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Human Sciences

Contact Jonathan Harrison or Alexander Laar

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.

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  1. [COCHRAN, Charles B.]

    OSTROWSKA, Wanda and Viola G. GARVIN. London’s Glory.

    London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1945.

    First edition, a poignant collection of paintings of war-torn London by the Polish artist-in-exile Wanda Ostrowska, accompanied by extracts from her own writings and narrative by Viola Garvin.

    £75

  2. COLTON, Calvin.

    Public economy of the United States.

    New York, A. S. Barnes & Co., 1848.

    First edition of an attack on the concept of a free-trade economy in favour of the institution of a protective economy within the United States. Colton, a Massachusetts born clergy-man who also had experience as a journalist, reflects his Northern roots in arguing against the inherently ‘European’...

    £250

  3. CONDILLAC, Etienne Bonnot de, abbé.

    Le commerce et le gouvernement, considérés relativement l’un à l’autre.

    Amsterdam, et se touve à Paris, chez Jombert et Cellot, 1776.

    One of the three editions to appear in the year of the first edition, this is the one produced in two volumes with separate pagination, and without the errata, with errors partially corrected in the text. The other two editions, including the first, were published in a single volume.

    £600

  4. CORDEMOY, Géraud de.

    Divers traitez de metaphysique, d’histoire, et de politique...

    Paris, Jean Baptiste Coignard, 1691.

    First edition of these posthumously published works on metaphysics, history and politics by the lawyer, tutor to the Dauphin (future King Louis XV) and some time director of the French Academy. He was highly active in the philosophical circles of Paris. Early on he drew the attention of Bossuet, and...

    £450

  5. COWLEY, John.

    The Candidates Guide: or the Electors Rights decided. Shewing the Resolutions of the Honble the Commons of Great...

    London: Printed for J. Brindley ... and sold by Mrs. Dodd ... and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster: likewise in most great Towns...

    First edition of a guide to electoral rights ‘from the controverted Election for New-Castle-Under-Line, in April 1624, to that of Weymouth in May 1730’. Based on the Commons journals, Cowley assembles an alphabetical list of who can vote in each borough. In Lichfield, for example, the right is held...

    £450

  6. [COYER; VOLTAIRE; WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION.]

    ‘Recueil des Pieces’.

    France, 1744-1749.

    An extraordinary sammelband of 75 pamphlets – 27 of which are recorded in only 3 or fewer libraries on OCLC – mostly relating to successful French exploits throughout Europe during the War of the Austrian Succession, including the Dutch and Italian campaigns and the conclusion of the war.

    £5500

  7. DANSON, John Towne.

    A Contribution towards an Investigation of the changes which have taken place in the condition of the people...

    London, M. & W. Collis, 1848.

    First edition, marked ‘for private circulation’, of a paper read before the Statistical Society on 21 February 1848.

    £50

  8. DELLA TORRE, Raffaele.

    Tractatus de cambiis.

    Genoa, Pietro Giovanni Calenzano, 1641.

    First edition of this monumental work on all aspects of the problems of exchange and bills of exchange by the Genoese politician, jurist and historian, Della Torre (1579-1667). Described by the economic historian De Roover as marking ‘l’apogée de l’école scolastique’, the Tractatus is remarkable...

    £1250

  9. DE VITI DE MARCO, Antonio.

    Principii di economia finanziaria.

    Turin, Giulio Einaudi, 1939.

    Revised and definitive edition. The economist and politician Antonio De Viti de Marco (1858–1943) was Professor of Political Economy and Public Finance at the Universities of Camerino, Macerata, Piava, and Rome. He ‘was not a prolific writer – he spent much time patiently revising his own works –...

    £150

  10. DILWORTH, W. H.

    The History of the Conquest of Mexico, by the celebrated Hernan Cortes. Containing a faithful and entertaining...

    London: Printed for William Anderson … 1759.

    First edition, very scarce, of a history of the conquistadores for young readers, loosely derived from Antonio Solís de Ribadeneyra’s Historia de la Conquista de México.

    £1850

  11. DIOGENES LAERTIUS.

    [Greek title] De vitis, dogmatis & apophthegmatis eorum qui in philosophia claruerunt, libri X. (Edited by Henri...

