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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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  1. CAMPOMANES, Pedro Rodriguez (Antonio Conca y Alcaraz, translator).

    Trattato della regalia d’ammortizzazione, nel quale si dimostra,...

    Parma, Filippo Carmignani, 1767.

    First Italian translation of this influential treatise on the property rights of the Church and the state in Spain by the Spanish philosopher, economist, and historian Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes (1723-1803).

    £350

  2. CAPRA, Alessandro.

    Geometria famigliare, et instruttione pratica d’Alessandro Capra architetto cremonese. Per gl’edificii nuovi,...

    Cremona, Gio[vanni] Pietro Zanni, 1671.

    An exceedingly rare extract from the first edition of the treatise of practical geometry by the architect and inventor Alessandro Capra (c. 1605–c. 1685), seemingly prepared and sold as a manual for surveyors and early estate agents.

    £575

  3. CAREY, Henry Charles.

    The Past, the Present and the Future.

    Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1848.

    First edition. Carey vigorously appeals for tariff protection and attacks the Ricardian theory of rent. He argues that ‘the historical sequence of cultivation at least in the United States was the exact reverse of the one proposed by Ricardo, namely, from inferior to superior land, apparently...

    £375

  4. CARNEGIE, Andrew.

    The Empire of Business.

    New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1902.

    First edition (with ‘April, 1902’ statement printed on the copyright page) of this elegantly printed collection of essays by Andrew Carnegie, one of America’s most notable industrialists and philanthropists.

    £600

  5. [CLIFFORD, Jeronimy].

    The case of Jeronimy Clifford, merchant and planter of Surinam. Paper, No. 160.

    [London, n.p., 1711].

    First extended account of Clifford’s long-running legal battle with the Dutch West India Company in Surinam over Corcabo, his sugar plantation. The earlier publications had been just four pages long; this work furnishes us with plantation account details and testimonies, chronologically arranged with...

    £650

  6. [COAL].

    The miner’s journal. Coal statistical register, for 1869… also, statistics of the iron trade… rates of wages… together...

    Pottsville, PA, Miners’ Journal Office, 1869.

    First edition, rare. A synopsis of the trade, transportation and activities connected with coal between Pennsylvania and New York. The Miner’s Journal tracked the pulse of American coal trade, including importations of foreign coal and exports of domestic material. It prided itself on circulating ‘more...

    £125

  7. [COLOGNE and KOBLENZ.]

    Three hotel advertising cards with lithographic city views.

    [Cologne and Koblenz, c. 1870.]

    An attractive group of advertising cards for three Rhine-front hotels in Cologne and Koblenz, each with a lithographic view of the river and city.

    £100

  8. COMTE, Auguste, and Albert CROMPTON (editor).

    Confessions and Testament of August Comte: and his correspondence with...

    Liverpool, Young, 1910.

    First edition in English of Comte’s Confessions, which first appeared with his ‘testament’ in French in 1884. These take the form of ‘Twelve Saint Clotildes’, a series of annual confessions which he recited to his muse’s grave. Clotilde de Vaux was a divorced woman whom Comte met...

    £80

  9. [DARIEN EXPEDITION].

    A perfect list of the several persons residenters in Scotland, who have subscribed as adventurers in the joynt-stock...

    Glasgow, reprinted by Hutchinson & Brookman, 1827.

    First edition of this reprint of the list, first published in Edinburgh in 1696, of subscribers to William Paterson’s Company of Scotland. Paterson (1658-1719) sat on the first board of the Bank of England, but left following a disagreement with the other board members. Following this he devoted...

    £50

  10. DEAN STIFF [pseud. of Nels ANDERSON].

    The Milk and Honey Route: A Handbook for Hobos.

    New York, The Vanguard Press, 1930.

    First edition, with authorial gift inscription, of a landmark of sociological studies: a classic which blurs genre distinctions blending raw travel storytelling, sharp social insight, and practical know-how, unveiling the hidden network of America’s transient labourers.

    £400

  11. DEPARCIEUX, Antoine.

    Essai sur les probabilités de la durée de la vie humaine; d’où l’on déduit la manière de déterminer...

    Paris, chez les frères Guerin, 1746.

    A large, crisp, and illustrious copy of the first edition of a classic of statistical science: it is the first to define expectation of life – which Deparcieux calls ‘la vie moyenne’ – and the first to contain life tables for men and women.

    £3000

  12. 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...

    £250

  13. DUNOYER, Charles-Bathélemy.

    L’industrie et la morale considérées dans leurs rapports avec la liberté.

    Paris, A. Sautelet, 1825.

    First edition of this defence of the old economic liberalism against the new democracy by the French economist and politician Dunoyer (1786-1863). ‘In anticipation of Spencer, Dunoyer here developed the idea that society was an organism, in which it fell to the lot of a congeries of institutions and...

    £150

  14. [FASCISM.]

    Ordinamento Corporativo dello Stato Fascista.

    Padua, Edizione di propaganda corporative, 1935.

    Italian Fascism primarily followed the economic model of corporatism to organise capital and labour interest groups into trade unions and employer associations such as agriculture, industry, commercial trade, professionals and artists, as well as banks and credit associations. These trade associations...

    £2500

  15. FENNING, Daniel.

    The Ready Reckoner; or Trader’s most useful Assistant, in buying and selling all sorts of Commodities either...

    London, printed for S. Crowder … and B.C. Collins … in Salisbury, 1785.

    First edition thus, edited by the mathematician and almanack-maker Joseph Moon of Salisbury.

    £250

  16. FERGUSON, Adam.

    An Essay on the History of Civil Society.

    Edinburgh, A. Millar and T. Cadell, 1768. 

    Third edition, corrected: the edition owned by Thomas Jefferson.

    £700

  17. FISHER, Irving.

    Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices. Read April 27, 1892. [in:] Transactions of...

    New Haven, by the Academy, 1892.

    First appearance of Fisher’s ‘startlingly original PhD thesis’ (Blaug) which contained, among other things, the design of a machine to illustrate general equilibrium in a multi-market economy. This work expounds his monetary theories and established his international reputation.

    £5500

  18. GEE, Joshua.

    The trade and navigation of Great-Britain considered: shewing that the surest way for a nation to increase in riches,...

    London, A. Bettesworth, C. Hitch … and S. Birt, 1738.

    Fourth edition of Gee’s most important work, first published in 1729. Written at a time of declining exports, decaying agriculture and high unemployment Trade and navigation discusses foreign trade with strong protectionist tendencies. Gee is keen to improve trade with the North American colonies,...

    £250

  19. GEORGE, Henry.

    Izbrannyia rechi i stat’i … Perevod s Angliiskago S. D. Nikolaeva. [Collected lectures and essays … Translated...

    [Nikolaev]. Moscow, ‘Posrednik’, 1905.

    First edition, very rare: Russian translations of 11 lectures and essays, published by the ‘Posrednik’ publishing house founded by Tolstoy, who was a vocal supporter of George and saw Russia as the natural home for his philosophy on the land question.

    £500

  20. GEORGE, Henry.

    A perplexed philosopher, being an Examination of Mr. Herbert Spencer’s various Utterances on the Land Question,...

    New York, Charles L. Webster & Company, 1892.

    First edition of George’s examination of Spencer’s stance on the land question. Asking the reader ‘to judge for himself Mr. Spencer’s own public declarations’ (p. 8), the political economist, popular orator, and politician Henry George (1839-1897) dismantles the arguments of the British...

    £30