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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SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, Caius.
[De XII Caesarum vitis. De Illustribus grammaticis. De Claris rhetoribus. Horatii vita. Plinii vita....
Paris, Typographia Regia, 1644.
An attractive, illustrated pocket Suetonius. Quoting the pioneering early eighteenth-century bookseller Guillaume de Bure, Cookman notes that this edition is ‘recherché a cause de la beauté de son impression’.
£350
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[SUEZ CANAL.]
Vade-mecum des porteurs de Suez. Extrait du numéro du 4 mars 1882 du Courrier des Tirages financiers. Propriété...
. Paris, [1882].
Scarce pamphlet, signed ‘J. R.’, advising investors in the Suez Canal – referred to as ‘capitalistes intelligents’ – on the likely return on their investments over the coming 10 years.
£50
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SULIVAN, Richard Joseph.
Philosophical Rhapsodies. Fragments of Akbur of Betlis. Containing Reflections on the Laws, Manners, Customs...
London: Printed for T. Becket … Bookseller to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and their Royal Highnesses the Princes. 1784-5.
First edition of this eccentric travel-inspired treatise drawing upon the author’s experience in India and his travels in Europe. The prefatory ‘advertisement’ establishes the fiction that ‘the following fragments were written by a native of Assyria [Akbur], who … was removed to the continent...
£950
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[SWEDIAUER, Franz Xavier].
The Philosophical dictionary: or the opinions of modern philosophers on metaphysical, moral and political...
London, for G.G.J. and J Robinson, 1786.
First edition of this philosophical dictionary, featuring extracts from ‘the writings of the most eminent philosophers in Europe’ (preface) chosen by Swediaur, who originally compiled the collection as a sort of commonplace book for his private use. The broad-reaching content includes contributions...
£200
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SWEEZY, Paul Malor.
The theory of capitalist development. Principles of Marxian political economy.
London, Dennis Dobson, 1946
First British edition (first issued in 1942), of Sweezy’s ‘seminal work’ (The New Palgrave). Based on lectures which he gave at Harvard on the economics of socialism, this work is a ‘comprehensive review of Marxian economics up until the time of World War II’ and ‘did much to determine the...
£40
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ŚWIATŁO.
Czasopismo popularno-naukowe. Organ Polskiej Partyi Socyalistycznej. Rok pierwszy [- drugi].
London, Printers of the Federation of Polish Socialists Abroad for the Polish Socialist Party [– Printers of the Polish Socialist Party],...
The first two complete years (eight consecutive issues) of the very rare quarterly magazine of the PPS, the largest Socialist Party of Poland, lead by Piłsudski. Altogether 19 issues appeared up to 1904. The annual titles, which are apparently not always present were designed by Teofil Terlecki...
£200
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SWIFT, Jonathan.
A Tale of a Tub … to which is added, an Account of a Battle between the antient and modern Books in St. James’s...
London, C. Bathurst, 1751.
A scarce later edition of Swift’s classic satires on corruption in religion and learning, as exemplified in the conduct of Peter (Roman Catholicism), Martin (Luther), and Jack (Calvin) in the Tale of the Tub, and the spirited fight over the highest peak of Parnassus in the Battel of...
£175
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[SWIFT, Jonathan.]
Some Observations upon a Paper, call’d, the Report of the Committee of the most honourable Privy-Council in...
Dublin, Printed by John Harding … [1724].
First edition of the third of Swift’s Drapier’s letters, bound with other works including two further pamphlets on Wood’s coinage (Remarks upon Mr. Wood’s Coyn and Proceedings by Sir Michael Creagh, and A Word or two to the People of Ireland, concerning the Brass Money),...
£12500
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[SYPHILIS.]
Della tabe dorsale ovvero della cura della consunzione negli uomini e nelle donne con la spiegazione de’ sintomi,...
Venice, Graziosi, 1785.
First Italian translation, uncommon, of Tabes dorsalis: or, the cause of consumption in young men and women, by ‘a Physician of Bristol’.
£135
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TACITUS.
C. Cornelius Tacitus, cum optimis exemplaribus collatus.
Amsterdam, Daniel Elzevir, 1678.
A remarkably fresh set of the third and final Elzevir edition of this format, reprinted from the edition of 1665.
