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. [AUXIRON, Claude-François Joseph d’.]

    Principes de tout gouvernement, ou Examen des causes de la splendeur ou de la foiblesse...

    Paris, J. Th. Hérissant fils, 1766.

    First edition of this influential study of the roots of a thriving state, by the anti-physiocratic economist Claude François Joseph d’Auxiron (1728 – 1778).

    £1500

  2. [AYALA Y AGUILAR, José de.]

    Examen del derecho de vida y muerte, egercido por los gobiernos. Escrito por un cubano.

    Barcelona, Estivill, 1838.

    First edition of a Cuban treatise of criminal law, a forceful impugnation of capital punishment which invokes arguments and schemes from, among others, Filangieri, Montesquieu, Beccaria, Rousseau, Bentham. The tract moves to a wider juridical consideration of the relationship between individuals and...

    £250

  3. BACON, Francis.

    Opuscula varia posthuma, philosophica, civilia, et theologica, nunc primum edita. Cura & fide Guilielmi Rawley…...

    London, R. Daniel, impensis Octaviani Pulleyn, 1658.

    First edition, second issue (with the imprint R. Daniel, rather than R. Danielis) of this collection of the philosophical, political, and theological writings of Bacon, including numerous essays previously unpublished, and the first appearance of William Rawley’s biographical sketch of the philosopher....

    £1250

  4. BACON, Francis. 

    Francisci Baconi, Baronis de Verulamio, Vice-Comitis Sancti Albani, operum moralium et civilium tomus … cura...

    London, Edward Griffin [and John Haviland] for Richard Whitaker [and John Norton], 1638. 

    First edition, first issue, a copy from the celebrated Albani library: tangible witness to the early and fecund reception of Bacon’s thought in the circles of Galilean science in Italy. 

    £3500

  5. [BAILEY, Samuel]

    The Rationale of Political Representation. By the author of essays on the formation of opinions, &c., &c.

    London: R. Hunter. 1835.

    First edition. The Rationale… examines many aspects of political representation, from chapters on the ‘Grounds of Preference for a Representative Government’ to a ‘Discussion of Changes in Political Institutions’. Alongside this extended treatise there are two further supplementary essays:...

    £250

  6. [BALDELLI, Giovanni Battista].

    Elogio di Niccolò Machiavelli.

    Londra, 1794. 

    Uncommon first edition of this speech in praise of Machiavelli, given to the Reale Accademia Fiorentina on 7 August 1794 by the Florentine soldier, politician, and historian Giovanni Battista Baldelli Boni (1766–1831).

    £325

  7. BALFOUR, Arthur James, first Earl of Balfour.

    Letter, signed, to ‘Sir John’.

    London, 10 Downing Street, 28 June 1901.

    A letter from Arthur Balfour, as first lord of the Treasury, concerning what would become perhaps his greatest achievement, the Education Act of 1902.

    £300

  8. BALLOU, Adin.

    Practical Christian socialism: a conversational exposition of the true system of human society; in three parts, viz:...

    Hopedale and New York, by the author and Fowlers and Wells, 1854.

    First edition. Adin Ballou (1803-90), Universalist clergyman and leading American Christian social reformer, founded the utopian Hopedale Community in 1841, during the heyday of such communal experiments. He surrendered his presidency of Hopedale in 1852 in order to devote himself to expanding his movement...

    £450

  9. BALZAC, Jean-Louis Guez de.

    Aristippus, or, Monsieur de Balsac’s Masterpiece, being a Discourse concerning the Court … Englished...

    London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Nat. Eakins … and Tho. Johnson … 1659.

    First edition in English of Aristippe (1657), a treatise on wisdom in political administration dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden, who was an admirer. Balzac was particularly reputed for the quality of his prose, seen as raising it to the same perfection as Malherbe did for French verse. ...

    £750

  10. [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

  11. [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

  12. BARGINET, Alexandre-Pierre.

    De l’amnistie et du mariage de S. A. R. le duc d’Orléans.

    Paris, Laisné, [1837].

