Continental
Contact Alex Day, Andrea Mazzocchi, Jonathan Harrison, Charlotte Miller or Sally Deegan
Our Continental department specialises in incunabula, Greek and Latin classics, early vernacular imprints, and notable texts from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the early modern era, with a specific section devoted to medieval manuscripts, fragments, and illuminations.
We regularly issue lists and catalogues, offering a wide variety of literary, historical, and philosophical books printed in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Woodcuts, early engravings, notable bindings, notable marginalia, rare manuscript or printed survivals, and books with a remarkable provenance are among our keenest interests and feature regularly in our stock.
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[ALMANACK.]
Calendarium Tyrnaviense ad annum Jesu Chris[ti] M. DCC. XXXI[.] …
[Tyrnau (Trnava), 1731.]
A remarkable almanack binding of part-printed, part-manuscript vellum, prepared for presentation at the Habsburg court in Vienna to the Genoese diplomat Clemente Doria.
£1850
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[ALMANACK.]
L’Esprit des chansonniers, extrain [sic?] des meilleurs poëtes.
Paris, Le Fuel, [1826?].
A very rare enamelled metal binding with an enchanting design of birds and squirrels, from the collection of the bookbinder, collector, and bibliographer Léon Gruel.
£2750
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[ALMANACK.]
Les etrennes a la rose, ou le rosier d’amour.
Paris, Janet, [1804?].
A charming literary almanack, or ‘rosebush of love’, collecting amatory poems using the motif of the rose, here bound in red silk strikingly embroidered in silver and dated with the French Revolutionary year ‘An XII’ (1804).
£2500
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[BASKERVILLE PRESS.]
The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church,...
Third and final edition of Baskerville’s octavo prayer book. The prayers for the Royal Family on cancels B8, C6, and D3 include the name of Queen Charlotte, whom George III married in 1761. This copy also includes the ‘occasional prayers’ which were only printed for part of the edition and are...
£1200
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BIBLE.
Biblia cum concordantiis veteris et novi testamenti et sacrorum canonum: necnon & additionibus in marginibus varietatis...
[(Colophon:) Lyons, Jean Marion, for Anton II Koberger in Nuremberg, 19 August 1520.]
A handsomely printed Bible in a contemporary Silesian or Bohemian binding, richly annotated by a Protestant scholar and with numerous woodcuts in contemporary colouring.
£5500
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[BIBLE.]
The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments … diligently compared and revised …
Oxford, T. Wright and W. Gill, 1769.
First quarto edition of the Oxford ‘standard’ Bible, as revised by Benjamin Blayney of Hertford College, Oxford (1728–1801), later Regius Professor of Hebrew. The quarto and folio editions of 1769, of which this was the first to be finished, were printed from the same setting of type differently...
£5250
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[CATECHISM.]
Catechismus, das ist Christliche Erklärung der Sechs haupt Stücke Christlicher Lehre, sampt der Hauss-Taffel, und...
[Strasbourg,] Johann Heinrich Heitz, 1751.
Seemingly unrecorded editions of two German catechistical works aimed at children in Strasbourg, in small format suited to the pocket, and in an attractive local contemporary binding.
£450
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CHALMERS, David.
Histoire abbregee de tous les roys de France, Angleterre et Escosse, mise en ordre par forme d’Harmonie: contenant...
Paris, Jean Fevrier, 1579.
First edition of Chalmer’s historical work focusing on Scotland’s relations with France and England, written at a time of marriage negotiations between England and France, seeking to dispel the idea that England had any overlordship over Scotland.
£950
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[CRIMEAN WAR.]
Les militaires chrétiens a la guerre d’orient. Récompenses annuelles.
Versailles, Beau jeune, [1856].
First and only edition, rare, of this unusual cartonnage giftbook history of the Crimean War.
£375
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CUJAS, Jacques.
Iacobi Cuiacii celeberrimi I. C. recitationes in II. et IV. libros Decretalium. Nunc primum in lucem editae.
