissimo per difendere i grani dalla Volpe, o sia...

    Florence, nella stamperia Bonducciana, 1772. 

    First and only edition of this rare treatise on the mitigation of volpe, a blight affecting up to half of Tuscan grain harvests of 1772, by a member of the agriculturally minded Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence. 

    £275

  18. HOMER; Alexander POPE, translator

    The Odyssey of Homer.  Translated by Alexander Pope, Esq.  To which is added, The...

    London, Baynes & Son (and others) [upper cover: ‘Printed for The Proprietors of the English Classics, by J. F. Dove, St. John’s Square’],...

    Pocket-sized edition of Pope’s translations of the Odyssey and the Batrachomyomachia, with a fine frontispiece and additional title engraved by Charles Rolls; a very well-preserved copy in the original printed boards. 

    £125

  19. HORACE. 

    ‘Horace en vers françois’. 

    [France, c. 1760.] 

    A seemingly unpublished handsome eighteenth-century manuscript comprising selections from Horace’s Odes, Epodes, Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica in the original Latin with accompanying French translation by an unidentified author. 

    £650

  20. DENIS THE CARTHUSIAN. 

    I duo libri della dottrina & regole della vita de i Christiani, non prima che hora stampati.  Ne’ quali...

    Venice, Michele Tramezzino, 1565. 

    First edition of an Italian translation of the De doctrina et regulis vitae Christianae libri II by the theologian and mystic Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471), with a dedication by the publisher Michele Tramezzino to Sister Marina Moro, a nun at the convent of Corpus Domini in Venice. 

    £850