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  1. ARNIGIO, Bartolomeo. 

    Rime dell’Arnigio per la ill[ustre] signora Claudia Martinenga. 

    Brescia, Giovanni Battista Bozzola, 1566. 

    First edition of Bartolomeo Arnigio’s collection of poems addressed to Claudia Martinengo, wife to Ludovico Martinengo della Pallata, an important association copy presented by the author to fellow poet Antonio Beffa Negrini. 

    £1750

  2. SHEPHERD, Richard Herne.

    Forgotten Books worth remembering … No. I. Studies of Sensation and Event by Ebenezer Jones …

    London, Pickering & Co … 1878.

    An interesting collection of ‘rare tracts’, from the library of the Scottish lawyer and journalist John Skelton, who wrote for Blackwood’s under the pseudonym ‘Shirley’.

    £950

  3. DAVENANT, William, Sir.

    Two excellent Plays: the Wits, a Comedie: the Platonick Lovers, a Tragi-Comedie. Both presented...

    London, Printed for G. Bedel, and T. Collins … 1665

    First collected edition of two plays first published in 1636, probably published to fill the revenue gap after the temporary closure of the theatres in 1665 because of the Plague.

    £950

  4. GOBINET, Charles. 

    Instruction sur la vérité du Saint Sacrement, contenant en abregé les principaux motifs de la créance Catholique...

    Paris, François le Cointe, 1677. 

    Scarce first edition thus, containing an explanation of the Eucharist and a defence of transubstantiation by the French writer and teacher Charles Gobinet (1613–1690), a lovely copy bearing a stamp found on bindings executed for Louis de France, the Grand Dauphin (1661–1711), eldest son of Louis...

    £650

  5. POSTEL, Guillaume. 

    De originibus, seu, de varia et potissimum orbi Latino ad hanc diem incognita, aut inconsyderata historia,...

    Basel, Johannes Oporinus, [1553].

    First edition of Postel’s investigations into the original language as a means to regain the primordial unity of mankind. 

    £3500

  6. ZENO of Verona, Saint

    In presenti opusculo infrascripta continentur.  Sermones luculentissimi …  Omelie & admonitiones...

    Venice, Giacomo Penzio for Benedetto Fontana, 24 January 1508. 

    Rare first edition of the sermons of Zeno of Verona, edited by Guarino and published here along with the sermons of Caesarius of Arles and Origen, and other homiletic material, especially Marian. 

    £1500

  7. COLONNA, Fabio. 

    Φυτοβασανος, sive Plantarum aliquot historia … 

    Naples, Orazio Salviani, 1592. 

    First edition, a landmark in botanical illustration, ‘the first strictly botanical book with intaglio prints’ (Blunt). 

    £4000

  8. RILKE, Rainer Maria. 

    Les Fenêtres.  Dix poèmes de Rainer Maria Rilke illustrés de dix eaux-fortes par Baladine. 

    Paris, Officina Sanctandreana, 1927.

    First edition, numbered 146 of 500 copies on pur fil, of a total edition of 515.  A series of ten poems in French addressed by Rilke to his lover ‘Mouky’ or ‘Baladine’ Klossowska, who herself provided the illustrations.  Elisabeth Dorothea Klossowska née Spiro (1886–1969)...

    £1200

  9. CARTARI, Vincenzo. 

    Le imagini con la spositione de i dei de gli antichi. 

    Venice, per Francesco Marcolini, 1556. 

    First edition of Cartari’s influential and successful treatise on the mythology of the ancients. Cartari concentrated on the iconography of the gods, explaining their guises and detailing their several attributes. His book was expressively written to aid artists, painters, and sculptors to...

    £800

  10. GOETHE, Johan Wolfgang von; Boris Leonidovich PASTERNAK, translator

    Тайны [Tainy; ‘Die Geheimnisse’ or ‘The...

    Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Sovremennik, 1922. 

    First and only edition, very rare, of Pasternak’s early translation of Goethe’s epic fragment Die Geheimnisse (The Mysteries); with a long introductory note by Professor Grigorii Rachinskii.

