BONACINA, Martino.

Tractationes Variae ... Prima ... De Simonia. Secunda, De Alienatione bonorum ecclesiasticorum. Tertia, De Largitione...

Venice, Giunta, 1628.

Rare early edition of six legal tracts by Bonacina, one of the foremost jurists, theologians and moralists of his age. Bonacina was to die suddenly three years later, immediately after having been appointed Nuncio of Urban VIII at the court of the Emperor.

£400

[BONNIN, Charles-Jean-Baptiste].

Législation constitutionnelle, ou Recueil des constitutions françaises; précédées des Déclarations...

Paris, Corréard, 1820.

First and only edition, rare, of this presentation of the constitutions of the restored Bourbon monarchs seen as the culmination of the Revolutionary struggle for liberty, and as such framed within the declarations of the rights of men and citizens.

£600

BOOTH, Charles.

In darkest England and the way out.

London, Salvation Army, [1890.]

First edition. ‘In 1890, the same year that Stanley published In Darkest Africa, Booth published In Darkest England. In this book he analysed the causes of pauperism and vice of the period, and proposed a remedy by ten expedients. These included land settlement, emigration, rescue work among prostitutes...

£250

BOSE, Johann Andreas.

Introductio generalis in Notitiam Rerum publicarum Orbis Universi. Accedunt eiusdem Dissertationes de Statu...

Jenae, J. Bielki, 1676.

First edition of a pioneering work of statistics and rare Americanum, by the philosopher and historian Johann Andreas Bose (1624-1674). Bose’s crucial intuition as a student of human societies lies in his advocacy of interdisciplinary investigations. His work ‘on all the states in the world’ marshals...

£3000

BOTERO, Giovanni.

Della ragione di stato, libri dieci. Con tre libri delle cause della grandezza della città ... Di nuouo in questa...

The second Gioliti edition of Botero’s neglected masterpiece in the history of economics, first published in 1589, bound with the first Venice edition of the Aggiunte. Of the first work, Schumpeter writes: ‘Divested of nonessentials, the “Malthusian” Principle of Population sprang fully developed...

£2200

BRADLAUGH, Charles.

Catalogue of the library of the late Charles Bradlaugh.

London, Mrs H. Bradlaugh Bonner, 1891.

Only edition of this private production, printed by Bradlaugh’s daughter, Hypatia, at the press of her husband, a printer, ‘not merely to publish a descriptive list of the volumes contained in the library in order to facilitate their sale, but to make somewhat of a memento of Mr Bradlaugh himself’...

£500

BRAND-HOLLIS, Thomas [and John DISNEY (editor)].

Memoirs of Thomas Hollis…

London, Gillet, 1808.

First edition of a privately printed memoir of Thomas Brand of the Hyde, who assumed the name Brand-Hollis on inheriting the Dorset estates (and library and collection of sculpture) of his friend the ‘Republican’ Thomas Hollis, the Whig bibliophile. The author, John Disney, a close friend...

£450

BRAY, Charles.

The philosophy of necessity; or, the law of consequences; as applicable to mental, moral, and social science.

London, Longman et al, 1841.

First edition. Bray (1811-84), a Coventry ribbon manufacturer, was converted to phrenology by George Combe, with whom he formed a close association; he was also close in early life to George Eliot and to Herbert Spencer. The Philosophy of Necessity was published during the Chartist ferment, when Bray...

£450

[Brewer, George].

The Siamese tales: being a collection of stories told to the son of the Mandarin Sam-Sib, for the purpose of...

London, Vernor & Hood and Champante & Whitrow, 1796.

First edition of an anonymously published collection of ‘Siamese tales’, written as fables to increase their appeal to children. In the Introduction, the author states that the purpose of these supposedly translated tales is to ‘promote the love of virtue through the medium of fiction’ (p. 1)....

£950

BRITO, Joaquim José Rodrigues de.

Memorias politicas sobre as verdadeiras bases da grandeza das naçoes, e principalmente de Portugal.

Lisbon, Impressao regia, 1803-1805.

First edition of this landmark in Portuguese philosophical, political and economic thought. Brito was a professor of law at the University of Coimbra and the Memorias is his only published work, written in response to what the author saw as the relative immaturity of the moral and political sciences...