    First edition, rare. A work commending the Prince Royal, Ferdinand Philippe of Orléans, whose talent at exercising influence and popular support gave a hopeful outlook for the constitutional monarchy in France – a position strengthened by his marriage to Hélène of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in May 1837....

    £75

  13. BARRINGTON, George.

    A Voyage to Botany Bay with a Description of the Country, Manners, Customs, Religion, &c. of the Natives by...

    London, C. Lowndes for H.D. Symonds, [c. 1800-1802, A1 watermarked ‘1800’].

    First and only combined edition, second issue. George Barrington was a ‘genteel young Irishman known for his sartorial elegance, his command of the etiquette of romantic sensibility, and for his prowess at picking pockets’ (Garvey p. 2). The fascinating contrast between Barrington’s charming...

    £875

  14. BAUMGARTNER, Reinhard.

    Conclusiones ex universa theologia morali in catholico lyceo Societatis Jesu ad S. Salvatorem Augustae publicae...

    [Augsburg], Joseph Antonius Labhart, [1754].

    Only edition of this attractively printed summary of moral theology, presented as a disputation in the Jesuit college in Augsburg under the supervision of the professor of the subject, Reinhard Baumgartner (1699-1764). Over fifty paragraphs, the reader is offered a concise guide to the operation of conscience,...

    £175

  15. BAUR, Fidelis. 

    Geschichte der Hohenzollernschen Staaten Hechingen und Sigmaringen von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf unsere Tage,...

    Sigmaringen, Bucher & Liener, 1834-6.

    First edition.  Perched on the Zollenberg, just south of Hechingen, is the castle of Hohenzollern, which gave its name to the ruling house of Brandenburg–Prussia from 1415 to 1918, arguably the most powerful family in German history.  The ancestral lands were divided in 1575 by Count Karl...

    £350

  16. BEARCROFT, Philip.

    An historical Account of Thomas Sutton Esq; and of his Foundation in Charter-House …

    London: Printed by E. Owen, and sold by F. Gyles … W. Hinchliffe … J. and P. Knapton … J. Stagg … and S. Birt … 1737.

    First edition. Thomas Sutton (1532-1611) was an Elizabethan civil servant who made an enormous fortune from leases of land rich in coal in Durham. In 1611 he bought Howard House for £13,000 from the Earl of Suffolk; the building acquired its more familiar name, ‘Charterhouse’, after the order of...

    £250

  17. BEARDÉ DE L’ABBAYE.

    Essays in agriculture: or, a variety of useful hints, for its improvement, with respect to air, water, earth,...

    London, T. Carnan, 1776.

    First and only edition in English. Little is known of Beardé; born at the beginning of the eighteenth century, he won the 1766 prize offered by the Agricultural Society of Saint Petersburg with his Essay in answer to the question ‘Est-il plus avantageux à un état que le paysan possède en propre...

    £200

  18. BEAUMONT, Gustave-Auguste de la Bonninière de.

    Autograph letter signed (‘Gustave de Beaumont’) to Sarah Austin.

    Birmingham, 27 June [1835].

    A warm and personal autograph documenting the relationship between Beaumont (1802–1866), prison reformer and travel companion to Alexis de Tocqueville, and one of the most accomplished contemporary catalysts of philosophical exchange, the translator Sarah Austin.

    £350

  19. BEAUVILLIERS, Marie de.

    Conférences spirituelles d’une supérieure à ses religieuses ... d’après un manuscrit revu et mis...

    Paris, Moquet et Cie for Toulouse, 1838.

    Scarce second edition (first 1837, also rare) of this spiritual guide by Marie de Beauvilliers (1574–1667), edited from a manuscript by the historian l'abbé Louis Gaudreau (1798–1872) and including a short biography of the author.

    £400

  20. [BECCARIA, Cesare.]

    Dei Delitti e delle pene. Edizione sesta di nuovo corretta ed accresciuta.

    Harlem, et se vend a Paris, chez Molini, 1766.

    Sixth edition, expanded to forty-seven paragraphs, of Beccaria’s principal work, one of the founding texts of penology and an important statement of criminal law reform, here with the additions of the ‘Giudizio di celebre professore sopra il livro dei delitti e delle pene’ and ‘Risposta...

    £750