    £1200

  11. LOCATELLI, Lodovico. 

    Theatro d’Arcani … nel quale si tratta dell’arte chimica, et suoi arcani, con gli afforismi d’Ippocrate...

    Milan, Gio. Pietro Ramellati, 1644. 

    First edition of Locatelli’s alchemical tract, which includes the first Italian translation of Paracelsus. 

    £2500

  12. SCARRON, Paul. 

    Le Marquis ridicule, ou la comtesse faite à la haste.  Comedie … Suivant la copie imprimée a Paris. 

    [Leiden, Elzevier], 1656.  [bound with:]

    First Elzevier editions, very rare, of these two plays by Scarron, pirated after the text of the first editions printed in Paris.  A finely bound volume with excellent Elzevierian provenance. 

    £800

  13. DELLOYE, H.-L. (editor).

    Chants et chansons populaires de la France [– notices par M. du Mersan], première [– deuxième;...

    Paris, Félix Locquin [– Dondey-Dupré; – Félix Locquin] for Garnier, 1843.

    First edition of a finely illustrated, serially published collection of French music, broad-margined, extra-illustrated, and accompanied by the later fourth series. Formed of four series of twenty-eight issues, sold individually at sixty centimes from February 1842, the Chants et chansons populaires...

    £450

  14. BERARDI, Angelo.

    Documenti armonici …

    Bologna, Giacomo Monti, 1687.

    First edition, an exhaustive study of counterpoint by the composer and music theorist Angelo Berardi (c. 1636–1694), a pupil of Marco Scacchi and at this time canon at the college of S. Angelo, Viterbo.

    £1750

  15. CLARI, Giovanni Carlo Maria.

    Manuscript score of a collection of six two-part madrigals: ‘N° VI Madrigali a due voci’.

    Italy, mid-eighteenth century.

    A collection of secular madrigals for two voices by Clari (1677–1754), written for soprano/bass, soprano/alto, and soprano/tenor, each with instrumental bass accompaniment. The madrigals included here are: Il Soldato poltrone, Il Musica ignorante, L’Amante disperato, Amante...

    £1800

  16. SACCHI, Giovenale. 

    Del numero e delle misure delle corde musiche e loro corrispondenze.  Dissertazione del P. D. Giovenale...

    Milan, [Giuseppe Mazzucchelli (colophon),] 1761. 

    First edition of Sacchi’s first work: a theoretical study of music and acoustic from a mathematical and physical perspective built upon the most innovative eighteenth-century physics. 

    £850

  17. CLARI, Giovanni Carlo Maria.

    Manuscript score ‘VI Duetti Madrigaleschi’.

    [Italian, late eighteenth century?]

    A collection of six madrigals for two voices, comprising ‘La Moglie gelosa’, ‘Il Pellegrino’, ‘Il Vanegio’, ‘L’ambizio indigente’, ‘Il Pazzo inamorato’, ‘Il Maestro di Cappella che compone alla Mosaica’.

    £850

  18. [GRAND TOUR.]

    Sammelband of nine manuscript and four printed works for solo piano and for voice with piano accompaniment.

    [Italy and Germany, c. 1815.]

    An attractive compilation of solo piano music and popular songs, gathered partly in Italy circa 1815–16 (no doubt during a Grand Tour) and bound up in England shortly afterwards.

    £2500

  19. [FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.]

    Psalms, Hymns & Anthems used in the Chapel of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of exposed &...

    [London], 1774 [but c. 1780?]

    The Foundling Hospital was established by Thomas Coram in 1739 as Britain’s first charity for the care of orphaned or abandoned children. ‘The Hospital chapel, in use by 1749 and officially opened in 1753, soon became well known for its music as well as for its elegant architecture and adornments’...

    £750

  20. ESSER, [Karl?] Michael, Ritter von.

    Sei Quartetti per due violini viola, e basso composti espressamente per una Società...

    [Venice, Marescalchi e Canobbio, 1774?]

    First edition, very rare, of a complete set of quartet part books published in Venice by the composer–publishers Marescalchi and Canobbio. 

    £1750