£1500

[BROGGIA, Carlo Antonio].

Memoria ad oggetto di varie politiche ed economiche ragioni e temi di utili raccordi che in causa del...

[Colophon: Naples, n. p., 15 February 1754].

Rare first and only edition of this fierce attack against the ministers of Palermo, criticising their acts. The work caused the author to be exiled from Palermo in the year of publication. Broggia, a Neapolitan merchant, is credited as being one of the true developers of a pure theory of taxation. Schumpeter...

£250

BROGGI, Ugo.

Die Axiome der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung.

Göttingen, Dieterischen Universitäts-Buchdruckerei, 1907.

Rare first edition of this doctoral dissertation on the solution of Hilbert’s sixth problem, written under the supervision of David Hilbert. The problem posed tried to axiomatize those branches of science in which mathematics is prevalent. Broggi here aims to establish a system with which to prove...

£375

BROUGHAM, Henry.

Present state of the law. The speech of Henry Brougham, Esq., M.P., in the House of Commons, on Thursday, February...

London, Henry Colburn, 1828.

First edition of the famous speech by the future Whig Lord Chancellor Henry Brougham on the necessity of a Royal Commission to investigate the state of the English legal system, which was to set in train the fundamental reforms that were enacted in the second third of the nineteenth century. Lasting...

£250

BROUGHAM, Lord Henry.

Lives of men of letters and science who flourished in the time of George III … with portraits, engraved...

London, Charles Knight and Co., 1845-47.

First edition of the first volume (1845), later edition of the second volume (dated 1847, first published 1846) of Brougham’s lives which includes Voltaire, Hume, Davy, Johnson, and Adam Smith to name a few stars in the firmament of the reign of George III, or, in Brougham’s terms, the ‘Augustan...

£250

BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett.

Poems before Congress …

London: Chapman and Hall … 1860.

First edition of a slender collection of seven poems on the cause of Italian independence, and one attacking slavery in the United States (‘A Curse for a Nation’). The Congress of the title had been planned for Paris in January 1860, but Austria withdrew on learning that Napoleon III meant to use...

£200

BUECHER, Benedikt.

Prima philosophiae experimentalis principia in peripateticis fundamentis solidata ...

Salzburg, typis Joannis Josephi Mayr; Stadtamhof, sumptibus Joannis Gastl, 1743.

Rare second edition (first 1742, also rare) of this work on physics by Benedikt Buecher (1706-1780). Having taught philosophy and theology at the Benedictine monastery of Oberalteich in Bavaria, Buecher moved to Freising in 1738 as professor of logic and physics. In 1742 he obtained a professorship at...

£400

BUQUOY, Georg Franz August de Longueval, Freiherr von Vaux, Graf von.

Anregungen für philosophisch-wissenschaftliche Forschung...

Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1825.

First edition, rare, of a comprehensive discussion by the author of his personal philosophy, with c. 50 pages of his poetry thrown in at the end for good measure. Samuel Hahnemann refers to the work in Die chronischen Krankheiten (1828–30), calling Buquoy a ‘deep-thinking, many-sided scholar and...

£950

[BURDETT.] COBBETT, William.

Cobbett’s remarks on Sir F. Burdett’s Letter to his constituents …. Taken from the Weekly political...

London, T. Broom, [1810.]

First separate edition. Cobbett's Political Register of 24 March 1810 reprinted The Address of Sir Francis Burdett to his Constituents and prefaced it with a robust defence of Burdett. Here Cobbett's defence appears along with the warrant for Burdett's arrest and his letter challenging...

£200

[BURDETT, Sir Francis.]

Parliamentary reform. A Full and accurate report of the proceedings at the meeting held at the Crown...

London, J. H. Hart, 1809.

First edition, the report of the famous Reform Dinner of 1809. Others on the committee of the ‘Friends of Reform’ included Thomas Brand, Capel Lofft, John Cartwright, and William Frend; 1200 tickets were issued, and were being touted for 5 guineas. A well-known satirical engraving of the event...

£175

BURDETT, Sir Francis.

Speech … at the Crown and Anchor tavern, July 31, 1810, on the occasion of dining with his constituents,...

London, W. Burton for J. Barker, 1810.

First edition. ‘I consider this as one of the proudest and happiest moments of my life …’

£150