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.
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[LINCOLN, Abraham, and Stephen DOUGLAS.]
Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, in...
Columbus, Follet, Foster, and Company, 1860.
First edition, later issue, with a rule above the printer’s names on the copyright page and advertisements stating fifteen thousand copies sold, of the Lincoln–Douglas Senate campaign debates of 1858, ‘historically the most important series of American political debates’ (Howes), our...
£950
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LIST, Friedrich.
Das nationale System der politischen Oekonomie … Erster Band: Der internationale Handel, die Handelspolitik...
Stuttgart, J.G. Cotta, 1841.
First edition, the first work to articulate developing economies’ need for protective regulation, one of the earliest and most severe critiques of Adam Smith and his followers.
£12000
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LIVY, Titus.
T. Livii Patauini […] ex XIIII Decadibus Historiae Romanae ab Urbe condita, Decades, prima, tertia, quarta,...
Paris, [Michel Vascosan for] Oudin Petit, 1543 [– Michel Vascosan for himself and Oudin Petit, 1542].
A much-praised edition of Livy’s History, reprinting Vascosan’s 1535 edition and including the philological corpus on Livy by the most established humanists of the time: Rhenanus, Gelenius, Grynaeus, Glareanus, Badius Ascensius, Valla, and Sabellico.
£3800
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LOCKE, John.
Johan Lockes oförgripelige tankar om werldslig regerings rätta ursprung/gräntsor och ändamål.
Stockholm, Kongl. Tryckeriet, 1726.
First edition in Swedish. The first translation into Swedish of Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, this edition – of the Second treatise – was translated, by order of the Swedish Ricksdag, by Hans Harmens from Mazel’s 1691 French edition. It was only the second time that any of Locke’s work...
£300
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LOCKE, John.
[An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding]. Extrait d’un Livre Anglois qui n’est pas encore publié, intitulé...
Amsterdam, Wolfgang, Waesbergi, Boom, & Van Someren, 1688.
A substantial and extremely influential extract, published two years before the appearance of the book, of Locke’s Essay concerning human understanding: a publication of major consequence in the history of philosophy. This issue of the Bibliothèque universelle et historique also...
£2850
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LOCKE, John, and Francis BACON.
The conduct of the understanding. Essays, moral, economical, & political.
London, C. Daly, [c.1850].
A good copy of this surprisingly rare printing of two works by Locke and Bacon, printed by Charles Daly, who also printed works by, inter alia, Coleridge, Combe, and Swift. One issue had appeared in 1841, with the address of Red Lion Square; the current issue is undated, with an address in Greville Street,...
£125
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[LONDON ASSURANCE CORPORATION.]
By-laws, orders, and rules, for the good government of the corporation of the London assurance....
London, [n.p.], 1722.
First edition of the by-laws of the London Assurance Corporation, which, along with The Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, was constituted and granted sole rights, excepting private individuals, to the granting of assurance and bottomry by ‘The Bubble Act’ of 1720. The right to self-govern, reflected...
£550
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[LONGANO, Francesco].
Logica, o sia arte del ben pensare.
Naples, Raimondi, 1773.
First edition, very rare (one other copy only traced, in Italy), of this early work on logic by the important Italian enlightenment philosopher Francesco Longano (1728–1796).
£850
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LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth.
Autograph letter, signed ‘Henry W. Longfellow’, to ‘Lady Emily’.
Ouchy, 16 September 1868.
Addressed to ‘Lady Emily’, Longfellow here expresses his regret at not being able to see her at Sécheron while he was staying at Geneva, and apologises also for not being able to return to Geneva ‘to accept your hospitable invitation. We go tomorrow to Yverdon, and thence through Neuchâtel, and...
£450
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[LOQUET, Marie-Françoise].
Voyage de Sophie et d’Eulalie, au Palais du vrai bonheur; ouvrage pour servir de guide dans les voies...
Paris, Charles-Pierre Berton, 1781.
First edition of this rare utopian voyage written by a woman for a readership of women.