Speyer, Bernhard Albin, 1594.
First edition of these commentaries on the Decretals of Gregory IX by the famous French jurist Jacques Cujas (1522–1590), printed in Speyer and bound in doeskin.
£750
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DIONYSIUS of Halicarnassus.
Antiquitatum Rom. libri XI. Ab Aemylio Porto recens & post aliorum interpretationes Latine redditi.
Geneva, Jacob Stoer, 1614.
A rare pocket-sized edition of Dionysius of Halicarnassus on the early history of Rome, in an armorial binding for Adrien Poërier.
£450
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[EMBROIDERED BINDING.]
Etrennes mignonnes, pour l’an de grace de Notre Seigneur M. DCC. LIII. …
Liège, Everard Kints, [1753].
A charming almanack for 1753 printed in Liège by Everard Kints – bookseller, printer, and wine merchant – here in a delightful embroidered binding with raised work in silver thread surrounding a skilfully executed floral arrangement.
£400
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[GORIZIA.]
Directorium liturgicum sanctae metropolitanae ecclesiae Goritiensis jussu et auctoritate celsissimi et reverendissimi...
Gorizia, [Antonio] Paternolli, [1845].
Two very rare annual publications relating to the archdiocese of Gorizia, located in northeastern Italy at the foot of the Julian Alps bordering Slovenia, issued by Franz Xaver Luschin, Archbishop of Gorizia and Gradisca from 1835 to 1854, in its attractive original binding with viticultural motifs.
£175
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GRUEL, Léon, and ENGELMANN, Godefroy.
Petites heures.
Paris, Gruel-Engelmann, [(colophon:) 1875].
First edition of this chromolithographic masterpiece published by Gruel and Engelmann, with twenty-five miniatures derived from those in the Walters Art Museum manuscript W.425, then in the possession of Léon Gruel.
£950
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HAMILTON, ‘Eliza’ [Elizabeth].
Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah; written previous to, and during the Period of...
London, J. Crowder for G. & J. Robinson, 1801.
Second edition of Hamilton’s first separately published work, a pseudo-Oriental satire on British society, in a very well-preserved gilt paper binding imitating calf.
£575
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HOSSCHIUS, Sidronius.
Sidronii Hosschii e Societate Iesu elegiarum libri sex. Praemittuntur illustrissimorum virorum poemata in...
Antwerp, Balthasar Moretus ‘ex officina Plantiniana’, 1656.
First collected edition of the neo-Latin verse of the Flemish Jesuit and poet Sidronius Hosschius (Sidron de Hossche, 1596–1653), edited after his death by his fellow poet Jacques van de Walle (1599–1690), and prefaced with poems on Hosschius’ death commissioned by the future Pope Alexander...
£600
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HURTADO, Eugenio, scribe.
[Missal for feast days.]
Madrid, 1827.
An extraordinary and enormous liturgical manuscript with painted and stencilled decorations, in a remarkable binding on wheels for ease of movement
£9500
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LEVEY, Michael.
The later Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen … second edition.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Revised second edition of Levey’s catalogue of the later Italian paintings in the Royal Collection, from Carracci to Zuccarelli and including the largest group of Canalettos in the world, a specially bound duplicate of Elizabeth II’s presentation copy.
£475
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LUCAN.
Pharsalia cum annotationibus in margine adiectis, quae brevis commentarii vice esse possint.
Antwerp, Michael Hillenius, 1528.
An uncommon edition of Lucan’s poem on the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey, with extensive Breton provenance and contemporary annotations, in a contemporary binding.
£2500
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MEFFRET, Johann.
Sermones Meffreth alias Ortulus regine de tempore. Pars hyemalis.
[Basel, Nicolaus Kesler, not after 1485.]
A volume of sermons with early English annotations, in a binding featuring tools attributed to an early Cambridge workshop known as the Unicorn Binder.
£6500