    [Geneva], Henri Estienne, 1570.

    First Estienne edition of The Lives of the Philosophers, a very important edition in the original Greek, “in which appear for the first time many passages discovered in manuscripts by Estienne. The volume also contains 36 pages of important textual annotations by Henri Estienne and 3 pages of notes...

    £1400

  12. DOBB, Maurice.

    On economic theory and socialism. Collected papers.

    London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1956.

    First edition, second impression. This work includes Dobb’s critique of ‘market socialism’ as developed by Oscar Lange and Abba Lerner, which first appeared in the Economic Journal, (1933).

    £20

  13. [DOBB, Maurice.] FEINSTEIN, C. H., editor.

    Socialism, Capitalism and Economic Growth. Essays presented to Maurice Dobb.

    Cambridge, University Press, 1967.

    First edition. A Festschrift for Maurice Dobb with contributions from Joan Robinson, Michael Kalecki, Jan Tinbergen, Robert Solow, etc. It is valuable too, for the comprehensive bibliography of Dobb’s writings.

    £60

  14. DOLCE, Lodovico.

    Somma della filosofia a’Aristotele, e prima della dialettica. [with:] Somma di tutta la natural filosofia di...

    Venice, Giovanni Battista, & Marchio Sessa, & fratelli, [1565].

    First edition of this exposition of Aristotle’s dialaectics, moral, and natural philosophy by ‘one of the major transmitters of culture in cinquecento Italy’ (Ronnie H. Terpening, Lodovico Dolce: Renaissance Man of Letters, 1997).

    £5500

  15. DOUBLEDAY, Thomas.

    The Touchstone: a series of letters on social, literary, and political subjects. Originally published in the...

    Newcastle, R. Todd, 1863.

    First edition. Thomas Doubleday (1790–1870), the son of a Newcastle soap manufacturer, ‘was a radical of Cobbett’s stamp [and] of great influence during the agitation for the Reform Act of 1832’ (Palgrave I, 634). He had also indirectly attacked Malthus in The True Law of Population shewn to...

    £250

  16. DUBOIS-AYMÉ [Jean Marie Joseph Aimé DUBOIS, known as].

    Examen de quelques questions d’économie politique, et notamment de...

    Paris, Pelicier, 1823.

    First edition. Dubois-Aymé uses mathematical methodology to examine two of the cases he considers. In the first instance he ‘compares the power due to the riches of two countries. This power he maintains is in proportion to the goods available to each country over and above its indispensable requirements...

    £750

  17. ECKARTSHAUSEN, Karl von, Hofrath.

    Die zehn Gebothe des Herrn, in sittlichen Erzählungen geschildert.

    Augsburg, Johann Bapt. Balthasar Merz, 1790.

    First edition of Eckhartshausen’s exposition of the Ten Commandments, illustrated by moral stories. Preceded by four short essays - the history of Simon the good Christian, there is no righteousness without religion, the happiness of Mankind is in religion, and Nature proves that there is God, the...

    £450

  18. ELLIS, Charles Thomas.

    Practical Remarks and Precedents of Proceedings in Parliament; comprising the Standing Orders of both Houses,...

    London, Brooke and Rider et al., 1802.

    First edition of the earliest comprehensive treatment of the important subject of private bill legislation, being a greatly revised and enlarged version of the author’s Solicitor’s Instructor in Parliament concerning Estate and Inclosure Bills (1799). Further, updated editions and supplements were...

    £550

  19. ENGELMANN, Gottfried.

    Lithograph portrait of François Quesnay after a portrait by Pierre Roche Vigneron.

    c. 1830.

    This portrait of Quesnay in a characteristically pensive pose, wearing a wig and fine clothing, reflects his stature and intellectual reputation. The humbly born Quesnay went on to become surgeon to Louis XV and a renowned economist, famous for being the founding father of the Physiocrats.

    £350

  20. [ENGLAND].

    Report from the select committee of the House of Commons on petitions relating to the corn laws of this kingdom: together...

    London, James Ridgeway, 1814.

    First edition of the sixteen-page Commons report collected together with the minutes of evidence from more than thirty expert witnesses upon whose testimonies the report is founded; quantitative reports of corn and grain exports and imports are appended.

    £300