£275
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TACITUS, Publius Cornelius.
The Annales … The Description of Germanie. [–The End of Nero and Beginning of Galba. Foure Bookes...
[London, Arnold Hatfield for Bonham and John Norton,] 1612.
Third collected edition of the Annals translated by Richard Grenewey, first published in 1598, and of The End of Nero, Histories and Agricola, translated by Henry Savile, first published in 1591; this is a paginary reprint, with the same unusual title-page, of the edition of 1604/5.
£1500
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TATE, William.
The modern cambist; forming a manual of foreign exchanges, in the direct, indirect, and cross operations of bills...
London, Effingham Wilson, 1836.
Third edition, corrected and expanded to reflect changes in the monetary systems of Portugal and Geneva, a new coinage introduced by the East India Company and the opening of trade with China. There is also a new appendix which discusses the mintage regulations for the coins of the United States, reflecting...
£125
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TAYLOR, G. Oswald (photographer).
Promotional photographic brochure celebrating the coronation of Elizabeth II.
Nottingham, Fine Stocking Manufacturers Ltd., June 1953.
An unusual coronation souvenir. The details on the lower wrapper indicate that Oswald Taylor produced the booklet, as well as photographed the series.
£300
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TEMPLE, Sir William.
An Introduction to the History of England …
London, Printed for Richard Simpson … and Ralph Simpson … 1695
First edition. Newly arrived in England from Trinity College, Dublin, Swift in 1689 entered upon a ten-year period as secretary to Sir William Temple at Moor Park near Farnham in Surrey. ‘Partly thanks to Swift’s support several of Temple’s important works were published in the 1690s, notably the...
£450
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‘THANET, Octave’, pseud. [i.e. Alice FRENCH], and A.B. ZHUROMSKAIA, translator.
Стачка [Stachka...
S. Feokritov, 1905.
Apparently first and only Russian edition of Alice French’s short story The Scab, a tale which portrays strikers as violent and offensive.
£200
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THOMSON, John.
Illustrations of China and its People. A Series of two Hundred Photographs, with letterpress descriptive of the...
London, Sampson Low &c, 1873–1874.
A good copy of this rare work (vol. I marked second edition, the rest first editions), showing superb images of Imperial China including rare portraits of high government officials as well as a large number of architectural and scenic views; this item ranks amongst the most spectacular photographically...
£35000
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[THORNTON, Robert John].
The Politician’s Creed. Being the Great Outline of Political Science. From the Writings of Montesquieu,...
London, printed for T. Cox, and sold by Johnson, Robinsons, Owen, and Manson, 1795-6.
First editions of The Politician’s Creed, by the physician and writer on botany Robert John Thornton (1767-1837). Written as a fundraiser for war widows and orphans, this comprehensive work examines politics as a science, different forms of government and popular responses to them, corruption, the...
£200
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THÜNEN, Johann Heinrich von.
Der isolirte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirthschaft und Nationalökonomie …[Part I and part II/1].
Rostock, G. B. Leopold, 1842–50.
Scarce second edition of the first part, revised and enlarged, being the repository of Thünen’s major theories, and the edition used by Roscher in his Geschichte der National-Oekonomik, here bound with the first edition of part II/1, the last to be published during the author’s lifetime;...
£4500
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TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis de, and Gustave de BEAUMONT.
Du système pénitentiaire aux États-Unis, et de son application en France, suivi...
Paris, H. Fournier jeune, 1833.
First edition of de Tocqueville’s forerunner to Democracy in America. A detailed report on the innovative penitentiary system in the young United States, Du système pénitentiaire was published by Tocqueville and Beaumont after their observational tour of North America at the behest of the July Monarchy....
£650
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[TODESCHI, Claudio.]
Lettere filosofiche dirette alla nobil donna la signora baronessa Laura Astalli Piccolomini sotto il nome di Clori.
Rome, Giovanni Zempel, 1783.
Extremely rare first edition of these four verse letters by Claudio Todeschi (b. 1737) addressed to baroness Laura Astalli Piccolomini, his fellow member of the Accademia degli Arcadi. Known as 'Clori', Laura was a soprano and one of the last surviving members of the noble Roman family the Astallis;...
£475