£1500
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[LORD LEYCESTER HOSPITAL, WARWICK.]
Account of the Charity of Leicester’s Hospital. Its Foundation & Endowment, Government, Former...
Warwick, mid-nineteenth century.
A manuscript copy of the sixteenth-century statues of the Lord Leycester Hospital, an almshouse founded by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, for impoverished or ageing former soldiers wounded in service.
£350
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[LOUIS XIV.]
L’oraison funebre de tres-haute, tres-excellente et tres-puissante princesse monarchie universelle. Prononcée le...
‘Cologne’, s.n., ‘1705’ [1704].
Sole edition, very rare and virtually unstudied, of ‘one of the most curious and violent pamphlets published against Louis XIV’ (Pelissier, trans.).
£1250
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LOWER RATES.
No. 7. Bankers cause War.
London, United ratepayers’ advisory association [1930s].
First and only edition. An authentic copy of the Fascist-sponsored newspaper ‘Lower Rates’, a rare survival from the heyday of Oswald Mosley. Under the headline ‘Bankers cause War’ we see bankers accused of creating all the problems of society, including war-mongering and creating artificial credit.
£130
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[LUXATION.]
Sammelband of twenty-six works on dislocation.
France, Germany, Italy, 1803–1882.
A collection of twenty-six rare works relating to luxations, all once in the library of the Société de Chirurgie of Paris, several presented by their authors, and very few present in UK or US libraries.
£750
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[LUZAC, Elie, attributed].
L’homme plus que machine.
‘A Londres’ [Leiden?], 1748.
First edition of this attack against materialism and La Mettrie’s L’homme machine, published in the same year. The work was included in the 1774 edition of the Oeuvres of La Mettrie, volume III.
£250
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[MABBUT, George].
Sir Isaac Newton’s tables for renewing and purchasing the leases of cathedral-churches and colleges, according...
London, printed for Thomas Astley, 1742
Sixth edition, first published in 1686, this issue was sometimes also published with a separate title page and imprint reading, ‘The money’d man’s pocket-book’, London, 1742’ immediately preceding the title-page of the second part. A series of tables calculating the amounts owed on leases based...
£125
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[MACARTNEY EMBASSY.]
Archive of letters and documents from the Macartney Embassy to China.
Britain and China, 1792–1833.
A remarkable and largely unpublished archive from Lord Macartney’s embassy to China of 1792–4 – a pivotal moment in relations between China and the West – including a diplomatic autograph letter signed by Macartney, autograph correspondence between him and other leading figures of the mission,...
£75000
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MACAULEY, Auley.
A Sermon on the peculiar Advantages of Sunday Schools: preached in the Parish Church of St. Paul, Bedford, on...
London, Printed for C. Dilly … and sold by the Booksellers of Bedford, Northampton, and Leicester, for the Benefit of the Institution. [1792].
First edition of a rare sermon to promote Sunday Schools by the uncle of Thomas Babington Macaulay and brother of the abolitionist Zachary Macaulay.
£250
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[MACEDO, José Agostino de, editor].
Jornal encyclopédico de Lisboa, coordenado pelo P. J. A. de M. Tomo primeiro [-segundo].
Nos 1-12 (Janiero – Dezembro de 1820). Lisboa, impressão Regia, 1820.
First edition, complete, of this rare periodical, edited and in large part written by the prolific writer, pamphleteer, court preacher, and controversialist José Agostoni de Macedo (1761-1831).
£1250
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[MACKENZIE, Lieutenant-Colonel George, and others, defendants.]
The Trial, before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, at...
Aberdeen: Printed by J. Burnett ... for C. and J. Robinson, London [and stationers in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, and Inverness], 1803.
Sole edition. This controversial trial was brought as a private prosecution after the Lord Advocate, Charles Hope, had decided not to prosecute any officers or soldiers for killing four peaceable inhabitants of Aberdeen after celebrations of the King’s birthday on 4 June 1802 had got out of control....
£150