Foreign Literature

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This department specialises in rare and important works of French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and South American literature from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Here you can find first editions and signed or presentation copies of authors as diverse as Akhmatova, Balzac, Borges, Camus, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Goethe, Goldoni, Hugo, Kafka, Leopardi, Lorca, Manzoni, Pirandello, Pushkin, Schiller, Tolstoy, Zola, and many others. Among the important works which have passed through our hands are the original working manuscript of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, now in the Pushkin House in St Petersburg, the only known copy of the first edition of Brecht's first play, Baal (1920) with his working notes, and an extraordinary collection of Pushkin first editions.
  1. ALBERTI, Leon Battista.

    El Momo. La moral e muy graciosa historia...

    Alcalá de Henares, Joan Mey Flandro, 1553.

    First edition in Spanish of Alberti’s...

    £3800

  2. ANSELMI, Giorgio, the younger

    Georgii Anselmi nepotis Epigrammaton libri...

    Venice, Maffeo Pasini, September 1528. 

    The definitive edition of the epigrams...

    £875

  3. ARNIGIO, Bartolomeo. 

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

    Brescia, Giovanni Battista Bozzola, 1566. 

    First edition of Bartolomeo Arnigio’s...

    £1750

  4. BARTOLI, Adolfo.

    Scenari inediti della Commedia dell’arte....

    Florence, Sansoni, 1880.

    Rare first edition, one of only 350...

    £500

  5. BEISNER, Monika.

    Dante Alighieri: La Commedia in 100 tavole.

    Turin, Attini, 2021.

    Limited edition, one of 500 numbered...

    £60

  6. FAGNANI, Giovanni Marco. 

    De bello Arriano libri sex. 

    Milan, heirs of Pacifico da Ponte and...

    First and only edition of the sole published...

    £900

  7. GONZAGA, Curzio.

    Il Fido amante, poema eroico.

    Mantua, [(colophon:) Giacomo Ruffinello, 1582].

    First edition of an Italian Renaissance...

    £600

  8. GRAY, [Thomas].

    Poems by Mr. Gray.

    Dublin, William Sleater, 1775.

    An attractive Dublin edition of Gray’s...

    £125

  9. GUERINI, Professor Giovanni.

    Fireside Entertainments; or, A Series of...

    London: Chapman and Hall ... 1874.

    First edition in English of Guerini’s...

    £150

  10. [JUVENILIA.] 

    Racconti per gli adolescenti.  Con tavole...

    Trieste, ‘Sezione Letterario-Artistica...

    First and only edition, extremely rare,...

    £350

  11. LOREDAN, Giovanni Francesco. 

    Bizzarrie academiche di Gio. Francesco...

    Venice, Taddeo Pavoni, 1642. 

    Expanded fourth edition, very rare,...

    £500

  12. [MALTA.] 

    Eruditissima istoria dell’assedio fatto...

    Naples, [c. 1800?]. 

    Scarce poem on the 1565 Great Siege...

    £650

  13. MARINO, Giambattista.

    La Murtoleide fischiate del cavalier Marino...

    ‘Norinbergh’ [i.e. Venice], Ioseph...

    Rare first edition of the manifesto...

    £900

  14. MELECRINIS, Maria Teresa. 

    Le voci del cuore a Maria Teresa Melecrinis...

    Naples, stamperia dell' Iride, 1846. 

    Very rare collection of odes and sonnets...

    £175

  15. MOLAJONI, Bartolomeo. 

    Alla neogama donzella Marianna Molajoni...

    Viterbo, brothers Poggiarelli, 1811. 

    Seemingly unrecorded sonnet addressed...

    £275

  16. [NAPOLEONIC ITALY.] 

    Alla società delle gentilissime signore...

    Turin, Giacomo Fea, 1799.

    An unrecorded sonnet addressed to the...

    £575

  17. PAGLIARANI, Elio.

    Inventario privato. Prefazione di Giacomo...

    [Milan], Veronelli, [1959].

    First edition of the second published collection...

    £350

  18. PAZZI, Antonio de, and Torquato TASSO. 

    Stanze inedite di Antonio de Pazzi e di...

    Venice, Picotti, 1810.

    Scarce first edition of verses ‘in...

    £200

  19. PIEROTTI, A. 

    Il cervello e la difesa delle donne sestine...

    Florence, N. Fabbrini, 1842. 

    First and only edition, very rare, of...

    £375

  20. [PIRANDELLO, Luigi.]

    LO VECCHIO MUSTI, Manlio. Bibliografia...

    Verona, Mondadori, 1937.

    First edition of this authoritative bibliography...

    £100